GE 121 – Engineering Design Engineering Design GE121 Reporting the Outcome Lecture 7A

GE 121 – Engineering Design Quizzes  Quiz 1 will be next lecture class (Thursday January 27 th 2009)  Chapter 1  Multiple Choice, with clickers  Be sure to bring your clicker! No hand written answers accepted!

GE 121 – Engineering Design Reporting the Outcome  Presentation of Techniques for Reporting the Results of the design process  Some types of reporting:  Final Reports  Presentations  Design Drawings

GE 121 – Engineering Design General Guidelines Technical Communication  Basic Elements of Effective Communication  Know your purpose – Design documentation examples Seeks to inform client about features and design elements of selected design May be trying to persuade client of best alternative May wish to report how design works, to users  Know your audience What is the technical level of the target audience? What is their interest in the design being presented? May prepare multiple documents – Technical / Management

GE 121 – Engineering Design General Guidelines Technical Communication (continued)  Choose and organize content around your purpose and audience Sometimes reporting the design process is important, other times, only the result is important Organizational Patterns (some options) –General Overviews  Specific Details –Specific Details  General Overviews –Chronological (not recommended) –Describing Devices or Systems Develop a unified, coherent document - avoid repetition

GE 121 – Engineering Design General Guidelines Technical Communication (continued)  Write precisely and clearly Effective use of: –Short paragraphs that focus on a single thesis or topic –Short, direct sentences that contain a subject and verb, and allow the reader to clearly understand what is being said Opinions should be clearly identified as such

GE 121 – Engineering Design General Guidelines Technical Communication (continued)  Design your pages well Utilize your Media wisely –Use Headings to support / extend structure of report (a long section divided into subsections helps sustain readers) –Select Fonts to highlight key elements or to indicate different types of information –White space helps keep readers alert Careful planning of support materials (slides / transparencies) –Font size and choice  enhance readability –White space helps – try to limit words

GE 121 – Engineering Design General Guidelines Technical Communication (continued) TThink visually Audiences are helped by judicious use of visual representation of information –D–Design Tools that we have used in class –D–Detailed Drawings –A–Assembly Drawings Tools readily available in most software – no excuse! Be careful not to cloud your slides / report with distracting backgrounds or images

GE 121 – Engineering Design General Guidelines Technical Communication (continued)  Write ethically! Present facts fully and accurately Don’t present only favorable results / test outcomes Give full credit to authors or researchers whose work you use

GE 121 – Engineering Design The Project Report: Writing for the Client, Not for History  Communicate with the Client in terms that ensure the client’s thoughtful acceptance of team’s design choices  Clear representation of the Design Problem Analysis of the needs to be met Alternatives considered Bases on which decisions were made Decisions that were taken  Clear, understandable language  Highly detailed or technical materials in appendices

GE 121 – Engineering Design Project Report (continued)  Best managed and controlled with a structured approach  Structure of the Report is not intended to displace initiative or creativity. One example:  Determine purpose and audience  Construct rough outline of overall structure  Review outline with Team / Team Manager  Construct Topic Sentence Outline / review with team  Distribute individual writing assignments, then assemble, write and edit initial draft  Solicit initial reviews from Managers/Advisors  Revise/rewrite initial draft in response to reviews  Prepare final version of report and present to client

GE 121 – Engineering Design Purpose of / Audience for Final Report  Final Report may be read by a much wider audience than simply the Client’s liaison  Other readers may have different level of technical knowledge  Client liaison may be able to help guide  Must understand what recipients will do with report  May have wanted to see many alternatives  May want to see only a single one that works  May have multiple audiences  Can start with general descriptions, then increase technical level in subsections or appendices

GE 121 – Engineering Design Rough Outline: Structuring the Final Report  Reports must be planned!  First step is building a good rough outline  Identify major sections  Major sections have been identified for our class project reports

GE 121 – Engineering Design Rough Outline: Structuring the Final Report (cont’d)  Typically, some of these sections are:  Abstract  Executive Summary  Introduction and Overview  Analysis of the Problem including relevant prior work or research  Design Alternatives considered  Evaluation of Design Alternatives and basis for Design Selection  Results of the Alternatives Analysis and Design Selection  [Detailed Design]  [Acceptance Tests]  Supporting Materials – Often in Appendices

GE 121 – Engineering Design Rough Outline: Structuring the Final Report (cont’d)  Supporting Materials / Appendices (cont’d) Drawings and Details Fabrication Specifications Supporting Calculations or Modeling Results Other materials that the Client may want  Each Section:  Should be clear / coherent / stand by itself  Should tell a complete story of some aspect of the project, and its results  Important to have an idea where you’re going, and organize / assemble it along the way! Fewer last minute details for report

GE 121 – Engineering Design Topic Sentence Outline: Every Entry Represents a Paragraph  Every single paragraph should have a topic sentence that indicates paragraph’s intent or thesis  Topic Sentence Outline (TSO) is very useful to identify and detail the themes or topics within each section of the report  Helps identify any issues that may not be addressed  Helps prevent duplication  Forces Team to agree on topics to be covered  Makes it easier for someone to take over / finish if someone else is unable  Makes life easier for editor to ensure ‘one voice’

GE 121 – Engineering Design First Draft: Turning Several Voices Into One  The larger the writing team, the greater the need for an authoritative editor  Editor’s Responsibility to ensure:  Continuity Logical Sequence, Follows Topic Sentence Outline  Consistency Common terminology, abbreviations, acronyms, notation, units – discrepancies noted and explained  Accuracy Technical work done and reported to professional standards  Completeness All topics in the TSO have been covered All references have been included All appendix material has been included  Speaks in a Single Voice Has to sound like it was written by a single person Formal and impersonal

GE 121 – Engineering Design Activity  Write a topic sentence outline for your midterm report  You may want to start with a brief team meeting to update progress made since the last team meeting  The topic sentences should be worded to make clear how Section 2 is different than Section 1.  Each team member can be responsible for topic sentences for the portion of work that they have completed to date.