Brian Price, Lecturer at Aston University, UK, explores the metaphor of the “information onion” in technical and engineering communication, which helps reveal important strategies for effectively delivering and designing information for your readers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5COPk-bwX0
His talk on “Peeling Back the Layers of the Information Onion: Using Complex Layered Visuals for …
The header from the first IEEE Group on Engineering Writing and Speech Newsletter
Bell-bottom jeans, disco music, and a Dodge Dart–if you take a look at consumer culture, you would suspect that we are in the midst of a 70’s revival. In the case of PCS, …
It’s a new year! Why not create communication resolutions for 2014?
We are 11 days into the new year, and a few days after the Polar Vortex, so it seems like a good time to think about communication resolutions for 2014. Communication resolutions, you ask? Aren’t …
Move in day at Rose-Hulman, when temps reached the 90’s!
At this time of year, as Rose-Hulman first year students arrive and begin orientation, I always like to take a look at the Beloit College Mindset List, an inventory of the Class of 2017. Every year …
This is one way to get a job, but perhaps not the most effective.
In a recent article in the New York Times, Alina Tugend posed the eternal question that often crops up at this time of year–what are the skills college graduates should possess to make them employable? …
Meet the brightest light in the game theory firmament!
When one is in the market for help in improving communication skills, most of us take the same first step: a Google search. This search will turn up some sound, albeit conventional, advice. Let me suggest instead …
There’s a YouTube video for that.
In a meeting today, several faculty complained that students were spending time in class on their smartphones doing things unrelated to course activities–updating Facebook, sending texts, replying to unimportant email. My question was, why do you allow them to use …
A great musical and grammatically correct!
There are two rules of grammar that I won’t ever give up. The first is the use of a singular pronoun as an antecedent to a singular noun.
For instance, The student handed in their paper late. The singular subject should have a …
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 …
Misplace a comma or misuse “their,” and this guy will misplace your resume!
Kyle Wiens, writing in the Harvard Business Review, has offered important observations about what your errors in writing may say to a prospective employer. In a blog post entitled “I Won’t Hire People Who …
