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Engineering Your Future: A Comprehensive Introduction To Engineering
Students can not make an educated decision about what career to pursue without adequate information. This Comprehensive Version from our EYF Series provides a broad introduction to the study and practice of engineering. In addition to presenting vital information, we have made it interesting and easy to read.
- GenresTextbooks
606 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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About the author
William C. Oakes
30 books1 followerLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 26, 2012
“Engineering Your Future” introduces students to the field of engineering using a holistic approach. Perhaps too holistic.
There are the kinds of sections you would expect to see, describing some of the fields of engineering or explaining some of the common mathematical and computer tools used by professionals. The book also spends a great deal of time going over the more esoteric issues that confront engineers: teamwork fundamentals or formats for writing technical reports.
Then there are some chapters that seem to have little to do with engineering at all. There's a chapter on securing financial aid, and a section called “Orienting Yourself to Your Campus.” There are, no doubt, some useful tips for students (of any major) in these pages, but nothing you can't find for free on your campus website. All the extra material makes you wonder if the authors were really just trying to find a way to charge more for the book.
“Engineering Your Future” shifts wildly in quality from chapter to chapter. Some are organized in a clear and concise manner. Others are rife with grammatical errors or lack any conceptual thread to guide one through the sections.
A few sections are particularly problematic. Chapter Seven (“Succeeding in the Classroom”) is full of bad science. It perpetuates the myth of “learning styles” (i.e., auditory, visual, kinesthetic) for which there is little evidence to support. It suggests students characterize themselves according to Hermann's Brain Dominance Instrument to identify their thinking styles, another tool that has been panned by communication researchers. The most recent review in the highly respected "Mental Measurements Yearbook/Tests in Print" was written by Gabriele van Lingen, Professor of Educational Studies, Leadership and Counseling at Murray State University in KY. She concluded that “despite decades of research, there is only minimal credible evidence that the HBDI results in scores that are temporally stable and that the scores relate to meaningful nontest behavior.”
Though there are sections of the book that are worth reading, “Engineering Your Future” could better accomplish its task if the authors narrowed their focus and revised the most important chapters for grammar and style.
There are the kinds of sections you would expect to see, describing some of the fields of engineering or explaining some of the common mathematical and computer tools used by professionals. The book also spends a great deal of time going over the more esoteric issues that confront engineers: teamwork fundamentals or formats for writing technical reports.
Then there are some chapters that seem to have little to do with engineering at all. There's a chapter on securing financial aid, and a section called “Orienting Yourself to Your Campus.” There are, no doubt, some useful tips for students (of any major) in these pages, but nothing you can't find for free on your campus website. All the extra material makes you wonder if the authors were really just trying to find a way to charge more for the book.
“Engineering Your Future” shifts wildly in quality from chapter to chapter. Some are organized in a clear and concise manner. Others are rife with grammatical errors or lack any conceptual thread to guide one through the sections.
A few sections are particularly problematic. Chapter Seven (“Succeeding in the Classroom”) is full of bad science. It perpetuates the myth of “learning styles” (i.e., auditory, visual, kinesthetic) for which there is little evidence to support. It suggests students characterize themselves according to Hermann's Brain Dominance Instrument to identify their thinking styles, another tool that has been panned by communication researchers. The most recent review in the highly respected "Mental Measurements Yearbook/Tests in Print" was written by Gabriele van Lingen, Professor of Educational Studies, Leadership and Counseling at Murray State University in KY. She concluded that “despite decades of research, there is only minimal credible evidence that the HBDI results in scores that are temporally stable and that the scores relate to meaningful nontest behavior.”
Though there are sections of the book that are worth reading, “Engineering Your Future” could better accomplish its task if the authors narrowed their focus and revised the most important chapters for grammar and style.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews