Technical Communication

Oral and Written Communication in Design

Ken McIsaac

October 6, 2007

Today’s Lecture:

o Communicationo Oral Presentationso Written Communication

Technical Communication

From Course Outline:5. Technical communication.

a. Prepare and deliver effective oral presentations.

b. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

c. Prepare effective and properly formatted technical reports.

Goals of Technical Communicationso Convey information accurately and concisely:

• Proposals and Business Plans• Design Reports• Progress Reports• Design Briefs• Research Reports/Thesis• Projections• Specifications• Contracts• Resumes

Oral Presentations in Engineering

The bad news:

You will have to do some

The good news:

You have something to say

You are the expert

You have an interested audience

The good news:

Tips on structuring slides Use an outline to tell your audience what is

coming

Use graphics, as much as possible

Try to limit the amount of information on one slide

• Ideally, your graphics should mean something

Tips on structuring slides (cont.)

Use an introductory slide to motivate the audience

Have your audience in mind when making up slides – Who are they? What do they know? Why are they listening?

Use a concluding slide to sum up the contribution. Don’t make them guess at what you accomplished.

Some tips to consider

Don’t read! Talk to the audience!

• Don’t use distracting animations

• Come prepared: your talk should feed practiced and comfortable

• Proofread! Mistakes like that are distracting and embarrassing

Written Communication

Email Design Reports Organization Editing and Style

Some notes on email

o Do not use text message shorthand:- NOT GOOD: Can u hlp plz?

o Use a proper salutation:- GOOD: Dear Professor Smith- NOT GOOD: Yo!

o Remember, in general honey catches more flies than vinegar:- GOOD: Can you tell me where… - NOT GOOD: WHERE IS …

Goals of a Design Report

o Objectives of design o Criteria/constraints used to select

alternativeso Description of design alternativeso Justification for selection of alternativeo Sketches of final designo Innovationso Description of working prototype

Three Steps in Report Writingo I. Content generation

• Purpose, brainstorming, research

o II. Organization

• Outline based on purpose, audience

o III. Revision

• Editing for flow, spelling, grammar, punctuation

• Formatting to maximize visual impact

The Writing Process Parallels The Design Process

Design:

• Recognizing a problem or need

• Gathering information, defining problem

• Generating alternative solutions

Writing:

• Establishing purpose

• Background research and brainstorm to focus on goals

• Generating an outline

The Writing Process Parallels The Design Process

Design:

• Evaluating benefits and costs

• Decision-making and optimization

• Implementing best solution

Writing:

• Revision and editing

• Review of drafts by others, revision

• Prepare final document to maximize impact

Content Generation

o Define problem

o Search for pertinent information

• Published Literature, including Internet

• Fundamentals of Engineering

• Interviews

Content Generation

o Be focused

o Solve problem

o Write and demonstrate to others that you have solved problem

Organization

o Define/Understand the Audience• Who will read the report?• How familiar is the reader with topic?• What is the level of technical expertise?• Why would the reader be interested?

Different Kinds of Writing

breadth of knowledge

dep

th o

f kn

ow

led

ge

Preferred forgeneral audience

Different Kinds of Writing

breadth of knowledge

dep

th o

f kn

ow

led

ge

Preferred forsophisticated readers

Preferred forgeneral audience

Organization: Using an Outline

Outline: a planning tool

1. Introduction

2. Major Topic No. 1

3. Major Topic No. 2

4. Major Topic No. 3

5. Summary

Organization: Using an Outline

Outline: a planning tool

1. Introduction

2. Major Topic No. 1

3. Major Topic No. 2

4. Major Topic No. 3

5. Summary

pointform

“living” document

Why an Introduction?

Train the Reader:

o Background of topic

o Purpose (clearly state objectives)

o State major topics (and their interrelation)

o Outline (where to find what)

What is in Each Major Topic?Outline again:

o Subtopic A

• details

• more details

o Subtopic B

• details

• more details

Paragraphso One idea = one paragraph

o Systematic development of idea• Lead-in sentence (optional)• Topic sentence• Develop details pertaining to topic

o Not too long (if possible). Vary length.

o Points in detailed outline are paragraphs

What is in Each Major Topic?Outline again:

o Subtopic A

• details

• more details

o Subtopic B

• details

• more details

use figures and tables as guide for development

Figures / Tables

o Each figure or table should follow first reference to it in text. Makes for good reading.

o Put non-essential data in tables in the Appendix.

o Always reference the source for the table or figure if you got this from somewhere else.

Summary

o Summarize important points/findings and importance

o Conclusions (optional)

o Recommendations (optional)

Summary

o Summarize important points/findings and importance

o Conclusions (optional)

o Recommendations (optional)

No new material

Style / Mechanicso Formal, not conversational

o No jargon: simple is best (holes or vacuons?)

o Remember your audience

o Remember you are trying to communicate, not impress

o Never say something is “obvious” or “clear”

Useful Tips on Writing

o Choose one voice and verb tense and stick to it. Don’t start with “The experiment was performed” and change to “We find this and that”.

o Don’t use “I”. If you like the first person, be a “We”.

o Don’t use “you”. Call the user “the user” and “him or her”

o In formal writing don’t use contractions, e.g. I’m, You’ve etc.

More Tips

o Write in shorter sentences if possible. They have more impact.

o Connect paragraphs together, otherwise your writing will feel disjointed.

o Give due reference to work of others. Whenever you make a claim, provide a reference if it is not your own work. It should be clear what you did and what you borrowed.

More Tips

o Never begin a sentence with a number or with conjunctions …. If you have to use a number, write the number in words, e.g. Three of the samples were blue.

o Number all equations used and explain all terms utilized immediately following the equation so readers do not have to go to the nomenclature.

And More Tips

o Explain an abbreviation the first time you use it, e.g. Random Access Memory (RAM) is used for volatile storage in computers.

o Do not use the same word many times in the same sentence, paragraph or page, • e.g., the complex nature of the complexity was

puzzling. The problem was complex because of the complex variables used.

And more..

o Use italics for stolen latin et al., in situ, a priori and so on

o This also holds for names of microorganisms e.g., Pseudomonas syringae instead of Pseudomonas syringae.

The Best Reference Strunk and

White “The Elements of Style”

~ 100 pages

cheap in used book stores

The importance of editing (part 1)

A panda walks into a restaurant, has dinner, kills the waiter with a gun and walks out.

From the dictionary:

Panda (n): • A black and white mammal, related to the

raccoon. • Lives in the forests of China.

• Eats, shoots and leaves

The importance of editing (part 2)

In the early days of printing, a set of bibles were printed with the following commandment:

Thou shalt commit adultery

Improve Style by Editing

o Editing written work is essential

o Objective is to improve clarity and conciseness

o Learn to be critical of your own work

o Importance/value is independent of work done to create

Proofreading

o Essential — errors reflect badly on the author

o Preferably by others — especially “non-technical” others

o Look for:• spelling errors• poor paragraphs• leaps in logic/turbulent flow

Do-It-Yourself

o Proofread well after you have written it when:

• you have forgotten what you were trying to say

• you have forgotten how much time you spent preparing it

Afterthought

o Unfortunately, humour and hyperbole have no place in technical writing.

o It is also best to avoid colloquialisms (“The new idea helped us a whole bunch”)

(Save them for the oral presentation)

Academic Integrity

o Plagiarism is an academic offense!

o Paraphrasing (without citation) is plagiarism

o Cite references

o If a thought is not your own, state where it came from

o Good reference citations add to the credibility of written work

Citing resources

o References• Use one consistent style• Check with your instructor on what is required,

e.g.• APA style (at library reference desk)• ASCE

http://pubs.asce.org/authors/book/generalresources/references.htm#referencesquickguide

• IEEEhttp://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_iportals/iportals/publications/authors/transjnl/stylemanual.pdf

The CV project is your first chance to hone your writing skillso Use an outline to organize your report

o Generate content from various sources

o Revise by editing

o Look at it as a learning opportunity