The Composing Process of an Engineer

Why did Jack Selzer want to study the composing process of an engineer?

Selzer wanted to investigate how someone in a profession that was outside the norm used writing their lives. Engineers are not typically thought of as people who are professional writers. They are not considered people who use writing that often. Selzer may have been interested in looking into a job such as an engineer for those reasons. He wanted to learn how engineers use writing and what type of writing they incorporate into their career. Selzer hoped to examine their scripts of tasks or jobs, letters about engineer work, and other pieces of writing that are different for engineers then any other more common professional writing job.

How do engineers plan, write, arrange, and revise?

What did you find interesting, unique, or surprising about his answer to this question?

Selzer realized the engineer used many similar techniques that someone who was writing a big research paper would also include. The engineer did have a structure and topic sentence in his writing like most more common forms would use. However the engineer spent more time planning and making sure everything was sound in his work. The engineer of course did not spend time trying to translate his writings as they would be easily understood by fellow engineers working on the same assignments. I was surprised how much the engineer focused on the audience analysis stage. Since he does not dumb down his work it was curious that he spends most of his time trying to determine who his audience is and what they may want to know. The engineer also doesn't revise or change his work often he just makes sure it is accurate originally.

How did Selzer convince you he was correct or on target?

The investigation into the engineers every day writing and his process gives Selzer credibility. He spent time studying how the engineer jotted information down and what steps he goes through. Selzer did not guess but examined every move of the engineer while observing him in his natural habitat at work. Selzer did this by recording the engineer exactly how he went about his writing. After his study Selzer collected all of the engineers documents and looked over them with a fine tooth comb.

*The engineer only spent 5% of his time revising.
*He spent 80% in the planning phase.