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Helps both engineers and students improve their writing skills by learning to analyze target audience, tone, and purpose in order to effectively write technical documents
This book introduces students and practicing engineers to all the components of writing in the workplace. It teaches readers how considerations of audience and purpose govern the structure of their documents within particular work settings. The IEEE Guide to Writing in the Engineering and Technical Fields is broken up into two sections: “Writing in Engineering Organizations” and “What Can You Do With Writing?” The first section helps readers approach their writing in a logical and persuasive way as well as analyze their purpose for writing. The second section demonstrates how to distinguish rhetorical situations and the generic forms to inform, train, persuade, and collaborate.
The emergence of the global workplace has brought with it an increasingly important role for effective technical communication. Engineers more often need to work in cross-functional teams with people in different disciplines, in different countries, and in different parts of the world. Engineers must know how to communicate in a rapidly evolving global environment, as both practitioners of global English and developers of technical documents. Effective communication is critical in these settings.
The IEEE Guide to Writing in the Engineering and Technical Fields
The IEEE Guide to Engineering Communication is a handbook developed specifically for engineers and engineering students. Using an argumentation framework, the handbook presents information about forms of engineering communication in a clear and accessible format. This book introduces both forms that are characteristic of the engineering workplace and principles of logic and rhetoric that underlie these forms. As a result, students and practicing engineers can improve their writing in any situation they encounter, because they can use these principles to analyze audience, purpose, tone, and form.
David Kmiec, PhD is a Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Undergraduate Technical Writing in the Department of Humanities at New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA. He also consults for government agencies and manufacturing and engineering services firms, helping them establish knowledge of management practices and effective workflows for digital and print publications.
Bernadette Longo, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA. She won the Emily K. Schlesinger Award for outstanding service to the IEEE Professional Communication Society in 2014.
A Note from the Series Editor, ix
About the Authors, xi
PART I A TECHNIQUE FOR WRITING LIKE A PROFESSIONAL 1
Introduction, 3
1 The Social Situation of Text 7
The Social Contexts for Technical Writing, 8
Models of the Writing Environment, 9
Transmission Models, 10
Correctness Models, 11
Cognitive/Behavioral Models, 13
Social/Rhetorical Models, 14
This Guide's Approach, 16
The Rhetorical Situation: Purpose, 18
The Rhetorical Situation: Audience, 21
The Rhetorical Situation: Identity, 26
The Rhetorical Situation: Context, 28
The Pragmatic Situation: Community and Genre, 29
2 Making Writing Decisions 33
Introduction, 34
Document Structure and Granularity, 35
Arranging Text at the Macro Level, 37
Sectioning and Heading Sections, 39
Aids for Navigating and Understanding Document Structure, 43
Creating Effects with Lexis and Syntax at the Micro Level, 45
Lexical Technique: Word Choice, Technical Terms, and Hedges and Boosters, 47
Syntactic Technique: Modification, Clausal Arrangement, and Discursive Cueing, 53
Intermediate Structural Units and Argumentative Movement, 68
Paragraph Cohesion and Paragraphs as Structural Units of a Document, 69
Structures Other than Paragraphs, 72
Citations and Other Intertextual Statements, 73
Implications for the Process of Writing, 75
Additional Reading, 77
PART 2 WRITING DOCUMENTS 79
Introduction 81
3 Writing to Know: Informative Documents 85
Introduction, 86
The Purposes of Informative Documents, 86
Occasions for Preparing an Informative Document, 88
Audiences for an Informative Document, 88
Key Communication Strategies When Writing to Know, 90
Understanding What Constitutes Sufficient Evidence to Support a Claim, 90
Structuring Evidence in Your Document, 91
Establishing Expertise, 92
Questions for Analyzing Existing Documents, 93
Some Typical Informative Documents, 93
Reports, 93
Specifications, 104
4 Writing to Enable: Instructions and Guidance 109
Introduction, 110
The Purposes of Enabling Documents, 110
Occasions for Preparing an Enabling Document, 112
Audiences for an Enabling Document, 112
Key Communication Strategies When Writing to Enable, 113
Anticipating a Document's Use Context, 113
Deciding How Much Background Is Warranted, 115
Testing the Document with Users, 116
Questions for Analyzing Existing Documents, 119
Characteristic Enabling Documents, 119
Manuals/Guides and Other Documents That Primarily Contain Instructions/Directions/Procedures, 119
Tutorials/Training Materials, 128
Policies, 130
5 Writing to Convince: Persuasive Documents 133
Introduction, 134
The Purposes of Persuasive Documents, 134
Occasions for Preparing a Persuasive Document, 135
Audiences for the Persuasive Document, 136
Key Communication Strategies When Writing to Convince, 137
Designing Your Argument to Consider the Audience's Preexisting Beliefs, 137
Using the Terms and Values of the Audience to Articulate a Shared Goal, 140
Assuring Outcomes and Benefits without Seeming Unrealistic, 142
Questions for Analyzing Existing Documents, 143
Typical Examples of Persuasive Documents, 145
Proposals, 145
Business Plans, 149
6 Correspondence: Medium of Workplace Collaboration 155
Introduction, 156
The Purposes of Correspondence, 157
Occasions for Preparing Correspondence, 158
Audiences for Correspondence, 158
Key Communication Strategies When Corresponding, 160
Consider Workplace Roles and Official and Unofficial Relationships and Responsibilities, 160
Evaluate Target Size and Frequency of Communication for a Relationship, 162
Pause to Reconsider Composition, Time, and Tone before Sending, 163
Characteristics of Correspondence Documents, 165
Letters, Memoranda, and E-mails, 165
Types of Correspondence, 167
Pre- and Post-meeting Documents: Announcements, Agendas, and Minutes, 170
Social Media, 171
Appendix: IEEE Style for References, 173
Index, 183
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