The intention of this page is to tell you, the prospective mechanical engineer, why writing a technical document can be so challenging. In the research paper, "Object Centered: How Engineering Writing Embodies Objects" Daniel Ding set out work with four different mechanical engineers in different aspects of the profession to determine in a small scale, how a typical engineer writes. He aided these engineers in determining what aspects of writing the engineers are focused on. In this paper, Ding studies how the engineers primary focus in writing was not a person, or monetary value, but the objects themselves. Going into a little more detail, based on grammatical use of the different objects in question, and how often the objects were mentioned, as opposed to other subjects, the engineers focus primarily on objects. (Ding, 2001). This is due to the fact that a typical engineers audience, at least in these cases, were other engineers. Even when engineers are addressing non engineers, their audience is going to want to know all about the product that is being discussed, as opposed to any other aspect.

This type of object centered attitude can have some advantages and disadvantages. A great advantage to this is, when you are writing about the subject, you are typically intimate with all the subject matter details. If you spend months designing and testing a product; measuring, making specifications, and testing for tolerance levels, you are going to have a fundamental knowledge of the product. In essence, you are the expert. Second, if someone needs a report on the product, your source notes and testing data will usually suffice to what you need to write the report on. The downfall to this is, it may be a bit more tricky to communicate with non-engineer audiences. If someone wants an overview of a product you have been designing for months, and they are a Chief Financial Officer, as opposed to a Chief Engineer, they are not going to understand technical jargon. This is another important reason why your writing and communication skills must be in the best shape possible. If you can not communicate to the Chief Financial Officer why a project needs to continue, you may find yourself out of a job.

Fear not though, there is a bit of a vetting process, before you submit work to important clients. Seldom is an inexperienced engineer the only engineer working for a business. You will be surrounded by other engineers, and more likely than not, a chief engineer will approve your work, prior to it going to anyone else.