Essay 57 Educating new engineers to write well for themselves The Engineer as Technical Writer and Document Designer: The New Paradigm C. Hugh Marsh College of Engineering University of California at Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106 marsh@engineering.ucsb.edu ike it or not, engineers are becoming technical writers. A key feature of the recent downsizing and consolidating frenzy is the contraction, even disappearance, of traditional "tech pubs" departments in engineering companies. This paper discusses the implications of this trend for working engineers. As many of them become their own technical communicators, how are they handling this new reality? What additional training should they have? Answers to these questions and their implications for the broader field of technical communications suggest a significant shift in the responsibilities of engineers: they must become more versed in the use of desktop publishing software, they must become knowledgeable in standard documentation practices, and they must become muds more sophisticated about reader-centered document design. Now, more than ever, engineers also need the skills to explain their concepts to their various audiences because many of them no longer have technical writers, editors, and artists around to make them look good. L Today's Reality Because traditional technical
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