[转贴]Write Papers in English

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Technical Communication

by Ken Werner

  

Communicating is what many technical professionals need to do most and

want to do least. And if writing itself is unpleasant, reading about

writing is torture. This new C&D column on technical communication is

designed to help you do what you need to do - and maybe even enjoy it.

  

We will focus on the communication problems engineers and scientists

really face, and we will provide practical solutions. Solving these

problems involves more than writing, and so will the column. We will

talk about speaking, presentations, computer-driven "slide shows," and

even videotape. We will talk about tools of the trade, including what

word processors and grammar checkers are best for scientific and

technical material. On the writing side, we will tell you how to write

effective memos, proposals, grant applications, magazine articles,

hardware and software documentation, application notes, spec sheets,

and - should worse come to worse - resumes. If you can think of

something else, please let me know. Send me your communication problem

and - if it is of general interest - we will try to come up with a

solution.

  

Of course, I am not going to do all of this by myself. I will enlist my

colleagues and acquaintances in publishing, public relations, technical

writing, the graphic arts, advertising, and design, as wall as in

science and engineering.

  

We start with a concise recipe for writing a good article (often called

a "paper") for a technical journal (which the IEEE calls a "transactions").

Of course, it helps if you have something worthwhile to say. But after

you leap that minor hurdle, you could not do better than adhere to the

following advice from Ted Compton.