Cleveland State University
EEC 414/503, ESC 720
Writing in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Lecture 1 – Introduction
Dan Simon
The Importance of Communication
• 96% of employers say that employees must have
good communication skills [Markel]
• 80% of Fortune 400 companies identify writing
skills as their greatest weakness [Markel]
• “Without communication there is no engineering.”
[Gunn]
• A professional engineer spends up to 80% of the
time communicating with others [Oatheimer]
• “If you cannot communicate, you are less valuable;
if you can, you are more valuable.” [Markel]
2
The Importance of Communication
How do you objectively identify senior
engineering qualities? [Lee]
– Instinct and intuition
– Foresight and planning
– Result oriented
– Communication skills
– Time management
How can we improve
our communication
skills?
3
Types of Engineering Communication
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Memos, emails, letters
Instructions, manuals
Proposals
Reports
Oral presentations
Web sites
Articles
Theses
4
Beginning
Writers
Intermediate
Writers
Advanced
Writers
Most important
aspect of writing
Tendency to
summarize
Focus and
argument
Disciplinaryspecific writing
Definition of
knowledge
Facts
Synthesis
Novel synthesis or
invention
Definition of
writing
Grammar
Grammar and
style
Focused and
audience-driven
Audience
Self
Others
Multiple
audiences
Revision
None
Some
Revision based on
expert feedback
Grammar, style,
and citations
Lack of familiarity
Correct style,
grammar, and
citations
Correct style and
grammar, and
discipline-specific
citations
5
Your First Assignment
Write a one-page essay related to one of the following
topics, or some other engineering topic
•
•
•
•
•
How to develop and tune an effective control algorithm
How to design and test a power electronics circuit
The importance of electronic communications in 21st-century America
Methods for software testing
Potential pitfalls when designing a computer networking protocol
Closed book, closed notes
Write neatly
You have 10 minutes
If you finish early, keep your paper with you and wait
6
Your First Assignment
Answer these questions on the back of the page
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Did you put your name and the date at the top of the essay?
What is a one-sentence description of the focus of the essay?
How many paragraphs are in your essay?
How many sentences are in each paragraph?
How many words are in each sentence?
How many one-syllable words did you use? Two-syllable
words? Words of more than two syllables?
7. How many contractions did you use?
Hand in your paper
7
Characteristics of Good Communication
(Markel’s book)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
8
1. Address your particular audience
• What is your audience’s level of knowledge?
Avoid being overly simple or overly complex.
– Example: A technical proposal to NASA or the NSF
should not include an overview of fuzzy logic
– Example: An overview of fuzzy logic to
management should not include defuzzification
equations
9
1. Address your particular audience
• Address your particular audience. What is
your audience’s interest?
– Example: An academic research paper should not
include a cost/benefit analysis, but it could be
included in a thesis
– Example: A proposal to management for a new
control approach should not include a stability
proof
10
Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
11
2. Use both words and graphics
• Why use graphics?
– A picture is worth a thousand words
– Make your writing more interesting and appealing
– Communicate difficult concepts
– Communicate large amounts of data
• Use flowcharts and algorithm listings
• Make sure you explain your figures and tables
• Use color as appropriate
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2. Use both words and graphics
1
The figure looks
fine in color, but
not in black and
white.
sine
cosine
0.5
0
-0.5
-1
0
2
4
6
8
Do not rely on
color unless you
are sure that it
will always be
available.
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2. Use both words and graphics
The price of soybeans is $1.45 per pound in Zambia and
$1.67 in Sweden. The price of rice is $0.65 per pound in
Zambia and $0.63 in Sweden. We see that soybeans are
more expensive in Sweden, but rice is more expensive in
Zambia.
Soybeans Rice
Zambia $1.45
$0.65
Sweden $1.67
$0.63
14
Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
15
3. Write clearly
•
•
•
•
What question does your report answer?
What is the focus of your report (thesis)?
Does the entire report support your focus?
Is your report organized well?
– Between-section level
– Within-section level
16
3. Write clearly
It is necessary for technical reasons that these
warheads be stored upside down, that is, with the
top at the bottom and the bottom at the top. In
order that there be no doubt as to which is the
bottom and which is the top, for storage purposes, it
will be seen that the bottom of each warhead has
been labeled 'TOP'.
British navy instructions [Markel]
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3. Write clearly
• Unclear: Such preparations shall be made as
will completely obscure all Federal buildings
and non-Federal buildings occupied by the
Federal government during an air raid for any
period of time from visibility by reason of
internal or external illumination. [Zinsser]
• Clear: In buildings where you have to keep
the work going, put something across the
windows.
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3. Write clearly
• Make sure antecedents are well defined
– John built the experimental setup. Elmer and Fred
conducted the experiment. They destroyed the lab
and should be fired.
– John built the experimental setup. Elmer and Fred
conducted the experiment. Elmer and Fred
destroyed the lab and should be fired.
19
Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
20
4. Write accurately
• Inaccuracy confuses and annoys readers
• Accuracy is an ethical consideration
• Inaccuracy casts doubt on your entire
document
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4. Write accurately
• Accuracy includes completeness
• Two types of deceit
– Commission
– Omission
Example: A new controller tracks to within 1% of
the setpoint, while PID tracks to within 10%. But
what were the tuning parameters?
• Avoid spin; we are not salespersons
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4. Write accurately
•
•
•
•
•
Accuracy includes corect spelllling.
Accuracy, includes correct punctuation.
Accuracy include correct grammar.
accuracy Includes correct Capitalization.
Accuracy includes correct spacing.
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4. Write accurately
• Technical writing should be objective and
unbiased. It should not be sales literature.
– Ugly: Our new optimization algorithm far
outperforms all other methods and is clearly the
best algorithm that has ever been invented.
– Bad: Our new optimization algorithm outperforms
differential evolution.
– Good: Our new algorithm outperforms differential
evolution in terms of convergence speed for the
benchmarks that we investigated and the tuning
parameters that we used.
24
Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
25
5. Write comprehensively
• Provide background
– Technology background
– Define acronyms (within reason)
– Experiment background
• Provide detail
• Clearly refer to supporting materials
• Allow (even encourage) the reader to
reproduce your results
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5. Write comprehensively
• This paper discusses various experiments
with FCs, including tradeoffs related to
materials and tolerances.
• Flux capacitors (FCs) are a new …
Initial research was reported in …
This paper discusses various experiments
with FCs, including tradeoffs related to
materials and tolerances.
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5. Write comprehensively
• Genetic algorithm results are shown in Fig. 3.
• The genetic algorithm was run with a
mutation rate of 0.01, a crossover rate of 0.9,
a population size of 50, an elitism parameter
of 4, and roulette wheel selection. Results
are shown in Fig. 3. These results can be
duplicated with the PIC assembly code that is
available at www.micropicga.com.
28
Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
29
6. Write accessibly
Make your writing clear and organized
• Abstract: 100200 word summary of results
• Introduction, including overview of paper
• Sections
– Subsections
•
•
Paragraphs
Conclusion
– Summary
– Future work
•
•
References
Appendices
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Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
31
7. Write concisely
• Eliminate and eradicate words and terms
which, due to their repetitiveness and
redundancy, do not serve a useful or
functional purpose, and that do not add to
the intended meaning.
• Eliminate unnecessary words.
32
7. Write concisely
• Use short words
– The proposed methodology endeavors to facilitate
the utilization of the assembler.
– The proposed method makes it easier to use the
assembler.
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7. Write concisely
• Replace phrases with words
– Our students’ excellence is due to the fact that
professors are hired for the purpose of teaching,
with the possible exception of Dr. Einstein.
– Our students’ excellence is because professors are
hired for teaching, except Dr. Einstein.
34
7. Write concisely
• Replace phrases with words
– This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of
cancer biology study design, using as examples
studies that illustrate the methodological
challenges or that demonstrate successful
solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological
research.
35
7. Write concisely
• Replace phrases with words
– This paper provides a review of the basic tenets of
cancer biology study design, using as examples
studies that illustrate the methodological
challenges or that demonstrate successful
solutions to the difficulties inherent in biological
research.
– This paper reviews cancer biology study design,
using examples that illustrate the challenges and
solutions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91jo4kX7Cq0
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7. Write concisely
Replace verb-noun combinations with active verbs
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•
•
•
•
•
•
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Obtain estimates of  Estimate
Has seen an expansion of  Has expanded
Provides an emphasis  Emphasizes
Take an assessment of  Assess
Conduct a review of  Review
Offer confirmation  Confirm
Make a decision  Decide
Shows a peak  Peaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-NZFSrqHB0
37
Characteristics of Good Communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Address your particular audience
Use both words and graphics
Write clearly
Write accurately
Write comprehensively
Write accessibly (i.e., be organized)
Write concisely
Write professionally
38
8. Write professionally
• Your writing is a reflection of your ability
• Referencing and ethics (Lectures 2 and 3)
• Use correct and consistent formatting
–
–
–
–
–
–
Page layout
Section headings
Margins
Font
Capitalization
Reference formatting
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8. Write professionally
Ugly example of bad formatting:
This is an approach for finding the closest correlation matrix of a
user-specified rank to a given matrix, where some elements of the
matrix are constrained to be zero. This is the first time that this
particular problem has been studied. If there are no constraints
then our method reduces to that proposed in [1] and convergence is
guaranteed. If constraints are specified in the problem then we
cannot guarantee convergence, or even
feasibility, depending on the constraints and the rank of
the matrix.
40
8. Write professionally
Ugly example of inconsistent section headings:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. Constrained Correlation
3. Feasibility and convergence
4. CONCLUSION
What is the correct format?
41
8. Write professionally: References
• Use consistent reference formatting,
regardless of the format of the original
reference
• Include enough information in the reference
so that the reader can find the reference
• Do not use internet references in your paper
– Use them for quick background research
42
8. Write professionally: References
Ugly example of inconsistent reference formatting:
1. Chen M, Linkens D.  A Systematic Neuro-Fuzzy Modelling
Framework, IEEE Transactions on System, Man, and
Cybernetics, 31, 5, 781–790 , 2001.
2. M. Dische, “Observations on the morphological changes
of the developing heart”, Cardiovascular Clinics, Vol. 4 (3),
pp. 175 -191,1972
3. Jim Johnson and Nigel Flowers. Diagnostic accuracy of the
ECG, Cardiovascular Clinics, volume 8(3) 25-40, 1977
4. Macfarlane P W – Is electrocardiography still useful in the
diagnosis of cardiac chamber hypertrophy and dilatation?,
Cardiology Clinics 24, number 3, p.401-411, March 2006
43
8. Write professionally: References
Journal Paper:
[1] B. Igelnik and D. Simon, “The eigenvalues of a tridiagonal matrix in
biogeography,” Applied Mathematics and Computing, vol. 218, no. 1,
pp. 195–201, September 2011.
Conference Paper:
[2] H. Ma and D. Simon, “Biogeography-based optimization with blended
migration for constrained optimization,” Genetic and Evolutionary
Computation Conference, Portland, Oregon, pp. 417–418, July 2010.
Book Chapter:
[3] P. Lozovyy, G. Thomas, and D. Simon, “Biogeography-based optimization
for robot controller tuning,” in: Computational Modeling and Simulation of
Intellect (B. Igelnik, editor) IGI Global, pp. 162–181, 2011.
Book:
[4] D. Simon, Optimal State Estimation, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
44
8. Write professionally: References
IEEE: www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf
APA: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01
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Conclusion: The Simplicity of
Effective Communication
“… a great many people who pass in society as being
polished, refined and educated use less [than 2,000
words] … The greatest scholar alive hasn’t more than
four thousand different words at his command, and he
never has occasion to use half the number.” [Devlin]
46
References
• J. Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly, 1910
• C. Gunn, Engineering graduate students as evaluators of
communication skills. Proc. ASEE Annual Conf.,
Washington, DC, USA, 287-290, 1995
• P. Lee, Identifying Senior Software Engineers: Six Critical
Differences, www.prestonlee.com, August 20, 2008
• M. Markel, Technical Communication, Chapter 1,
Appendix D, “Guidelines for Multilingual Writers (ESL)”
• M. Oatheimer and E. White, Portfolio assessment in an
American engineering college. Assessing Writing, 10, 6173, 2005
• W. Zinsser, On Writing Well, 2006
47