Teaching technical writing to engineers?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Evelyn Barker wondered: <<I'm going to be teaching a technical writing 
class to junior-level university engineering students...>>

Which inevitably reminds me of a Robert Heinlein quote about trying to 
teach a pig to sing. Something like: "It only frustrates you and annoys 
the pig." <g> Okay, more seriously now:

<<... and wondered what the group thought it was important for them to 
learn.>>

The biggest things by far:

1. Your audience is not composed of engineers, so you can't use the 
same language you would use when speaking to your colleagues. Some 
discussion of audience analysis would be appropriate: what words do 
they understand?

2. You are fascinated by features; they aren't. They just want to get 
the job done. Teach them how to do that. Again, tie in audience 
analysis: here, focus on a task analysis.

3. Don't write like an engineer. That's fine if you're writing a 
journal article or engineering specification, but not if you're writing 
to teach people how to do things. Here, discuss different styles (e.g., 
the difference between "distillation stack-mediated gas-exchange 
cold-fusion separation product" and "a product that, using cold fusion 
and a distillation stack, lets you mediate gas exchange" <g>).

4. Discuss real-world issues, like the need to do peer reviews (and the 
great benefits from doing so: it's not just an exercise in masochism) 
and how work with professional technical writers and editors.

5. Include a real-world exercise. I recommend documenting a VCR, since 
(by the evidence) succeeding at this task escapes most real-world 
technical writers. As an exercise, it includes both hardware and 
software, and offers an opportunity to discuss the use of visuals. You 
can also stretch out this exercise over the course of a full term, with 
each component of the exercise tied to the current week's lesson.

Note: Although you can teach them much about "assumptions and how to 
avoid them" with simple exercises such as "documenting the construction 
of a peanut butter sandwich", many techies are enormously offended by 
such seemingly trivial tasks that don't relate clearly to their chosen 
profession. If you use such examples, do so purely as an introduction 
to a more complex task (e.g., the VCR manual), emphasize that you're 
doing it to illustrate a point that they can then apply to a "real" 
example, and emphasize repeatedly that you're only using this exercise 
to lead into a "real" example.

6. Teach them the "blueprint" principle: Nobody builds a house by 
piling a bunch of materials on the ground and starting to lash them 
together. Yet that's precisely how many engineers (particularly 
programmers) do their job. Teach them the principle of "design thrice, 
cut once": plan something with excruciating care, then test your plans 
at least once (twice is better), before you actually start building. 
(Here, an exercise in UI prototyping would help.) Sure, you'll have to 
revise as you encounter obstacles, but at least that revision is much 
less severe than in a typical design process.

<<I'm thinking that I should focus on communicating technical 
information to a technical audience and that I should focus on the nuts 
and bolts of concise writing.>>

I wouldn't necessarily say "technical audience"; though most of your 
students will certainly have to communicate with their peers, most will 
also have to communicate with nontechnical "persons of importance" such 
as their managers, the marketing department, etc. (Think Dilbert!) In 
terms of textbooks, there are many available. If your university 
library stocks back issues of STC's _Technical Communication_, have a 
look at the back issues. They contain many book reviews, and you can 
almost certainly find something that sounds like it meets your needs.

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


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