ABET Countdown

How could four letters strike such fear in the hearts of normally stalwart faculty? Why would administrators loathe the mere mention of the word 'accreditation'? The source of their fear and frustration is a cycle of evaluation, assessment, and reporting that constitutes a six-year accreditation period.

Williams, Julia M. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Education>Academic>Engineering

Across the Great Divide: Embedding Technical Communication into an Engineering Curriculum

The University of Maine has begun a multi-year effort to redesign the way it teaches technical communication to students in the College of Engineering. At its core, this new design will mean replacing the existing requirement of a stand alone course in technical communication.

Adams, David. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Engineering

Architecture and Communication Among Product Development Engineers  

This paper summarizes some quantitative measures and qualitative observations that we have made regarding the effects of architecture on technical communication. We begin with some early results, showing how the probability that two organizations’ members will communicate regularly declines rapidly with the distance between their work locations. . Following this, we assess several objections to these observations and deal with each. We look briefly at the relationships among different media, (i.e., face-to-face, telephone, electronic mail) and how each is affected by separation. Finally, we discuss some examples of architectural strategies for managing communication.

Allen, Thomas J. MIT (1997). Articles>Communication>Engineering

Assessing Existing Engineering Communication Programs: Lessons Learned from a Pilot Study  

Increased support for greater accountability and assessment of engineering communication programs have led many schools of engineering and technology to initiate methods of assessing the quality of their students’ engineering communication abilities. In my institution, I have spearheaded the pilot year of such a program, and, as anticipated, have learned several valuable lessons that may be of interest to others interested in developing assessment procedures for engineering communication programs.

Rush Hovde, Marjorie. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Engineering>Assessment

Bibliography on Assessment Issues in Engineering Communication

A bibliography on engineering communication assessment.

Rice University (1999). Resources>Bibliographies>Engineering>Technical Writing

Bridging the Gap Between Design and Engineering Cultures

Developers want details. They want information they can take back and talk about on their own. They want the space to decide, based on their own criteria, what is valuable and what is not. They make use of the divide between designers and developers to help maintain their boundaries.

Rodgers, Deborah. Cooper Interaction Design (2001). Articles>Presentations>Engineering

Comments on Lab Reports by Mechanical Engineering Teaching Assistants: Typical Practices and Effects of Using a Grading Rubric    

Many engineering undergraduates receive their first and perhaps most intensive exposure to engineering communication through writing lab reports in lab courses taught by graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Most of the TAs' teaching of writing happens through their comments on students' lab reports. Technical writing faculty need to be aware of TAs' response practices so they can build on or counteract that instruction as needed. This study examines the response practices of two TAs and the ways the practices shifted after the TAs began using a grading rubric. The analysis reveals distinct patterns in focus and mode, some reflecting best practices and some not. It also indicates encouraging changes after the TAs started using the grading rubric. The TAs' marginalia became more content focused and specific and, perhaps most important, less authoritative and more likely to reflect a coaching mode. The article concludes with implications for technical writing courses.

Taylor, Summer Smith. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Education>TC>Engineering

Communicating Bad

Companies place little emphasis on the quality of an engineer's writing. An engineer's writing is usually only for evidence a particular transaction took place, or for proof they did the appropriate research. There is hardly ever any emphasis on the readability or usefulness of the writing. In this article, the author states several reasons for this problem and that development teams must come to understand in order to find a solution.

Brogan, Nate. StickyMinds (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Engineering

Communication and Women in Engineering

Women can be either encouraged or discouraged to take on the role of engineer through communication. Encouraging women to take on the role of engineer is imperative because of the lack of women currently in engineering.

Brown, Sarah. Orange Journal, The (2005). Articles>Workplace>Engineering>Gender

Communication Reference Books for Engineers and Scientists

Over the past years, many reference books have been published for various science and engineering disciplines. Based on publishers’ descriptions, I selected four for review.

Kaempf, Charlotte. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Resources>Bibliographies>Scientific Communication>Engineering

A Consideration of the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident as Apologia

The Rogers report seems to be more than just a report to explain the Challenger accident and give suggestions to avoid a similar tragedy occurring in the future. In a sense, it appears to be a type of apologia. On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger, mission 51-L, launched from Florida's Kennedy Air force Base at 11:38 a.m. Eastern Stand ard Time. As the country watched in disbelief, the shuttle disintegrated 73 seconds later in an explosion of hydrogen and oxygen. All seven crew members died. On February 3, President Reagan issued an executive order to set up a commission to investigate the challenger accident. The commission was sworn in on February 6, and presented its report to the president on June 6 of the same year. This report, commonly known as the Rogers Report, after its chairman William R. Roger, had a dual mandate from the president. First to look at the probable causes of the accident, and second, to develop recommendations for corrective action. This was done through a comprehensive investigation involving all of the following: interviews with more than 160 people, more than 35 formal panel investigations, examination of more than 6,300 documents (which included hundreds of photographs and more then 122,000 pages), the generation of almost 12,000 pages of transcript and another 2,800 pages of hearing transcripts.

Holombo, Chrystal. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>Technology>Risk Communication>Engineering

Consortium for the Study of Engineering Communication

The Consortium for the Study of Engineering Communication consists of individual engineering communication scholars from six professional organizations and ten universities who are interested in research relating to the Acreditation Board for Engineering and Technology's Engineering Criteria 2000, expecially EC3(g): 'the ability to communicate effectively.' They are working together on research and development projects to identify best communication practices of successful engineers in industry and ways of assessing students' communication performances. Collaboration with others concerned with engineering communication and assessment is welcome. Please see the list of members or the list of organizations represented for further information or contact us.

Rice University. Organizations>Education>Engineering>Technical Writing

Creating Communication Modules for an Engineering Enterprise Initiative: Programmatic and Rhetorical Considerations  

Our discussion will consider the ways in which we conceptualized an engineering enterprise initiative’s 'communication component,' alternate ways in which it could be conceptualized, and our efforts to maintain pedagogical and programmatic integrity while addressing the very practical needs of this ABET-driven curricula change. We feel that these questions must be addressed if we are to truly participate in a 'systemic change' in engineering education and its integral communication challenges.

Aller, Betsy and M. Sean Clancey. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Assessment>Engineering

Developing Web Sites For Web Based Expert Systems: A Web Engineering Approach  

This paper presents a developing process for Web based expert systems and specifically focuses on the developing process of their corresponding Web sites. As a case study, the architecture of a Web site/application, which includes the Landfill Operation Management Advisor (LOMA) expert system, will be presented. The Web site/application is available at http://loma.civil.duth.gr since November 2002. Based on the gained experience, useful tips will be given on the construction of such Web sites/applications. Moreover, some explanations will be recorded supporting the assertion that Web based expeconsidered as a category of Web engineering applications.

Dokas, Ioannis M. LOMA. Articles>Web Design>Engineering

Dilbert

Dilbert, sometimes referred to as a 'patron saint of technical communicators,' represents a sort of workplace humor that often illuminates TC experiences. This website shows the past month's worth of episodes from the daily syndicated cartoon.

Adams, Scott. United Feature Syndicate. Humor>Workplace>Engineering

Educating Engineers to Communicate in the 21st Century: University of California, Santa Barbara's First Year Engineering Communication Sequence  

The Engineering Writing sequence at the University of California, Santa Barbara, teaches fundamental college writing and research skills emphasizing the discourse and genres common to professional engineering. The first quarter emphasizes library, electronic-database, and literature-type searches, culminating in a literature review on a current technological topic. The second quarter integrates primary research and interviewing with the above, while the students design solutions to actual university building and plant resource problems. The third quarter involves advanced issues of document design and publication, as students post web sites not only pertinent to this year's theme, Engineering and the Environment, but also useful to the local community.

Yatchisin, George, LeeAnne Kryder, Marty Williams and Mark Kerr. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Education>Writing>Engineering

The Electronic Journal of Information Technology in Construction  

Founded in 1995, the Electronic Journal of Information Technology in construction is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal on the use of IT in construction. Articles are submitted and published electronically. Biannually, limited number of copies is printed as well. The Journal is committed to minimising publication delays, and to promoting maximum flexibility in the ways that readers use the journal for teaching, research, and scholarship. Readers' license is limited only as required to insure fair attribution to authors and the journal, and to prohibit use in a competing commercial publication

ITcon (1996). Journals>Technology>Engineering

Embracing Digital Media in Engineering  

New models for program development in technical and scientific communication are imperative. Demand for communicative expertise continues to expand rapidly yet traditional approaches for supporting student competence fall far short of expectations.

Atkinson, Dianne. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Engineering

The Engineer As Document Designer: The New World Order  

The traditional technical publications world in engineering companies has been turned upside down with the advent of personal computers on every engineer’s desk. Engineers are now their own “tech pubs” and rarely call on technical writers and editors for assistance. This new environment is described and it’s implications for both engineers and technical publications personnel are explored. Engineering writing at the University of California at Santa Barbara is described and suggestions are made for a similar education—albeit less formal—for technical writers and editors.

Marsh, C. Hugh. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Engineering

Engineering Communication Centre

Language Across the Curriculum in Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto helps students to communicate in writing and orally.

University of Toronto (1999). Reference>Style Guides>Engineering>Technical Writing

Engineering Communication Resources

A list-in-progress assembled by Jeff Jablonski @ UNLV with help from others.

Jablonski, Jeffrey. UNLV. Resources>Directories>Communication>Engineering

Engineering Communicator's Manual

This manual is intended to be used by any engineering student (undergraduate or graduate) who has to complete writing assignments or oral presentations for any course. You will find information on general principles of grammar and style, as well as specific examples of technical writing and presenting. If your communication assignment is for an engineering class, you will want to pay particular attention to the sample documents.

Hart, Hillary. University of Texas. Reference>Style Guides>Engineering

Engineering for the Disabled: Using RFPs and Producing Design Proposals for the Needs of the Physically Challenged  

By engaging the rhetorical and technical challenges of formal requests for proposals (RFPs), observation reports, and group work plans, first-year engineering students at UC Santa Barbara demonstrate that they are able to emulate the design strategies employed by professional engineers in the production of design proposals. Because the RFPs called for products that aided the disabled, the students also became practiced in the research and questioning skills that engineers need to employ when they are designing products for a population of consumers with special needs

Applen, J.D. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Grants>Proposals>Engineering

Engineering Terms in Plain English

Twenty terms from engineering writiting translated into the vernacular.

PlainLanguage.gov (2004). Humor>Writing>Engineering>Minimalism

Engineers at Work Developing Communication Skills for Professional Practice  

The reviews of engineering education carried out in the USA, Canada and Australia have highlighted the importance of developing the communication skills of engineering students. An innovative curriculum has been developed at the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) to prepare students for effective professional practice. The program has drawn on developments in writing studies and research into workplace practice. A core subject in Engineering Communication acts as a ‘hub’ for a Communication System which extends the development of communication abilities to staff, practitioners and self-directed learners.

McGregor, Helen. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Engineering