A Guide to Writing as an Engineer | 
 enlarge | Authors: David F. Beer, David Mcmurrey
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
Buy New: $39.19
New (22) Used (22) from $35.70
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 15962
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0471430749
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.0666
EAN: 9780471430742
ASIN: 0471430749
Publication Date: April 28, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: This book is brand new and in mint condition. Available in stock for immediate dispatch. We are a UK Seller.
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Product Description
A Guide to Writing as an Engineer provides a brief, easy to use guide to the technical writing issues critical to today’s engineering professionals. Specifically constructed with the needs of engineers in mind, this text offers an "engineering-approach" to technical writing and features practical and relevant examples from today’s industry. This book addresses important writing concepts that apply to professional engineering communication. It deals with the content, organization, format, and style of specific kinds of engineering writing such as reports, business letters, office memoranda, and e-mail. It also covers oral presentations and details how to find engineering information, both in the traditional ways and on the Internet.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 Required for class, didn't open it June 22, 2008
There were two required textbooks for my technical writing class, and this was the second, cheaper of the two. I am afraid to say this book went totally unused.
The information in the book is important, but the internet provides all the information covered in this book as well as being more current.
 No hassles whatsoever February 8, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Everything went smoothly and without any hitches. There was no contact which is exactly how its supposed to be.
 Good for engineers, terrible for technical writing instructors July 26, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This handbook provides a decent, quick-and-dirty introduction to technical communication for engineers . It does a good job of dealing with letters and oral presentations (though it does not discuss how to create a good slideshow--just the actual presenting itself). For engineers, then, I give this book three stars.
For technical writing instructors like myself, however, it is almost worthless, and deserves one star.
The main problems which I have with this book include:
* A lack of example documents;
* Some very bland, colorless formatting (though this is better, I suppose, than the unnecessary pyrothechnics to be found, for example, in the Lannon book);
* Virtually nothing is provided for technical writing students who are not themselves going into engineering;
* The advice provided by this book on most topics is extremely minimal. For example, there is a mere four pages on tables, with most formatting advice appearing as a bulleted list with no illustrative examples.
If you are an engineer who wants a cheap and simple introduction to some basic documents, this book will fill the bill--barely. If you are looking for a technical writing textbook to teach with, however, or if you will be writing a wide variety of sophisticated engineering documents and presentations for demanding audiences, then this is not the book for you. For such people, I would instead suggest the 8th edition of Mike Markel's Technical Communication. Alternately, one could buy this book ALONG WITH Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu's Handbook of Technical Writing so as to get fuller writing advice, a large number of sample documents, and so on.
Either way, this book does not impress.
Useful as a quick reference July 6, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book does a good job of focusing on the projects (e.g., reports, memos, proposals, presentations) that engineers are commonly asked to write. It also covers the most common writing mistakes made by engineers (e.g., passive voice). If you need a quick, short answer for a specific task, this book will likely be useful. But it will not provide in-depth training on how to become a better writer. I was also disappointed that it did not address how to work effectively with professional writers or how to provide useful input & reviews - both are common activities for engineers.
A Must September 30, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Any engineering student, or even current engineers, should invest the money to own a copy of this book. It has a concise list of the proper ways to format reports, papers, publications, articles, etc, as well as rules for the correct way to reference sources, edit bibliographies, and include tables, figures diagrams. Basically a one stop source for any engineering documentation guidelines.
Definitely a work of genius!
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