An Engineer's Guide to Clear Language

Nailen, R.L.

doi:10.1109/emr.1979.4306771

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Several offered tutorials in spelling and usage. Sarah Montoya treated the distinctions between single and double consonants and who and whom; Richard Nailen explained differences between words of similar spelling (for example, eminent and imminent) and meaning (imply and infer); and Robert Schoenfeld argued against using nouns as verbs [57][58][59][60]. Besides providing tutorials in mechanics, these contributors treated basic stylistic and organizational concerns.…”

Section: Contributors' Expanding Concept Of the Engineering Writer's mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous contributors advised writers to achieve a simple, clear style by reforming their diction. For instance, Richard Nailen, Ethel Romm, Nick Tredennick and Brion Shimamoto, Jim Corey, Judith Bronson, and Carla Echols and Lois Pryor all discouraged writers from using the passive voice [59,[63][64][65][66][67]. These contributors assumed writers' ignorance of a stylistic principle long held and disseminated by teachers of writing, preference for the active voice, and sought to inculcate this principle in engineering writers.…”

Section: Contributors' Expanding Concept Of the Engineering Writer's mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expanding concepts of the writer's purpose, audience, and task: The IEEE transactions on professional communication, 1981–86

Fry

1987

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

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By surveying a sample of 116 articles and six book reviews, this article shows how contributors to the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 1981-86, described the purposes of engineering writing, the engineering writer's audience, and the engineering writer's task.The professed purpose and intended audience of this periodical are shifting:• From describing technical communication as an art in itself to developing technical communication as a tool in the engineer's tool chest

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Section: Contributors' Expanding Concept Of the Engineering Writer's mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contributors' Expanding Concept Of the Engineering Writer's mentioning

confidence: 99%

Expanding concepts of the writer's purpose, audience, and task: The IEEE transactions on professional communication, 1981–86

Fry

1987

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

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“…Participants' behaviours were the dependent variables for the study, A task analysis of the assembly and operating procedure was conducted by observing and recording the procedures performed by a technician on the design team and the designer. Instructions were developed from the task analysis and the aid of existing guidelines (Bieger & Glock, 1984-85;Booher, 1975;Braby, Kincaid, & McDaniel, 1982;Dixon, 1982;Hegarty, 1992;Hodgkinson & Hughes, 1982;Horton, 1994;Krull & Sharp, 2006;Kurata & Egenhofer, 2005;Nailen, 1981;Resnick, 1976;Stone & Glock, 1981;Szlichcinski, 1979;Tversky, et al, 2000). Six different instruction manuals were produced to coincide with the six experimental conditions in the study Appendix 1 shows an example of the text format in the first six pages of the manuals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Augmentation of information in educational objects: Effectiveness of arrows and pictures as information for actions in instructional objects

Pekerti

2013

AJET

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The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in education is now central to facilitating links between learners, resources and instructors. Regardless of whether it is used in distance education or educational objects, ICT enables educators to package education opportunities in an increasing number of alternative ways so as best to meet the varying needs of the end user. Currently, one of the challenges that face instructors is to develop materials that enhance the learner-content interaction by reducing extraneous cognitive load while at the same time facilitating learning. This study explored the effectiveness of pictorial information and augmentation in instructions and educational objects. Dual coding theory is used to suggest that information that can be processed via separate but interconnected systems will facilitate faster processing and deeper learning of the information. University students were randomly assigned to six experimental conditions to perform a novel task using six different instruction manuals. A 3 (text, text-pictorial, text-pictorial-arrows) X 2 (picture of object vs. no picture of object) design was used to test whether augmenting text with pictorial information provided additional valuable information in instructional settings. Results partially support this multimedia effect; participants exhibited superior performance in a Text-Pictorial and Text-Pictorial-Arrows format over Text format. A picture of the object also facilitated superior performance on both the assembly and operating tasks, especially in a text format. Overall, combinations of text-pictorial and text-pictorial-arrows facilitated faster assembly and operation; they reduced errors, extra procedures, and unsuccessful assemblies (uncorrected errors). Results also support the idea that arrows convey unique types of information and function. In particular, arrows may attune people to important information and/or convey information movement that guides actions during tasks. Practical implications are discussed in relation to the type of information combinations that may lead to superior instructional design of instructional objects and research, including how to reduce errors of omission.

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An Engineer's Guide to Clear Language

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Expanding concepts of the writer's purpose, audience, and task: The IEEE transactions on professional communication, 1981–86

Expanding concepts of the writer's purpose, audience, and task: The IEEE transactions on professional communication, 1981–86

Augmentation of information in educational objects: Effectiveness of arrows and pictures as information for actions in instructional objects

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