Communication Skills - Unit 1: Lecture Notes
Place and Purpose of Communication in technical training and professions
Why should engineers, scientists, and other technical professionals study technical writing or
speaking?
1. For Social and Ethical reasons: Our world is interactive so communication is
diverse. More commerce cuts across geographical, occupational, cultural and
linguistic boundaries. Computer programmers talk to business managers,
paediatricians with psychologists, molecular biologists with chemists etc. Even
though communication is carried out in English today, there are many possibilities
for miscommunication. The English of one occupation/country is different from
the English of another. Ethical Technical communication mediates conflicts.
2. Legal Considerations: Failure to appreciate the ethical dimensions of technical
communication can have serious human and legal consequences:
a. Accidents in the home
b. Accidents in the workplace
c. Follow-up investigations showed that accidents could have been averted
by better technical communication
d. If consumers misunderstand assembly instructions or operating manuals,
the consequences can be serious. To protect themselves from such
problems, product documentation should be written in such a way that
consumers are unlikely to misunderstand it.
3. The Frequency of technical communication
a. Varies from job to job
b. Mainly spent in meetings, conversing and writing
4. The Collaborative nature of technical communication
a. Collaboration across geographical areas – planning, writing, meeting,
negotiating, designing, and decision-making
b. Making proposals
i. Successful writers interacted with their target readers (Rachel
Spilka)
5. The Computerization of technical communication
a. Production of complex documents with embedded and editable pictures,
graphs, spread sheets, mathematical expressions, charts etc. made easier
6. The international nature of technical communication
a. Move towards a single global economy ‘the information age’
b. Good writing skills are necessary for the internationalized world
Most technical writers work in organizational settings where team work is essential
For many technical professions, the ultimate product of their work is a written
document (if the document is written badly, it does not only reflect the individual but
the organization)
Therefore communication skills are important because, according to research, they rank
above any other type of skill. The critical skills are technical writing, public speaking,
working with individuals, working with groups and talking with people (p.4).
In professional settings, your writing ability is considered in promotion decisions.
Reference:
Huckin T.N., Olsen L.A., 1991. Technical Writing and Professional Communication For
Nonnative Speakers of English. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., pp 4-11
Technical English and Common Core English
1. Technical Communication is exposition about scientific subjects.
2. Technical Communication uses technical vocabulary
3. Technical Communication is objective through accurate and concise information (no
emotions)
4. Technical Communication is designed for random access and not read in a linear
sequence
5. Technical Communication It uses complex and important writing techniques –
description of processes, objects and mechanisms, classification etc.
6. Common Core English is non-technical
