Communicating in Civil Engineering

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Patrick Fitzhorn, Mechanical Engineering Professor

When I grade technical papers from students, the most common comment I write is "Why?" In order to be as terse as possible, many students make statements without providing back-up, support, or reasons to believe that’s the case. As much as terseness in writing is desired in engineering, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to justify what you write. You still have to explain how you arrived at decisions, etc.