ENGINEER – The writer

This article by me appeared in two parts earlier – now combined and reshared.

Read – what qualities the Engineer should have and you will generally find “Report writing skill” not mentioned –is it an oversight or is it taken for granted that the Engineer HAS that skill.

The Engineer reading this article can decide it for himself/herself and if by chance he/she finds his /her career is not progressing as fast as that of his/her managerial colleague he/she can sit back and think if report writing skills would have made the difference ??

Most probably yes !! The Engineer should remember the proverb “Writing makes a man perfect”.

The improvement in report writing or for that matter in any communication (eg e - mail , business letters , specification/procedures ) will ultimately make the Engineer a better person easily recognized by management because the base of such (technical)writing is clarity in thinking – it makes things simple for the reader and that is what goes a long way in making you a successful person.

The 5 “C”s which make you a distinct and distinguished writer are:

• Clarity
• Conciseness
• Correctness (adherence to facts)
• Contextual (takes into account current environment)
• Coherence

Try to build above 5 “C”s in your writing and make preparation for the first draft.

Ask the questions –

Who are going to be the readers and What is going to be the structure of my write up – will it be standard format like:

Abstract / Executive summary

 Introduction to subject , Problem statement

Data Collection , Data Analysis ,

Conclusion/Recommendations etc.

Or something different you will have to decide based on your knowledge/understanding of what your reader wants !!

I would like to elaborate more on readers since this will be the key to your communication!!!

• Based on the inputs/recommendation your readers will take implement/reject decision .
• The communication is meant for sharing of information to wider/diverse group.
• The information generated will be stored for long term (outcome of research/specific study)
• The communication will facilitate change proposed in near future.

Based on readership you may decide whether the document shall have:

• Focus on the single idea which needs immediate implementation.
• It touches on many ideas, experiments , literature surveys etc
• The depth to which topic/topics will be elaborated

Once the readership is fixed and strategy decided you can start collecting details and start writing down in the chapters /paragraphs of your communication and come up with the first rough draft.

This draft  rough needs to be checked to see it meets the basic principles of good communication. The writer needs to critically check the draft on following points:

• Check if the draft is using present tense and active voice.
• Check if word choice is proper eg use action/simple words , avoid archaic/slang words etc
• Check if the draft consists of simple sentences.
• Check if any abbreviations or acronyms are used and if yes at least at the first instance these are spelt full word eg API is written as American Petroleum Institute(API)
• Check if lists are used to make reading simple/easy. Decide if you would like to use bullet list or numeric list , the later have the advantage of easy reference in discussions.
• Check if figures, tables used are properly drawn and explained in the write up.
• Check if proper cross references are provided.
• Check the work for completeness

 Now comes the stage of review/editing the draft – if possible take help of colleague/friend. It is easy for him/her to find mistakes but if this is not possible go for self review . The idea of this step is to see how you are going to reach your ultimate goal – communicate to reader what you have in your mind. This is achieved through two step process :

1. Checking words/sentences to make sure that they have intended meaning and impact.
2. The format/structure of communication is conducive for the readership to meet their goals leading to appreciate the efforts and work of writer and ultimately TAKE ACTION as intended in the communication.

Thus to reiterate if the outcome of the communication (document) leads to DESIRED ACTION the efforts are fruitful and achieve the goal of the communication.