Analytical Report Rough Draft

Writing in the Field of Engineering

Archie A. Kipp

University of Iowa

The Role of Writing in Engineering

When people think of engineering they generally don’t tend to associate the profession with writing. Most engineers themselves don’t imagine themselves needing to be a proficient writer or having to structure their writing for different purposes. As an undecided major I was curious as to how writing was utilized in a career path that I was considering in Engineering. Vice President of Technology Services at Burns Engineering, David Kipp, volunteered to talk about how writing is present in his daily activities. He claims that “25-30 percent” of his day consists of writing which he never expected when he entered decided to follow the path towards Electrical Engineering. You must express complex research and data through non-academic and academic styles of writing with various styles of structuring and language. 

Non-Academic Writing in Engineering

Most writing in the field of engineering is non-academic. “It’s pretty rare for me to do much academic writing on a daily basis, for the most part I’m writing reports or I’m interacting with clients through emails”. Non-academic writing for Engineering is a variety of genres that mostly involve taking a research process and condensing the data down so that non-specialists can comprehend the information. Another main component of an Engineer’s job is the interacting with a client which contains lots of non-academic writing in the form of emails and letters. These forms of writing differ from academic with respect to the formality of the language and the structure they’re written in. 

Language

Engineering is defined by Merriam-Webster to be “the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people”(cite this?). As you begin to get more and more specialized in the field of Engineering, the material becomes indigestible for the average person to able to read. When reporting to the general public, engineers can either report directly to that very broad audience or to a group of journalists who will then simplify even more and reconvey, as a middle man from specialists to everyday readers. 

Using more common language is key to simplifying the material. This is exemplified in a website run by Barrie Lawson, an establish engineer, where before diagraming the process of nuclear theory and nuclear fission, he starts by defining all terms that may be misunderstood by any reader (Lawson, para. 2). He understands that his audience is clearly not going to be well versed in the subject he is talking about and for that reason places very direct and simplified definitions. This is an example of a time where the author has forgone journalists and created his own website to filter information to the public directly. One must use even more direction in cases like this. 

When writing for journalists, specialists still to have to make sure the language they use is simplified but not to the extent as is necessary for the general public. An example of this type of scenario is the following passage:

The swimmer that we envision (Fig. 1) consists of a soft scaffold on which muscles and neurons are embedded in reconstituted extracellular matrix (ECM) to develop functional neuromuscular units. Our choices regarding scaffold material and geometry, cell sources, and tissue culture techniques are based on 2 main principles, guided self- organization and in situ development, for the formation of muscle tissue constructs and NMJs, respectively.

(Aydin, para. 6)

The author uses lots of words that build a community with its readers like the use of “we” and “our”. The language in this report is pretty relaxed and flows well, a point that David Kipp stated is hard for lots of Engineers saying, “the hard part for most people is to write in an accessible way that’s engaging to read”. Overall engineers writing in a non-academic setting need to be able to write to make their information understandable and flowing so as to keep their readers on topic and interested in their research. 

Structure 

Organization of writing in Engineering for non-academic writing can be similar to academic writing in scenarios depending on who the intended audience is. It’s not effective to write in the format of a formal report if you are writing for normal people. In a Wired article discussing the new and improved Wi-Fi 6, the author conveys information with headings such as “The Basics” and “How’s it Different?”(Goode, 2019). Very informal and more interesting headers, such as the ones just stated, are more pleasing to read and intended to attract more people. 

Other types of writing can be structured very similarly to a research essay when they are writing to journalists and are describing the research, and the results of that research. In a primer, or an introduction to Microgrids, Arindam Maitra uses a structure very similar to a research paper with an abstract, an introduction, and then the substance of what Microgrids are and how they are used (2019). If it’s necessary to explain where results came from and what experimentation led to them, then using that same structure can be very useful. It would be difficult to use the structure for the general public because of the frankness that tends to accompany a research paper.

Academic Writing in Engineering

Academic writing usually comes in the form of a research paper or a report that has been written a highly specialized member of their field that has been reviewed. In engineering it’s written in most cases for other engineers who can benefit from reading their results and analysis. In academic cases there is a specific structure that most reports follow and highly specified language that must be used. 

Language 

Clarity is the most important piece of language for professional writing just like in non-academic writing. The difference arrises into how technical the language becomes. David Kipp mentioned how “academic writing tends to be much more precise with more references and footnotes that would cloud up the more general writing I do”. Every single fact and piece of information that stemmed from an earlier experiment has to be noted as well as the various figures, charts, graphs, and equations which appear frequently (Huang, 2017, para. 10). These equations are more frequent in academic writing because you must show how you derive truths in certain areas. A good example of how language tends to be more specified is as follows: 

Furthermore, LFP:C battery cells show a hysteresis effect and an extremely flat Open 

Circuit Voltage (OCV) in an intermediate State of Charge (SOC) range (i.e.,ΔV≤100 

ΔV≤100 mV for a SOC range of 10–90%), which is a great challenge for SOC 

determination, cell balancing and EMS control on the system level [40,41].

(Hesse, 2017, para. 19) 

The language used in this passage is very specific and is almost incomprehensible to a person who doesn’t understand the subject at hand. Word-choice for academic sources must be very accurate and the speech involves lots of numerals and acronyms which are referenced later in the report.

Structure

The structure of engineering reports tend to follow the same guidelines and rules. This tends to be the case so that the specified audience can find what they need in a quick amount of time. At the start will always be an abstract that summarizes the article and quickly runs through the what the report will focus on and the findings of the research (Purdue, 8). This contributes to the clarity of the report so readers can know what information is going to be gathered. 

Following the abstract the report will have an introduction, the methodology, and the results of the data. The methodology takes up the majority of the paper because it’s important to know where the findings stem from and to validate if accurate procedures took place. 

Conclusion

Engineers write lots in a profession that is centered around science and mathematics. Transitioning from analytical data to communicate to different audiences requires different methods of writing. Through academic and non-academic writing engineers release their findings in websites, journals, and articles. If you are considering the profession of Engineering I hope this gives you more information on how writing is used in this field. 

References

Aydin, O., Zhang, X., Nuethong, S., Pagan-Diaz, G. J., Bashir, R., Gazzola, M., & Saif, M. T. A. 

(2019, September 13). Neuromuscular actuation of biohybrid motile bots. Retrieved 

from https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/12/1907051116

Goode, L. (2019, August 30). Wi-Fi 6 Will Be Here Soon. What Is It? 

Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/what-is-wi-fi-6/

Hesse, H. C., Schimpe, M., Kucevic, D., & Jossen, A. (2017, December 11). Lithium-Ion Battery 

Storage for the Grid-A Review of Stationary Battery Storage System Design Tailored for 

Applications in Modern Power Grids. Retrieved from https://www.mdpi.com/

1996-1073/10/12/2107/htm

Huang, L., Qiu, D., Xie, F., Chen, Y., & Zhang, B. (2017, December 19). 

Modeling and Stability Analysis of a Single-Phase Two-Stage 

Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System. Retrieved from https://

www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/10/12/2176/htm

Lawson, B. (n.d.). Nuclear Energy- The Theory . Retrieved from https://www.mpoweruk.com/

nuclear_theory.htm

Maitra, A., York, B., Kamath, H., Key, T., & Singhvi, V. (1970, January 

1). Microgrids : A Primer Introduction - Semantic Scholar. 

Retrieved from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/

Microgrids-:-A-Primer-Introduction-Primer-Maitra/

40a6dd7de702a3b7f3acd5c290b7d63be9b7df89#paper-header

Purdue Writing Lab. (n.d.). Writing Engineering Reports // Purdue 

Writing Lab. Retrieved from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/

subject_specific_writing/writing_in_engineering/

writing_engineering_reports.html