Written Communication in Technical Fields

1
Written Communication in Technical Fields

• Making it Easier
• An introduction to written communication in the
  context of what engineering students typically
  write and the difficulties they commonly face. An
  exercise/example is provided by which students
  can brainstorm the outline or approach to any
  piece of technical writing in a way that it meets
  the needs of the audience. Practical
  recommendations for resolving writers block are
  also provided in this writing module. The module
  assumes basic background in technical
  communication and is intended as a supplement,
  not a replacement for a basic technical
  writing/communication course.

2
On the Agenda

• Today
• Overview of Technical Writing
• Tips for Making Writing Easier
• In class work
• Think/pair/share
• In class Reflection Outline

3
Technical Writing What is it?

• Six Major Components
• Basic Literacy
• Grammar, spelling, organization
• Does your writing make sense?
• Rhetorical Literacy
• Are you addressing your audience (s)?
• Do you understand your viewpoint relative to the
  audience?
• Social Literacy
• Direct (coauthoring) -- the executive summary
• Indirect -- brainstorming, discussion, etc

4
Technical Writing What is it?

• Six Major Components
• Technological Literacy
• Are you using your technology (word processor,
  data presentation software, etc) effectively?
• Ethical Literacy
• Can you explain your choices for this term paper
  topic/thesis?
• Have you considered all who are invested in the
  term paper?
• Critical Literacy
• Do you understand the power structures involved
  in your application and have an idea how to help
  those in need within the constraints of these
  structures?

5
Technical Writing What is it?

• Examples of the Six Major Components
• Of technical literacy in a sample paper
• Basic Literacy
• Spelling and grammar are correct paper makes
  sense
• Rhetorical Literacy
• Writing directed at community of circuit
  designers dominated by digital (over analog) who
  are likely to be familiar with digital speech
  recognition systems.
• Paper results are benchmarked against mainstream
  digital techniques to clarify the significance of
  the results presented in this paper.
• Social Literacy
• Co-authors from same and other institutions
  indicate contributions from research advisor
  (direct) and input from collaborators (less
  direct)
• Brainstorming/discussion (indirect form of social
  literacy) is likely considering the
  cross-instiution collaboration.

6
Technical Writing What is it?

• Examples of the Six Major Components
• Of technical literacy in a sample paper
• Technological Literacy
• Paper is properly formatted according to IEEE
  conference standard
• Selective choice of figures highlights salient
  results
• Boxed outline of results in tables summarizes
  results of large amounts of tabular information
  that may otherwise be overwhelming
• Block diagram forms a reference point for whole
  paper discussion
• Ethical Literacy
• Ethical issues associated with speech recognition
  not explicitly addressed
• Critical Literacy
• Power struggle between (dominant) paradigm of
  speech recognition format (purely digital) and
  competitive enhancements (analog preprocessors)
  is evident from the benchmarking approach that
  frames the entire paper.

7
Technical Writing Making it Easier

• The Five-Minute Miracle Conversation
• Is simply a conversation
• In your mind
• Between you and your reader
• What are you trying to tell your reader?
• If you have to struggle to find the significance
  of your information for that reader, you are
  probably choosing the wrong main message. You
  could
• UNDERWHELM or
• OVERWHELM your reader.

8
Technical Writing Making it Easier

• The Five-Minute Miracle Conversation
• Let the reader ask you two critical questions.
• What are those questions?
• Did you answer them in your paper?
• Examples
• Why did you do this?
• What is the significance of the results?
• Is it a good idea to prompt these questions?

9
Technical Writing Class Activity

• Task explain, in a single e-mail, to 5 randomly
  selected people at the local supermarket the
  importance of your engineering curriculum.
• Think (the Five-Minute Miracle Conversation)
• Pair (compare and write your e-mail)
• Share (with the group)
• What the reader said to you? (in your internal
  conversation)
• What questions did the reader ask?

10
Technical Writing Making it Easier

• Dealing with Writers Block
• You started to write a paper without an outline.
• OOOOOHHHHH NOOOOO (bad idea)
• Write down primary ideas and sub-ideas for each
  primary idea
• Convert this informal list to an outline
• You are bored with your topic.
• CHANGE IT!
• Talk to someone about how to make your topic more
  interesting.
• You dont want to write
• Get over it (fix your motivation)
• Use some anxiety reduction strategies

11
Technical Writing Making it Easier

• Dealing with Writers Block
• You are anxious
• Use known strategies to reduce your anxiety
  (music, coffee, etc.)
• Consciously stop non-productive comments in your
  head
• Focus your energy on rehearsing what the writing
  will feel/look like in your head once you get
  started.
• Reward yourself for small steps.
• You are so stressed out, you cant generate a
  single word
• Stretch, exercise, do something different (for a
  little while)
• Breathe deeply, focus on relaxing.
• Use calming images, any known technique for
  relaxing yourself.
• Reduce distractions.

12
Technical Writing Exercise

• Generate an outline of a 1-2 page essay based on
  the assigned reading
• Paragraph 1 Broader ideas that when distilled,
  become your thesis (primary argument) at the end
  of the paragraph.
• Intermediate Paragraphs typically use facts and
  quotations to describe a single point in support
  of our argument (per paragraph)
• Concluding Paragraph summarizes argument that
  led to proving the thesis and re-unites the
  argument with issues relevant to contemporary
  society.
• Pair explain it to your group
• Do they buy your thesis?
• Have you addressed all of the technical
  literacies?