A Guide to Writing as an Engineer

I was required to buy this book for my Technical Writing class but I was pleasantly surprised at how useful it was. I scored higher grades on the technical papers I wrote for my engineering classes because I learned the proper format and styles that you need to focus on. The little things...

Everything went smoothly and without any hitches. There was no contact which is exactly how its supposed to be.

Any engineering student, or even current engineers, should invest the money to own a copy of this book. It has a concise list of the proper ways to format reports, papers, publications, articles, etc, as well as rules for the correct way to reference sources, edit bibliographies, and include tables, figures diagrams. Basically a one stop source for any engineering documentation guidelines. Definitely a work of genius!

This book is exactly a guide to the types of writing engineers have to do, put in terms engineers understand. The authors present analogies that help engineers understand "soft" topics like revising for clarity. For example, they describe poor writing as having a lot of "noise" in the "signal", and then describe specific strategies for reducing noise.They describe most of the common types of documents that engineers write, such as reports, specifications, proposals, and even business letters and email messages. They describe the format and typical contents for each type of document, while also noting what *not* to worry about. For example "Don't get hung up on the names of reports. Sorry, there is no ANSI standards committee on the proper names, contents, and formats of reports."This is an excellent book for any engineer who has to write on the job, which is to say, any engineer.

Traditionally, technical writing is the least favored topic for engineers. This nice, concise book is a great guide for those of us who have a hard time remembering the rules and understanding how to communicate effectively.