TMR4240 Marine Control Systems

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Some tips about Technical Writing

• TMR4240 Marine Control Systems
• Department of Marine Technology,
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology,

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Writing in your career
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Writing in the industry to date

• In todays workplace, writing is a threshold
  skill for hiring and promotion among salaried
  (i.e., professional) employees.
• Report of the (US) National Commission on
  Writting,
• Sept 2004

Clear writing is an indication of clear thinking!
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The bad and the good news

• Bad
• Writing is difficult, at any level!
• Good
• Good writing skills can be learned.

Next semester, you will be required to write a
project report, and the semester after, a master
thesis. After that, work will come (memos,
minutes, reports, proposals, letters). Will you
have a course about writing at university from
now until then? Noso youd better be proactive
about it.
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How can you improve your writing?

• Read a lot, and pay attention to the writing
  style is it good? Is it bad? What is it that you
  like or dislike?
• Look for information about writingthere is lots
  of it! (I have some references at the end of
  these slides.)
• After you write something, read it aloud and ask
  yourself Is this what I really want to say?
• Get other people to read your writing. In some
  companies, no letter or email goes to a client
  without having at least two people look at
  itquality assurance.
• Practise, practise, practise when you write
  emails, letters, a diary of what you did during
  the day, etc.

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The most important issue

• Understanding the intention of your writing and
  the audience.
• If you miss the point (intention), your message
  will be lost.
• If under or over estimate your audience, your
  message will be lost.

• The following questions can help you to decide
• Are you writing to inform, persuade, document,
  show how much you know (being evaluated) ?
• What does the audience already know about the
  topic? (what do they need to know?, and what
  dont they need to know?) Understimating your
  audience (going basic) is as bad as
  overestimating.

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Technical reports
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Technical writing

• The most common piece of technical writing is the
  technical report.
• There are many different types of reports
  depending on the intention
• Research documentation
• Manuals and user guides
• Product technical specifications
• Feasibility studies
• Research proposals
• Journal and conference papers

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Structure of a technical report

• Title page
• Foreword
• Summary
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• Core content
• Conclusion
• References Appendices

Some items may not be present, depending on the
type of report.
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Title page

• Contains title
• Authors names
• Affiliation (university or company name)
• Logo
• Report number

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Foreword and summary

• Foreword
• Defines the intention of the report
• Place the report in context so the reader knows
  why it is important to read it.
• Why was the reported work undertaken?
• Why is it important?
• What problem is addressed?
• Summary
• Quickly states the results
• Quickly presents the implications and
  recommendations
• Sometimes, the foreword and summary are combined
  in what is called an Abstract.

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Core content

• The core content of the report must develop in a
  logical way.
• Some people prepare the outline (table of
  contents) before they start writing.
• Transitions between section must be smooth.
• Material that breaks the flow of the report
  should be put in an appendix.

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Conclusions

• The conclusion is one of the most important
  parts, however this is usually done in a hurry.
• The conclusion section
• Summarises the results.
• Reflects on the work presented.
• Suggests future work or improvements.

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Elements of writing
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Usage

• Usage refers to the way people use the language
  (grammar, register, and punctuation).
• Good usage improves the readability of your
  writing.
• Grammaryou should know it already.
• Register refers to different kinds of language
  written or colloquial (spoken)
• If we put equation (1) in equation (2) we get (3)
  (colloquial)
• If we substitute (1) into equation (2), we
  obtain equation (3) (better for written)
• Learn your punctuation Comma, Semicolon, Colon,
  Parenthesis, Dash, Quotation marks,
• Learn how to write and punctuate bullets.
• If you use the book The elements of Style
  (references at the end of this presentation.),
  Rules 3,4,5, and 6 cover the most important
  principles of English punctuation.

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Composition Principles

• Use active voice
• The results of are presented in this report
  (passive)
• This report presents the results of (active)
• In this report, we present the results of
  (active)
• Active voice is shorter, direct and easy to read.
  Beginner scientists tend to write in passive
  voice because is appears to be more formalbut it
  is not so.
• This does not mean that you should always avoid
  passive voice in some situations is useful.
• This phenomenon still remains to be investigated.
  (by us or others)

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Composition Principles

• Put statements in a positive form. People like
  being told what it is instead of what is not.
• The results of are not valid unless
• The results of are valid only if
• Use definite, specific and concrete language.
• The pernicious consequences of roll motion are
• The adverse consequences of roll motion are
• Do not start sentences with math symbols.
• F(x) is convex, and therefore
• The function F(x) is convex, and therefore

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About Figures

• Figures always cause problems to students. Here
  are some tips
• Use labels and units on all the axes.
• Use legends for multiple plots in a figure.
• If the figure is printed in black and white, use
  different patterns for the different magnitudes
  plotted. (I always use this I dont know what
  printer the reader has ?)
• Use a descriptive caption. This should reinforce
  the argument on the test, not just repreat it.
  Captions should be self-contained, so there is no
  need to go to the text to see what the figure is
  about.
• If the text makes no reference to the figure,
  then the figure should not be there.
• If you use a figure, make sure you explain what
  the figure depicts.

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Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is the use of another persons idea,
  work, words, data, results, or illustration
  without giving the actual author proper credit,
  and thereby or otherwise representing that the
  material is ones own
• (this definition is based on several sources the
  Random House Webster s EIectronic Dictionary,
  College Edition the Merriam- Webster Dictionaq,
  I Ith Edition and the Cambridge Online
  Dictionaty).
• Plagiarism can be described at different levels.
  From mild to severe, we have
• having more than three words in a sentence in
  the same order as a sentence from the literature,
  
• copying paragraph, a plot, a table,
• stealing and publishing someone elses work.
• Plagiarism, at any level, is punished severely in
  every university it is cheating!!!
• Because of it is not very well defined what is
  and what is not plagiarism, the chances of
  defending yourself (after being accused of it) in
  an academic tribunal are very slim.

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Plagiarism and references

• How to avoid plagiarism
• Use references.
• Explain things in you own words, and reference to
  the source.
• For marine vehicles, the NED frame is considered
  inertial (Fossen, 1994,2002)
• Sometimes, direct quotation is helpful to
  supports your discussion
• As discussed by Galliarde (2000) when dynamic
  stall of the fins occurs, the ship behaves as
  if there no control.
• Learn to use quotation marks and how to change
  quotations, or add things inside .

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Some useful references

• The elements of style by E.B. White and W. Strunk
• Technical writing and professional communication
  by L. Olsen and T.N. Huckin
• Stuff you dont learn at Engineering School by C.
  Selinger
• Crystal clear communication by K. Cole