• Member Price: $800.00 includes text books (Please log in to see Member pricing. Price will automatically update in your cart)

Introduction

The ability to communicate information, precisely, and unambiguously is an essential skill required by engineers. 

Well-trained writers:

1. Save Time: they write better & faster – waste less time in reporting and e-mailing
2. Save Money: confident communicators make fewer mistakes
3. Build Better Client Relationships
4. Deliver Higher Quality Product: clients often equate their perceptions of engineering quality based on document quality
5. Dramatically Reduce Senior Consultant Stress: established training and guidelines help younger writers improve their skills faster, and reduce the last-minute document review pressure on senior members of the company

This 12-credit instructor-led certificate course consists of 6 modules (2 hours each), covering skills essential in the engineering sectors:

1: CLIENT PLEASING REPORTS

In this first module, we analyze what clients want from engineering and scientific reports, and tried and true methods that work to increase client satisfaction.

Well-written reports are essential to any scientific, engineering, or business work. High-quality reports communicate effectively with clients and other parties on the project and keep a solid, accurate record of activities on a project over time.

Based on decades of international consulting experience from hundreds of engineers, this course explores the pieces of a well-written report and how to present them very well.

2: TECHNICAL WRITING BASICS AND STYLES

Consistency, correctness, and accuracy are important in spelling, data presentation, community portrayal, and more. If you are sloppy about those details, clients may get the impression that your engineering would be sloppy, as well.

Learn the tools and refinements to turn out polished and professional papers. Not only will you look good, but learning consistency will also help you to stay on the right side of any legal issues.

3: GRAMMAR AND CLARITY

Most junior consultants believe that they do not need or want to learn a grammar module, and yet many senior engineers report that they find it essential that younger staff review the basic rules of English.

This module at least alleviates the boredom of typical grammar study. It covers the basics of grammatical correctness, but in a functional engineering-minded way, and then gets down to the magic of using grammar to communicate clearly and cleanly, the kind of writing that makes colleagues and clients relax and enjoy your communications instead of dreading them.

This section also covers common errors, correct English grammar, and some plain language and readability considerations.

4: REVIEWING TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS

Senior technical review is an important step in mentoring and quality control.

However, too often, the busiest people in a company, with the most expensive billable hours, end up wasting countless hours fixing simple mistakes that should have been caught at earlier stages. Effective language review before it goes to senior technical reviewers can save the company and team frustration, time, and money.

This module offers a step-by-step method to maximize efficiency, collaborate effectively, and catch as many errors as possible to be a team that turns out top-quality papers and communications. The procedures in this course can also help with training and designating less senior people to help streamline these essential quality processes.

5: TEAM & CLIENT COMMUNICATIONS

With our modern online and hybrid work environments, it is more essential than ever to communicate clearly, effectively, and kindly to maintain relationships and keep projects running smoothly.

In this module we cover strategies to more functionally communicate with clients, team-mates, supervisors, and subcontractors. Clear and thoughtful communications can avoid legal difficulties.

6: ENGAGING TECHNICAL PRESENTATIONS

This course offers a set of best practices so that audiences will be able to see and understand your slides clearly… but also goes beyond PowerPoint to discuss a variety of tricks and theory, both new and old, to keep audiences engaged, entertained, and learning enough so that both you and your technical message are memorable.

Making better presentations can help to build more interesting relationships when presenting at conferences, sell your services to clients, deliver your message better, and spread your ideas more effectively.

Activities

Final project with individual feedback from the instructor.

Dates

• September 12 and 26
• October 10 and 24
• November 7 and 21
• Sessions will be from 3:30pm – 5:30pm (EST)

Course Fees

MEMBER FEE | $800.00

NON-MEMBER / NEW-MEMBER FEE | $965.00

Course materials will be mailed before the start of the program. There are no additional fees for textbooks.

Credential Awarded

Upon successful completion of the program, learners are awarded a certificate of completion. This program qualifies you for 12 hours of continuing professional development credits. 

About the Instructor

Christa Bedwin, B.Sc. in Chemistry, & a B.Ed.

The content for this program was developed by Christa Bedwin, B.Ed., B.Sc., a Senior Technical Editor, with 20 years’ experience coaching scientific and engineering writers, and editing for industry, government, academia, and educational and trade publishers. Specializing in engineering and the environment, Christa has taught technical writing to professional engineers and scientists in Canada and internationally. She has published three textbooks about writing for scientific reporting consultants, and has contributed chapters to Editors Canada’s publications Editing Canadian English and its companion volume, Editorial Niches.