CE 550 Professional Engineering Communication
3 Credit Hours
Communicating effectively is central to the success of any engineering project and to advance in your engineering career. In this course you will learn principles of writing clearly and effectively for the wide range of communication activities professional engineers must do for a range of audiences. Topics covered include writing reports, writing proposals, delivering presentations, planning and revising writing, providing feedback, and more.
Special Information
Testimonials from members of Dr. Kittle-Autry’s class last summer:
“Pretty much everything we covered in this class is applicable to the work that I do on a daily basis, and I would highly recommend this class to all engineers.”
“This was a great course—one of the most valuable I have taken during my program so far. I would recommend that everyone take this class.”
Prerequisite
Graduate standing or permission of instructor.
Course Learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to produce engineering reports that clearly and concisely communicate results of engineering analyses to the intended audience(s) and achieve the intended goals of the project.
- Students will be able to identify requests for proposals appropriate for their engineering work and write proposals that persuasively communicate project goals, team qualifications, and appropriate engineering techniques and analyses.
- Students will be able to identify and implement appropriate visual design techniques for displaying results of engineering analyses.
- Students will be able to lead teams through the process of producing professional engineering reports, including implementing tools and workflows appropriate to project goals.
- Students will be able to design and deliver engineering presentations for technical and non-technical audiences.
- Students will be able to analyze samples of professional engineering documents, critique their effectiveness, and revise to improve the documents.
- Students will be able to adapt complex technical information and effectively design communication to inform diverse audiences.
Course Topics
- Effective report writing
- Writing winning proposals
- Mechanics and style of engineering writing
- Designing effective slide decks
- Delivering strong presentations
- Providing effective feedback on documents
Course Requirements
| Homework | 20% |
| Concept Paper | 25% |
| Report or Proposal Revision | 30% |
| Slide Deck & Presentation | 25% |
Course Schedule
| Unit 0 | Course Introduction | Week 1 |
| Unit 1 | Principles of Effective Writing | Weeks 2 – 5 |
| Unit 2 | Writing Engineering Reports and Proposals | Weeks 6 – 8 |
| Unit 3 | Delivering Engineering Presentations | Weeks 9 – 10 |
Textbook
No textbook purchase is required for this course. All readings will be available online through our Moodle site or open-source textbook.
Updated: 10/31/2022