Engineering Communication From Principles to Practice

by Irish, Robert; Weiss, Peter Eliot

• ISBN13: 9780195424881
• ISBN10: 0195424883
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-05-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Expertly designed to address the specific needs of engineering students, Engineering Communication teaches them how to write and communicate effectively and professionally. It provides an understanding of how rhetorical and linguistic concepts can help solve everyday problems in writing and speaking in the workplace. In addition to the standard skill of grammatical writing, the book teaches students how to write with precision and objectivity as well as how to assess and adjust for specific audiences. Theory and practice are bridged through a series of principles (rather than steadfast rules) intended to help students examine, question, and refine their communication skills. Features * Smart organization. Content is separated into a series of easy-to-follow principles (19 in total) which together help students improve their overall writing and communication skills in a step-by-step fashion. * Practical. Students are taught transferable skills rather than simply being given templates to copy, giving them a workable and versatile knowledge of grammatical, effective writing. * Real-world strategies. Real documents prepared by professional engineers; for example, a full-text project report on the failure of a crane at an aluminium plant is thoroughly analyzed. This model, as well as samples of work from engineering students, is provided to help students gain an understanding of how to apply successful communication strategies in the workplace. * Helpful learning tools. The appendix includes guides to grammar basics such as sentence structure, clauses, and conjunctions, giving students a solid grounding in the basics of writing before they progress through more complex examples. * Written for engineers. The text is written by experts in engineering communication to address the specific communication requirements of engineering students and professionals. * Grammar guide. An accessible grammar guide has been included at the end of the book for quick reference.

Author Biography

Robert Irish has been the director of the Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) program in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at University of Toronto since the program began in 1995. He has taught writing to graduate and undergraduate students in engineering and architecture for ten years. Peter Eliot Weiss is the associate director of LAC. In addition to working in a wide range of courses as a communication resource person, he leads oral communication workshops and teaches a section of the program's 'Written and Oral Communications' course.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. v
Introduction	p. 1
Getting Started: Pre-drafting and Drafting	p. 15
Purpose, Genre, and Audience	p. 17
Finding Purpose	p. 18
Improvising Genre	p. 24
Constructing Audience	p. 46
Strategies for Invention	p. 55
Developing a Credible Argument	p. 56
Using Rhetorical Tools Consciously	p. 68
Building Effective Introductions	p. 83
Modes of Control: Tools for Revision	p. 91
Directing the Advance	p. 93
Framing Knowledge	p. 94
Building Visible Structure	p. 101
Directing the Reader Rhetorically	p. 106
Making Transitions	p. 110
Creating Clarity and Cohesion	p. 126
Designing Paragraphs	p. 127
Moving from Known to New	p. 142
Modifying Matters	p. 149
Elements of Refined Design	p. 165
Generating Flow	p. 167
Elevating Verbs	p. 168
Positioning the Verb	p. 174
Finding the Real Subject	p. 176
Capitalizing on the Power Position	p. 183
Engineering Elegance	p. 185
Determining Sentence Length	p. 186
Mastering Sentence Rhythm	p. 194
Applications	p. 205
Applying the Principles to Visual Communication	p. 207
Applying the Principles to Written Communication	p. 225
Applying the Principles to Oral Communication	p. 243
Conclusion From Principles to Practice	p. 284
Appendices	p. 293
Core Sentence Components: Clauses	p. 294
Sentence Types	p. 299
Action Elements: Verbs and Verbals	p. 308
Optional Sentence Elements: Modifiers	p. 316
Joiners	p. 323
Punctuation	p. 327
Fallacies	p. 332
References	p. 338
Index	p. 342
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