A Guide to Writing as an Engineer

Improve the signal-to-noise ratio in your writing!
You'll need more than just technical prowess to succeed as a professional engineer; you'll need to be an effective communicator.
Specifically written to address the needs of engineers, this brief, easy-to-use guide gives you an efficient and direct way to improve your writing and speaking skills. The authors focus on those writing activities that engineers perform on a daily basis, such as reports, business letters, office memoranda, and e-mail, as well as oral presentations.
Now updated to reflect rapid changes in how we communicate, this Second Edition covers writing as part of a project team, plagiarism and ethics, email effectiveness and privacy, presentations using PowerPoint, and applying for jobs using the internet.
With this book, you'll learn how to:
* Reduce the "noise" in your writing, by eliminating grammatical errors, typos, poor organization, and fuzzy thinking.
* Correctly document information taken from other sources.
* Increase your chances of landing the job you want.
* Construct clear and effective graphics.
* Avoid ethical pitfalls.

David Beer is professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas Austin.

David McMurray is a technical writer from industry, most recently with IBM.  This combination of academic and industry perspective gives this book its broad perspective covering all aspects of writing, from academic research to effective corporate communication.