Preface

PURPOSE

Practicing engineers spend about half of their work time communicating, that is, asking, listening, writing, speaking, and using visuals to convey ideas, information, and feelings from one person to one or more others. They ask colleagues for technical help, answer probing questions from demanding clients, write major reports that urge the implementation of costly recommendations, speak about controversial environmental issues at national conferences, and prepare images to illustrate complex processes. There is some truth in the stereotypical image of engineers; that is, too many engineers communicate poorly. That deficiency can be corrected with this book’s multi‐modal approach—asking, listening, writing, speaking, and using visuals.

Furthermore, while communication knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) have always been an essential part of engineering practice, communication’s importance has increased in recent decades. Various forces drive the need for enhanced communication within all engineering disciplines. Some examples include increased public access, via social media and the press, to information about environmental and infrastructure issues; a more informed, concerned, and engaged public; explosion of regulations; societal divisiveness; fear of crime and terrorism; and global uncertainties. This increased complexity trend will continue, and all aspects of it have engineering components and require communicative engineers.

Accordingly, for the benefit of society, more of today’s and tomorrow’s engineers should complement their technical competency with communication competency in order to function and sometimes lead in an increasingly complex socio‐economic‐political environment. That is the motivation for writing this book. More specifically, its purpose is to:

• Demonstrate how effective communication results in successful engineering projects and other engineering endeavors: Engineering students and practitioners should understand the critical role of communication in project success. Miscommunication frequently produces failures resulting in fatalities, injuries, and property and environmental destruction.
• Describe effective communication as drawing on six communication modes: Asking, listening, writing, speaking, visuals, and mathematics—to convey ideas, information, and feelings.
• Show how to apply the first five modes, using hypothetical and actual engineering situations: The intended result: communicative engineers; a safer society; and better‐served clients, customers, and stakeholders.

The book’s premise is that the most highly successful engineers across all disciplines, as measured by value added, societal impact, and personal gain, are those with technical and non‐technical KSA sets. Communication is the prime non‐technical component.

AUDIENCES: STUDENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

I wrote The Communicative Engineer: How to Ask, Listen, Write, Speak, and Use Visuals with the assumption that readers are primarily undergraduate or graduate students in engineering. The secondary audience is engineering practitioners and students or practitioners in similar technical and scientific communities. The book assumes readers are receptive to a proactively build communication competency to complement their evolving technical/scientific competencies.

Instructors might select this book as the text for a comprehensive communication course. Another or supplemental approach would be for faculty to expect students to use the book as a resource for many of their undergraduate and graduate courses, as they proceed through the curriculum from their first year of engineering study on to their ultimate degree goal. This text could be the resource that supports a communication‐across‐the‐curriculum program.

Students, beginning with their first year of college, will find much of the material in this book immediately useful. It will help them complete writing assignments in their engineering and non‐engineering courses; prepare for presentations to classmates and faculty; interact with team members; be more productive during internships and summer jobs; interview with prospective employers; and clarify their thinking about important topics and issues.

I hope students will find the book to be so helpful that they will continue to use it as engineering practitioners. Given the book’s foundation of communication fundamentals, I believe that it will also be applicable outside of engineering—especially to student and practitioner members of the larger scientific‐technical‐business community.

Speaking of practitioners, engineers in practice can use The Communicative Engineer in a just‐in‐time manner. For example, when asked to lead the writing of a report for your project team, go immediately to Chapter 3, “Writing,” or, if offered a speaking opportunity, explore Chapter 4, “Speaking,” for guidance.

Instead of working methodically through the book in a chapter‐by‐chapter manner, students could use the book while in college in a “pop in and pop out” manner. I designed it so students and practitioners can find what they need when they need it. The Communicative Engineer offers a detailed index along with a table of contents that includes many headings and subheadings. The text often refers to other relevant sections, which directs readers to additional useful material.

This book will prove useful in supporting the internal education and training programs of business, public, and academic sector employers of engineers in all disciplines. Engineering societies, such as the five founder societies, which are the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), can confidently use this book as the foundation of their communication programs.

The Communicative Engineer will also strengthen the continuing education programs of associations that include engineers and non‐engineers. Some examples are the American Public Works Association (APWA), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and the Energy Management Association (EMA). The book’s fundamentals, enhanced with tailored versions of its examples and exercises, will support communication webinars, seminars, and workshops attended by practicing engineers and other technical and non‐technical personnel.

ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT

Chapter 1 defines communication and describes its benefits for individual engineers, their employers, and the individuals and entities they serve. It also illustrates the costs, monetary and otherwise, of poor or failed communication. The chapter introduces the five modes of communication—asking, listening, writing, speaking, and use of visuals—and establishes principles applicable to essentially all modes. The text argues that engineers are poised to be good to great communicators. Finally, as a means of encouraging and inspiring readers, Chapter 1 introduces some exemplary engineer communicators and shares some of their statements.

Chapter 2 addresses the related asking and listening modes, which are the basis for effective interpersonal communication, and offers practical tips. With those two basic modes as a starting point, Chapters 3, 4, and 5 address, respectively, the more complex writing, speaking, and visual communication modes. After describing the fundamentals of a mode, its chapter shows, in pragmatic fashion, how to apply those fundamentals using hypothetical and actual engineering situations. The Communicative Engineer frequently reminds readers that, ultimately, they are responsible for developing their communication KSA.

Each chapter begins with a list of learning objectives—that is, what I hope you will learn and be able to do after working through the chapter. Chapters include many true personal and other stories to illustrate the text’s ideas and content.

Chapters conclude with a list of key points followed by cited references and exercises. The numbering system used with chapter headings and subheadings (e.g., 1.5 and 1.5.2) enables helpful back‐and‐forth references within a chapter or to any other part of the book.

The Communicative Engineer occasionally offers communication guidance and advice specifically for practicing engineers. These practitioner suggestions are also of value to engineering students because they see how the fundamentals presented in the book are ultimately applicable to practice.

Exercises, which appear at the end of all chapters, provide opportunities to use communication fundamentals and techniques presented in the chapters. Many exercises are well suited for modest to major team projects. Teamwork, especially when the teams are composed of cognitively diverse individuals, stimulates using and becoming more proficient with various forms of communication. Therefore, instructors could assign some exercises as team projects. In that way, students will learn more about the subject matter and become even better communicators and team members.

The book’s seven appendices provide supplemental material. Topics: abbreviations, introductions to communicative engineers,...