Purpose of Survey

     The two most important goals of scientific writing at the sentence level are to be precise and to be clear. Perhaps Einstein said it best, "In scientific writing, keep things as simple as possible, yet no simpler." The four films of this lesson examine these two goals in scientific writing. (31 minutes)

Methods for Survey

The survey asked recent engineering graduates four open-ended questions:
  1. What did you find valuable in the engineering writing course that you took from me?
  2. What do you wish that engineering writing course had covered, but did not?
  3. What has been your biggest surprise in writing as a professional engineer?
  4. For the younger engineers whom you have mentored, collaborated with, or supervised, what are their biggest writing weaknesses?

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Sponsors and Editors

Faculty Editor
     Michael Alley, Teaching Professor, College of Engineering, Penn State

Student Editors
     Name, College of Engineering, Penn State
     Name, College of Engineering, Penn State
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Takeaways of Survey

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For the academic year 2020-2021, we are collecting comments, questions, criticisms, and suggestions for the films, text, and quizzes of each lesson on scientific writing. To help us understand your input, would please let us know what your discipline is and whether you are a student, professional, or faculty member?