Fall 1995, Fall 1996
Essential to the successful transfer of technical information is the identification of writing situations, including audiences (lay people, managers, fellow engineers, etc.), purposes of the communication, and the development of an appropriate voice and style for both formal and informal writing. In this course, you will be confronted with a variety of contexts which will give you opportunities to write for different audiences for different purposes.
This course emphasizes collaborative writing. Engineers work in groups far more often then they work alone, and reports must often be written by groups for other groups. Group projects such as proposals, progress or completion reports, will enable you to work through the problems inherent in such collaborative endeavors. You will get some practice in oral communication; through instruction and peer review you will plan and deliver both formal and informal oral presentations during the course.
You will learn about specific types of communication from short
memos to formal reports. You will also become familiar with
appropriate ways for setting up documents including the use of
headings and graphic aids (graphs, charts, slides, overheads,
pictures and diagrams etc.) to clarify and enhance a text, and with a
range of stylistic strategies.
Textbook: J.C. Mathes and Dwight W. Stevenson, Designing Technical Reports: Writing for Audiences in Organizations, 2nd ed. Macmillan and Collier, 1991.
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Ross
Last revised 15 November 1999
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