The Most Common Writing Problem For Engineering Students
Want to know the most common writing problem for engineering students? Believe it or not, it has nothing to do with the actual writing itself, which a good technical writing software can easily help with. According to many college professors, their weakest area lies in the pre-writing stages: outlining.
I once told an engineering student about this and he was adamant with his response: “None of the people I know in my class outline. How can that be our problem?” Well, that could be it right there.
An outline is a blueprint for the document you are going to be writing. It’s a tool for organizing your ideas, such that they’re already properly formulated when you begin to write. This is especially important in technical disciplines, where majority of students aren’t likely to be good writers in the first place. You make up for the lack of skill by having clear thoughts and ideas – something you can achieve with a proper outline.
Outlines help expose the gaps in your reasoning early. If your argument lacks the necessary evidence to be convincing, you’ll know with a quick glance at your outline. Most of the time, it’s hard to ascertain the strengths of your own arguments once you’ve written it down, as you can be too attached to it at that point.