Requirement and mode of Communication

1. Dr. J.N.Jha
Principal
Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology (MIT)
Muzaffarpur
Email: jagadanand@gmail.com

2.  “The ability to simplify means to
eliminate the unnecessary so that
the necessary to speak”-Hans
Hoffman
 Communication has a vital
function of conveying one’s
feeling to another. Oral, typed or
hand written or even silence is a
way of communication
 Basic principle of communication
is that others should understand
what is being communicated
 One should realize the extent of
frustration or stress of an
ambiguous communication.

3.  TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION is
vital for the survival of
modern society;
 A drawing if not understood at
the site by supervisor can lead
to wrong execution of a
project(no chance of any
correction at a later stage)
 Prescription written in shabby
manner by a doctor can lead
to disastrous situation for
patients especially if the
pharmacists start guessing the
name of the medicine.

4.  General concept of technical communication
 Email
 Letter and phone calls
 Theses and Dissertation
 Visual aids for reports
 Presentation and power point slides
 Media interaction
 Meeting
 Ethical behaviour
 Professional societies
 Rules for a successful career

5.  Be Brief
 Be clear
 Be correct
(Both technically and communication point of
view)

6.  Most essential: Hit exactly
the right length otherwise
May loose interest of your
reader/listener .
(if statement drags on)
 Often better to be too short
and entice your audience to
come back to you rather
than be too long and boring.

7.  Technical writing: What is the Best
Length-10 word statement
 Oral Communication ( What is right
duration for the situation)
 15 second sound bite
 2-minute fame
 10 minute discourse
 1 hour lecture

8.  Put yourself to the shoes of your reader/listeners
 If unsure of the background of listener; assume a
lower level and gradually increase the
sophistication of message
 Sophistication level: Refers to the sophistication
of the vocabulary, technical content and thought
process

9.  Crucial for technical education
 Any statement must be based on prior work
(others/own work) – Require to quote the
source and respect intellectual property.
 otherwise it is necessary to acknowledge that
the statement is based on intuition/
experience

10.  Require proper vocabulary,
grammar, diction including
being politically correct
 Proofread is a must for any
written work
 Be prepared to speak slowly
and exercise patience when
you get an indication that you
have lost (listener may not
speak your language)

11.  Very convenient ,time efficient and most
popular mode of written communication
today
 Include the distribution line (To, Cc, Bcc),
the title and the body of the message
 In the distribution line: make sure that you
copy who truly needs to see your message
 Bcc: dangerous obviously you are hiding
something from someone

12.  Email signature with your complete title and
contact information including country
(Important: Allows the reader who you are)
 Email: Be careful regarding first name,
family name and gender when sent to foreign
country
 First name of signature: lowercase
 Family name signature : capital
 Gender: Dear Dr. Something- gender not
obvious

13.  Communicate in such a way that if your
message were published on the front page of
a major news paper, you would not be
embarrassed
 It is best not to answer unpleasant message
right away (It is often disturbing to the
sender when such messages remain
unanswered)

14.  Email or a phone call: that is the
question!
 Email can be interpreted by
different ways by different
people: In such situation it is best
to pick up the phone
 Most people appreciate being told
unpleasant truths “in person” by
a telephone rather than reading
them in email.
 Best approach is to talk on
telephone followed by follow up
e-mail to restate and formally
memorialize the points covered in
the conversation

15.  No longer very common and are used for
extraordinary and formal occasions
 Text of letter should be two pages or less
 Letters have rarely attachment unless they are
cover letters
 Letter head: Name of organisation and contact
information, date of letter, name, title,
affiliation and address of person you are writing
to.
 Greeting line should be- Dear Mr./Mrs./Ms. X

16.  Thesis: Usually required for a master’s degree
 Dissertations: Produced by a candidate for a PhD degree
 Typical organisation
 Title: 50 to 75 characters (5 to 10 words) are best
 Cover page: Title, author’s name, Name of the institution,
Date
 Dedication : To someone who is important to you
 Acknowledgments: You thank those who have contributed to
the work and the sponsoring organisation and any organisation
who helped in some fashion
 Table of contents (TOC): Start with major section and
subsection titles. The more detailed the TOC, the easier the
body of the paper will be to write.
 Abstracts: Describe the problem, summarize the important
findings of each section (in order) and briefly state the most
important conclusions.
(Usually no figures, tables or photos in this part)

17.  Introduction: Purpose of introduction to answer the following
questions: What, Why, How, where, by whom, and for whom.
(Once these questions are answered: present a narrative outline
of thesis/dissertation)
 Literature review:
Summarize the existing knowledge
Take time to synthesize that knowledge
Give your opinion and point out why your work was necessary or
how it built on or extended previous work (research gap)
 Experiments:
Purpose of experiments, design of experiment, description of the
mechanical and electronics parts, test procedure, data
acquisition and the result
Scaling law and extrapolation of results to full scale need to
explain if small scale version of experiment is conducted
Table listing all the experiment
A number designation (e.g.T46) if there are too many parameters
to report for each experiment

18.  Numerical simulations:
Mesh size, boundary condition
Selection of the model and the input parameters
Table summarizing the number of simulation cases
and the identification of the parameters varied
 Analysis of data: Use of all data accumulated to
formulate a solution to the problem in a simple and
useful form (Theory, Engineering judgment, logic and
common sense)
 Conclusions: To demonstrate your contribution to new
knowledge and arranging them in a consistent,
useful and simple way

19.  References: Purpose of a reference is to
acknowledge the work of others
(To quote a reference- As per the institution’s
preferred system : Full citation information for
each source so that reader can track easily )
 Appendices: Bulk of the data should appear in an
appendix. Front page of each appendix should
explain what is in that appendix

20. Soil G DFS(%)
OMC
(%)
LL
(%)
PP
(%)
SL
(%)
Expansive 2.45 80 0.16 72 33 13
WRP 2.60 0 0.13 - - -
Include Figure, Table and Graph
Figures with graph:
Shows graphs of data with two
axes labeled with name of
variable, letter symbol and unit
in parentheses
For more than one set of data
points use different symbols
Incase of a regression line
indicate the equation of line and
value of coefficient of regression
R2
Table: Name, symbol and unit
of parameters
Photos: Sharp and high
resolution

21.  For non-commercial purpose source of each
visual aid must be acknowledged
 For commercial purpose written permission
from the publisher must be mentioned along
with the acknowledgement of the source
 Student work is non-commercial: Good habit
of acknowledging any intellectual property
 People always appreciate when they are
recognized and get upset when they are not

22.  Helpful Checklist for successful presentation
 Hook up laptop with local projectors to check if it
works properly
 Check all your slides to make sure they are exactly
what you expect
(equations are not changed, movies are working etc)
 Bring a pointer or find out if one is available to
borrow
 Signal to advance the slide if you are not doing this
your self (constant use of Next Slide is not elegant)
 Keep an eye on time and pace yourself (Average time
per slide is one minute; slide with only photos go
faster and with sample calculation go slower)

23.  Have a back up plan if something fails to work.
Develop the talent of not requiring slides to guide
your thoughts.
(Can you project your voice without the
microphone?
Can you complete the presentation without
slides?)
 Have a special title slide and final slide that set
your desired tone and reflect your personality
 Keep an eye on your audience and adjust
accordingly
(Are you getting blank stare or interested look)

24.  Being self conscious and no podium to lean on, one may
find himself in an open stage not knowing what to do with
hands
(Good trick in this situation is to grab a pen or pointer)
 Some fundamental rule for Power Point Presentation
 Do not put too much information on the slide
(Four bullets/one graph)
 Graph speak well to an engineering audience.
 Tables are not a good way to convey an idea or a result in
power point
 Equations may be necessary but should be limited in length
 Use of movies is entertaining and holds the audience
attention
(Check them right before the presentation that they work)

25.  Forms: written press, audio press and video press and most
likely interaction will be interview
 Written form: Press release, letter to the editor sent to
newspaper
 Interview: Conducted for written press in an informal
setting (less stressful than audio or video interview) and
best to avoid “off the record” note
 Say only what you do not mind seeing printed (Always)
 Video press: Recorded interview (may be edited)or a live
interview (Ask the reporter about the line of questioning
and typical question)
 Possibility of editing gives some level of confidence against
mistake but one should not behave differently (video
editing is very time consuming and not as easy as text
editing)

26.  Live interview: an exercise in fast thinking and right
thinking.
 15 second sound bite dominates the TV market
 Speak your mind: but do not say anything that one is not
very sure of.
 For any uncomfortable question: Find a way to answer by
talking about what you really wish to talk about
 To minimize errors in answer: Give yourself time to think
(a look in the distance or at the ceiling) and then start
with the obvious while formulating rest of answer in mind.

27.  Important rules for efficient meeting
 Do not interrupt anyone
 Be brief
 Be professional in your attitude towards your
colleagues
 Interrupting people when they speak is rude
 Important to remain calm under fire and
concentrate on facts, data, logic, analysis and
reasoning to win your arguments rather than
shouting or attacking someone personally

28.  In many situation, it is important to have the
courage to change the things you can change and
accept those that you cannot change
(have the wisdom to know the difference)
 As a participant in a meeting, speak up only
when you really have something important to say
or something that will advance the process
 If presiding the meeting, keep in mind the time
allotted for each item on the agenda and help
the group stay focused on the topic
 As a leader of the meeting start by establishing
some initial rules about the distraction
(cell phone use, side charts, answering email)

29.  During meeting motion and votes are very
valuable because the decision becomes
extremely clear.
 A motion is proposed by someone
 The motion is seconded by a second person. If
not seconded, the motion dies
 Once the motion is seconded, discussion follows
 When the discussion is over, the person presiding
calls for the vote depending on the rules of the
organisation
 A need for action taken item: who will do what
to implement the decision and should be
included in the recorded minutes of meeting.

30.  9 billion people of the planet think differently
and yet everyone thinks that they are right, still
there are reasonable guidelines governing ethical
behaviour
 An engineer should remember the following
 As engineer we must uphold the safety of
general public as the highest priority within
reasonable economic constraint
 If unsure about something get the advice from
the people who have a proven record

31.  If at all possible, do not rush the decision
 In the process of deciding, reverse the roles;
treat people the way you would like to be
treated
 If the outcome is unpleasant, DO NOT QUIT: keep
fighting for what you think is right until it
becomes right or you run out of energy.

32.  Two families: Blood family and Professional
family (Professional society)
 Activities in professional society :
 one will participate in the work of technical
committees
 contribute to final professional decision to
be followed by professional engineers
 And generally strengthen and advance the
practice of engineering
 As volunteer after interaction with the peer,
one can learn and improve technical
communication skill

33.  Pursue your dreams with vision and
perseverance
 Surround yourself with smart people and
positive role model
 Communication is the best way to solve
problem
 Treat others as you wish to be treated and
you will lead by example
 Be firm in your decisions but always be fair
and polite

34.  Look for solutions and not who is to blame
 Make lot of friends. Nurture your public
relations
 Work hard but balance your interests
(Fun, family, sports, art, world news)
 Be curious. The discovery process is a
fountain of youth
 Choose the relentless pursuit of
excellence as a way of life
Let us communicate in a clear and
decisive manner

35. The author wishes to acknowledge the various
sources with thanks that have been used for
the presentation of the material
Thanks for your attention! Any question…..