El Paso Community College

Technical Business Writing for Engineers

Course Name

Technical Business Writing for Engineers

Contact Hours: 24 (an estimated time frame devoted to a course of study from start to finish that can vary from student to student)

Course Description

This class provides a foundation for engineers and other technical communicators who are seeking to be more proficient at writing technical documentation. The certificate course provides a fundamental description of the necessary steps in planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing/submitting technical content.

The student is introduced to professionally written short and long form business and technical documents. As part of simulation exercises, some documents are poorly written and in need of revision. This approach helps engineers review and learn from several exercises based on improvement in key areas such as language usage and standard formatting requirements.

Emphasis is placed on business reports, proposals and other types of technical content that an engineer will encounter in the workplace.

Outcome

Upon the successful conclusion of this course, students will have not only acquired essential knowledge but also developed the proficiency needed to seamlessly apply this newfound understanding to the practical demands and specific requirements of the workplace. This achievement signifies a readiness to effectively contribute to your professional duties, and adding tangible value to assigned roles and responsibilities.

Assessment

This course has weekly writing assignments that are evaluated on a pass/revision basis.

Outline

Lesson 1--Business Communications and Short Form Documents

  • Business Letters
  • Memorandums
  • Case studies and simulations
  • Evaluation of poorly written documents
  • Analysis of well-written documents
  • Writing assignments

Lesson 2- Assignment Reports

  • Business Reports
  • Technical Reports
  • Case studies and simulations
  • Evaluation of poorly written documents
  • Analysis of well-written documents
  • Writing assignments

Lesson 3- Business and Technical Proposals

  • Case studies and simulations
  • Evaluation of poorly written documents
  • Analysis of well-written documents
  • Writing assignments
  • End of Course Survey