Javier Flores

Jana Koehler
ENG 120-026
04/15/16
Life of an Engineer Speech Outline
Introduction
Good afternoon everybody if you do not know me already my name is Javier Flores and I am
here to talk to you guys today about Engineering. First off can I get a volunteer to explain to me
what they think an engineer is and how they are as a person? (At this time I will also be
displaying my engineering meme). Today I would like to educate you on who engineers are and
how we implement writing into our projects and experiments. The three main points that I would
like to explain to you today is first the language we use, second how we organize our papers, and
lastly the content of our papers. I will also be able to provide you with evidence from a few
different sources, one is from the Distributed Generation & Alternative Energy Journal, and the
other is from Science Direct. My last source is going to be from an interview that I had with one
of my college professors Daryl Lee who is an electrical engineer. With these three main points
and the sources I plan on using hopefully at the end of this you will understand how important
writing is to the field of engineering.
Body
Point 1.
Language:

Engineers on a daily basis use a lot of confusing terms and language that to the average citizen
might not know what is going on when I mention certain terms like HVAC or MATLAB. These
are terms that you will find certain engineers in the field using, especially geeky terms that our
discourse community will be able to understand. In the article Towards sustainable, energyefficient and healthy ventilation strategies in buildings, the authors use a lot of the terms that I
mentioned earlier and more that get very technical and confusing. For example Centralized
HVAC systems are standard in modern buildings while split-system air conditioning units are
commonly installed in older buildings. So you tell me, did any of you understand what the
authors meant by that? Here is another example, see if you can wrap your head around what they
are trying to say, L|H>=11 is considerably less than those with L|H<=2.5, due to smaller pressure
difference between windward and leeward facades in long buildings as well as the internal
friction. To be honest with you, I didnt even really understand what they were trying to get
across there. As you can see engineers use a specific type of language that is unique to other
engineers. From this you can see that writing within our discipline is something that will always
be very important in getting our points across to other engineers.
Point 2.
Organization/Layout:
Engineers do not typically organize their work like a paper that students in English classes are
normally use to seeing or composing. Papers that are typical by engineers can be anywhere from
a research paper, science journal, usually papers with graphs, diagrams, possibly pictures,
procedures, and possibly at times formulas used. You will find engineering papers resembling
more of science papers that most of you did in your science classes, having a hypothesis,
purpose, materials used, and etcetera. This image here is taken from the article The Potential of

Wind for Energy Production and Water Pumping in Iran, Saravan County, showing an example
of what their papers look like.

Looks familiar to papers you guys have written in science class right? The layout and the
organization of these papers are not anything complicated or hard to understand, they make them

so that they are simple and straight to the point. Like mentioned before they will have some
complicated language but at least people and engineers looking at this can see somewhat the
project that they had going on and their results.
One thing that I find really helpful to viewers and honestly even for myself is when the engineers
make these documents it is always useful when they but a lot of pictures and graphs. You would
think that this would over power what they are trying to say but when yet with the way engineers
are used to writing having multiple images is what they need to better understand the work. If
any of you decide on going into this field you are more than welcome to email me so that I can
provide you with some examples of our work. My email will be included on the brochure that I
will be handing out to you at the end of this.

Point 3.
As you can see there are a lot engineering when it comes to writing so unfortunately as much as
you all might want to get away from writing you will find yourself still doing it. This is why the
importance of writing not only in high school but in college is important. Be prepared to still use
some of the concepts that you learned in your high school English classes in whatever field you
end up pursuing. Writing to your boss, making a resume, experiments, and other forms of writing
you will soon find how helpful your teachers actually were and not just there to torcher you. Like
I said in engineering there is not only a lot of writing and composing work for others to see but
there is also a lot of verbal communication. Verbal communication is key within our field as we
need to discuss with other engineers certain topics to overcome an issue that we are trying to
solve. Having the skills that I have acquired throughout my English courses have also better

prepared me for interactions with others as far as diction, and the way I explain concepts to
others. If you guys are not use to doing any type of public speaking or not comfortable
communicating with others, you will soon get used to it no matter what field you decide on.
Conclusions:
I am so sorry if I rambled on and made anything confusing to you all today but hopefully you
understood the importance of writing not only in high school but with everyday life. Hopefully
some of you here will make the decision of not only wanting to pursue college but maybe
consider engineering too. The brochure that I am about to hand out to you guys, you are more
than welcome to keep them and if not just go ahead and return them to the front. The brochure is
very simple, just is explaining briefly what we do, how we came about, and the different types of
engineers. I also included on this the different branches within one field of engineering and the
average income. One thing I would like for you to remember as you guys leave today is to stay
organized, value what you do, and always do your best to improve upon your writing and use it
to your best advantage. If any of you are wanting to ask further questions or would like to get
sent examples of some of the work that we do feel free to email me. My contact information will
be provided to you on the back side of the brochure under the different fields of engineering.

Works Cited
Chenari, Behrang, Joo Dias Carrilho, and Manuel Gameiro da Silva. "Towards
Sustainable, Energy-Efficient And Healthy Ventilation Strategies In Buildings: A
Review." Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 59.(2016): 1426-1447. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
Nedaei, Mojtaba, et al. "The Potential Of Wind For Energy Production And Water
Pumping In Iran, Saravan County." Distributed Generation & Alternative Energy Journal
31.1 (2016): 7-26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.