Teaching technical writing to engineers? (take II)

Subject: Teaching technical writing to engineers? (take II)
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 2004 10:17:37 -0500


Eric Dunn, responding to my irreverent anecdote comparing teaching engineers to write to teaching pigs to sing ("It only frustrates you and annoys the pig."), wondered: <<Not sure if I should take offence. ;)>>

Oh, not you, Eric. You're a _good_ engineer. <gdrlh> But note to those who see only the quoted part of my original message but not the full context: I was being explicitly irreverent. As a scan of the archives will reveal, I've often noted that engineers are just like writers in one important way: some of them can be taught to write, and others can't.

Eric continued: <<Actually, I'm a graduate of the engineering program at Concordia University in Montreal. Every engineering student had to take a one semester technical writing course... You might want to check the program at Concordia for ideas and materials.>>

For that matter, try a Web search; many (most?) engineering schools have similar course requirements, so I'll bet you there are curricula freely available on the Web. A Google search on "engineering technical writing curriculum" turned up half a million hits. I'm sure you could narrow that down quickly enough by a more judicious choice of keywords. The first page of hits alone provides several promising leads.

--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

ROBOHELP X5 - ALL NEW VERSION. Now with Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more!
Now is the best time to buy - special end of month promos, including:
$100 mail-in rebate; Free online orientation on content management
functionality; Huge savings on support and future product releases;
PLUS Great discounts on RoboHelp training. OFFER EXPIRES March 31! Call 1-800-358-9370 or visit: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



References:
Re: Teaching technical writing to engineers?: From: eric . dunn

Previous by Author: Teaching technical writing to engineers?
Next by Author: Instructor guides?
Previous by Thread: Re: Teaching technical writing to engineers?
Next by Thread: Re: Teaching technical writing to engineers?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads