Advanced Technical Communication

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Advanced Technical Communication for Engineers CE
389C Fall 2006
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Dr. Hillary Harthttp//www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/har
t/389c/ECJ 8.214
Office Hours M 1100-1200 300-500 W
830-930 471-4635 hart_at_mail.utexas.edu

• Office Hours
• MW 1100-1200
• Tues. 300-500
• 471-4635
• hart_at_mail.utexas.edu

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389C Web site
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By virtue of being an engineer, you are a
Technical Communicator.

• Engineering is a people-oriented profession.
• Engineers not only develop technologies they
  help people make use of technology.
• Engineers must communicate with regulators,
  funding agencies, suppliers, clients, customers,
  the media, and sometimes the general public.

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You must communicate your subject-matter
expertise.

• Engineers communicate their methods, results,
  conclusions, and recommendations so that
  information can be understood and used by a
  variety of people.
• Engineers generate raw data and then turn them
  into information to help people solve problems.

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For instance . . .

• If you have installed a monitoring well on a
  residents property to track the movement of
  benzene spreading through the groundwater from a
  nearby leaking gasoline tank, you have several
  very different jobs
• Measure and record the levels of various
  contaminants.
• Issue a report for your technical supervisor
  are the levels increasing or not?
• Report to the homeowner about whats happening.

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For which audience is this table
appropriatesupervisor or homeowner?
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A picture might work best for a homeowner.
Residence
Service Station
Monitoring Well
Ground Water
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Data alone are usually not useful.

• Information is data made useful for other people.

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Information life cycle

• Data are what we record, observe, copy.
• Information is data that have been synthesized,
  put in context, and made meaningful.
• Knowledge is enough information to allow you or
  someone else to do something that produces new
  data or information.

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Information Life Cycle
Data
Knowledge
Information
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Necessary Skills for Engineers

• Manage information
• Write technical information for many audiences --
  often with conflicting needs
• Design graphics for technical information
• Elicit expert information interview others
• Present information verbally
• Work collaboratively -- write collaboratively!

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Engineering documents you may be involved in
writing

• User manuals -- software and hardware
• Training materials
• Environmental guidelines and reports
• Safety policies and instructions
• Technical proposals
• Technical reports

The last two types bridge the gap between the
workplace and the academy.
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In this class we want to focus on academic writing

• dissertation proposals
• theses
• dissertations
• journal papers
• and technical presentations
• oral presentations
• posters
• as well as proposals and reports.

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Audiences

• Academic audiences
• other researchers
• faculty
• students
• supervisor now only!

Even academic audiences have varying degrees of
expertise and knowledge. And everyone is busy
and reads fast!
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Research Audiences

• Experts
• Executives/Managers
• Technicians
• Regulators
• Funding Agencies
• General public
• Combination

Now your audience is expert, but later to whom
may you have to present results?
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Business Audiences

• Inside the organization
• Management
• Colleagues
• Support staff
• Salespeople
• Technicians

• Outside the organization
• Customers
• Regulatory agencies
• Financial institutions
• Suppliers/vendors
• News media

Your message here
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Communicators Triangle
Communicator
Audience
(most difficult)
Subject
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Multiple Audiences

• Different parts of the document are geared toward
  different audiences
• Abstract technical public
• Introduction interested public
• Bulk of paper researchers and subject-matter
  experts

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Your writing for this class

• You decide the pace of your progress
• You must complete by end of semester at least one
  of the following for your class project
• Two chapters of thesis
• One chapter of dissertation
• One paper publishable in journal
• One dissertation proposal
• Departmental or graduate school report
  (substantial portion)

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Meet with me by Thurs., Sept. 7

• You determine your own class project.
• Assignment 4 is your entire class project.
• Everyone does an outline hand in by Sept. 6.
• Remember, an outline is a draft until document is
  done.
• Everyone does a draft of an Introduction as
  assignment 1.
• You and I will determine assignments 2-4.
• Please come to my office hours next week.

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Writing Process and Planning

• You organize for yourself (outlines, etc.), and
  you organize the document for the reader.

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First, organize for yourself.
Feel like a tiny child when it comes to writing?
Most people do. Heres how to help yourself.
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1. Recognize that writing is problem-solving

• As a product, writing solves problems for your
  audience
• As a process, it solves problems for you!

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You can use writing to help answer many critical
questions

• What is it you really want to say?
• What will convince your audience?
• What data or information do you still need to
  collect?
• When you explain your methodology, what gaps are
  still there?

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2. Recognize that writing is a process.

• Defining objectives
• Planning
• Drafting
• Evaluating
• Revising

Learn to separate these stages!
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You cannot collapse these stages together!
You cant get it right the first time around!
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Manage the writing process.

• Start early
• Manage your time
• Learn to draft avoid need for perfection at
  this stage
• Learn to separate the creative and critical parts
  of your personality.

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Managing the Process of Writing

• Defining objectives
• Planning
• Drafting
• Evaluating
• Revising
• We will separate these stages in this course.

Pre-Writing (Outlining)
Peer Review
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3. Realize that writing activities are
incremental and iterative.

• Move back and forth between doing
  research/engineering work and doing writing.
• Writing helps you understand what you really know
  and what you are still unsure about. Helps you
  plot direction.

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Sequence of Drafting(see p. 7a in the Guide)

• Revise Introduction
• Revise middle three chapters
• Revise Conclusions
• Revise Introduction
• Write Abstract

• Write draft of Introduction
• Write draft of Methods
• Write draft of Literature Review
• Write draft of Results
• Write draft of Conclusions

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But I still have a hard time beginning to write!!
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Planning your Document Organizing for
Yourself
Most people begin planning their document by
creating an outline.
Dont be trapped by your outline! Any outline
evolves constantly until the document is sent or
published.
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Planning Tools Many kinds of outlines and lists

• Doodles and lists of keywords
• Topic Outline
• Can become headings for your document.
  Eventually, becomes the Table of Contents.
• Sentence Outline (helps connect topics)
• Helps writers refine ideas and link them
  together
• Transistors have been around a long time.
  --eventually that sentence becomes a heading
  History of Transistors

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Brainstorm Outline how it works

• Draw an oval
• Write documents central purpose in center
• Think of all related ideas, facts, descriptions
• Write these in spokes around oval
• Dont prioritize or sequence ideas until later
• Discard later what you dont need.

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Example of Brainstorm Outline
Convince UT to build graduate student parking
garage
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For Wednesday, September 6

• Summarize Herbert Michaelsons short chapter (5)
  on the Incremental Method.
• Summarize contents
• Critique the method add your own judgment
• Find and look over the templates and guidelines
  for theses and dissertations available on the
  Office of Graduate Studies web site.
• http//www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/index.html

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Also for Wednesday, September 6

• Bring to class an outline of the entire work
  (thesis, proposal, dissertation, paper) of which
  your class project may be only a part.
• Please include a descriptive paragraph explaining
  to me the purpose of your research work.