Practices in Technical Writing in Agriculture and Engineering Industries, Firms, and Agencies

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura E. Casari ◽  
Joyce T. Povlacs
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Geographical Region ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Basic Understanding ◽  
Engineering Firms ◽  
Engineering Industries ◽  
Region Information

This article describes a study of written communication on-the-job and reports writing practices found in seventeen agricultural and engineering firms and agencies in the authors' immediate geographical region. Information was gathered by questionnaire and on-site interviews. Data confirmed the importance of writing on-the-job. Our findings demonstrate the importance of context and reveal the variations in types and length of documents, rhetorical genres, and strategies. The study proved useful for designing instructional materials and strategies and for expanding our basic understanding of what on-the-job writing entails.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT AND INTEGRATION OF TECHNICAL WRITING SKILLS ORIENTED TOWARD ENGINEERS’ NEEDS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Desjardins ◽  
Evelyne Doré ◽  
Raymond Desjardins
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Small Degree ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Capstone Projects

Written communication is among the skills future engineers must develop and master in order to excel in their profession. Employers and the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board also require this skill. Students in all Polytechnique Montréal programs have one course credit in their program devoted to written and oral communication. The training is provided by Polytechnique’s Centre d’études complémentaires (centre for complementary studies) for all programs. Despite the implementation of this process, we noted that civil engineering students had difficulty employing good technical writing practices in their work, such as capstone projects, lab reports and hands-on assignments. The students saw written communication workshops as satellite training and employed their learning only to a small degree in their other courses. The students were essentially stagnating instead of making progress throughout the bachelor’s degree. In response to these issues, a common approach was put into place for the entire civil engineering program as a complement to the trainings provided by the Centre d’études complémentaires. This approach has been a success; student response has been positive and improvement has been observed in the courses where writing is required. The students especially appreciate this when they perform their mandatory internship, because they feel this training makes a difference and helps them distinguish themselves.  

Using Multimedia for Instructor Presence in Purposeful Pedagogy-Driven Online Technical Writing Courses

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52
Author(s):  
Heidi S. Harris ◽  
Michael Greer
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Engaged Learning ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Instructor Presence ◽  
Course Outcomes ◽  
Writing Instructors ◽  
Student Projects

Teaching and composing with multimedia humanizes online technical writing and communication classes. However, students do not always see the connection between multimedia instructional materials, multimedia assignments, and the course learning outcomes. Purposeful pedagogy-driven course design uses multimedia instructional materials to connect assignments, course materials, and assessments with course outcomes. Technical writing instructors can integrate synchronous and asynchronous multimedia elements to address not only the what and why of online technical writing instruction but also the how of multimedia instructional materials. Example multimedia instructional materials and student projects discussed in the article can increase student retention and promote engaged learning.

Redefining Business and Technical Writing by Means of a Six-Factored Communication Model

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohan R. Limaye
Keyword(s):  
Behavior Modification ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Scientific Writing ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Business Writing ◽  
Functional Relationships ◽  
Formal Definitions ◽  
The World ◽  
Factor Function

Roman Jakobson's six-factored model of verbal communication provides the schema to generate formal definitions of business writing and technical writing. It also enables us to apply these definitions to communication in the world of work. The six factors—addresser, addressee, context, message, contact, and code—have six parallel functions—emotive, conative, referential, poetic, phatic, and metalingual. Each of these factor/function pairs is present to some degree in all types of writing, from technical writing to poetry. However, in certain types of written communication a few functions dominate the others. For instance, the referential or informational function is primary in technical and scientific writing. An examination of different binary functional relationships yields distinctions among various types of writing. For example, the inspection of the you versus it relationship yields the most substantive theoretical distinction between persuasive business writing and technical writing. From this single theoretical distinction emerge various practical aspects of communication, such as good will, the “you-attitude,” and the techniques of behavior modification applicable in business writing; and objectivity, clarity, and precision of meaning aimed for in technical writing.

scholarly journals REFLECTING ON WRITTEN COMMUNICATION AS AN EMBEDDED COMPONENT IN UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING CURRICULA

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arun S. Moorthy ◽  
Warren H. Stiver
Keyword(s):  
Stem Education ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
High Level ◽  
Time Demands

Communication in general and technicalwriting in particular have long been seen as importanthigher order skills for all graduating and practicingengineers. Developing technical writing skills in ourstudents requires a high level of student-instructorinteraction. The interaction needs to provide meaningful,embedded and iterative writing opportunities. Feedbackthat is detailed and timely is essential for successotherwise numerous writing experiences can reinforcepoor writing behaviors. Providing this intensity ofinteraction can be difficult in a technically focused andpacked curriculum. It can be difficult in competition withother time demands on students and instructors alike. Inthis paper, we present opinions on the challenges,opportunities, and approaches in providing technicalwriting education and support for undergraduateEngineering students. We focus primarily in theframework of Engineering curricula at Universities inOntario, but ideas discussed also have applications tohigher-level STEM education in general.

scholarly journals Exploring English writing teachers’ self-development through the use of online resources in constrained contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Online Resources ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Writing Teachers ◽  
Verbal Interactions ◽  
College English ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Self Development ◽  
Qualitative Analyses

This study reports on how English writing teachers empowered themselves to connect linguistic knowledge and online resources to develop students renewed understanding of writing beyond the structure level. Through qualitative analyses of one college English teachers reflections, his verbal interactions with students, as well as his students written documents and interviews, the study shows that in the process of self-development, the teacher experienced a diverse array of challenges. Despite this, the teachers self-development through the use of online resources was facilitated by his incorporation of linguistic knowledge, which ultimately helped his students transcend their previous writing practices, and reproduce culturally and linguistically effective written discourses. The study concludes that teachers self-development to facilitate students written communication in constrained contexts is useful, and synergizing online resources and linguistic knowledge is important to overcome challenges encountered in the process of self-development

scholarly journals Initial Validation of a Technical Writing Rubric for Engineering Design

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Cheryl Bodnar ◽  
Jennifer Kadlowec
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Rater Reliability ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Communication Practice ◽  
Additional Tool ◽  
Initial Validation ◽  
Technical Report

Engineering design serves as the capstone experience of most undergraduate engineering programs. One of the key elements of the engineering design process is the compilation of results obtained into a technical report that can be shared and distributed to interested stakeholders including industry, faculty members and other relevant parties. In an effort to expand the tools available for assessment of engineering design technical reports, this study performed an initial validation of a previously developed Technical Writing rubric. The rubric was evaluated for its reliability to measure the intended construct, inter-rater reliability and external validity in comparison to an existing generalized written communication rubric. It was found that the rubric was reliable with Cronbach’s alpha for all dimensions between 0.817 and 0.976. The inter-rater reliability for the overall instrument was also found to be excellent at 0.85. Finally, it was observed that there were no statistically significant differences observed between the measurements obtained on the Technical Writing rubric in comparison to the more generalized Written Communication Value rubric. This demonstrates that although specific to engineering design environments the Technical Writing rubric was able to measure key constructs associated with written communication practice. This rubric can now serve as one additional tool for assessment of communication skills within engineering capstone design experiences.

Training Engineers to Write: Old Assumptions and New Directions

1996 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Schillaci
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Engineering Firms ◽  
Consulting Engineering

Consulting engineering firms that produce reports for clients benefit from having engineers who can write clear, well-organized, grammatically correct descriptions of the work they perform. Despite the obvious value gained through engineers who can write well, universities and the firms themselves do not as a rule train engineers in business technical writing. A typical program a firm can institute to promote writing skills would include developing a house style guide as well as concise examples of writing engineers should emulate and screening and practice exercises. The ability to first organize material in an outline is critical to efficient composition. Engineers with limited English skills can be instructed in building clear, logical lists that can be efficiently converted into narrative form by an editor.

Using Multimedia for Instructor Presence in Purposeful Pedagogy-Driven Online Technical Writing Courses

2020 ◽  
pp. 004728162097836
Author(s):  
Heidi Skurat Harris ◽  
Michael Greer
Keyword(s):  
Course Design ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Engaged Learning ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
Course Materials ◽  
Instructor Presence ◽  
Course Outcomes ◽  
Writing Instructors ◽  
Student Projects

Teaching and composing with multimedia humanizes online technical writing and communication classes. However, students do not always see the connection between multimedia instructional materials, multimedia assignments, and the course learning outcomes. Purposeful pedagogy-driven course design uses multimedia instructional materials to connect assignments, course materials, and assessments with course outcomes. Technical writing instructors can integrate synchronous and asynchronous multimedia elements to address not only the what and why of online technical writing instruction but also the how of multimedia instructional materials. Example multimedia instructional materials and student projects discussed in the article can increase student retention and promote engaged learning.

New Avenues in Teaching Written Communication: The use of a Case Study in Crisis Management

1993 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Barton
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Business Communication ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Case Method ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Organizational Goals ◽  
Goals And Objectives

The case method of teaching is increasingly utilized as a tool for the teaching of business communication and technical writing. In addition to providing students with meaningful exposure to actual companies and written products, the use of cases challenge students to assume one or many various positions within an organization where effective communication with myriad publics is essential in meeting organizational goals and objectives.

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