ENGR 231, Introduction to Technical Communication

Books

• Monroe’s Principles of Speech, Revised Brief Edition, A.H. Monroe (1951, Internet Archive)
• Guide to Writing as an Engineer, David A. McMurrey, Wiley, 2019. ISBM: 9781119285960
• Practical Strategies for Technical Communication with 2020 APA Update (2020), Mike Markel & Stuart A. Selber, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2020. ISBN: 978-1319362294
• Style: lessons in clarity and grace, Joseph M. Williams, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2017. ISBN: 9780134080413
• Style: toward clarity and grace, Joseph M. Williams, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2009. ISBN: 9780226899145 (1990, pdf | Internet Archive)
• Technical Writing Essentials, Suzan Last. University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
• Writing for Success: An Engineers Guide, T. Moran, IEEE (nd).

Course materials

• Slides from Spring 2024
• Final lecture (video)

Software

• Expresso
• Hemingway
• Using Styles in Word

Style guides

• IEEE style guide
• Strunk & White, Elements of Style
• The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

Tips and tactics

• 3 Useful Ways to Eliminate Redundancy from Written Reports
• Avoid repetition and redundancy
• Communication in the Workplace: What Can NC State Students Expect? (2018)
• Editing vs. revision: what’s the difference?, Berkeley Learning Center
• Headline idea generator
• How to write an executive summary, Harvard Kennedy School
• How to write concisely, HBR (2022)
• Mindmaps for essay writing
• Monroe’s Motivated Sequence: Guide Sheets (2019)
• Reduce bloated language (aka wordiness), Berkeley Learning Center
• Reverse outlines: a technique for examining organization, UW School of Social Work
• Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace
• Three Laws of Professional Communication, J.L. Doumont, IEEE (2002, pdf)
• Understand and write for your audience, University of North Carolina Writing Center
• Use narrowing and focusing strategies to scope your topic (i.e., free writing, mind- or concept-mapping, questioning, and brainstorming)
• Writing Numbers in Technical Documents, C.M. Elliot (2017).

UW Links

• UW Engineering Library
• LinkedIn Learning (UW benefit)
  • Writing in Plain Language
  • Grammar Foundations: Chapter 3
    • Making sentences parallel
    • Passive and active voice
  • Advanced Grammar: Chapter 4
    • Comma rules
    • Dangling modifiers
    • Sentence structure errors
• UW Writing Center

Writing resources

• Google technical writing courses
• Harvard College Writing Center
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
• Stanford Writing Resources
• University of North Carolina Writing Center