Strategic Technical Writing and Winning Grant Proposals

Catalog description

Effective technical writing is perhaps one of the most critical skills a Ph.D. engineering graduate needs to have regardless of the career path chosen upon graduation. Whether writing research papers, technical reports, or grant proposals, the ability to convey technical engineering knowledge in an effective, understandable, elegant and concise manner is an important skill. This class will provide the general guidelines, best practices, and most importantly specific strategies for technical writing for some of the most common venues and audiences, namely writing technical papers for engineering conferences and journals - including writing rebuttals to reviewers - technical reports and grant proposals. The latter includes specific strategies for a variety of different sponsors that fund engineering related research, including industrial sponsors, government and military agencies, foundations as well as intra-company funding sources. The deliverables of this class includes an actual conference or journal paper and a small scale grant proposal-ready to be submitted - based on student's area of research.