MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication 2ed - J Paradis (MIT 2002) Episode 1 pptx

[...]... all that clear Remember that writing is itself a decision-making process Don’t put off writing until you’ve achieved some mythical level of certainty Writing and Work 13 Writing and the Work of Science and Engineering The work of science and engineering is recorded and disseminated in a variety of communication forms, both written and oral Strong communication skills are crucial requirements for success... stringing words together into sentences and sentences into paragraphs Beginning to write without a concrete sense of the shape of the entire document can lead to false starts, confusing introductions, inappropriate content, wordiness, and incoherent organization 12 Writing and Work Create an outline of the proposed project and translate that outline into a table of contents that lists sections and subsections... not be able to identify the source of the problem Inhibitors of writing are often strongly related to writing conditions such as insufficient time and constant interruptions For many R&D writers, problems may be the result of inadequate recording and archiving strategy, confusion over the task required, or reluctance to submit draft work to supervisors and managers You may Writing and Work 11 simply not... Writing and the Work of Science and Engineering o Consider this situation A research group carries on an informal discussion with colleagues and management Through the discussion, the group develops an initial concept for a new coal atomization process This concept is presented in an in-house proposal to local management and then as a detailed proposal to a government sponsor The project is funded, and. .. to sharing the results of science and engineering that writing often becomes a large part of any job As engineers and scientists move up the organizational ladder, to supervisor and then to manager, they spend more and more time on communication tasks, reviewing and editing the writing of their subordinates as they assume responsibility for meeting group objectives and deadlines Independent consultants... Numerous writing and information-gathering activities take place while research is carried out, and these activities, in turn, furnish the basis of all project-related writing Consider a research project in which a physicist, physician, and medical technologist conduct a five-month series of experiments to study the pattern and extent of lithium distribution in sections of human brain The investigators collect... of learning sometimes leads the novice to underrate the importance of writing in the professional world Workplace writing, on the other hand, Writing and Work 5 Figure 1. 1 Three kinds of review cycles: (a) student to instructor, (b) employee to management, (c) writer to editor by way of expert referees Student writing generally has no audience beyond the instructor; after supervisory review, workplace... data reduction and rough graphs, notes on error analysis and sensitivity ranges for the experiment, and case histories of deceased patients who had undergone lithium treatment Funded by a national health foundation, they are expected to prepare a report and to publish two or three papers on their findings in refereed journals read by clinicians and health researchers Like most research projects, this one... recording, and archiving is a way of anticipating the written and oral presentations that will inevitably follow The ability to get to the various sources of information is essential to solving problems Your design for arranging and storing material will save hours later and may well save you from having to reconstruct events from an incomplete or vague record Here are some suggestions: 8 Writing and Work... the statement of experimental objective and the linkage of time and action (Courtesy of Professor Thomas F Weiss, MIT. ) 10 Writing and Work You may be liable if you fail to maintain files of calculations, sources and grades of materials, design changes, or any essential phase of your work You may also record experimental data and notes in digital files, but, unlike laboratory notebooks, these may not be . w0 h1" alt="" The MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication second edition This page intentionally left blank The MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication second edition James. Electronic Mail 13 7 11 Proposals 15 1 12 Progress Reports 18 3 13 Reports 19 3 14 Journal Articles 219 15 Oral Presentations 237 16 Instructions, Procedures, and Computer Documentation 255 17 Electronic. America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paradis, James G., 19 42– The MIT guide to science and engineering communication /James G. Paradis and Muriel L. Zimmerman. — 2nd ed. p.