Technical communications can take on a variety of formats. Here, we will specifically address e-mail, memos, and short technical reports. Other, usually longer formats will probably be addressed later in your engineering career, but the same general guide-lines apply regardless of form or length of content.
Many students believe that the rules they use for instant messaging (IM), Twitter, etc.
apply to e-mail also. When using e-mail in a professional context (including e-mail to professors!), more formal rules should be followed. The suggestions below will help you write e-mail that is clear, concise, and appropriate for the recipient.
After you have composed your e-mail, ask yourself if you would mind the presi-dent of the university, the CEO of your company, or your parents reading it. If the answer to any of these is no, then you probably should reword it.
E-mail Etiquette
■ Be sure to correctly address the recipient. If you are unsure of a person’s proper title (Dr., Mrs., Prof.), look it up!
■ Use an appropriate subject line. Avoid silly subjects (Hey—Read this!) or omitting the subject line—this may cause the e-mail to end up in the Junk Mail folder.
■ Sign your full name and include contact information for e-mail, phone, or mailing address if appropriate. When sending e-mail about a class, including your course number and course day and time is often helpful.
■ Change your sending name to your full name (such as Elizabeth Stephan) or an appropriate nickname (Beth Stephan). Do not leave your account as Student or the computer default setting (such as Noname Stephan).
■ Keep it brief. Do not use one continuous paragraph—make it easy to read.
■ If you expect a response, be sure that action items are clearly defined.
■ Use correct capitalization and punctuation. Spelling does count—even in e-mail!
Avoid IM speak (e.g., LOL, IMHO, IIRC).
■ Avoid putting anything in e-mail you would not say in person. Do not use e-mail to
“vent” or write anything that can be easily misinterpreted by the reader.
■ To avoid sending an e-mail before you have a chance to check over your work, fill in the To: and CC: lines last.
■ When waiting for a reply, allow a grace period of 48 to 72 hours. If you have not received a reply after 48 hours and a deadline is approaching, you can resend your message, inquiring politely if it was received. Items do sometimes get lost in cyber-space! If the matter is critical, try the phone or request a face-to-face meeting if the first contact does not elicit a response.
4.4
Consider how to prepare memos, short reports, and technical posters
Sample E-mail
To... R. Swarthmore, Ph.D. [ [email protected] ] cc... C. Ohland [ [email protected] ];
K. Stephan [ [email protected] ] Subject: Leaky gel reactor seal
Dr. Swarthmore:
The gel reactor seals in B4L3 are leaking and causing production losses (over 200K for FY 2001). The Materials Engineering Lab was asked to test other seal materials. Laboratory tests identified six material couples that produced better wear resistance than the current seal.
A prototype seal was made with a new material, self-mated cemented carbide, but the carbide on the seal cracked during fabrication.
The purpose of this e-mail is to request an additional $40,000 and four months’ project time to fabricate and test another new seal configuration.
Your approval of this program before Friday noon will allow us to proceed with the project as quickly as possible without any delay. If you have further questions or would like more information, please contact me.
Sincerely, J. Brock
Design Team Manager, Reactor Seals R Us (123) 456-7890 x 1234
EXAMPLE 4-4 I won’t go into detail but my partner didn’t really give me enough heads up to let me know he needed to do the analysis. Approximately 30 minutes before 5 when it was due so I am going to submit an answer for the final question into the course manage-ment system where we would turn in the workbook. Weather you choose to accept it or not is up to you.
Better solution:
I have been having a difficult time communicating with my partner (insert name), and we had some confusion about who was responsible for submitting the analysis portion of Project 2. Just before 5 pm, when the project was due, he informed me that the analysis was not complete. I will finish the project analysis tonight to include the additional questions I did not submit previously, and bring you the completed document in the morning at 10 am during your office hours. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this situation with you further at that time.
I dont know what going on with the computer but I have been trying to upload the assignement for an hour and it will not work. I have to drive to (insert state) tonight so I wont be able to fix this problem later. I can not files on monday so you can see when they were last saved and show you them then. I really need this one point. Please consider this.
Better solution:
I have been trying to upload the assignment since 6 pm, and will continue to try; however, I wanted to email you this assignment since the deadline of 10 pm is approaching. The
system will let me browse and select a document, but will not do anything when I hit submit. I have tried to use a wired connection instead of wireless, with no luck. Do you have any suggestions for fixing this problem? Thank you in advance for your assistance.
I’ve been throwing up all morning and did not make it to class. i did not think it would be a good idea to possibly get anyone else sick or disrupt class with me running out. I hope you can excuse my absence if I’m not there. i was just curious if there was any-thing else i missed in class
Better solution:
I am sorry, but I will be unable to attend class today due to illness. I understand this absence will be unexcused, per the course syllabus, since I am not going to seek medical attention and will use this as one of my three allowed unexcused absences. I will check the course management system and my classmates to determine what I missed today. If I have any further questions, I will see you during your office hours tomorrow. I expect to return to the next class period.
Memo (One Page Limit)
The following template outlined below and provided online is for a one-page memo.
Your professor may ask you to adhere to this format, or may suggest a different one.
To: Dr. Engineering
From: Ima Tiger, Section 000 ( [email protected] )
Subject: Memo Guidelines
Date: May 21, 2014
Introduction: The first three or four sentences should explain the purpose behind the memo.
You should attempt to explain what you were asked to do, what questions you are trying to solve, what process you are attempting to determine, etc.
Results: Place any experimental results, in tabular and/or graphical format, here. As space is limited, this normally only includes two items: two tables, two figures, or one table and one figure.
Be sure that each is clear enough to stand alone, with one to two sentences of explanation. Be aware each table and figure should illustrate a different idea. Include a table caption at the top of each table, and a figure caption at the bottom of each figure. The caption should include a number and a word description. When a figure is used within a document, a title is not necessary on the graph and is replaced by the caption. The two items should be pasted side by side using the Paste Special > JPEG command or similar picture format command (PNG, Bitmap) and then sized appropriately.
Discussion: In this section, discuss how you obtained your data, the meaning of any trends observed, and significance of your results. Refer to the tables or figures shown in results by name (Table 1 or Figure 1). Explain any errors in your data (if possible) and how your data differs from theory. If you are deciding among several alternatives, in addition to justifying your final selection be sure to explain why you did NOT choose the other options.
References: List any sources you use here. You may use a new page for references if necessary.
Any reference format is acceptable; Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style is preferred.
Remember: This document has a ONE PAGE limit!
Sample of a poorly written student memo
To: Dr. Engineering
From: Ima Student
Subject: Memo Date: April 1, 2014
Introduction: We are given the job to analyze the cost of upgrade a machine line, which produces widgets. We were given three companies to choose from, to figure out witch would be the best for the cost and its production. Just by graphing the variables would allow us to find our answer.
Results:
EXAMPLE 4-5
14000000 12000000 10000000
6000000 4000000 2000000 8000000
0
Varible Co s t
Fixe d Co s t 5.00E+06 Mate rial Cos t 0.75
Ene rgy Co s t 0.15 Labo r Co s t 0.05 Se lling Price 3 apacity per da 6500
antity Produc ein Teil T otal Co Re ve nue 0.00E+00 5.00E+06 0.00E+00
Discussion: We got the data by taking all variables from the information provided, then graphing the results together. This allowed us to see which machine line would provide the better outcome for the situation at hand. Considering the cost of the machine, material, labor, and energy into consideration with what would produce the quantity and quality product we’re striving for. Figure 1 display all three solutions’: total cost, revenue for us, and our breakeven point to ensure us of our choice. From observation of the graph we see that the Klein Teil machine is better. Its breakeven is at $2,400,000 and the profit is twice as much.
Summary: So to answer the question, Klein Teil would be our best option. The results yielded that the Klein Teil machine would give us the most quality for its price, a better production rate, and more money in return. From this research I hope you choose to take the Klein Teil machine.
Comments on this memo:
There are so many problems with this submission that we address only the major problems.
■ The subject line simply informs us that this is a memo.
■ The introduction tells us very little about what the memo will address.
■ The same data is presented in both the graph and the table. The formatting of the table is very poor; the formatting of the graph is worse.
■ The discussion does not explain how the data was analyzed, and the justification of the final recommendation is essentially nonexistent.
■ Similarly, the summary says almost nothing. Although not an appropriate summary, the three words “Buy Klein Teil” would probably have been more effective.
How many more problems can you find in this sample memo?