ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR THE GLOBAL ENGINEER

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ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR THE
GLOBAL ENGINEER
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INTRODUCTION Communication skills are essential
for an engineer who aspires to carry out his/her
professional practice in the global arena.
Engineering communication skills basically
constitute several core elements such as the
fluency in the English language and the
fundamentals of visual communication.Evidence
indicates that communication skills are what
helped Homo sapiens evolve beyond our related
ancestors, and that these skills have helped
humankind develop into the advanced societies on
Earth today 1. However, these skills have
become stifled in the very discipline that has
brought so many advancements, and that is
engineering.
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• Calculate your EQ (Engineering Quotient)!
• ?? I like to solve problems and be creative.
• Engineering is all about using science and math
  to solve problems. Engineers work on pollution
• control, communication systems, transportation
  issues, and safety designs, as a few examples.
  They
• use their skills to make things work better,
  faster, and less expensively.
• ?? I want to make the world a better place to
  live.
• In the year 1900, the average life expectancy was
  46 years. In the year 2000, the average life
• expectancy was 76 years, a 30 year improvement.
  Twenty of those thirty years have been attributed
  to
• engineering developments in the areas of clean
  water and sanitary sewerage. Engineers design
• wheelchairs, cell phones, infant monitors,
  artificial organs, computer software and all
  kinds of
• innovations that improve our lives on a daily
  basis.
• ?? I do well in my math and science classes.
• Engineering is the art of applying scientific and
  mathematical principles, experience, judgment and
• common sense to make things that benefit people.
  If you enjoy science and math, you most likely
  have
• an aptitude for engineering.

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• EQ AND COMMUNICATIONS
• SKILLS IN
• ENGINEERING

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• I want to combine my interest in science with my
  interests in music or history.
• A ?? strong background in science can be combined
  with interests in other fields, such as
  humanities and
• the arts, to make you even more successful in the
  engineering world. Engineers need to have the
• communication skills, good judgment and sense of
  perspective that comes from a broad educational
• and personal background.
• ?? I want an education that will let me keep my
  options open.
• With an engineering background, you can go into
  management, teaching, research, consulting,
• business, industry, government or marketing. As
  an example, the medical school admission rate for
• students with engineering degrees is in excess of
  80, compared with a national average of 48.
• ?? I like to work as part of a team.
• Engineers typically work with other engineers or
  with scientists and other experts to solve
  problems in a
• group setting. Most projects are built around
  teams of people who work together to find the
  best
• solution.
• ?? I want a job that will let me balance career
  and family.
• A recent study showed that 16 of women
  scientists and engineers were employed part-time.
  Nearly
• 42 cited family responsibilities as the reason.
  Because women have been under-represented in this
• field, employers have developed programs such as
  mentoring, advanced studies and flexible work
• schedules to help attract women to technological
  careers and to promote womens professional grow

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COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS

• Improving Your Communications Skills

• Develops oral, written, and graphical
  communication skills needed by scientists and
  engineers. Topics include giving oral
  presentations, working in small groups, and
  preparing and critiquing reports, proposals,
  instructions, and business correspondence.
  Workshop involves extensive oral presentations,
  communication in small groups, and written
  projects.

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 some years ago, Sir James Barrie remarked
that, the Man of Science appears to be the only
man who has something to say just nowand the
only man who does not know how to say it. 
While this lament is too broad a generalization
to apply to every scientist or engineer (many of
whom are renowned communicators), it is
sufficiently incriminating that it should concern
many of us.  Limited written and verbal
communication skills can severely hinder
professional growth in management or in
engineering.  For example, a survey of
California businesses indicated that effective
communication skills were among the most
significant factors in moving men to top
management positions.  A recent study of over
2,000 executives concluded that communication was
the most significant factor in influencing
promotions.  Another study reported that 80 of
American businessmen place writing ability above
all others on a list of business skills. 
Unaccustomed as you may be to the daily need for
formal communication, there is no question that
attention to improving those skills will be an
important, in fact essential ingredient of your
future professional advancement.
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• Principles for Poor WritingIn a now-famous
  article for the January 1947 Scientific Monthly,
  Paul W. Merrill, former president of the American
  Astronomical Society, remarked Poor writing is
  so common that every educated person ought to
  know something about it.  Many scientists
  actually do write poorly, but they probably
  perform by ear without perceiving clearly how
  their results are achieved.  In this
  entertaining article, Merrill goes on to
  establish three essential principles of POOR
  writing.   These principles are worth repeating
  here
• Ignore the Reader.  It is desirable to write as
  if for a diary, thinking only of the subject. 
  (If you worry about the reader, he complicates
  the picture.)  The title should mean something to
  you but if it baffles or misleads the reader,
  you have won the first round. One good way to
  keep your facts and ideas all on the same level
  of emphasis, without any tell-tale hints of
  relative importance or logical sequence, is to
  use long sentences containing many ideas loosely
  strung together.  For this purpose AND is a
  better connective than BECAUSE or the semicolon. 
  Disguise transitions in thought.  Hidden
  antecedents (pronouns that refer to nouns a long
  way back, or to nouns decidedly subordinate in
  thought or syntax, or to something not directly
  expressed) are wonderfully effective for
  confusing the sponsor.  Avoid parallel
  constructions that give the thought away too
  easily.  Omit a few items that most readers need
  to know.  You had to discover these tings the
  hard way why make it easy for the reader?

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• Be Verbose, Vague, and Pompous.  Being specific
  ties you down.  Use plenty of deadwood, including
  superfluous words and phrases, flowery and
  inexact adjectives, and abstract nouns for
  razzle-dazzle.  Instead of saying Render to
  Caesar the things that are Caesars how much
  better to write  In the case of Caesar it might
  well be considered appropriate from a moral or
  ethical point view to render to that potentate
  all of those goods and materials of whatever
  character or quality which can be shown to have
  had their original source in any portion of the
  domain of the latter.  And isnt this rich,
  beautiful prose  Well for us that the pulsing
  energy of the great life-giving dynamo in the sky
  never ceases.  Well, too, that we are at a safe
  distance from the flame-licked whirlpools into
  which our earth might drop like a pellet of waste
  fluff shaken into the live coals of a grate
  fire.
• Do not revise.  Write hurriedly, preferably when
  tired.  If you have no plan and write down items
  as they occur to you, your report will be
  spontaneous.  If you hand in your manuscript the
  moment it is finished, you dont have to re-read
  it a few days later.  If you submit your
  manuscript to colleagues (a bad practice), pay no
  attention to their criticisms or comments. 
  Later, resist firmly any editorial suggestions. 
  Be strong and infallible dont let anyone break
  down your personality.  The critic may be trying
  to help you, or he may have an ulterior motive,
  but the chance of his causing improvement in your
  writing is so great that you must be on your
  guard.
• One of the most common abuses of language among
  engineers is Merrills second principlethe use
  of verbose, vague, and pompous language.  There
  is a tendency among engineers to overuse
  technical jargon.  Jargon is composed of three
  distinct language types

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• Confused or unintelligible language (some forms
  of outrageous modern slang, for instance)
• Technical terminology or idioms
• Obscure-pretentious language and phraseology
• Each type of jargon should be avoided in formal
  written communication, and carefully screened
  even in informal writing.  For example, if
  acronyms are used at all, they should be
  carefully defined the first time the reader sees
  them, and their subsequent use should be kept to
  a minimum.   Avoid creating new jargon by turning
  nouns into verbs, or by inadequately defining
  words with more than one correct use and form.
• Jargon does not always involve the use of
  acronyms, obscure technical terms, or
  ill-constructed noun forms.  Jargon can also be
  associated with pretentious word selections a
  preference for utilize instead of use for
  example, or at the current time instead of
  now.  There is no better way of saying
  something than to say it directly, and large or
  pompous words, while effective if used properly,
  frequently hinder the readers understanding of
  your message.

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REFERENCES

• REFERENCES
• 1. Tattersall, I., Once we were not alone.
  Scientific
• American, 282, 1, 38-44 (2000).
• 2. Jensen, H.P., Strategic planning for the
  education
• process in the next century. Global J. of Engng
• Educ., 4, 1, 35-42 (2000).
• 3. Grünwald, N., Quo vadis German engineering
• education. Proc. 2nd Asia-Pacific Forum on
• Engineering Technology Education, Sydney,
• Australia, 371-374 (1999).
• 4. Professional Writing Seminar for Engineers,
• http//www.ecf.toronto.edu/7Ewriting/
• prowriting.http
• 5. Kitao, K., Why do we teach English? The
• Internet TESL Journal, 2, 4, 1-3 (1996),

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MADE BY

• FRIDOLIN
• MICHEL
• SAAMAGO

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