Writing and Presenting Technical Documents
Why?
Students from engineering and science backgrounds are trained in problemsolving and converting numbers into eg constructions; however they rarely have the opportunity to practice their communication skills in writing, particularly in English which is nowadays the main language of science.
What?
The seminar introduces the basic concepts and types of technical writing and familiarizes students with the language, style and presentation skills required in this particular genre. It also inculcates elements of scientific writing ethics and is complemented with practice on technical writing and proposal presentation.
More http://www.sefi.be
Newsleeter in greek April 2010
So?
While working and writing my Ph.D. dissertation, I very often use what I was taught at the seminar "Writing and Presenting Technical Documents in English" in the academic year 2005-06.
The core of the seminar syllabus –described by its title- namely how to write a technical text, how to improve it in language and style and how to present it, cover essential areas which are important for a scientist. Moreover the seminar enabled me to clarify how to identify and attain the focus of a research, how to develop my rationale, how to use references and how to identify my audience needs and present my work accordingly.
I would like to point out that this seminar motivated me a lot and so I attended similar seminars at the University of Vienna and searched for similar textbooks. However, I can say with certainty that the knowledge and the stimuli gained from this seminar is much more than anything I have seen and read on.
In my opinion, the seminar exceeds what its title suggests; it forms the background for building the scientific attitude and ethics. It would have been very difficult and time consuming to reach this knowledge relying solely on experience gained over years.
Panagiotis
Graduate Civil Engineer AUTH
PhD student - research associate
University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU)
Institute of Structural Engineering Institute of Structural Engineering
