Professional engineers are required to write a wide range of documents for operational, managerial, design, and inter-office correspondence purposes—project proposals, business cases, reports, memos, to name only a few. The ability to write clear, concise, informative, and engaging documents is therefore a core skill and often key to career advancement.
Date: May 28, 2013
Time: 9am – 5pm
Duration: 1 day
Location: CEGEP Champlain - St. Lawrence
790 Neree-Tremblay
Quebec City, Qc
G1V 4K2
www.slc.qc.ca
Fee: $495 CAD plus applicable taxes
Course Description
This one-day workshop will cover general principles and skills in engineering communication that can be transferred to various genres of engineering documents. We will begin by identifying issues and challenges in communicating technical information, and then focus on strategies for creating clarity and cohesion, identifying audience requirements, generating proper flow, and achieving “engineering elegance” in writing. The workshop will also include an in-class analysis of an engineering report: using the general principles and strategies highlighted in the first part of the workshop, participants will work individually and then collaboratively to identify communicative strengths and weaknesses and make suggestions for improvement.
Administering department: The McGill Writing Centre and Career and Professional Development
Objectives
- Develop a clear understanding of the professional writing context for engineers
- Understand the importance of audience, purpose, organization, and style in effective written communication
- Develop the ability to analyze and revise documents for clarity, coherence, and flow
Topics Covered
- The professional writing context for engineers
- Audience expectations
- Generic conventions
- Writing to task: audience, purpose, organization, and style
- Drafting, editing, and peer-review
Who Should Attend
- Early career professional engineers
- Mid- and late-career engineers seeking to upgrade their written communication skills
Lecturer
Bassel Atallah holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and a Master’s degree in English Literature from Concordia University. For the past several years, he has taught Communication in Engineering, a required course for McGill Engineering students, and has previously taught Argumentation and Composition for Engineers at Concordia University.
Cancellation Policy
All cancellation & substitution requests must be made in writing. The following Cancellation Policy applies:
Up to 14 days prior to the start date: Full refund
7 days prior to the start date: Refund minus $100 Cancellation fee
Within 7 days of the start date: No Refund, however suitable participation substitution will be permitted
If no notice is given prior to the start of the event(s) and you fail to attend, you will be liable for the full course fee.
McGill SCS reserves the right to cancel an event up to 5 days prior to its start.
Contact Information
mwc [at] mcgill [dot] ca
514-398-7109
or
pd [dot] conted [at] mcgill [dot] ca
514-398-5454