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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Info Post
By Jocelyn Davidson


A crucial aspect of engineering lies in the ability to properly relay ideas, findings and projects to the relevant bodies. The main reason of writing engineering reports and proposals is to seek grants from funding agencies, for publication in peer reviewed journals and for updating relevant agencies on the progress of projects.

The goal or reason of writing is an important aspect to consider when writing engineering documents. The purpose of writing is to convince the reader that you are qualified for the job and that the project is scientifically and economically viable. Most engineers wrongly assume that convincing is not part of their job but it indeed is as most clients may not be able to understand the terms used in the documents.

The audience is also a factor to be considered while writing. They cannot pay for information they already know therefore they are supposed to learn something new. The problem should be clearly stated and the solutions to it explained clearly. Background information should be used to provide more information so that readers are able to put them the problem and solution into perspective. It is important that the audience understands that you are the expert in that specific field.

Proposals can be written by any engineer both in academia and consultants. Funding agencies need to see a project proposal before funding as it is an assurance that money is channeled in the right project and in the right way. Clients also need to see them to know how their problem is being addressed and if it fits what they had in mind. These documents are important because they spell the objectives, way of doing, cost and also the time the project will run.

A good proposal is composed of six important elements. The first is an executive summary which is a page long summary of the proposal. Its work is to explain the aim, expenses, qualifications and other program essentials in a very brief format. The details of the purpose of project, the background information and project overview are found in the introduction section.

The project objectives, methods and evaluation are to be found in the project description section. A time frame and the budget bearing all the over heads and estimated cost are also found here. They should in form of charts, diagrams and tables. In the last section is a list of particular team to be involved and their education and professional qualifications.

Engineering proposals and reports are similar in that they both have sections such as the executive summary and the introduction section. Reports have additional sections which include theory and analysis, results and discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement, reference and appendix. The theory and analysis section defines the applied laws, principles and equations. The method section is a list of apparatus and instruments used. Results are presented in the results section and conclusions drawn.

In conclusion, remember to organize your writing to increase readability. Format the document including headings and text in the acceptable way. In addition, any graphs, pictures and tables used should be labeled. Lastly, the content of proposal or report should determine the style of writing and organization used.




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