Technical Writing
The Introduction to Technical Writing, HCDE 231, is one of the only writing requirements for Mechanical Engineering, and is the bane of many engineering students, who never like to write anything at all.
I thought that technical writing would be incredibly boring. I pictured dense manuals and directions that no one ever reads, and was certain that this class would require us to write in complicated, technical formats that no one could understand. However, I was completely mistaken. The goal of the class was to communicate technical information to a non-technical audience, which I have always thought was an important skill. The TA who taught the class was a graduate student named Leo Ham, and he really made the class enjoyable with his enthusiasm for the subject. In his opinion, manuals were only boring because they were poorly written, and all forms of communication should be fun to read and easy to understand. I couldn't agree more, and it changed my perspective on technical writing.
I'm in the minority here, but in my opinion, it's a great requirement. It's very important that our engineers have sufficient communication skills before the enter industry, and it will benefit them greatly if they do. I think that my experience in Honors has given me an advantage over other engineers in this sense, because I've had to take many more communication type classes.
Below I have included two documents I wrote for this class. The first is a memo, and the second is the final group report.
I thought that technical writing would be incredibly boring. I pictured dense manuals and directions that no one ever reads, and was certain that this class would require us to write in complicated, technical formats that no one could understand. However, I was completely mistaken. The goal of the class was to communicate technical information to a non-technical audience, which I have always thought was an important skill. The TA who taught the class was a graduate student named Leo Ham, and he really made the class enjoyable with his enthusiasm for the subject. In his opinion, manuals were only boring because they were poorly written, and all forms of communication should be fun to read and easy to understand. I couldn't agree more, and it changed my perspective on technical writing.
I'm in the minority here, but in my opinion, it's a great requirement. It's very important that our engineers have sufficient communication skills before the enter industry, and it will benefit them greatly if they do. I think that my experience in Honors has given me an advantage over other engineers in this sense, because I've had to take many more communication type classes.
Below I have included two documents I wrote for this class. The first is a memo, and the second is the final group report.