7/30/2019 Good Writing and Speech-Their Importance to the Engineer-3eh

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High among those virtues required ofengineers is th e ability to communicateclearly and vividly. The IRE Editor Emeritustells how th e PGEWS helps the engineerhelp himself.

Good Writing and Speech-Their Importance to the Engineer

By DR. ALFRED N. GOLDSMITH

THE TASK of the engineer is multiple in nature. Hemust be a capable scientist. He must have a senseof practical values. He must recognize and apply effectivetechnical methods. He must have a vast store of genuineand detailed information dealing with his specializedfield of engineering. He must be a competent, thought-ful, and speedy worker. He must recognize good ideaswhen he encounters them. And he must apply them inopen-minded fashion. He must have a reasonable amountof managerial skill. And it is desirable that his personality

traits shall be attractive.After considering this formidable catalog of engi-neering virtues, the engineering candidate might well bedismayed. To add to his possible distress, it may also beemphasized that even if he has al l of the precedingcharacteristics, he may fail dismally through lack of anadditional pair of qualifications less frequently considered.He must be articulate. And he must be literate.Clarity of Expression

Even a highly qualified engineer in the generalprofessional sense labors under a terrific handicap if hecannot express his thoughts clearly in words, eitherthrough speech or in writing. These are prime andnecessary characteristics of the successful engineer.

And this is where the IRE Professional Group on

Engineering Writing and Speech steps into the picture.It s function is to explore the modes of communication,verbal and textual, between an engineer and his associ-ates, an engineer and his fellow-members of engineeringsocieties, between the engineer and his industrial super-visors, managers, and company executives, between theconsulting engineer and the representatives of his clients,and between the engineer himself and society broadly.

The first year's experience of the IRE PGEWS hasbeen enlightening and encouraging. It has won respectfrom the membreship of the Institute and has secured itsmembership in many instances from those who arealready members of other specialized technical profes-sional groups. It s growth has been healthy and betterthan average. It s TRANSACTIONS have been instruc-tive and stimulating. But its work has so far onlyscratched the surface of its major tasks and opportunitieswhich lie ahead. As the engineer increasingly recognizesthe importance to him of skill in utilizing the spoken orwritten word, the IRE PGEWS will correspondinglygrow, expand its activities into many new and as yetunexplored fields, and be accorded universally theacclaim to which it will then be entitled. No moreworthy task could be selected for any professional group.And the Institute may confidently expect this Group tofulfill it s manifest and necessary destiny.

ENGINEERING WRITING AND SPEECH 9

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