Professional engineers write a lot. Professional engineers write a variety of documents. Successful engineering careers require strong writing skills. Strong writing skills can be learned— like any task. Engineers and Writing

Importance of Writing as an Engineer Engineers spend 20 to 40% of their working hours writing. At a salary of $60,000, that’s $24,000 a year for writing. Communicate new or improved design ideas. Communicate effectively with the public.

Writing Problems Historically, only 5% of engineering education focused on writing or communication in general. Noise in the system (outside factors affecting communication)

Communication System Content/Context Message EncoderDecoderChannel Noise possibilities

Communication System: Noise Message EncoderDecoderChannel Content/Context Noise

Sources of Noise Punctuation, grammar, usage errors Wordiness, lack of emphasis Word-choice problems Audience-adaptation problems Failure to achieve document’s purpose