Writing Guides and Handbooks: Engineering

Written for engineers, this book provides more than technical know-how and focuses on how to be an effective communicator. This new edition helps to eliminate the glitches that trip up the busy reader or listener, causing annoyance, confusion, or misunderstanding--so that their writing and speech are crystal clear. This text also focuses on the technical writing and speaking issues encountered in day to day work, writing reports, business letter, memoranda, proposals, emails, presentations, and more. The new edition includes new coverage of social media, including coverage of popular forms, best practices, dangers and ethics of using social media, and expanded coverage of informal communication.

This guide provides a framework, starting from simple statements, for writing papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals. It also describes how to address referees’ comments, approaches for composing other types of scientific communications, and key linguistic aspects of scientific writing.

Dr Caroline Whitbeck offers a real-world, problem-centered approach to engineering ethics, using a rich collection of open-ended case studies.

This concise paperback is one of the best known guides to writing a paper for publication in biomedical journals. Its straightforward format - a chapter covering each of part of the structured abstract - makes it relevant and easy to use for any novice paper writer. How to Write a Paper addresses the mechanics of submission, including electronic submission, and how publishers handle papers, writing letters to journals abstracts for scientific meetings, and assessing papers. This new edition also covers how to write a book review and updated chapters on ethics, electronic publication and submission, and the movement for open access.

The book helps scientists write papers for scientific journals. Using the key parts of typical scientific papers (Title, Abstract, Introduction, Visuals, Structure, and Conclusions), it shows through numerous examples, how to achieve the essential qualities required in scientific writing, namely being clear, concise, convincing, fluid, interesting, and organized. To enable the writer to assess whether these parts are well written from a reader's perspective, the book also offers practical metrics in the form of six checklists, and even an original Java application to assist in the evaluation.
The focus of the book is on self- and reader-assisted assessment of the scientific journal article. It is also the first time that a book on scientific writing takes a human factor view of the reading task and the reader scientist. By revealing and addressing the physiological causes that create substantial reading difficulties, namely limited reader memory, attention span, and patience, the book guarantees that writing will gain the much coveted reader-centered quality.

This book explores the rising phenomena of internet-based social networking and discusses the particular challenges faced by engineers and scientists in adapting to this new, content-centric environment. Social networks are both a blessing and a curse to the engineer and scientist. The blessings are apparent: the abundance of free applications and their increasing mobility and transportability. The curse is that creating interesting and compelling content on these user-driven systems is best served by right-brain skills. But most engineers and scientists are left-brain oriented, have generally shunned the right-brain skills like graphic design and creative writing as being indulgent and time wasting. The problem is, those are exactly the skills required to create compelling content. This book will help engineers and scientists re-acquire those right-brain skills and put them to best use in the new world of internet-based social media technologies. The reader will benefit from: * An emphasis on the growing role that social media technology -like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, will play in professions like science and engineering. * The "How to" in understanding the importance of continuous streaming of content over time for both professional presence and for collaborative effort--the key in today's team approach to engineering and science. * The valuable help for quantitative people like engineers and scientists in setting up social media sites, requiring qualitative skills.

This book addresses four main topics: professional ethics, technical writing, presentation skills, and online writing. These topics are woven throughout the book and some of them are the main subjects of one or more chapters. The overarching theme of this book is to provide well-tested, best-practice techniques and strategies for main topic areas while focusing on information that can be immediately applied to help the IT professional improve a particular skill.Technical Writing, Presentational Skills, and Online Communication: Professional Tools and Insights is a collection of work aimed at any professional that deals with ethical issues, writes up a technical project, gives or develops a presentation, or writes material for an online audience.  While focusing on practical information and process, the goal is to improve the reader's ability and knowledge in each of these four areas. This book presents the big picture relating to the chosen topics so the audience will have an excellent framework and foundation in the areas of professional ethics, technical writing, presentation skills, and online writing.

The Craft of Scientific Presentations, 2nd edition aims to strengthen you as a presenter of science and engineering. The book does so by identifying what makes excellent presenters such as Brian Cox, Jane Goodall, Richard Feynman, and Jill Bolte Taylor so strong. In addition, the book explains what causes so many scientific presentations to flounder. One of the most valuable contributions of this text is that it teaches the assertion-evidence approach to scientific presentations. Instead of building presentations, as most engineers and scientists do, on the weak foundation of topic phrases and bulleted lists, this assertion-evidence approach calls for building presentations on succinct message assertions supported by visual evidence. Unlike the commonly followed topic-subtopic approach that PowerPoint leads presenters to use, the assertion-evidence approach is solidly grounded in research. By showing the differences between strong and weak presentations, by identifying the errors that scientific presenters typically make, and by teaching a much more powerful approach for scientific presentations than what is commonly practiced, this book places you in a position to elevate your presentations to a high level. In essence, this book aims to have you not just succeed in your scientific presentations, but excel.

Popular science writing has exploded in the past decade, both in print and online. Who better to guide writers striving to succeed in the profession than a group of award-winning independent journalists with a combined total of 225 years of experience? From Thomas Hayden's chapter on the perfect pitch to Emma Maris's advice on book proposals to Mark Schrope's essential information on contracts, the members of SciLance give writers of all experience levels the practical information they need to succeed, as either a staffer or a freelancer. Going beyond craft, The Science Writer's Handbook also tackles issues such as creating productive office space, balancing work and family, and finding lasting career satisfaction. It is the ultimate guide for anyone looking to prosper as a science writer in the new era of publishing.

Technical ideas may be solid or even groundbreaking, but if these ideas cannot be clearly communicated, reviewers of technical documents—e.g., proposals for research funding, articles submitted to scientific journals, and business plans to commercialize technology—are likely to reject the argument for advancing these ideas. The problem is that many engineers and scientists, entirely comfortable with the logic and principles of mathematics and science, treat writing as if it possesses none of these attributes. The absence of a systematic framework for writing often results in sentences that are difficult to follow or arguments that leave reviewers scratching their heads. This book fixes that problem by presenting a “scientific” approach to writing that mirrors the sensibilities of scientists and engineers, an approach based on an easily-discernable set of principles. Rather than merely stating rules for English grammar and composition, this book explains the reasons behind these rules and shows that good reasons can guide every writing decision. This resource is also well suited for the growing number of scientists and engineers in the U.S. and elsewhere who speak English as a second language, as well as for anyone else who just wants to be understood.

Understanding intellectual property, safeguarding your ideas Intellectual property is constantly at risk, and the protection of chemical science and technology through the patenting process allows individuals and companies to protect their hard work. But in order to truly be able to protect your ideas, you need to understand the basics of patenting for yourself. A practical handbook designed to empower inventors like you to write your own patent application drafts in conjunction with an attorney, Writing Chemistry Patents and Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide presents a brand new methodology for success. Based on a short course author Francis J. Waller gives for the American Chemical Society, the book teaches you how to structure a literature search, to educate the patent examiner on your work, to prepare an application that can be easily duplicated, and to understand what goes on behind the scenes during the patent examiner′s rejection process. Providing essential insights, invaluable strategies, and applicable, real-world examples designed to maximize the chances that a patent will be accepted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Writing Chemistry Patents and Intellectual Property is the book you need if you want to keep your work protected.

Learning how to write clearly and concisely is an integral part of furthering your research career; however, doing so is not always easy. In this second edition, fully updated and revised, Dr. Silyn-Roberts explains in plain English the steps to writing abstracts, theses, journal papers, funding bids, literature reviews, and more. The book also examines preparing seminar and conference presentations. Written in a practical and easy to follow style specifically for postgraduate students in Engineering and Sciences, this book is essential in learning how to create powerful documents. Writing for Science and Engineering will prove invaluable in all areas of research and writing due its clear, concise style. The practical advice contained within the pages alongside numerous examples to aid learning will make the preparation of documentation much easier for all students. Written in modular format, so you only need to access the relevant chapter Covers a wide range of document and presentation types Includes easy-to-understand rules to improve writing

As a scientist, you are a professional writer: your career is built on successful proposals and papers. Success isn't defined by getting papers into print, but by getting them into the reader's consciousness.Writing Scienceis built upon the idea that successful science writing tells a story. It uses that insight to discuss how to write more effectively. Integrating lessons from other genres of writing with those from the author's years of experience as author, reviewer, and editor, the book shows scientists and students how to present their research in a way that is clear and that will maximize reader comprehension.

The book takes an integrated approach, using the principles of story structure to discuss every aspect of successful science writing, from the overall structure of a paper or proposal to individual sections, paragraphs, sentences, and words. It begins by building core arguments, analyzing why some stories are engaging and memorable while others are quickly forgotten, and proceeds to the elements of story structure, showing how the structures scientists and researchers use in papers and proposals fit into classical models. The book targets the internal structure of a paper, explaining how to write clear and professional sections, paragraphs, and sentences in a way that is clear and compelling. The ideas within a paper should flow seamlessly, drawing readers along. The final section of the book deals with special challenges, such as how to discuss research limitations and how to write for the public.

Writing Scienceis a much-needed guide to succeeding in modern science. Its insights and strategies will equip science students, scientists, and professionals across a wide range of scientific and technical fields with the tools needed to communicate effectively.

Scientific writing is often dry, wordy, and difficult to understand. But, as Anne E. Greene shows in Writing Science in Plain English,writers from all scientific disciplines can learn to produce clear, concise prose by mastering just a few simple principles. nbsp; This short, focused guide presents a dozen such principles based on what readers need in order to understand complex information, including concrete subjects, strong verbs, consistent terms, and organized paragraphs. The author, a biologist and an experienced teacher of scientific writing, illustrates each principle with real-life examples of both good and bad writing and shows how to revise bad writing to make it clearer and more concise.nbsp;She ends each chapter with practice exercises so that readers can come away with new writing skills after just one sitting. nbsp; Writing Science in Plain English can help writers at all levels of their academic and professional careers#151;undergraduate students working on research reports, established scientists writing articles and grant proposals, or agency employees working to follow the Plain Writing Act. This essential resource is the perfect companion for all who seek to write science effectively.