Volume 2, Issue 1

Fall, 2004

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Why Technical Writing?

Engineers and Technical Writing

by: Tymese Bostick

"... I didn't know that being an engineer would require me to be a pretty decent technical writer."

I can recall during my senior year of high school a friend of mine asked me what would my intended major be in college. I told her that I was going to major in engineering. She looked puzzled for a moment then jokingly said, "So you want to change light bulbs?" At first I thought that was strange, but I continued to hear similar comments from other individuals. At the same time of course I knew I wasn't going to be changing light bulbs for a career, but I didn't know that being an engineer would require me to be a pretty decent technical writer. I only thought of the hands on and logical thinking work like constructing buildings and wiring electrical systems. I never thought of the technical documents that it would require in order to complete the many tasks done by engineers. I was exposed to this reality once I enrolled in a technical writing course that was required for engineering majors.

"...without these skills there will not be sufficient communication."

Many engineers use the principles and theories of science, engineering, and mathematics to solve technical problems in research and development, manufacturing, sales, construction, inspection, and maintenance. With the complexity of their work they also have to be able to solve problems of format, structure, and style of technical documents in order to produce readable, logical, and concise material to communicate abstract ideas and complex data technical and non technical readers. If the average person can't understand them then their work is basically useless, resulting in the idea for the job not getting accomplished. That's where technical writing skills become a must, because without these skills there will not be sufficient communication.

"...I might not need it in my exact engineering field."

Although I realized the influence that technical writing had in the engineering field, I still had the small thought in my mind that said, "Well I might not need it in my exact engineering field." During my summer break before enrolling in the technical writing course I worked as an intern student for a government engineering company. During that time I realized that my supervisors wrote a lot of documents. Because I was interested in doing more of the hands on projects, so I was rarely involved with the technical documents. Just for assurance I interviewed an engineer from my aspiring field. He explained to me that there were many different types of writing required for his position. Depending on the requirement of the project he said that he usually writes:

e-mails

technical project specifications

scopes of work for contractors

persuasive memos

technical reports

Obviously there is no way for me to get around technical writing so I decided to learn it, and become a better writer. Your field may not be engineering, but technical writing maybe that unspoken field that is much needed for you to be successful in your work.