This makes me wonder if communication should be labeled as a missing basic. In all honesty, I don't see any engineers on campus that have a really large problem with this. Like my supervised study group is extremely active in helping each other when they meet. They've identified that they need help, and then they went out for it - they joined a group and are trying to get as much help as possible to get a better grade. It's everywhere on the engineering campus if you look at it. The tons of engineering groups that there are to join, talking with tas and professors, fretting over things we don't understand in class - almost everything that we engineers do involves communicating.
If there's a problem in communicating, it's most likely through writing. When one writes, they must make their words clear to their audience. I remember someone in my discussion stating "write with your pen". This is harder for some than it is others. For me, I feel as though writing is easy. However, I find explaining hard concepts through writing harder than just talking about it. This, like anything else, improves with practice.
Hey Darwin, You make several points that are very good. I like that you said writing was one of the most common problems with engineers in communicating. It's very true; I'd say 80% of the engineers I've spoken to hate writing. I fall into that 80%. Haha. But I realize that writing is very important. Engineers are logical people, but they arent always the most reasonable. Sometimes oral communication can lead to arguments. But when you present information that is written down, sometimes you can discuss the information is a more reasonable manner. But do you think writing will be a large part of everyday work as an engineer? If so, What kind of writing? (reports, essays, notes, etc.)
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ReplyDeleteThis made me laugh :). I must, however, comment on you saying that you haven't met too many engineers on campus who lack 'the missing basics'. I went to a math & science magnet school, and as I read about the missing basics, I remember soooo many kids and realize that they were just missing these basics--it started to explain a few things, in a strange way. Anyhow. They do exist. (just a warning).
A comment about the writing though: writing is soooo specific towards each person. Is it not true that when you have a teacher, you learn to write to the style that THEY like? For your history papers, they may read much different than an english paper. It's not as systematic as many engineering things. For example, boyles law and differentiation are the same, no matter what teacher you get (well, hopefully). But might this cause even more trouble? For all?
This was very funny and enjoyable. I'm completely with you on what I expected of engineers. I, too, was surprised by how social and normal everyone has been so far and I'm really excited by that and hope this trend continues.
ReplyDeleteI think can vary depending on the subject. It's easy to communicate something you understand very well, like math or science for most of us. When it comes to things like art, music, or whatever, communication becomes more difficult. That's kind of the way it is for me, anyways.
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