Academic Writing for Engineers
Writing 2E
Help Links
The links below can help you with your Writing 2E class assignments. They are organized by assignment number and letter. Please share helpful links! If you find other on-line resources that are useful to you, forward them to me so that I can list them here for your classmates.
To jump quickly to a specific assignment, click on the assignment number/letter:
Individual Assignments
Assignment #1
Assignment #2
Assignment #3
Assignment #4
Team Assignments
More Wrtiting Help
Writing 2E Assignments
Assignment #A: Company and product history
This assignment tasks you with learning all that you can about the company that manufactures your product. This should include a brief history of how the company got started, which products they started with, how they grew and/or merged with other companies, and how they eventually came to make the specific product that you are studying. DO NOT simply copy and paste text from the internet! Your study should interpret and summarize what you learn from the internet and library
To learn about the internal details of a company, click on the company website's "History" and "Investors" (or "Stock Investors") links. Many companies also organize their websites by division or department, which will provide an inside look at how they are structured. If you can download a company's stock investor prospectus, do it! They offer excellent summaries of what the company does and where they invest their money and energy. Good luck!
Company Directories (use to locate a company's website)
Yahoo.com
Business Directory
This is a huge list of business directories and is kept up-to-date. If you can't
find a business here, it probably doesn't exist!
Google.com
Business Directory
If you thought Yahoo had a big business directory, wait until you see this one!
It is marvelously organized by business type, which should help you find that
particular job you've been interested in.
Government Marketing Data and Research (use to learn more about the markets where your product is sold)
US Bureau of Labor and Statistics
US Census Bureau
American FactFinder
US Department of Commerce
FedWorld.gov
US Bureau of Economic Analysis
FedStats
University
of Maryland EconData
Commercial Marketing Data and Research Reports
KnowThis.com (marketing
virtual library)
USA Marketing Data on Demand
Internet Retailer: E-business strategies
for merchants and catalogers
NetRatings Inc. (internet media and
marketing research)
Nielsen Ratings
PJ Marketing Research: International
Case Studies, Reports, Essays and Quotes
Business Research
Strategies (Rutgers University)
Team Assignments
Assignment #1: Write a query letter
More on this soon... Meanwhile, here is the business letter evaluation rubric you'll be using for your peer review groups. See the UCSB Career Services Center for their excellent handbook and various handouts on writing effective letters.
Refer to the FMEA assignment page first, then...
Review the standards below to better understand how engineers use FMEA matrices to characterize failures:
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
FMEA requirements for spacecraft (NASA)
Sauer-Danfoss Global Standard GS 0002
Assignment #3: Usability Report
For assignment #3 you and your fellow teammates will meticulously study how human beings interact with your product. To accomplish this, you will need to do three things:
1) Take and pass the UCSB Human Subjects Module (see below);
2) Define a battery of safety protocols, usability tests and metrics, and questions to ask users (in writing). Note that each team member will be personally responsible for observing and recording all data for at least one usability factor during trials. ALL TEAM MEMBERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENFORCING SAFETY PROTOCOLS—YOUR TESTS MUST BE SAFE!;
3) Gather a test population of consenting subjects;
4) Obtain video equipment for recording your subjects.
Before you engage any human subject(s) and analyze the usability of your product, you must first take and pass the UCSB Human Subjects Exam.
Human Subjects Introduction Page
http://hstraining.orda.ucsb.edu/IntroPage.htm
See "Note 1a" for this quarter's registration passwords. I will receive an email as soon as you have completed the module.
Observing and Interviewing Users
Each member of the team will concentrate upon one aspect of the product to yield an individual report for this assignment. For example, one person might focus on ergonomics, another on speed, ease of use, noise, fatique, and so on. Later, you will consolidate your individual findings into the "Marketing Research" section of your team's final report. You will need both quantitative data (e.g., trial times, temperatures, repetition counts, etc.) and qualitative data (e.g., interpreting comments by users).
An important component of your usability testing will be essentially marketing research—you want to know about users' general preferences, likes, and dislikes. To accomplish this, you will need to compile a list of written questions for your users. Here are some links to help with this:
"Market Research Interviewing Techniques: Asking Why," Robert S. Rutter, President, Market Research Optimized, Inc.
This is a very helpful, little YouTube lecture that talks about ascertaining the "whyness" of people's decisions during interviews; it also contains other useful tips. Dr. Rutter's company website contains other helpful documents and videos."Qualitative analysis of interview data: A step-by-step guide," Kent Löfgren, Umeå University, Department of Education, Sweden
A very quick "crash course" in how to qualitatively code and analyze written data such as transcripts and responses to questionnaires."Field Research," Child Care & Early Education Research Connections [A partnership between the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan.] This website summarizes three types of commonly conducted field research: direct observation, participant observation, and qualitative interviews."
Assignment #4: Engineering Interview
Some of the links here will help not only with the engineering interview, but also the usability study (Assignment #3) above. Interviewing people is as much an art as it is a science.
"How to Interview: Tips & Tricks," David Garrido (BBC sports reporter)
David Garrido very succinctly explains his three most valuable tips for getting the best-possible interview: research your subject, ask open questions, and listen.
Engineering Disasters
Apollo 13
Space Shuttle Columbia
Space Shuttle Challenger
Bhopal
Tay Bridge
Tacoma Narrows Bridge
deHavilland Comet
Fukashima
Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel
St. Francis Dam
Other Help
This quarter, you be contacting a company to learn more about the product you are studying. Along the way, much of your correspondence with company personnel will be via e-mail. To ensure that you are writing the very best e-mail correspondence possible, use the links below.
A Neophyte's Guide
to Effective E-mail, by Phillip Elam.
This is a great little primer on writing e-mail messages, with lots of excellent
suggestions.
How to
write an effective e-mail message, by Paula Jacobs
Jacobs' 1999 article from CNN offers a few simple tips.
7 Tips for Effective E-Mail,
by Mike Morgan
A very brief, seven-point plan for writing effective e-mail messages from BisonCreek.com.