I love to tinker and write technical reports like the best of my ilk. But I also have a secret life. I write novels.

When I was an engineering student, back before Microsoft existed (that’s right, before you were probably born), I used to think my novel writing was strange. Yeah I put in my time in the lab, wrangling greasy diesel engines back to life but I had interests in poetry and English literature and even fine art. Unlike my classmates my engineering vocabulary of friction coefficients and enthalpy was augmented with words like pentameter, intaglio, and gouache.

Over time, I realized that being multifaceted in this way was super cool. I found out it was good for my mental health and it made me a better engineering student.

I can hear your excuses from here. Hobbies are expensive. Hobbies are hard. Hobbies are boring. Hobbies take time. My response: Cue the violins. The worst of all excuses for not pursuing a hobby: I’m not talented that way. That’s a cop out and reveals the crippling fixation that the do-it-quick developed world has with perfection. Hobbies aren’t made for perfecting; they are made for developing … slowly … over time.

I’ve noticed that my secret life feeds my introversion. Yes, I’m an introvert. No surprise there. But hobbies are not only for introverts. Extroverts benefit from having a fulfilling secret life as well. Mechanical engineer, PBS show host, inventor, and human beat box Nate Ball is one example of that. Introversion is not just for introverts.

The picture above shows UNC Charlotte civil engineering student, Timothy Dinsmore, with his guitar. Timothy’s secret life, playing the classical guitar, led him to a double major in music performance. Read more about him and hear him play. His secret life gives him structure and harmony.

Okay, I know hobbies take time away from working and studying but that’s the point. The brain needs, yes even craves, time away from our beloved analytical left-brained activity. As we drive ourselves to technological achievement, we’ve taught ourselves to quiet that still small voice that cries out for satisfying, creative diversion.

For a little fun reading about the secret lives of other engineers, visit PBS Nova.

As a freshman engineering instructor I get to read a lot of writing assignments. In fact, in my intro to engineering class, we have more writing assignments than math assignments. Remember engineers write a lot. Bad writing not only reflects poorly on you as a person but could cost you a great job opportunity.

First-year engineering students are notorious for bad writing. Maybe it’s because no one ever taught them how to write well in high school. Or maybe it’s because no one stressed the importance of good writing for engineering. Whatever the case, this post offers a few steps for all struggling engineering students who hate to write.

(Engineers like steps right?)

THE STEPS 

• Step 1: Read and understand the assignment. Make sure you’re doing exactly what’s being asked of you.
• Step 2: Outline your approach. Don’t ever start writing an assignment without outlining it first.
• Step 3: Write your assignment. This is your first draft. Start far enough in advance that you have time to rewrite later.
• Step 4: Take a break. Step away from your writing for a few hours or even a day.
• Step 5: Revise what you wrote in Step 3. Consider your rough draft with fresh eyes.

MORE ON OUTLINING, REWRITING, AND OTHER GOOD BUT TEDIOUS HABITS

For some folks, the classic 1, 2, 3 outline structure works. For other people, a visual planning process called mindmapping is best. Explore both methods. I personally prefer mindmapping; it satisfies my needs for art and science in one place. LOVELY!

Never turn in your first draft. It’s your rough draft; and in most cases is probably pretty rough. While writing your rough draft feel free to totally disregard grammar and skip spellcheck. Write with abandon but don’t get so carried away that you forget the purpose of the assignment.

As you write, keep the reader in mind. This is called knowing your audience. Writing with your audience in mind helps you decide what to include and how to say what you truly need to say. The goal is clear communication not just writing some stuff because your teacher told you to.

Lastly remember there is hope for you, Freshman. Don’t give up on engineering because it involves more writing than you originally thought. And please stop telling yourself that you’re a bad writing. Over time, you become what you speak. So speak hope-filled inspiration. Speak things into your future that you do not see today.

In an effort to informally gauge the relative perception of engineering and writing among engineers, I posted a discussion question on a LinkedIn group board where lots of engineers hang out—the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Below are some of the more salient of the 100 plus responses.

[The opinions and views expressed are not mine. I've edited lightly; for spelling and typos only.]

In their own words …

“I think if many engineering students really realized how much writing is really involved in the job, they might reconsider their chosen profession …”  A PE from Utah USA

 

“Clear, concise writing by an engineer is extremely important. Those that can do this, will usually end up at the top.”  A PE from North Carolina USA

 

“…in my office its mainly the females who are better then the guys when it comes to report writing and documentation but may fall short in some areas like analyzing and troubleshooting engineering challenges.”  A structural engineer from Barbados

 

“I do not enjoy the report writing aspect of my job, but I understand its necessities and strive to become better at it because I know it improves me as a credible engineer.” A PE from New York, USA

 

“Having been a [teacher's assistant] at the university level and a small-time teacher/tutor at the high school level, my personal belief is that competent writing skills are sorely lacking amongst the U.S. population in general these days. It’s not just an engineer/scientist problem – it’s a problem with the educational system in general, at least from what I’ve seen.” An engineer-in-training from Oregon, USA

 

“Our future engineers that have come to this college do not know how to write (and do not like writing), they also do not know how to read.” An engineering professor from New York

 

“I find that a good number of people, usually with limited knowledge and understanding, use “big words” more than necessary.” A technician from New York

 

“I have found that many Engineers do not have a good “process” for writing. For example, when was the last time you saw an engineer outline a report before starting to write…” A PE from Ohio, USA

 

“My prescription is: write first, whatever be the quality; read yourself to point out irrelevant points; maintain only the salient points, strike off everything else; read it again and edit again.” An senior VP and engineer from India

 

The poetry of locomotion can be hypnotic.

It has been suggested that engineers and words simply don’t go together. In fact, the general line of thought is that engineers and creative writing go together like oil and water.

I grew up in a small farming town in the beautiful swampy northeastern corner of North Carolina. It was (and still is) known for its high level of unemployment. During the winter of my junior year, the distinction of being poor farm kids earned our class a visit from a poet.

That little white lady was eccentric as all get out. But she had a real African drum. She beat that drum and taught us how rap and haiku and even math were knit from the same cloth.

I still have the small book of poems that our class created. But more importantly, the love for metered rhymes and math is still with me. It helps me communicate in dynamic, engaging ways that make favorable impressions. That, to me, is the purpose of any piece of written work.

The engineer that hates writing is a crippled engineer. As an instructor of future engineers one of my goals is to shatter the myth that engineers don’t make good writers. The professional engineer that does not write, does not exist.

It has been said that if you don’t want to write in your profession, don’t major in engineering. Major in literature or history instead.

Your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

When 1992 rolled around I was in grad school, working on my second degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering. Silly me. Didn’t I know that math was too hard for girls? In July of that year, Teen Talk Barbie was telling little fashion-conscious girls that ‘Math class is tough.’

So is putting on a tight, sequined top after you’ve applied your lipstick.

Coming through undergrad, I was only one of a handful of girls in class and many times the only black person. I will never forget the day a well-known mechanical engineering instructor looked me in the eye and told me to leave the college of engineering. That’s what tough is.

As a woman engineer teaching intro to engineering, I look around and see one or two young female students in a class full of males. ‘Why don’t girls like math?,’ the college administrators ask us women engineering faculty.

My [tongue-in-cheek] response: Duh! Barbie said it was tough. Barbie always has the best fashion sense and her accessories are out of this world. She’s always right.

I’m glad Barbie wasn’t around when young Grace Hopper was learning to love math. Little Miss Hopper, who passed away in 1992, became Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper. Grace was the only woman on the team that programmed the Harvard Mark 1 computer. In 1952, she helped develop COBOL, a computer language still in use today (60 years later!).

Maybe making math books pink would help make math more appealing to girls? (Don’t worry, I’m just kidding.)

For more information on women in science and math, visit About.com. Happy Women’s History Month.

*Source: National Science Foundation, 2006

My late father never finished high school but he was determined that I would make all A’s in school, especially in math. In his mind that meant having me stay at the table after dinner, getting drilled on adding, subtracting, and multiplying. It was torture.

By the time I entered third grade, I had decided the multiplication table from from the devil. Thankfully, one day, my entire outlook changed. The teacher showed us a chart, as an after thought I believe, and all of a sudden I saw the ‘times table‘ in a new light. I finally ‘got’ multiplication. It wasn’t impossible. It was challenging, but it was also fun.

That revelation was a turning point for me. Over time I realized, that I could find ways to help myself with math. It wasn’t that I was math illiterate. The hard truth was, the methods that my teachers used didn’t always work for me.  I’m glad that many teachers nowadays are appreciating, and incorporating, the different learning styles that walk into their classrooms everyday. But the more I see how some educators have reinvented simple arithmetic, I cringe.

Teaching math means teaching a system of problem solving. I’m a firm believer (even as a visual learner) that teaching math should not involve drawing cute characters or lattices or other symbols to help the young mind ‘figure it out.’ My experience as a parent is that it only confuses the child. Kids (at least my three) want simple, quick, and predictable. Sometimes mnemonics are required but not always, especially when we talk about math. After a Northwestern University study of children using manipulatives to do math, one little girl asked her teachers, “Have you ever thought of teaching kids to do these with paper and pencil? It’s a lot easier.”

Math doesn’t need to be re-invented. I’m happy to see that more recent studies by noted psychologists in the US are proving this to be true. Kids don’t need math complicated (or fuzzied) with unnecessary symbols and manipulatives. Math is computation. Hard. Cold. Impersonal. Predictable. Computation. And should be treated and taught that way. But I’m a little biased, I suppose. I’m an engineer first and an educator second.

I have compassion for my freshman students (many who haven’t seen math since 9th grade) who struggle with simple algebra. It makes for a long semester if all you know how to do is program a fancy calculator. Could it be that the ‘new’ math foundation they gained from elementary school isn’t working for them?

The new math is creating new far-reaching problems. Problems that I think college professors like myself will continue to see for a long while.

Your thoughts?

Many first-year students have called the class a weed out course. Looking at the pass-fail rate (1 out of 3 repeat the course), you might be tempted to agree.

I disagree.I think the course is way more than a weed out course. Calling it a weeder says it’s extremely difficult for the sake of being extremely difficult. Like jacking the hurdles up when the hurdler’s not looking just to get my jollies. That’s not education. That’s trickery.

The course I teach is not about playing with young minds. It’s a right of passage. A reality check. The math that we use in this college course is basic high school algebra. The papers we require are under five pages. And there are only two of those. Two. We encourage innovative thinking and the use of scientific deduction. We require time management. We require team work. We encourage introspection and independent thinking. We demand hard work. We don’t hold hands. We’re building engineers.

For these reasons the course I teach is not a weed out course because I’m not a gardener. I’m a teacher. And as I teach, I envision myself holding open a door for the wannabe engineers to pass through. I want them to pass through. And no, I’m not going to stick my foot out and trip them when they’re not looking. If they trip, it’s their fault. The road to engineer-hood is a hard one. This course called introduction to engineering, in its small way, gives the students a taste of the life beyond the door.

I think this course is essential to the development of engineers. Of course, I guess I’m a little biased. Your thoughts?

As I grew, my tinkering proclivities led me to believe I could reinvent my father’s rabbit traps, design toy sports cars out of saltine cracker boxes, and repair all manner of stuff.

One of my uncles, no doubt entertained my his hands-on niece, gave me two old typewriters. In my mother’s eyes, they were junk straight from the city dump. In my mind, they were treasures. After many hours of work and deeply-stained fingers, I had fixed both typewriters. I wrote high school papers on them and planned to take them to college. When I wasn’t using them, I kept them dust free. I adored the fruits of my tinkering.

What have you been tinkering on lately?

I wish I’d learned how to be more of a people person back then. Being the independent, self-reliant type, I thought I could do it all alone. Fresh out of high school, I’d convinced myself that only weak people need to ask for help.

It wasn’t until my last year of undergrad that I realized the value of group study and leaning on others. It was in the company of other engineers that I learned the value of my own ideas, intellect, and personality; and came to respect those things in others.

This kind of healthy self awareness and worthiness is what I wish for all students. I think this is the place from which the motivation to learn, change, and grow springs.

Does it mean?

1. Interior features of a device
2. Easy to use and understand
3. A difficult multi-step process

Leave a comment with your guess (before you Google it, that is).