Bill Conrad's Blog - Posts Tagged "engineering"

The first time I learned about the topic of technical writing was in college. In my senior year and the administrators had just approved a new class called Technical Writing. Up until this point, I had no idea that this type of writing was even a discipline. I just assumed all Engineers knew how to write; they just wrote “technically” when they needed to. A friend of mine took the first class and from the description, it sounded like a class that I would be interested in. Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow me to take the class and I graduated without it. As my career in Electrical Engineer began, I started down the path of writing business proposals and generating technical documents by the boat load.
When I was about 25, my boss suggested that I take a technical writing class. UCSD extension offered such a class and I jumped at the opportunity. After all, the company paid for it. The class was a positive experience that focused on being a better technical communicator. On a side note, I met a girl there and she invited me to a party where I met a girl that I dated. I also found out about the drink “boba” at the local food court. I also got many UCSD parking tickets. Punishing poor students. Jerks! I guess a few negatives as well. Back to the blog. The main takeaway from this technical writing class was to look at each sentence and make sure that it was clearly stated and conveyed the exact meaning in as few words as possible.
Up until that point in my life, my writing was all over the map. My sentences were unfocused and my writing contained extra junk. This included adding unrelated opinions, humor and thought-provoking observations. That was just my personality and it made for some very interesting technical documents. The readers of those early technical documents were probably amused and it took them an extra amount of effort to extract the relevant information.
Overall, the technical writing class forced a big change in my writing. I began carefully going over each sentence to tighten them up in order to convey only what was necessary. To me, writing became a game and I went very far with my attempts to make every single sentence “technical.” This resulted in terse and cryptic documents. In the many years that followed taking this class, I honed my technical writing skills and eventually, my writing became less cryptic. There is a definite art to technical writing. It involves organizing the facts and presenting them in a logical way.
A good technical writer must also avoid the many writing pitfalls to make a great technical document. For example, not using the first person to describe some technical subject even if the author participated solely in its operation. Not turning the document into a story or keeping the reader in suspense. Presenting the facts in order and not including irrelevant facts.
Surprisingly, there aren’t many reference books on technical writing. The ones that I have found read like an unorganized collection of writing tips with lots of examples. A great opportunity exists in making a good technical writing guide. No, I have no interest in creating such a guide. Now, writing a book about creating good business plans or great patents. AHH! Stay focused.
Since that class, I worked really hard to improve my technical writing skills. Fifteen years later, there was a defining moment in my effort to become a great technical writer. I had lost my full-time job and I was trying to switch my career to being a full-time consultant. One of my clients had their office far away and I had to do all my communications over email. Generally, on technical topics, I prefer to walk to the other person’s office and discuss it. However, due to the distance, this approach wasn’t possible.
My main communication method was email and I would work for hours crafting perfect emails to convey my exact technical thoughts. The result was a big nothing. Nobody was reading my exquisitely crafted emails. In retrospect, I think my emails were too descriptive and lengthy. This experience left me jaded and from that point forward, I put a lot less effort into my technical writing.
I was very aware of this change in attitude and I knew that my writing didn’t have much focus. I also knew that my level of pride had slipped. A few years later, I was again laid off and had time to burn. I decided to write fiction and the result was 3 books. When I submitted my first book, my editors pointed out that my grammar was poor and I began to put a lot of focus into proper sentence structure. They also pointed out that my writing was bland. Specifically, I was missing content and emotion. The result was that I put a lot more effort into my writing.
In January of this year, I got back into full-time employment and of course, began writing technical documents. I could immediately tell that my technical writing had changed. I shifted my focus from making terse logical sentences to sentences with correct structure That flowed. I think the biggest change was my new use of contractions and more “flowery” words to describe technical subjects. The overall result was a more fluid approach toward my technical documents. I suspect that my technical co-workers think that I’m a more formal person by my writings. Perhaps snooty?
This new focus and learning experience also made me realize that my fellow Engineers had really bad English skills. When I read their technical documents, the grammar and spelling mistakes now leap off the page. It takes some personal effort not point out their mistakes. Of course, I hold no malice towards my fellow Engineers. After all, I used to be an engineer who wasn’t a part-time author.
Taking an overall perspective on my writing path is amusing to think about. My English experience started out very bad. I had a lot of trouble in the beginning and it was very clear that being good at writing was never going to happen. That young boy would have been surprised that I took an interest in technical writing. He would have been stunned that I became an author.
What does my future technical writing hold? Right now, it looks like I have a bunch of boring reports and lots of emails ahead of me. I don’t mind. That’s all part of the job. If done correctly, it can even be fun.

Around age 13, I decided to become an Electrical Engineer. Engineers are logical, smart and confident. We work in offices with (usually) pleasant office-minded people. Having no other foundation, it’s easy to understand how my work culture became a core writing value.
One of my characters is an Electrical Engineer. He loves to solve problems, tell people about his solutions and hates it when they cannot appreciate his brilliance. In addition, he is a model office employee who strongly avoids confrontation.
Offices are odd places. People have extreme conversations on important topics with forced pleasantries. However, coworkers are still people and negative actions get scornfully remembered for years. A single disapproving conversation can be just as devastating as a bloody fistfight. Of course, outside of the office, these rules do not apply. People yell, confront and fight without holding back.
Unfortunately, my editor pointed out that my main character is an arrogant know-it-all. This comes from the two aspects of his personality. He is smart and avoids confrontation until he has no choice.
Is my character realistic? Engineers must maintain an element of arrogance in order to do their job. Otherwise, projects would take forever. In my particular book, he only becomes arrogant when he knows he is correct which leads to overcompensation. From my experience, his level of arrogance is below normal. However, I now see that my lightly arrogant creation is far worse than the typical person. Unfortunately, this means that not everybody will appreciate him.
When creating a character, an author tries to create something new, but they have preconceptions. I I intended to develop somebody substantially different from myself. In retrospect, I should have made this character a patent attorney, doctor or business executive.
My reaction to this criticism is, “Stop embracing stereotypes! Engineers are great people. They only appear arrogant.” However, I see the problems and I will have to make corrections. On my next editing pass, I will tone down his reactions, give him more human qualities, turn off some of his engineering mind and make him more relatable.
Not an impossible task, but it will not be a fun task to town down his brilliance. I like it when people use their minds. It appears I need to un-engineer an engineer. Is un-engineer a real term? I will have to engineer it into the dictionary.

After earning a degree in Electrical Engineering, I began interviewing for jobs. In my second, I had an unexpected request. They wanted me to complete an engineering test. I thought school was over?
The test was a mix of electrical theories, work knowledge, and intelligence tests. Unfortunately, I was unprepared, and I did poorly. However, with some experience (from the first test) and preparation, I did much better on the next test.
I have taken multiple tests over the years, ranging from being straightforward to convoluted to completely inappropriate. Often, I saw questions that only people who had worked at the company for years could answer. On three occasions, I took a handwritten that was difficult to read. And the endless open-ended questions. Meaning there were no correct solutions or an infinite number of correct solutions. “What is the best car? Justify your answer.” Umm, what does that have to do with engineering?
Companies use such tests to answer four questions. The first part tests a person’s general knowledge, and the second is to see what a person does under pressure. The third identifies creativity, and the fourth determines how well a candidate would fit the company.
In my early career, I saw the immense value of engineering tests. They made it easy for an interviewer to weed out poor candidates. I once interviewed for a job where they used a multiple-choice test at the beginning, and if the candidate did not pass, the interview was over. What a time saver! Side note. I walked out of that interview because I saw the workers struggling with awful development tools. Side-Side note. That company went out of business.
In my later career, I began to loathe these tests. I felt the companies that used them were lazy, their format was absurd, and their usefulness was dubious. Fortunately, most companies no longer bother with testing and instead rely on a seasoned interviewer’s intuition. It is a bad sign when they bring out the test. Talented candidates also judge the quality of the test, which reflects on the company.
On three occasions, the interviewer wanted to discuss the test with me. “You did not answer question two.” “Yeah, I forgot that basic fact. Sorry. You understand that engineers loaded the internet and textbooks with information so people could look up information all day long. Also, smart engineers always look up critical information.” Such comebacks anger and stun interviewers.
Companies are all the same no matter what the field. So, what kind of test would writers get in an interview? Translation: What test would annoy the heck out of a talented writer?
Let’s start off with an SAT kind of test. This includes spelling, grammar, writing technique, and comprehension. How about a multiple-choice format.
One of our staff loses their temper and shouts at you in front of others, how would you____with this?
A) take
B) react
C) handle
D) deal
How about a comprehension test where the candidate reads a paragraph and answers questions? Let’s make the candidate write a short essay about their career and why they would be a good fit. How about a short story with dialog? Of course, they would provide no topic.
And how would the candidate write their short story? On a notepad without the aid of a computer with spell checking. No pressure.
My response to such a test would be: “You know, all word processors now have spelling and grammar checkers. Plus, writers and scholars loaded the internet and textbooks with information.” Hmm, precisely the same reaction as I had to an engineering test.
How often do such writing tests occur? I suspect such tests would be standard for interviewing newspaper or magazine writers. And I am sure those candidates would argue, “You should evaluate my prior work and not put me on the spot with a silly test.”
However, engineers (and I suspect writers) face an additional challenge. Companies forbid employees from disclosing their intellectual property because they sign Non-Disclosure Agreements. As a result, we cannot bring drawings, documents, or products to an interview.
In the past, employees had it easy because companies could not check to see what employees brought to an interview. Now with the internet, companies can learn that employees have violated Non-Disclosure Agreements. Plus, hiring companies are aware of Non-Disclosure Agreements, and it would be a red flag if a potential employee freely broke such an agreement. I suspect writers find this development even more challenging than an engineer.
Fortunately, my blogs do not contain Non-Disclosure Agreements or tests. Wow, a test would annoy my four blog readers. Now, please sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement about the contents of this blog.