(eBook PDF) The Engineering

Communication Manual by Richard

House
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebooksecure.com/download/ebook-pdf-the-engineering-communication-manua
l-by-richard-house/

7 Technicians and technical
staff 85
Who they are and how they think:
Implementers 86
Why you communicate with technicians 87
How you communicate with technicians 88
8 Executives 91
Who they are and how they think:
Authorizers 92
Why you communicate with executives
How you communicate with executives
GENRES
11 Reporting in a research
community 123
Writing for a technical audience 124
Elements of the IMRaD format 125
Experimental reports 134
Reports that advance theory 136
Literature reviews 139
12 Reporting in an industrial
organization 145
Writing for decision-making audiences
in industry 146
Elements of the Answers First format 147
Progress and status reports 151
Design reports 153
Feasibility studies 157
13 Corresponding 161
Maintaining a professional tone
in correspondence 162
Letters 163
00-House-FM.indd 7
TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S vii
9 Clients 99
Who they are and how they think: It’s in the
contract 100
Why you communicate with clients 101
How you communicate with clients 104
10 The public and the public
sector 109
Who they are and how they think: Health
and safety are first priority 110
93 Why you communicate with the public 114
94 How you communicate with the public 117
Memos 167
Email 170
Phone calls 174
Social media 175
14 Proposing 179
Common elements of proposing 180
External proposals and responding to requests
for proposals 181
Internal proposals 187
15 Instructing 191
Principles of writing instructions 192
Usability testing 198
16 Applying for a job 203
Targeting the audience 204
Résumés 205
Application letters 212
Academia: The curriculum vitae and statement
of purpose 215
11/24/15 7:25 PM
 viii TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

PROCESSES
17 Researching 223 Revising structure and organization 266
Revising and editing for clarity 267
Consulting with experts 224
Finding scholarly sources 225 20 Collaborating 271
Using patents to review prior art 231
Integrating sources: Paraphrase and direct Avoiding the “divide-and-conquer”
quotation 233 approach 272
Citing sources 236 Planning a document as a team 274
Drafting a document as a team 278
18 Drafting 249 Integrating and unifying a document 280

Planning the argument 250 21 Meeting 285

The sequence of drafts 255
19 Revising 261
From revising to editing to proofreading 262
Revising content and argument based
on feedback from experts and peers 264
The first team meeting: Roles, responsibilities,
and charters 286
Why meet? (agendas)   289
What happened? (minutes) 291
Optimizing virtual meetings 293

COMPONENTS
22 Headings 297
25 Words 323
Communicating the argument to the hurried
reader 298 Achieving precision without needless
jargon 324
Unifying style and voice 301
Selecting precise verbs 326
Using pronouns precisely 328
23 Paragraphs 303
Managing emotive language 329
Focusing paragraphs on a single idea 304
Moving coherently from one sentence to the 26 Summaries 333
next 306
Executive summaries 334
24 Sentences 313 Abstracts 338
Submitting an abstract as a proposal 340
Solidifying the sentence core 314
Coordinating and subordinating ideas 316
Avoiding sentence fragments, fused
sentences, and comma splices 317
Increasing conciseness while maintaining
clarity 318

00-House-FM.indd 8 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S ix

Back matter: Notes, appendices,

27 Front and back matter 343 and bibliography 347

Front matter: Title page, table of contents,

and list of figures 344

VISUALS
28 Graphs 355 The range of illustrations, from pictorial
to schematic 377
Choosing the best graph for the task 356 Commonly encountered types
Shared conventions of graphs 359 of illustrations 381
Bar charts, pie charts, and dot plots 360 Fine-tuning your illustration 388
Histograms and box plots 364
Scatter plots and line plots 367 30 Tables, equations,
Fine-tuning your graphs: Enhancing visual and code 391
clarity with text 372
Designing tables 392
29 Illustrations 375 Writing mathematics 394
Writing chemistry 398
Choosing the best illustration Writing computer code 401
for the task 376

MEDIA
31 Print pages 407
33 Presentation slides 427
Creating a page layout 408
Recognizing the limitations
Managing the appearance of paragraphs 411
of slideware 428
Selecting typefaces 412
Designing slides using assertion-evidence
style 429
32 Talks 415 Using Prezi to illustrate spatial
relationships 433
Overcoming stage fright and connecting
with listeners 416 Adapting slide designs for other
purposes 434
Analyzing audience and setting 418
Identifying the genre, purpose, and desired
outcome 420
Rehearsing and preparing the talk 424

00-House-FM.indd 9 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 x TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

Bibliography 453
34 Posters 437
Understanding the audience for a poster Index 459
presentation 438
Delivering the poster talk 440
Placing major elements of the poster 442
Applying design principles to the poster 449

00-House-FM.indd 10 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 Index of documents
1 Planning your communication
6, 7–8, 10, 12, 14 Basic rhetorical principles. Build-
ing a Better Delivery System: A New Engineer-
ing/Health Care Partnership, a joint report of
the US National Academy of Engineering and
Institute of Medicine. © 2005 National Acad-
emy of Sciences. Used with permission.
2 Understanding your audience
21, 27, 29 Gathering stakeholder views through a
design charrette. Envision Carlsbad: Stake-
holder Interview Report. © 2009 City of
Carlsbad, CA. Reprinted with permission.
3 Meeting your ethical obligations
37, 39, 43–44 Report to Board of Directors of Gen-
eral Motors Company Regarding Ignition
Switch Recalls. Courtesy: National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration. (Valukas,
2014).
41 Email message concerning ignition switch fail-
ures in General Motors vehicles. Courtesy: US
Congress. (Energy and Commerce Commit-
tee, 2014).
45 Presentation slide showing euphemisms for
failures and safety concerns. Courtesy: Na-
tional Highway Traffic Safety Administra-
tion (2014).
4 Accommodating global and cultural
differences
55–56 Email to IEEE society leaders, reflecting
differences between communication practices
of reader-responsible and writer-responsible
cultures. © 2015 Nazih Khaddaj Mallat. Re-
printed with permission.
00-House-FM.indd 11
5 Designing documents for users
64 Résumé showing page design techniques to
allow quick reading. © 2014 Josh Rychtarczyk.
Reprinted with permission.
66 Effective page design principles (proximity,
alignment, repetition, and contrast). Fueling a
Better Future: The Many Benefits of “Half the
Oil.” © 2013 Union of Concerned Scientists.
Reprinted with permission.
67 The grid technique for layout of content in a table.
Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study. © 2012
Keck Institute for Space Studies, California Insti-
tute of Technology. Reprinted with permission.
68 Serif and sans serif typefaces.
71 Use of color to show data from climate-related
measurements. “Greenland.” Arctic Report
Card 2008. Courtesy U. S. National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration (Richter-
Menge et al., 2008).
6 Engineers
80 Email exchange between engineers. © 2014
Patricia Brackin. Reprinted with permission.
81 Progress report memo among engineers report-
ing project milestones. © 2015 The GSI
Group, LLC. Reprinted with permission.
7 Technicians and technical staff
87 Account of a technician’s findings being disre-
garded by an engineer. Deepwater Horizon
Study Group Final Report on the Investigation
of the Macondo Well Blowout. Courtesy: UC
Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Manage-
ment. (Deepwater Horizon Study Group, 2011).
88, 89 Email exchange between an engineer and a
technician. © 2011 Numerical Concepts. Re-
printed with permission.
xi
11/24/15 7:25 PM
 xii I N D E X O F D O CU M E N T S
8 Executives
95–96 Social enterprise proposal addressing likely
concerns of executive audiences. Urbanize Pitts-
burgh. © 2013 Karen Kaminsky and Patrick
Eells. Engineers for a Sustainable World, Univer-
sity of Pittsburgh. R
­ eprinted with permission.
9 Clients
102, 103–104 Obligations and standard practices
between engineers and clients. Excerpt from
the EJCDC E-500 Standard Form of Agree-
ment Between Owner and Engineer for Pro-
fessional Services. Reprinted by permission of
the Engineers Joint Contract Documents
Committee (EJCDC) of the National Society
of Professional Engineers.
103, 105, 106 Bulletin issued to clients. Cummins
Applications Engineering Bulletin: Automo-
tive and Bus Aftertreatment (DPF and SCR
2013 Installation Requirements). © 2014
Cummins Inc. Reprinted with permission.
10 The public and the public sector
112 Report addressing safety concerns for public
audiences. Seismic Shift: Diablo Canyon Lit-
erally and Figuratively on Shaky Ground.
© 2013 Union of Concerned Scientists.
Reprinted with permission.
116 Marketing release explaining emissions reduc-
tion technology. © 2015 Cummins, Inc. Re-
printed with permission.
117–118 Justification letter responding to the con-
cerns of stakeholders. © Strand Associates,
Inc. Reprinted with permission.
11 Reporting in a research community
125, 127, 128–129, 129–130, 131–132, 132, 135–136
Journal article, a typical form of engineering
research report. “Effective CPR procedure
with real time evaluation and feedback using
smartphones” in IEEE Journal of Transla-
tional Engineering in Health and Medicine.
00-House-FM.indd 12
© 2014 IEEE, reprinted with permission, from
(Gupta, Dantu, & Dantu, 2014).
133 Template for authors submitting an article.
© 2015 IEEE, reprinted with permission, from
the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineer-
ing in Health and Medicine.
137–138, 138–139 Report that advances theory.
“The thermodynamics of confidentiality” in
IEEE Computer Security Foundations Sym-
posium. © 2012 IEEE, reprinted with permis-
sion, from (Malacaria & Smeraldi, 2012).
140–141, 141–142 Literature review. “A review on
HVDC circuit breakers” in IEEE Renewable
Power Generation Conference. © 2014 IEEE, re-
printed with permission (Mokhberdoran et al.,
2014).
12 Reporting in an industrial
organization
148–149 Fault code report using the Answers First
format. “Fault Code 1682 (Air-assisted).” Printed
with licensed permission from Cummins, Inc.
© 2015 Cummins, Inc., all rights reserved.
150 Laboratory/experimental report for a manu-
facturer of orthopedic implants. Evaluation of
stem designs in a foam model. © 2013 Joint
Replacement Surgeons of Indiana. Reprinted
by permission (Small, 2013).
151 Color-coded “dashboard,” a form of progress
report. © 2015 Freescale Semiconductor Inc.
Reprinted with permission.
153 Progress report for City of Austin water treat-
ment. Courtesy City of Austin, Texas.
154, 155, 156 Design report for a Mars lander. Cour-
tesy NASA (“Human exploration of Mars” 2014).
157–158, 159 Feasibility study. Asteroid Retrieval
Feasibility Study. © 2012 Keck Institute for
Space Studies, California Institute of Technol-
ogy. Reprinted with permission.
13 Corresponding
164 Cover letter seeking feedback on a draft docu-
ment. © 2015 Strand Associates, Inc. Re-
printed with permission.
11/24/15 7:25 PM

165–167 Letter communicating bad news. © 2015
Strand Associates, Inc. Reprinted with
permission.
169–170 Memo evaluating technical equipment.
© 2015 Strand Associates, Inc. Reprinted with
permission.
171 Highly formal email for official business proce-
dures. Reprinted with permission.
172–173 Student team email to a client, including a
progress report and an information request. ©
2012 Alex Mullans. Reprinted with permission.
14 Proposing
182, 183 Request for proposals (RFP) for a student
design competition. © 2012 Renee Rogge.
Reprinted with permission.
184–185 Request for proposals (RFP) for a U.S.
government funding program. Courtesy US
Department of Defense (SBIR/STTR, n.d.).
185–187 Proposal responding to a U.S. government
funding program RFP. Courtesy US Depart-
ment of Defense (SBIR/STTR, n.d.).
15 Instructing
194, 195, 196, 198 Instruction manual for a con-
struction process. 135 Ft. Diameter 40-Series
Bin. © 2015 The GSI Group, LLC. Reprinted
with permission.
197 Safety warnings. © 2011 National Electrical
Manufacturers Association. Reprinted with
permission.
199–200 Usability study for a mobile phone appli-
cation interface. © 2014 Henry iOS Team. Re-
printed with permission.
16 Applying for a job
209–210 Résumé of a student applying for a
summer internship. © 2015 Dakota Huckaby.
Reprinted with permission.
211 Résumé of a student applying for an entry-level
engineering position. © 2015 Caroline Winter.
Reprinted with permission.
00-House-FM.indd 13
I N D E X O F D O CU M E N T S xiii
212–213 Application letter of a student applying for
a summer internship. © 2015 Katelyn Stenger.
Reprinted with permission.
214–215 Application letter of a student applying for
a summer internship. © 2014 Louis Vaught.
Reprinted with permission.
218–219 Personal statement/statement of purpose
for application to graduate school. © 2011
Emma Dosmar. Reprinted with permission.
17 Researching
225–226 Initial search engine results for a techni-
cal topic. Google and the Google logo are reg-
istered trademarks of Google Inc., used with
permission.
226–227 Wikipedia article on a technical topic.
“Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation.” Reprinted
under Creative Commons license 3.0.
228 Search results from Google Scholar. Google
and the Google logo are registered trademarks
of Google Inc., used with permission.
229, 230 Search results from a specialized library
database. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. ScienceDirect®
is a registered trademark of Elsevier B.V.
232 U.S. Patent. Halo orthosis. Courtesy U.S.
Patent Office (Stamper & Meek, 2003).
235, 236, 241, 242 Author-date style citations of
previous technical work in a journal article.
“Comparison of chlorine and chloramines on
lead release from copper pipe rigs” in Journal
of Environmental Engineering. © 2013 Amer-
ican Society of Civil Engineers, reprinted with
permission (Woszczynski, 2013).
237–238, 238–239 Citations in IEEE style. “Effects of
robotic knee exoskeleton on human energy ex-
penditure” in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical
Engineering. © IEEE, reprinted with permis-
sion, from (Gams, et al., 2013).
18 Drafting    19  Revising
253, 254, 256, 258, 265–266, 269 Successive drafts
and revision of a student team’s proposal. ©
2014 Rebecca Hecht, Noura Sleiman, & Giuli-
ana Watson. Reprinted with permission.
11/24/15 7:25 PM
 xiv I N D E X O F D O CU M E N T S
20 Collaborating
276 Detailed outline of the analysis section of an
experimental report.
21 Meeting
289 Team charter establishing rules and practices.
© 2005 McGraw-Hill. Reprinted with per-
mission (Smith).
290 Agenda from a student team’s first meeting.
291, 292 Transcript and minutes of a student team
meeting. © 2014 Jeff Elliott, Zac Erba, Ryan
Seale, and Lindsey Watterson. Reprinted with
permission.
22 Headings
300 Table of Contents from a student report using
“talking head” assertions. © 2014 Barker, Bill-
ingsley, & Heidlauf. Reprinted with permission.
23 Paragraphs
304–305, 307, 309 Logically developed paragraphs
from an industry proposal. © 2015 Strand As-
sociates, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
307–308, 309 Paragraph from a literature
review. © 2010 Jennifer Mueller Price. Re-
printed with permission.
310 Paragraph using effective sentence variety. Cour-
tesy: Congressional Research Service, from
(Luther, 2010).
24 Sentences
315 Sentences from a technical testing memo.
© 2013 MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Reprinted
with permission.
319–320 Sentences from a summary of a research
study. “Biomechanical assessment of tibial
component slope and rotational alignment in
metal backed mobile bearing partial knee ar-
throplasty.” © 2012 Joint Replacement Sur-
geons of Indiana Foundation, Inc. Reprinted
with permission (Small et al., 2012).
00-House-FM.indd 14
26 Summaries
336, 337 Table of contents and executive sum-
mary. Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study.
© 2012 Keck Institute for Space Studies,
California ­Institute of Technology. Reprinted
with permission.
339 Abstract of a technical journal article. “Loss and
index guiding in single-mode proton-implanted
holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers” in
IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics. © 2006
IEEE. Reprinted, with permission, from Leisher
et al. (2006).
340 Abstract from a proposal to the National Sci-
ence Foundation. Courtesy: National Science
Foundation. (Weinberg, 2013).
27 Front and back matter
345, 346, 347, 350 Front and back matter of a
report. Wabash River Nutrient and Pathogen
TMDL Development. © 2006 Illinois EPA.
Reprinted with permission.
349 Appendix containing details of a model refer-
enced in the body of a report. © 2015 Strand
Associates, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
28 Graphs
358 Instrument readout (containing information that
audiences cannot use) and a usable graph pro-
duced through a mathematical transformation.
361, 362, 363 Bar charts, pie charts, and dot plots of
ordered categorical data. Data courtesy of US
Department of Commerce (Census Bureau,
2015).
365 Histogram. Data courtesy of the compare-
Groups R package (Subirana et al., 2014).
366 Box plot with whiskers. Data courtesy of the
U.S. Department of Energy (Office of Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2015).
368 Scatter plot. Data courtesy of WITPress
(Kriplani & Nimkar, 2008).
369 Scatter plot with curve fit.
370 Scatter plot with confidence interval.
11/24/15 7:25 PM

371 Time series presented as a line plot. Data: U.S.
Census. Data courtesy of U.S. Department of
Commerce (Census Bureau, 2014).
372 Line plot with two groups of data. “High power
7-GHz bandwidth external-cavity diode laser
array and its use in optically pumping singlet delta
oxygen”. © 2006 Optical S ­ ociety of America.
Reprinted with permission (Meng et al., 2006).
29 Illustrations
378 Photograph providing viewers with an accu-
rate guide to appearance.
379 A circuit diagram, a form of schematic illustra-
tion. Courtesy U.S. Patent Office (Cook, 2000).
379, 380 Pictorial photograph, pictorial/schematic
image from Google Earth, and schematic image
from Google Maps. © 2015 Google. Google and
the Google logo are registered trademarks of
Google Inc., used with permission.
381 Photograph from a technical testing memo.
© 2013 MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Reprinted
with permission.
382, 383 Photograph and line drawing of experi-
mental apparatus. © 2010 Rose-Hulman In-
stitute of Technology.
384 Engineering detail drawing showing multiple
views. © 2015 McCormack. Reprinted by
permission.
385 Exploded view drawing (showing assembly
order of parts). Halo orthosis. Courtesy U.S.
Patent Office (Stamper & Meek, 2003).
386 Section view drawing (showing location of
parts). Halo orthosis. Courtesy U.S. Patent
Office (Stamper & Meek, 2003).
386 Common flowchart symbols.
387 Flowchart. PlanetLab. © 2007 The Trustees of
Princeton University. Used with permission.
30 Tables, equations, and code
393 Table. © 2014 Cummins, Inc. Reprinted by
permission.
396–397, 397–398 Equations used as parts of
speech in natural language.
00-House-FM.indd 15
I N D E X O F D O CU M E N T S xv
400 Chemical symbols and equations treated as
parts of speech. “Multimicronutrient slow-re-
lease f­ertilizer of zinc, iron, manganese, and
copper” in International Journal of Chemical
Engineering. Reprinted under Creative Com-
mons license 3.0, from (Bandyopadhyay, Ghosh,
& Varadachari, 2014).
402 Computer programming code displayed in a
tutorial.
31 Print pages
410 Diagram integrated effectively into a print
page. Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study.
© 2012 Keck Institute for Space Studies, Cal-
ifornia Institute of Technology. Reprinted
with permission.
32 Talks
419–420, 423–424 Conference keynote address.
“Challenges with deploying complex systems
of systems: Some perspectives.” © 2012-2013
Conference on Systems Engineering Research,
from (Cox, 2012). Reprinted with permission.
33 Presentation slides
430, 431, 432 Presentation slides. “Femoral Compo-
nent Installation Monitoring.” © 2014 Philip
Cornwell. Reprinted with permission.
435 Slidedoc combining elements of prose reports
and presentation slides. © Duarte Press, LLC.
Reprinted with permission.
34 Posters
442, 443, 443–444 Poster using effective design
choices. “Thermal fly-height control slider de-
signs strongly interact with the lubricant layer
at the head-disk interface.” © 2008 Computer
Mechanics Laboratory, UC Berkeley.
445, 446 Early poster drafts, not yet incorporating
effective design choices. © 2008 Computer
Mechanics Laboratory, UC Berkeley.
447–448, 448–449 Poster layouts: radial, three-
column, staggered.
11/24/15 7:25 PM
 Preface
This book begins with the premise that communication, whether writ-
ten, spoken, or visual, is a primary, essential, and routine engineering
activity and therefore a crucial skill of successful engineers.
As a description of engineers’ work, this is uncontroversial. In the
world of industry, our former students tell us that they spend many of their
working days writing and speaking to their colleagues, clients, and other
stakeholders. Even in the engineering departments and colleges where stu-
dent engineers are educated, engineering writing and speaking drive schol-
arly research, from grant proposal to conference talk to journal article.
Listening to many engineering students talk about writing and
speaking, one would never know that this is the case. Recently, one of us
overheard a student engineer proclaim to a friend, “I just don’t do writ-
ing.” Such students no longer labor under the delusion that they won’t
need to write in their careers (and know better than some engineers in
past generations, who hoped that they’d employ secretaries to handle the
writing and speaking on their behalf). Our students have become highly
aware of the importance of their communication skills, and yet this
awareness rarely changes the way they see the process of learning those
skills. They still come to engineering writing expecting it to be bother-
some, difficult, nerve-wracking, and above all frustrating, because they’re
sure that they aren’t any good at it. Students enroll in an engineering
major today with fantasies of becoming Tony Stark, the inventor and ra-
conteur in Marvel Comics’ Iron Man armor, or perhaps an equivalent
real-world tech celebrity like Elon Musk of Tesla Motors and SpaceX.
When it comes to writing and speaking, though, many still seem to iden-
tify with Dilbert, the profession’s awkward, inarticulate mascot.
The Engineering Communication Manual (ECM) was undertaken
by a team of two mechanical engineers (Layton and Moseley) and two
English professors (House and Livingston) who believe that clear engi-
neering thinking is inseparable from the practice of communicating
that thinking to others. We wanted a book that would:

• Supply sound writing advice in technical courses requiring re-

ports, proposals, talks, or other communication tasks, and
• Represent engineering accurately and positively in dedicated
technical communication courses taught by writing instructors.

To meet these needs, we have endeavored to show engineering com-

xvi munication in its most positive and distinctive light, informed by the

00-House-FM.indd 16 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 PR E FACE xvii

profession’s guiding values and aesthetic principles. The ECM will help
student engineers to create rule-governed, data-driven, efficient, and
economical prose, data displays, and documents. From the selection of
the content to the binding, all of our own writing and design decisions
have been conducted with these goals in mind.

Authentic engineering writing . . .

Many students have intentionally specialized in math and science since
high school, sometimes deliberately avoiding writing-intensive courses.
They may also attribute the same mindset to their engineering profes-
sors, having seen communication lumped into a category of “soft skills”
that are secondary to technical content.
To earn credibility with this audience, the book is designed around
sample documents drawn from authentic engineering practice—most
contributed by our former students from their current positions as en-
gineers in industry. Their contributions show tomorrow’s engineers
how compelling technical work is advanced by effective writing, speak-
ing, and visual design.
Individual authors’ names have been changed, and proprietary in-
formation has been altered or concealed to protect the interests of the
companies and government agencies that have generously supplied us
with documents. Wherever possible, though, we’ve shown where those
documents originated, so that student engineers can see direct connec-
tions between the work they’re now doing and what they’ll do one day
in the workplace at Cummins or Freescale.

. . . in rhetorical, ethical, and global

perspectives
Our first priority is to showcase engineers being effective writers,
speakers and designers. Nevertheless, we do think that there’s some-
thing to be said for rhetoricians, philosophers, and other practitioners
of the humanities and social sciences. The ECM is informed by the
most important research in fields from technical and professional
communication to engineering and business ethics. With the encour-
agement of our reviewers, though, we have worked to reduce the jargon
from these fields to the bare minimum, balancing research-based best
practices with accessibility.

00-House-FM.indd 17 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 xviii PR E FACE

Some scholarly fields and findings make brief cameo appearances—

the psychology of visual perception, for instance, in the module on
graphs. Others, however, are more fundamental to our entire ap-
proach. The ECM’s first section views the art of engineering commu-
nication through the disciplines of rhetoric and ethics. These are the
fields that are necessary for a full picture of engineering in its full in-
terpersonal complexity, with the engineer consistently facing compet-
ing demands:

• How can I write a technical proposal that simultaneously meets

the needs of managers, engineers, and technicians?
• Why is an experimental report organized so differently for a tech-
nical journal than it is for an “in-house” audience within my
company?
• When reporting information about my own company to external
audiences, how much information can and should I disclose
ethically?

How to use this book

The ECM is designed in a modular, non-sequential format. Instructors
can combine units of content to meet the learning objectives of any as-
signment. Students can locate on their own relevant sections within
the appropriate modules.
For example, consider an assignment to write an executive sum-
mary. An instructor might choose to focus on: the audience, by assign-
ing reading from Module 8: Executives; the revision process, with
reading from Module: 19 Revising; and the makeup of an executive
summary, with reading from Module 26: Summaries. Instructors can
expand or contract this list to meet their own objectives.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

8 Executives Audiences
19 Revising Processes
26 Summaries Components

For an experimental report assignment, an instructor might focus on:

the report genre, with reading from Module 11: Reporting in a re-
search community; on document components, with reading from
Module 22: Headings; on visuals, with reading from Module 28:
Graphs; and on the print medium, with reading from Module 31:

00-House-FM.indd 18 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 PR E FACE xix

Print pages. In an assignment for first-year students, an instructor

might replace Module 22: Headings with Module 24: Sentences and
omit the visuals altogether.

EXPERIMENT REPORT POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

11 Reporting in a research community Genres

22 Headings Components
28 Graphs Visuals
31 Print pages Media

For an assigned talk given by upper-level students expecting a project

client to be in the audience, an instructor might focus on: the audience,
with reading from Module 9: Clients; on team process, with reading
from Module 21: Meeting; on delivering an effective talk, with reading
from Module 32: Talks; and on creating effective slides, with reading from
Module 33: Presentation slides. In contrast, an assignment for a first-year
student team talk might focus only on the modules for talks and presenta-
tion slides. Of course, students seeking greater depth can easily locate
other relevant modules.

GIVING A TALK POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

9 Clients Audiences
21 Meeting Processes
32 Talks Media
33 Presentation slides Media

For a résumé and cover letter assignment—a mainstay of technical

communication courses—the focus would include: the genre, with read-
ing from Module 16: Applying for a job; and a cover letter’s basic com-
ponent, the paragraph, with reading from Module 23: Paragraphs.

RÉSUMÉ AND COVER LETTER POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

16 Applying for a job Genres

23 Paragraphs Components

The next example is a memo assignment responding to an ethics case

study. The subject requires a focus on: the case context, with reading
from Module 3: Meeting your ethical obligations; and the typically rel-
evant audiences, with readings from Module 9: Clients and Module 10:
The public and the public sector. The memo genre can be explored with
reading from Module 13: Corresponding and the writing process with
reading from Module 18: Drafting.

00-House-FM.indd 19 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 xx PR E FACE

ETHICS CASE STUDY MEMO POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

3 Meeting your ethical obligations Contexts

9 Clients Audiences
10 The public and the public sector Audiences
13 Corresponding Genres
18 Drafting Processes

To illustrate how an assignment might differ for students at different

levels, a design report assigned to first-year students might focus on
the drafting process (18) and the sentence component (24). In contrast,
a capstone design proposal might include a broader selection of mate-
rial, including the proposing genre (14), how to collaborate (20), and
both headings (22) and summaries (26) as components of document
design.

1ST-YEAR DESIGN REPORT POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

18 Drafting Processes
24 Sentences Components

CAPSTONE DESIGN REPORT POTENTIAL READING IN MODULES: TO FOCUS ON:

14 Proposing Genres
20 Collaborating Processes
22 Headings Components
26 Summaries Components

To instructors, we emphasize the importance of articulating learning

objectives and using them to design assignments. To students, we em-
phasize the importance of finding relevant sections and reading for
understanding.

Examples for critical reflection

In 2013, The Journal of Engineering Education published a study of
how engineering students use textbooks. Christine Lee and her coau-
thors conclude that engineering students spend little time reading the
text passages; instead, they page through the book in search of an ex-
ample of the kind of problem that they are trying to solve, applying “the
solution pathway in the example problem to their problem at hand
without critical reflection” (279).
We have designed the ECM in anticipation of engineering stu-
dents bringing their habit of looking for “plug-and-chug” solutions to

00-House-FM.indd 20 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 PR E FACE xxi

technical problems—locating an equation or model that approximately

matches the problem that they are trying to solve—but we have also
attempted to redirect this search into more reflective rhetorical analy-
sis and problem solving. Student engineers will quickly find sample
documents in each module, but their features are not simply presented
as a template to be imitated. Rather, systematic annotations of each
sample document analyze and interpret their components as purpose-
ful, rhetorical responses to the demands of the content and the audi-
ence. The most effective technical communication makes complex
information usable without oversimplifying it; this has been the goal
of our design and commentary throughout.

The title states the fault code number

that is the subject of the document.
The subtitle describes the relevant
hardware (the “dosing unit”).

A table immediately summarizes

the main points of the document:
the fault code number, what it
means, and its effect on engine
performance.

Liberal use of acronyms, abbrevia-

tions, and jargon indicates an in-
tended audience already well
acquainted with the system being
described.

The specific condition that causes

the fault code to appear is de-
scribed in one sentence.

An example of the Answers First format: a report describing a “fault code” that
appears for a type of exhaust aftertreatment failure in a diesel engine. Printed with
licensed permission from Cummins, Inc. © 2015 Cummins, Inc., all rights reserved.

00-House-FM.indd 21 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 xxii PR E FACE

Instructor materials and assessment

for ABET accreditation
The ECM broadly supports the student outcomes defined in ABET’s
General Criterion 3 (the “a-k” outcomes), with outcome (g), “an ability
to communicate effectively,” situated within engineering design and
problem-solving contexts relevant to the other a-k outcomes. Most no-
tably, individual modules directly address outcome (d)—“an ability to
function on multidisciplinary teams”—and outcome (f)—“professional
and ethical responsibility.”
Assessment of these outcomes is a central goal of our web resources,
and a major reason that we are supplying our own syllabi, assignment
sheets, in-class activities, and grading rubrics. Like other engineering ed-
ucators, we try to address ABET (a-k) outcomes in an organic way, so that
they support and fit naturally within the more specific technical content
and professional skills that define our courses. In assessing student com-
munication outcomes, adopters of the book may find it most convenient
to use one of our supplied assignments and the corresponding grading
rubric. These rubrics enable the easy scoring of student documents on
several different areas of communication competency (audience accom-
modation, organization, soundness of evidence and argument, correct
sentence mechanics, usage, and grammar, etc.). Alternately, when in-
structors are embedding communication tasks within assignments of
their own design, it may be more convenient to borrow individual items
from one of these rubrics. For each skill, rubrics differentiate levels of stu-
dent performance from workplace-ready to non-passing, making the col-
lection of assessment data simple and efficient, whether the instructor’s
primary expertise is in communication or in engineering.

Acknowledgments
The four of us have spent several years on this project, and our work
has benefited immeasurably from the help of many other professionals
whose insights and contributions have, in one way or another, made
this a better book. (Its remaining shortcomings, of course, belong
solely to us.) Our deepest appreciation goes to:

• Nancy Blaine, Christine Mahon, and John Appeldorn, Oxford

University Press’s all-star engineering editorial team, and Patrick
Lynch, Editorial Director of the OUP Higher Education Group
• The professional and scholarly communities—and the many
friends and colleagues therein—who supplied us with the ideas

00-House-FM.indd 22 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 PR E FACE xxiii

and many of the sample documents that sustained this entire

project. We are especially grateful to our friends and colleagues
in the IEEE Professional Communication Society and the
­A merican Society for Engineering Education (Liberal Education/
Engineering & Society and Educational Research & Methods
divisions).
• The many reviewers who delivered such insightful feedback
on many drafts of the manuscript, including Adam Carberry
­(Arizona State University), Maria Christian (Oklahoma State
University Institute of Technology), Susan Codone (Mercer
­University), Edward M. Cottrill (University of Massachusetts),
Christine Cranford (North Carolina State University), Kim Davis
(Carleton University), Jeffrey A. Donnell (Georgia Tech), Henry
A. Etlinger (Rochester Institute of Technology), Julie Dyke Ford
(New Mexico Tech), Jeffrey M. Foresta (University of California,
Irvine), Debbie Hall (Valencia College), Brad Henderson (Univer-
sity of California, Davis), Joanne Lax (Purdue University), Jon A.
Leydens (Colorado School of Mines), Christina Matta (University
of Wisconsin-Madison), Theresa Merrick Cassidy (Kansas State
University), Kenneth W. Miller (St. Cloud State University),
Christina J. Moore (St. Edward’s University), Cecelia A. Musselman
(Northeastern University), Jon Negrelli (Cleveland State Univer-
sity), Kathryn Northcut (Missouri S&T), Karim G. Oweiss
(Michigan State University), Mark C. Petzold (St. Cloud State
University), Donald R. Riccomini (Santa Clara University),
­Kenneth C. Ronkowitz (New Jersey Institute of Technology),
John A. Roubidoux (Fort Lewis College), Cynthia Ryan (University
of Alabama at Birmingham), Gefen Bar-On Santor (University
of Ottawa), Brogan Sullivan (University of South Florida), Kirk
St. Amant (East Carolina University), and Mary Westervelt
­(University of Pennsylvania)
• The baristas and kitchen staff of Java Haute, who fed and caffein-
ated us through the entire writing process
• The many contributors who supplied the sample documents
that form the foundation of the book. When we asked for help,
so much excellent work poured in that we couldn’t use all of it.
We are grateful to the organizations that allowed us permission
to use their work:
• From industry: Cummins Inc., Duarte Press, Freescale
Semiconductor Inc., GSI (Grain Systems, Inc.), Numerical
Concepts, Inc., Sourceable.net, and Strand Associates, Inc.

00-House-FM.indd 23 11/24/15 7:25 PM

 xxiv PR E FACE

• From government: the City of Carlsbad, CA, the City of Des

Moines, IA, the Congressional Research Service, the Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, the National Oceanic and
­Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Founda-
tion, and the US Patent and Trademark Office
• From the academic and nonprofit sector: Engineers for a
Sustainable World, the Joint Replacement Surgeons of
­Indiana Foundation, Inc., the Keck Institute for Space
Studies, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the National Electrical
Manufacturers Association, the National Society of Pro-
fessional Engineers, the Trustees of Princeton University,
the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the University of
California, Berkeley, Center for Catastrophic Risk
Management
We are also especially grateful to the many individuals who contrib-
uted documents and assisted in copyright permissions:

• Those who assisted in obtaining permission to reprint won-

derful writing in this book include Nancy Duarte; Nazih
Khaddaj Mallat (IEEE Region 8); Karen Kaminsky, Patrick
Eells, and Alexander Dale (Engineers for a Sustainable
World—University of Pittsburgh); and Kevin Otto
(Cummins Inc.).
• Rose-Hulman faculty and staff friends who contributed
documents include Thomas Adams, Patsy Brackin, Rob
Coons, Phil Cornwell, Paul Leisher, Jerry Leturgez, Jay
­McCormack, Sriram Mohan, Jenny Mueller Price, Renee
Rogge, C
­ handan Rupakheti, Scott Small, Rick Stamper,
and Sarah Summers.
• Rose-Hulman student and alumni contributors include
Matt Billingsley, Emma Dosmar, Jeff Elliott, Zac Erba,
Connor Freeman (Edgile), Becca Hecht, Andrew ­Hopkins,
Dakota Huckaby, Alex Jacoby, Andrew Jordan (GSI Inc.),
Luke Kennedy, Alex Mullans, David Pick, David Radue
(MIT Lincoln Laboratory), Brandi Sturgill R ­ odriguez
(Strand Associates), Ryan Seale, Noura S
­ leiman, Katelyn
Stenger, Louis Vaught, Giuliana Watson, Lindsey Watterson,
and Caroline Winters. Contributions also came from our

00-House-FM.indd 24 11/24/15 7:25 PM

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
that bright young sister in her arms again she might not disgrace the welcome
by crying outright. Who would have supposed that the months of separation
would have stretched themselves out so! Louise was to have gone home
certainly in a year from the date of her departure, and yet she didn't. It often
happens in this world that, with all our planning, our lives move in exactly
different lines from what we have prepared. So Louise had really never looked
upon the face of her beautiful young sister since that morning when she
became a bride. It is surely not much wonder that her heart beat hard at the
sound of carriage-wheels, and it seemed to her, for a moment, that she could
not get down the stairs.

It was not until just as daylight was fading that John came to be introduced to
the new-comer. He had planned differently; but unexpected business had
detained him at the village until a late hour, then he had taken his supper
alone, and came to the piazza to meet Estelle, just as they were about
adjourning to the house.

"Come," Louise said; "these insects must be shut out and you must be shut in.
Oh, here comes John."

At that moment Dorothy brought the large lamp, and the glow of it fell full on
Estelle's face. John had decidedly dreaded this ordeal. His life had been spent
so much in shadow that there were certain creations before whom he was
unreasonably timid—among these were young ladies; and to meet one, too,
whom he was expected to help was formidable. Still, John's strong point was
decision of character. What had to be done was to be done promptly, and with
as little appearance of shrinking as possible. So he advanced boldly and
raised his eyes to Estelle's fair, bright face. But instead of the greeting, in
every way cordial, which he had planned, he gave Estelle the benefit of a
prolonged astonished stare; and at last the words, uttered in an explosive
tone, as by one from whom they were forced by astonishment, were,—

"You are the very one!"

"Of course," said Estelle, mischief shining in every line of her beautiful face;
and, nothing daunted by this strange greeting, she held out her hand cordially,
while Louise looked on amazed. "Did you think I was somebody else? Shake
hands, won't you?"

"Is it possible that you remember me?" John said at last slowly, as one
awakening from a dream, and then looking from her to Louise, then back
again to her, studying the two faces like one who had been puzzled, but who
had just found the answer to his riddle.
"Not in the least," Estelle said promptly. "I don't think I ever saw you before in
my life; but since you seem to be acquainted with me, I thought I would be
friendly."

"You have seen me before," John said, recovering his natural manner, and
giving the small white hand a cordial grasp; "and it is your resemblance to
Louise which gave me such a vivid impression of your face and so strange a
feeling of having seen you before somewhere."

Then Estelle laughed. "What an idea!" she said gaily. "I don't look the least in
the world like Louise, and never did; and, what is more trying, I am not in the
least like her, as you will find to your sorrow. Where did you see the being
whom you think I am? I'd like to have a glimpse of her."

Nothing but bright, thoughtless mischief in voice or manner; but John was still
earnest and eager.

"Louise," he said, turning to her for sympathy, "isn't it strange that it should
happen so? She is the very young lady who gave me that card on that
miserable and memorable night, and invited me to the meeting."

A vivid blush overspread Estelle's face. She had given some curious thoughts
to the forlorn specimen of humanity whom she had invited to the meeting; it
was the only attempt she had ever made at evangelistic effort, and it stood out
in her memory. She had commented upon his appearance to her mother; she
had given a laughing description of him to her young friends. Now it seemed a
most improbable thing that this well-dressed, nice looking young man and her
forlorn tramp were one and the same!

"Are you an adept at masquerades?" she asked at last. "You certainly played
the character of a woe-begone street wanderer to perfection; or else you are
doing the well-dressed young man very well. Which is the assumed
character?"

Viewing it from John's standpoint, there was no comical side to this episode in
his life. He answered her with intense gravity,—

"The street wanderer was a real, and certainly a sufficiently dreary, wanderer;
he thought himself a hopeless case; but he will never cease to thank God for
sending you to put out a rescuing hand that night."

The flush that had been fading from Estelle's face became vivid again; how
was she going to jest with one who took matters so solemnly? She did not
know what to say to him, and turned away embarrassed. Now indeed was
John roused. Intensity was a part of his nature; what he did at all, he did with
all his might. Louise, looking on, anxious as to what this revelation would
effect, was presently satisfied that it had roused his interest in her as nothing
else could have done. The fact that the one who had been the direct means of
bringing him into the light of Christ was herself walking in darkness filled him
with pain.

From that hour he fixed upon her as the subject for his constant prayer; he
brought her before his Master only as one can who has learned the
sweetness of being a servant of Christ, and who longs to call in others. Now
and then a word with her, as opportunity offered, but the most of his strength
spent on his knees.

It chanced that on the way to the district prayer-meeting, which, by the way,
had been started, and which had flourished. John was Estelle's companion. It
was really the first time he had seen her alone. He had not to waste time in
trying to make up his mind to speak to her on the subject; he was eager to
speak.

"I was so surprised," he said. "I had been so accustomed to pray for the one
who gave me that card as one would for a saint almost. I had not thought of
the possibility of your not being a Christian."

"And now all those prayers have been lost—so much wasted strength! What a
pity!" Estelle did not really mean to be wicked, although her tone was mischief
itself. She had accustomed herself to parrying personalities on this subject in
some such jesting way; the usual effect was to shock into silence the person
addressing her, and so give her freedom for the time being. She did not even
mean irreverence; she meant simply fun, and to be let alone. John, however,
was not used to sparkling nonsense in conversation. Since he began to
converse at all, he had talked nearly always with earnest people, and been
tremendously in earnest himself. So he answered her as if the remark had
been made in all gravity.

"No, I don't think that; for of course God know just where you were, and he
accepted the spirit of the prayer. But isn't it strange that with Louise for a sister
you have lived so many years without Christ?"

Louise was a person about whom Estelle did not jest; she could be flippant to
her, but not about her, so to this sentence she had no answer at first but
silence; then she rallied.
"Come now, isn't it strange that with Lewis for a brother, and Mrs. Morgan for a
mother, you lived so many years without paying any attention to these things?
Didn't you ever hear that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw
stones?"

"Ah, but," said John eagerly, "I didn't believe in it; I didn't think there was any
such thing as conversion, nor any reality in religion. I was a fool, to be sure,
but I was an honest one; I really didn't believe in these things. But you had a
different bringing up. My mother is a young Christian, you know. You had no
such doubts to trammel you, had you?"

"No," said Estelle slowly, reluctantly obliged to be truthful before this truthful
young man; thinking of her mother, of her father, of her sister Louise, she must
say, "No."

"Then why haven't you been a Christian these many years?"

"I don't know."

"Then why don't you be one now?"

"I don't know."

John was betrayed into an exclamation not unlike the half sneer with which he
used to express his entire disapproval of an act, and his tones were very
significant as he said, "Seems to me if I were you I'd find out."

Estelle was silent; this to her was an entirely new way of approaching the
subject. This grave young man gave her some thinking to do. She had had
her bit of scepticism to struggle with, albeit she did not know it by that name.
In her heart she had believed that some persons were by nature religious in
their youth; mamma was, and Louise was like her. Mamma said that Louise,
when just a baby, would lie quiet by the hour to be read to from the Bible;
while she, Estelle, never lay quiet at any time for anything but sleep. She was
not by nature religious, she argued; some time, when she was old and gray-
haired, it would become natural to her to think about these things. Some
people were called in their youth, and some in later life; it must be that she
was designed for a middle-aged Christian. Into the face of this theory came
John—young, keen, intense, fierce by nature, as irreligious by nature as a
man could be, as far-away from even outward respect for the cause as a
scoffer could be. Louise, whose intuition had shown her somewhat of this
reasoning, had taken pains to explain in detail John's past life and John's
intense nature. Here was a problem that Estelle must work out for herself; that
she had begun to work at it was evidenced by her grave, sincere answer, "I
don't know."

CHAPTER XXIX.
THE OLD AND THE NEW.

IT is not because there is not much concerning the Morgan family which would
be pleasant to me to tell that I pass in silence a stretch of years. It is simply
that the lengthening chapters remind me it is high time to have done with
them; and yet there are certain things that I must tell. Therefore it is that I drop
you into the midst of June roses again, after a lapse of five busy, earnest
years. Back at the old farmhouse, which really was not the old farmhouse at
all; and yet it was—that is, it was in a new dress. A corner had been put on
here, a bay-window there, a piazza at the south side, and a wide old-
fashioned porch at the east, until really the house would not have recognized
itself. Within, not a single room, from the yellow painted kitchen onward,
remained the same. Was this the new house, planned years before? Well, not
exactly. The new house was built, and built with the bricks and mortar, just as
it had been planned on paper, and a gem of a house it proved to be; but its
location was next to the church, in the village, and Dorothy and the minister
were the occupants.

"It isn't exactly a parsonage," Father Morgan said, "and yet it is; at least the
minister lives in it, and is welcome to, of course, for it belongs to his wife; but if
another minister should come in his place, why then I suppose it couldn't be
called a parsonage."

At present there is no prospect that another minister will come in Mr. Butler's
place. The people like both him and his wife. That is a strange statement, I am
aware—almost an unnatural story; and yet every one knows that there are a
few parishes left in which the people continue to stand by a faithful pastor
even after a lapse of years. Dorothy had certain advantages. To be sure, Mr.
Butler had done what is supposed to be an unwise thing—married the
daughter of one of his parishioners; but it will be remembered that in her early
girlhood she had almost no acquaintances with the people of the village. She
had not mingled with them in any capacity. They knew no more of her
character, and almost as little of her life, as they would have done had she
lived a thousand miles away; and, somehow, the one whom they used, on
rare occasions, to speak of as "that Morgan girl," seemed to the people an
entirely different person from their minister's wife, as in truth she was. So, as if
to verify the promise about "all things working together for good," the very
obscurity in which Dorothy had spent her girlhood worked well for her in her
present sphere. So Dorothy reigned in the new house, and ruled it well, and
her mother had grown used to looking upon her as a married woman and a
housekeeper, ay, and a mother.

Lewis Morgan had not a little to do with the successful ministrations of his
brother-in-law. When he, after his period of mental depression and
discouragement, rallied at the time of Dorothy's conversion, and tasted anew
the joy of working for Christ, he took what perhaps I may reverently term a
new lease of spiritual life, and gave himself up to joyful service, since which
time he had been eagerly busy for the Master, the refrain of his song still
being, "How sweet the work has been!" Imagine what such a wide-awake,
prudent, faithful Christian could be to a pastor. Imagine the alert eyes he could
have to the needs, and the wishes, and the whims of the people. Imagine the
kind suggestions he could offer to a pastor younger than himself, who not only
thoroughly respected, but loved him as a brother. Certainly Lewis Morgan,
heavy though the cross had been to give up what is called active work for
Christ, was yet as active in his way, and perhaps fully as successful, as
though he were from the pulpit preaching the gospel. I make that distinction
because Lewis Morgan, in his class, in the prayer-meeting, in his daily life,
was assuredly preaching the gospel.

The renovated farmhouse was still large enough for the two families. Yet the
new house—the other new house—was in process of building. Louise's plan
again. One of the prettiest of houses; but that too was in the village, and it was
planned with special reference to the needs of Dr. John Morgan. Yes, he was
going to settle down in the little village. No, I forget; the word "little" really does
not apply to it very well. It had, during these years in which I remember I have
said almost nothing about it, sprung into life and growth, aided by the junction
of another railroad, and a large machine-shop; and Dr. John had accepted a
partnership with the gray-haired physician who had held the practice in village
and on hillside for miles around during the space of forty years. Just as soon
as the new house was finished and furnished (and it was nearly done), he was
going to begin housekeeping.
Every cheery, sweet-smelling room in the Morgan farmhouse had a sort of
gala look on this afternoon of which I write. They were such pretty rooms! I
wish I could describe them to you—simple, quiet-toned, in keeping with the
wide-stretching green fields and the glowing flowers, and so pretty! Bright,
clear carpets, in tasteful hues and graceful patterns; muslin curtains, looped
with ribbons to match the carpets; easy-chairs, nearly every one of them of a
pattern peculiar to itself; wide, low couches, with luxurious pillows, inviting you
to lounge among them; books and papers and pictures in profusion; Louise's
piano and Louise's guitar in convenient positions, and Louise's tasteful finger-
touches everywhere. Who can describe a simple, pretty room? It is easy to tell
the colour of the carpet, and the position of the furniture; but where is the
language in which to describe that nameless grace, speaking of comfort and
ease and home, that hovers over some rooms, and is utterly lacking in others?

Upstairs, in the room that was once Louise's, and which she had vacated now
for the more sunny side of the house, special care had been exercised. It was
a fair pink and white abode; the carpet was a sprinkling of pink moss-rose
buds on a mossy ground; the white curtains were looped with pink ribbons;
the cool, gray furniture, of that peculiar tint of gray that suggests white, was
adorned with delicate touches of Louise's skill, in the shape of moss-rose
buds that matched the carpet; the toilet-stand was a mass of delicate white
drapery, through whose thinness a suspicion of pink glowed; and the very
china had been deftly painted in the same pattern; easy-chairs and large old-
fashioned rockers occupied cosy nooks, and Louise, her face aglow with
merry satisfaction, had adorned them with the veritable tidies which she had
brought from home as a bride, or with others made after a like pattern, to look
like the identical ones. She was arranging real roses with unsparing hand in
the mantel vases, on the little toilet-table, wherever she could find a spot for a
vase to stand. Then came Nellie and stood in the door—herself a vision of
beauty—in flowing curls, and spotless white garments, made after the latest
and most approved fashion for young misses of thirteen, and with a flutter of
blue ribbons about her, from the knot fastened in some deft way among the
curls to the dainty bows perched on her slippers. She made a little
exclamation, indicative of her happy satisfaction in the appearance of all about
her, and Louise turned.

"Will this do for a bride?" she asked, her smiling eyes taking in Nellie as a very
satisfactory part of the picture.

"It is too lovely for anything," Nellie said in genuine girl parlance; "and it looks
just exactly like Estelle."
Louise laughed; she had been thinking something very like that herself. Don't
imagine that I think I have startled you now with a bit of news; I have given
you credit for penetration enough to have surmised, long ago, that the gala
day was in honour of a coming bride, and the bride none other than Estelle
herself. I did not propose to say much about that; such things are so
constantly occurring in all well-regulated families that you would have been
stupid, indeed, not to have foreseen it.

Louise did not, however; she had been as blind as a bat about it, though the
old story was lived right before her very eyes. Glad eyes they were, however,
when they took in the facts. Louise loved her brother John. Was he not the
one whom God used at last to bring her darling Estelle to a knowledge of his
love?

"Louise," said Nellie, coming back to commonplaces as soon as the eyes had
taken in all the beauty, "mother wants you. She wants you to see if you think
the table looks overloaded, and whether you think the turkey platters haven't
too much dark meat on them, and half-a-dozen other things that I have
forgotten; won't you come right away?"

"In three minutes," said Louise; but she had hardly time to attend in person to
all these important matters when Nellie's voice shouted through the house,—

"There they come! There's the carriage; it has just driven through the archway.
Oh, I wonder what John thought of the archway!"

When I tell that it was decorated with evergreen, on which there glowed, in
roses arranged by Nellie's own fair hands, the words, "Welcome Home!" you
will be sure that John liked it. Then the family gathered on that south piazza to
greet the bride and groom. The aroma of coffee was stealing through the
house, and the spacious dining-table, spread its entire length in the large
dining-room, did almost look burdened with its weight of dishes for the
wedding-feast.

Mother Morgan tarried to cover a cake-basket before she hurried to the

piazza. Give one moment's time to her. Her face had grown younger; it was
smooth and fair, and set in calmness. Her dress was a holiday one of soft,
neutral-tinted silk, and her white lace cap, which Louise's fingers had
fashioned, was wonderfully becoming to her pleasant face. Dorothy had
seated herself, matronly fashion, in one of the large easy-chairs with which the
piazza abounded, for the fair bundle of muslin and lace bobbing around in her
lap was too restless to admit of a standing position, although admonished
thus: "Do, little Miss Louise, sit still, and receive your new auntie with
becoming dignity."

Little Miss Louise's papa had just dropped her ladyship out of his arms, and
gone forward to open the gate for the family carriage, which, with Lewis for
driver, was just emerging from the shade of the evergreens. At this moment
came Father Morgan from the small room at the right of the piazza, with a
pompous specimen of three-year-old boyhood perched serenely on his
shoulder. He was John Morgan, junior, and liked no place so well as his
grandfather's shoulder. The carriage wound around the lawn, and drew up
before the piazza door, and they all—father, mother, sisters, and baby—went
down to meet it. And as Estelle's bright and beautiful face, a little matured
since we first knew her, but rarely beautiful still, appeared in view, and her
eager arms were thrown around Mother Morgan's neck, that lady, as she
heartily gave back loving kisses, said, in a voice which I am not sure you
would recognize, so little have you known of her in these latter days,—

"Welcome home, my daughter!"

I wonder if I have told you that the carriage contained others beside the bride
and groom? Louise had not forgotten it, for her own father and mother were
actually come to pay the long-promised visit. It had been arranged that they
should meet the young couple returning from their wedding trip and travel with
them homeward. Louise had been home several times in the last five years,
but father and mother were just fulfilling a long-made promise to visit her; and
here at last were they all gathered under the Morgan roof, the two families
unbroken.

They went to the spacious dining-room, and sat them down to the bountiful
wedding-feast; and among them all only two had vivid recollections just then
of the contrast between that home-coming and the greeting that was given
Louise and Lewis on that winter night. Mrs. Dorothy Butler remembered it, it is
true; but such important matters had filled Mrs. Dorothy's mind in the
intervening years, and everything was so utterly changed to her, that she
much doubted sometimes whether she really had not dreamed all those
strange earlier experiences, and only lived through these later years. To
Estelle the house was new, of course, and really handsome, and everything
was delightfully improved. But Estelle did not know that hearts and faces had
greatly improved. She could not imagine Mother Morgan in her straight calico
without a collar; she could not see John in his shirt-sleeves, his pants tucked
within his boots, as Louise saw him in imagination at that moment.
Ah! There were sweeter contrasts than those. When the bright evening drew
to its close, Nellie wheeled the little centre-table close to her father's chair, and
set the student lamp on it. And Farmer Morgan opened the large old Bible
which always had its place of honour on that centre-table, and read: "Bless
the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine
iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from
destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies." And
then Farmer Morgan said, with reverent voice, "Let us pray," and the two
families, brought together by ties that reach into eternity, bowed together, and
Father Morgan commended them all to the care of the God whom at last he
and his house served.

They talked about old times just a little, the next morning, both upstairs and
down. Louise, lingering in Estelle's room, listening well pleased to her lavish
praise of all its adorning, said suddenly,—

"Do you remember this, Estelle?"

"Yes; indeed I do. The very tidy that Fannie Brooks made for your wedding
present; and there is that white one I made. O Louise, isn't it funny? Do you
remember my asking you what you were going to do with all those tidies?"

"Yes, dear. I told you I would find use for them, and you see I have. Do you
remember, also, that you assured me that morning how impossible it would be
for you ever to leave papa and mamma and go away with a stranger as I was
doing?"

"Well," said Estelle, with an amused, half-ashamed little laugh, "I didn't go
away with a stranger; I came with John. You see I didn't know him then."

And again Louise wondered what she would have said of him if she had.

Downstairs, an hour or so afterward, she lingered in the sitting-room to say a

few loving words to her own dear mother, and while there Mother Morgan
passed the piazza windows, young John by the hand, he loudly discoursing to
her as to the beauties of a certain insect which she was being dragged by his
eager hand to see.

"Mother spoils him," Louise said, with a complacent laugh, as the boy's shrill
voice floated back to them. "She will go anywhere and do anything that he
coaxes her to."
"The idea of mother SPOILING anybody!" said Dr. John, with incredulous
voice and laughing eyes.

"Well, she certainly does. I suppose all grandmothers do."

Then she went about the pretty task of straightening the books and papers,
and restoring the sitting-room to its yesterday's freshness.

"I am glad mothers don't spoil their children," her mother said, satisfaction in
her voice, as she watched Louise moving among the disordered elements,
bringing order out of confusion.

"I didn't spoil her, did I, Lewis? What a lovely home you have had here all
these years! I am glad you have demonstrated the folly of the saying that no
house is large enough for two families. How could anything be better than the
arrangement which you have here? Mrs. Morgan was telling me this morning
that when you talked for a time of going to housekeeping it almost made her
sick. I'm very glad you didn't. Little John gives Louise care enough without the
responsibilities of housekeeping; though your mother says, Lewis, that she
takes a great deal of care from her. I think she has rather an exaggerated
opinion of you, Louise; perhaps she is trying to spoil you."

"She is a remarkable little woman, you will have to admit," Lewis said, in a
half-laughing tone, but regarding his wife with eyes in which she saw
earnestness and tender feeling. "I am glad you brought her up so well,
mother; there are not many who would have succeeded with the problem of
two families in one house as she has done."

"Yes," said the mother emphatically; "and then there is another thing to be
taken into consideration. She had unusual surroundings. Anybody can see
that your mother is an unusual woman. Probably Louise's experience has
been exceptional. I really believe at heart that there are not many houses
large enough for two families. I trembled for Louise. I used to watch every
letter critically for signs of failure. You see I did not know your father and
mother. I did not feel so anxious about the father; they always get along well
with daughters-in-law if the mothers do. But I worried a good deal,
unnecessarily I can see now. Still it is, after all, an exceptional case. Don't you
think so?"

Lewis turned slowly round from the mantel against which he had been leaning
and regarded his wife with a curious look—eyes that were brimming with a
mischievous light, and yet had behind the light a suggestion even of tears. His
voice, when he spoke, had also that curious hint of pent-up feeling.
"Yes, it is an exceptional case. Very few daughters-in-law have such
experiences. I do consider my mother an unusual woman, and my wife an
unusual wife. And I tell you in all honesty, mother, that we of the Morgan family
thank God every day of our lives for the vine from your branch that was
grafted into ours."

THE END.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A NEW GRAFT
ON THE FAMILY TREE ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S.

copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in
these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it
in the United States without permission and without paying copyright
royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of
this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept
and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and
may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the
terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of
the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for
copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very
easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as
creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research.
Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given
away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with
eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject
to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free

distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and

Redistributing Project Gutenberg™
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree
to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your
possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be
bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from
the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in
paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be

used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people
who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a
few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic
works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.
See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with
Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this
agreement and help preserve free future access to Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the
Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the
collection of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the
individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the
United States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in
the United States and you are located in the United States, we do
not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing,
performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the
work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of
course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg™
mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely
sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name
associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of
this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its
attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it without
charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the
United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms
of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying,
performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this
work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes
no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in
any country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other

immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must
appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™
work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or
with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is
accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
 This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you
are not located in the United States, you will have to check the
laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived

from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a
notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright
holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the
United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must
comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through
1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project
Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted

with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted
with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of
this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project

Gutenberg™ License terms from this work, or any files containing a
part of this work or any other work associated with Project
Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this

electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg™ License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form,
including any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you
provide access to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work
in a format other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in
the official version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain
Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the
full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,

performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing

access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
provided that:

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the
method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The
fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark,
but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty
payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on
which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information
about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation.”

• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who

notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that
s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™
License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
 copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and
discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project
Gutenberg™ works.

• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of

any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in
the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90
days of receipt of the work.

• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™

electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of
the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set
forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend

considerable effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe
and proofread works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating
the Project Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they may
be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to,
incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a
copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or
damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer
codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except

for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph
1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner
of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party
distributing a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this
agreement, disclaim all liability to you for damages, costs and
expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO
REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF
WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE
FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY
DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE
TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL,
PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE
NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you

discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it,
you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by
sending a written explanation to the person you received the work
from. If you received the work on a physical medium, you must
return the medium with your written explanation. The person or entity
that provided you with the defective work may elect to provide a
replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the work
electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose to
give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in
lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may
demand a refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the
problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied

warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted
by the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.