Communications for Engineers ENC 3246
Communicating engineering project:
Reporting, visualizing, and presenting your work
[Instructors, I suggest you break this assignment sheet up into smaller units and distribute each as
necessary over the course of the semester. I presented the entire project here to give you an overview
of the entire semester’s work1 but I imagine it would overwhelm students]
Project Overview
Over the course of the semester you’ll compose typical engineering documents centered on an experiment of
your own design. This capstone deliverable for this semester-long project is an engineering report supported
by other deliverables, exercises, quizzes, and homework to develop the skills you’ll need to complete our work.
For due dates and day-to-day information regarding all phases of this collaborative project (all teamwork,
exactly like the word you’d do in industry), please see our calendar.
Deliverables Overview
Your major deliverables for the Communicating Engineering Project:
 Project proposal
 Progress report
 Presentation slides and handout
 Technical report
All major deliverables must:
Demonstrate mastery of the principles covered in the syntax drills and data visualization exercises you will
regularly complete in class and for homework over the course of the semester
Be accompanied by a reflection on how your understanding of syntax, data visualization, and/or professional
ethics influenced your communication
Be accompanied by Team Minutes (collaborative) and group member evaluations (individual). For each
meeting, including those in class, you must make an entry in your Team Minutes. I’ve provided a
customizable template. These minutes help determine your grade in the course. I look to them when
groups jell but especially when they fall apart. Take them seriously.
Deliverable: Project Proposal
Overview of Project Proposal
Your Project Proposal specifies the experiment you will conduct for our class. The experiment itself is up to
you, but it should:
 generate a corpus of data. One of the most important skills you’ll learn in this class is how to visualize
data. We can’t visualize it if your experiment doesn’t generate it.
 speak to the type of engineering you aspire to do professionally. With your instructor’s approval,
you’ll be able to conduct an experiment of your choosing as long as it involves the kind of work you’ll do
after you graduate. So, for example
o Environmental engineers might test methods for disposing mousetraps
o Mechanical engineers might test methods for constructing mousetraps
o Electrical engineers might test methods to build or improve on electrified mousetraps
o Materials engineers might test materials to create mousetraps
o Industrial engineers might experiment with un/efficient methods of mouse trap production
1
all notes in red/brackets are for instructors and not to be included in the assignment sheet
Communications for Engineers ENC 3246
[note: for instructors teaching the industrial engineering-specific sections—very few of you—you can
eliminate the other bullets]
Your experiment can be completely original, you can modify an experiment you’ve already read about, or you
can replicate someone else’s experiment. But it has to be an honest-to-goodness operation you perform for the
sake of discovery that will generate data you can interpret (visually and in word) and then reflect upon the
implications of that data. The scope of your experiment has to be appropriate for our short timeline. You’ll need
to start writing about your data early in the term.
Project Proposal Specifications
To receive permission to conduct your experiment, you must write a project proposal for your instructor. You
can only begin your work after you receive approval for this proposal.
Using Beer & McMurrey as a guide (pp. 109-113), write a proposal in which you:
 introduce your project
 make a proposal statement
 describe your work product
 explain the benefits and feasibility of your project
 describe your methods
 schedule your project work (include a Gantt chart)
 Itemize your costs
[instructors, pick a format for the proposal based on the list on pp. 111-113]
Reflection Memo Specifications
To receive credit for your Proposal, you must also turn in a Reflection Memo (just one for the whole team) at
the same time as your chief deliverable. Please use proper memo format. In your Reflection Memo, address:
 How the syntax drills you’ve completed up to this point influenced your final deliverable. Provide
specific examples to support your claims.
 How the data visualization principles we’ve covered up to this point influenced your final deliverable.
Provide specific examples to support your claims.
Supporting documents for this unit2
Emails:
 Doctors Contract Labor Drilldown.msg
 Employees Over 40 Hours Report 102912.msg
 Fawcett Staffing Grid Questions.msg
 Oak Hill Staffing Grid Questions.msg
 Staffing Grid Questions- Brandon.msg
Deliverable: Progress Report and Elevator Pitch
Overview of Progress Report and Elevator Pitch
You’ll report on the progress of your approved experiment on paper and in person by producing a Progress
Report for your instructor and by giving a brief “elevator pitch” in which you bring the entire class up to speed
on your experiment.
2
Supporting docs are not part of the assignment sheet for students
Communications for Engineers ENC 3246
Progress Report and Elevator Pitch Specifications
After your proposal is approved and you’ve begun your experiment, prepare a Progress Report with the
following contents:
Introduction. Describe the purpose and preview the contents of your report using the syntactic strategies
we’ve been practicing for class.
Project description. Briefly summarize your experiment.
Progress summary. This section is the heart of your report. It contains a record of the problems you’ve
encountered, changes in requirements, and an overall assessment of the project. This section can be arranged
using a time-periods approach, a projects-task approach, or a combined approach (see Beer & McMurrey for
more information, pp. 113-116).
On the day that your turn your Progress Report in, you will also present your experiment’s progress very briefly
to your instructor and the class in a 30 second to 2 minute long “elevator pitch.”
Reflection Memo Specifications
To receive credit for your Progress Report, you must also turn in a Reflection Memo (just one for the whole
team) at the same time as your chief deliverable. In your Reflection Memo, address:
 How the syntax drills you’ve completed up to this point influenced your final deliverable. Provide
specific examples to support your claims.
 How the data visualization principles we’ve covered up to this point influenced your final deliverable.
Provide specific examples to support your claims.
 How your understanding of ethics influenced the linguistic and/or visual content in your final deliverable.
Provide specific examples to support your claims.
[Supporting documents for this unit]
 Need them
Deliverable: Presentation Slides and Handout
Overview of Presentation Slides and Handout
During this formal presentation, you will talk to the class about the data that you have collected so far and
present initial findings. To help your audience follow and remember your talk, you’ll produce slides to project
while you speak and a handout for them to take along with them when they leave. [optional: We’ll also use
social media during your talk as a means of participation. How will you direct this backchannel talk?]
Presentation Slides and Handout Specifications
All team members must take an active part in your presentation (yes, everyone must talk). Your slides must
address:
 The title of your talk and your names
 Problem description
 Project Objective(s)
 Factors to examine and hypothesis to be tested
 Experimental design
 Data collection procedure (including challenges)
Communications for Engineers ENC 3246
 Data analysis to date (including assumptions). Remember to digest your data for your analysis in lieu of
dumping it on a slide for the audience to digest for itself. [instructors, see Technical Report specifications
for more on this very important and challenging work]
 Recommendations based on data analysis to date
Be sure to leave time for Q&A. You’ll have roughly 10 minutes total (6 for your talk and 4 for Q&A).
To accompany your talk, provide the class with 23 copies of a handout. This document should be welldesigned and be no more than one sheet (front and back). We’ll practice with InDesign in class, the document
design program you’ll use to craft this handout.
Reflection Memo Specifications
To receive credit for your Presentation Slides and Handout, you must also turn in a Reflection Memo (just one
for the whole team) at the same time as your chief deliverable. Please use proper memo format. In your
Reflection Memo, address:
 How the syntax drills you’ve completed up to this point influenced your final deliverable. Provide
specific examples to support your claims.
 How the data visualization principles we’ve covered up to this point influenced your final deliverable.
Provide specific examples to support your claims.
 How your understanding of ethics influenced the linguistic and/or visual content in your final deliverable.
Provide specific examples to support your claims.
[Supporting documents for this unit]
 Industrial Engineering Dept Head’s assignment sheet for in class presentations in his own class
(Instructions for Project Presentation and Project Report Submission.docx)
 Slides for L3 presentation (X-Ray Project_Final Version_112111_3-Com.pptx)
 Slides for Fawcett Memorial presentation (Fawcett_Memorial_example_slides.ppt)
 Slides for West Florida Division presentation(Group Process2008 Rev2.ppt)
Deliverable: Technical Report3
Overview of Technical Report
The Technical Report is the capstone project for our class. It requires you to:
Visualize the data you collected for your experiment (in addition to describing it linguistically). Your
report must employ tables and graphs to present the quantitative information your experiment
generated. You’ll select the vehicle most appropriate for purposes and effectively design the table or
graph that is most suited to conveying your data quickly and accurately despite its volume and
complexity.
Interpret the data you collected for your experiment and infer conclusions based on that data. In other
words, your report must make an argument about the data rather than present a data-dump of numbers
for readers to puzzle out on their own. You’ll put the linguistic patterns and textural structures you
practiced in your syntax drills to work as you prioritize your conclusions, explain the reasoning
processes that lead to them, acknowledge aberrant findings, and adapt your report to your managerial
audience (your ENC 3246 instructor) and your technical audience (your engineering instructors).
3
Components and approach from Joanna Wolfe, Cynthia Britt and Kara Poe Alexander (2011) Teaching the IMRaD genre: Sentence
combining and pattern practice revisited in the Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Communications for Engineers ENC 3246
Technical Report Specifications
Style of the Technical Report
Your Technical Report will follow the IMRaD format and include four discrete sections: Introduction, Methods,
Results, and Discussion. It will be bookended by typical front and back matter, including a letter of transmittal,
executive summary, and appendices. Throughout each section of your Technical Report, you will follow
consistent stylistic practices:
 Concepts are stated clearly; the reader has to do minimal work to understand.
 Linguistic patterns and textual structures practiced in syntax drills are used to
o Prioritize more and less important conclusions about data
o Explain the reasoning processes leading to conclusions
o Acknowledge errors and aberrant findings
o Adapt the discussion of data to meet the needs of both technical audiences (e.g., your
engineering professors) and managerial audiences (e.g., your ENC 3246 professor)
 Main sections are
o connected. Transitions, headings, and other cohesive strategies such as document design
effectively connect sections.
o support each other. The relationship between them should be easy to understand.
Components of the Technical Report
Transmittal letter. This cover letter usually includes four paragraphs that provide context for your report. The
contents of each paragraph are explained in Beer & McMurrey pp. 130-132.
Covers and label. The cover protects the report and the label identifies it, it’s sponsoring organization, and its
authors.
Descriptive abstract. Provides an overview of the purpose and content of the report.
Executive summary. Distinct from the abstract. Summarizes key conclusions contained in the report (see
Beer & McMurrey pp. 133-134)..
Table of contents. Use tabs—NOT PERIODS—to appropriate format your TOC. Identify first, second, and
third level headings.
List of figures and tables. Catalog all illustrations, diagrams, graphs, tables, and charts in your report.
Introduction. What did you do?
 Identifies the purpose of the report
 Explains the situation that brought about the need for the report.
 States the research question
 Identifies the scope of the report. State exactly what is and is not covered.
 Provides necessary background for the report, including history, definitions, unfamiliar concepts.
Documents secondary research using sequenced citation system.
Methods. How did you do it?
 Explains how you answered your research question.
 Not conflated with results.
 Includes who participated, what was done, how data were collected.
 Uses passive voice.
Results. What did you find out?
Communications for Engineers ENC 3246
The data collected are thoroughly and persuasively analyzed by using a deductive paragraph structure. For
data analysis, use paragraphs that:
 Begin with a topic sentence summarizing a trend in the data. Start with a statement discussing a main
finding in the data. This statement should
o refer concisely to a data source and
o use language that avoids making inferences that are not fully supported by the data.
 Include a statement pointing out critical data points in support of the first statement. Cite data as
support for the trend you summarized in your topic sentence. Present complex quantitative data using
tables and graphs that can be easily read. Use the principles covered in Stephen Few’s (2011) Show
Me The Numbers
 End with a concluding sentence connecting the trend from the topic sentence to a direct or indirect
recommendation that supports the readers’ goals. Be sure to include primary and secondary audiences
when you analyze your readers’ goals. Use both lexical and conjunctive cohesion to emphasize your
concluding stentence’s connection to the preceding statements (e.g.,These findings therefore show that
the O-ring seal should not be used because it is unreliable at low temperatures).
 Include contradictory data or exceptions to main trends while emphasizing a coherent and consistent
story. Use appropriate subordination and cohesion strategies to acknowledge, explain, and subordinate
these aberrant results to the main conclusions.
Discussion. What do your findings mean? What are they good for?
 Reiterates main findings.
 Explains contradictory data or exceptions to main trends while emphasizing a coherent and consistent
story.
 Acknowledges problems/limitations with the study and explains how these problems should influence
interpretation of the results
 Articulates why the main trends in the data are important (implications).
 Suggests directions for future research.
Appendices. Includes citation list (required) and any information that is helpful for making your argument but
doesn’t quite fit in the main body of the report (optional). Separate each appendix (e.g., Appendix A, Appendix
B, and so on) by topic.
Reflection Memo Specifications
To receive credit for your Technical Report, you must also turn in a Reflection Memo (just one for the whole
team) at the same time as your chief deliverable. Please use proper memo format. In your Reflection Memo,
address:
 How the syntax drills you’ve completed for this class influenced your final deliverable. Provide specific
examples to support your claims.
 How the data visualization principles we’ve covered influenced your final deliverable. Provide specific
examples to support your claims.
 How your understanding of ethics influenced the linguistic and/or visual content in your final deliverable.
Provide specific examples to support your claims.
[Supporting documents for this unit]
 System Cycle Characterization Report (Technical_Report_ex_1.pdf)
 Need more