All writing should be as clear as an open window on a sunny day.
I often hear engineers complain about the lack of clarity in the writing they read. Sometimes this complaint is phrased in terms like “this report doesn’t flow,” or “I can’t understand what …
The end of a quarter or semester can feel just like this, although sometimes the light is coming from an approaching train!
My academic term–the winter quarter that began before Christmas and runs 10 weeks–is coming to an end. As my vision clears, I realize that …
Doha at night is a great time to view its many skyscrapers and lights.
In my role as president of PCS, I was invited to participate in the first World Congress on Engineering Education, sponsored by Texas A&M University at Qatar and the Maersk Oil Company. …
Yes, this building really is as enormous as it looks!
On Friday, I gave the first of two talks at Shibaura Institute of Technology, entitled “Institutional Research and Educational Assessment at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology: Creating a Culture of Evidence.” Faculty and staff involved in SIT’s …
The Meiji Shrine will be a stop on my itinerary during my visit to Japan
In my role as president of PCS, I am traveling this week to visit Shibauru Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan. The purpose of the trip is to give two talks …
Here’s an image I can get behind: a dog with graph and chart!
Check out the latest Prism magazine, published by the American Society for Engineering Education, to read more about how engineering educators are helping students improve their written and oral communication skills.
Thomas K. Grose, in …
Don’t be alarmed–this is an actual sighting of an engineer reading!
I was very pleased to read G. Pascal Zachary’s Opinion piece in the November 2012 issue of the IEEE Spectrum magazine. Yes, fiction has an important role to play in inspiring creativity among the engineering set. In fact, …
Teaching communication to engineers looks a lot like conducting an orchestra.
On Monday, November 26th, we started a new academic term here at Rose-Hulman, my home institution. That means I met with students in the two sections of the Technical and Professional Communication course that I …
In this case, it stands for ABET!
My blogging has been severely curtailed in the past several weeks because of the imminent arrival of program evaluators from the Engineering Accreditation Commission and the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET. Yes, every six years (or more frequently if …
To engineer is to write.
I was reminded recently about the amount of time working engineers spend on communication. As Jon Leydens explained in his 2008 PCS Transactions article,
“engineers spend between 20% and 40% of their workday writing, a figure that increases as they move up the career …
