Review

I wrote three blogs for my English 321 class at North Dakota State University. My first blog was about my mechanical engineering field, the second one was about an ethical dilemma in my field, and my third one was about writing in my field. In this blog I would like to talk about what technics I used and how I implemented them in my blogs.

Tone of the Blog

During my blog writing I read a lot of posts by other people. I found that depending on their target audience, the writing style was very different. The blogs that were written by professors and experts in the field are much more precise and usually have more figures in the writing. Whereas if a journalist writes about a subject that he or she is not familiar with the writing seems to be easier to read. It is also written vaguer because the author doesn’t know all the technical terms.

When I was writing my blogs I tried to write them informally so anyone can understand them and get something out of them. I also tried to make them semi-professional and give the readers accurate information about engineering.

Repetition
 This means to use the same words throughout your blog to convey a strong message. I used this in my writing, especially the word “engineer” because that was the common theme I wrote about.  In my blogs I also use the same design in all of them to be consistent. I used bold headings before every different subject and tried to space my paragraphs the same to keep things clean.

Alignment
The right alignment can really change how a blog reads. I went with a block style of alignment.  I used new paragraphs to separate different topics and ideas in the blogs. I liked this because it seemed to organize my blogs, which makes them easier to read.   I didn’t want to put all my ideas in one paragraph because it would be too much to take in at one time. White space it a good thing to have in a blog so I tried to put the right amount in mine.

Proximity
Proximity is all about how you group things together in your writing. If you have one topic you are talking about in the top of the blog you want to finish that topic before starting a new one. You don’t want to talk about a subject once and then talk about the same subject later. I tried to use proximity in my blogs by grouping all my topics together.

C.R.A.P.

Writing in the Field

One Invention, So Many Engineers
Engineering has been around since the beginning of time. Whether it was called engineering or not, there have always been problem solvers. The first person who made changes to the spear or bow and arrow was an engineer. The first huge engineering machine was the steam engine. Thomas Savery was credited with this invention. It changed everything about how people lived their lives and it made life much easier. In the “The History of the Steam Engine” the author, who is not named, writes about the improvement to the steam engine made by Elijah McCoy. He made a lubrication cup to oil parts while the engine was still moving. Robert Fulton then made a boat around the steam engine which revolutionized water travel in America. This is just an example of one invention and how many people affected it and how much it affected the world.

Current Engineers
Some other big names in engineering are Philp Condit the CEO of Boeing who is also a mechanical and aeronautical engineer.Steve Wozniak worked for the apple company and Bill Nye worked for Boeing before becoming the “science guy”.

 Writing in the Field

I worked at AGCO in Jackson, MN in the dynamometer room. While there my mentor was Caleb Bashore a test engineer. He has worked at AGCO for two years and he has had some experience at CAT before that. As I was interning under him I realized how much writing being an engineer requires. Before every test there is a request you receive from a design engineer telling you what they want you to do and what machine they want to proceed on. After reading that you must email the design engineer back and tell him with you think, any problems you see, and a list of the instrumentation you will be using. While running the test you have to write clearly what is going on and any information  you are recording without the computer. If anything breaks on the machine you must write down what happened, what part failed and how you think it can be fixed. Then you write a PBR which is a part request form for ordering the failed part. After the test is completed there is a report you write about what broke, what information you recorded, the end result, and what the next step is if the run failed.

I interviewed my mentor Caleb Bashore and asked him what he did for writing at his job. Since I worked with him for a summer and did a lot of the same writing, he told me the exact same thing I just said said about all the writing in the field. He did talk about writing emails. He said it is very important to know who you are emailing and their personality. If you are writing to someone who is always serious at work you need to write that way. If you are writing to someone who is a little bit more laid back then you can put some “fun” in your emails. Caleb also said that when you are writing reports editing and labeling are very important. The design engineers can’t change the reports, so you as the test engineer need to put in everything they need.

Phone Tapping

Listening in
There has been a lot of talk about the government phone tapping scandal in the last year. I agree that is was a terrible thing to do and not tell anyone about it. On the other hand I can kind of see why they did it and I think there are definitely two sides to every story.

When it Started
Throughout the years there has been phone tapping scandals throughout the world, beginning in 1890 with the invention of the first telephone recorder and up to the present day US government recordings. Owen Fiss wrote in “Even in a Time of Terror”  that in 1934 congress passed a law for it to be illegal to  tap any conversation between unknowing parties. In 2001, following 9/11, George W. Bush called for a “War on Terror”; once he called for this the NSA could tap phone calls. They were listening for buzz words like “bombs" and other potentially dangerous words.

The main debate about this subject is whether or not the NSA should be able to listen or whether it should be against the law. I feel like they should be able to listen to our phone calls if they are only listening for are buzz words. Anything else they hear should be kept secret and the recordings erased. However, if they are listening to entire conversations without a reason, I think that goes against the War on Terror policy. In my opinion the only reason that they should have for listening is if there are a known terrorist or associated with one, mentally unstable, or if they are looking up incriminating affairs online like “how to make bombs”, etc.. Sean Kerner writes that the NSA can look through the camera on your phone and computer to see what you are doing. If they are doing this spying through electronics I do not agree with it and it goes way over the line.

My Side
I feel that if the NSA wants to listen to people’s conversations, there is nothing wrong with that. If you are doing nothing wrong and the conversations they are listening to are not being released into the public you have nothing to lose.

Mechanical Engineering

Engineering in a Nutshell

How can you tell someone what a mechanical engineer is and what they do in just one blog entry? Well I am going to give it a shot. There are a plethora of fields that a mechanical engineer can go into, not to mention the many different jobs that are in the many  fields. Mechanical engineering  jobs range from heating and cooling to weaponry experts. For mechanical engineers, our job in short is to design new parts, make the parts and then test them in the field.

The Job
The designs (for new parts and machines) and testing jobs each require a little bit of a different person. If you are looking to go into design engineering you need to keep a few things in mind. First off you have to like looking at a computer screen and being in an office because that is where most of your time will be spent. Second, you need to be able to problem solve when it comes to designing and try to think of things that no one else has thought of, some of the greatest things we have today seemed very “silly” when they were designed. For any of the engineering branches you need to keep the customer in mind, and this is especially relevant in designing new products. You are making parts for the customer so if you make an item that no one can use, no one wants, or it makes the task harder, you are not doing your job and will not be very successful as an engineer.

From talking with and meeting some professionals in the field there are a few things that I think are common between all mechanical engineers. First, I think that most engineers are interested in making the world a safer and better place. By designing and testing higher quality and safer products we make the world that much better. Most engineers like to solve problems (no not just math problems) but real everyday complications. There is nothing that feels more accomplishing then figuring out a dilemma to help someone.

Values of an Engineer
To be a good engineer there are certain values that you need to have, especially when designing. While designing parts you don’t just make them as fast and cheap as possible because many people can get hurt from your rushed work. The company you work for may push you to use the cheapest material and make the parts low quality..  If you know people may get hurt by your weak parts you need to step up and say no to making the part this way because  someone may be injured. There is also the part of the job where if you are working for a company (whether testing or designing) and you are making something that is secret you need to keep that to yourself and not tell unauthorized people. This could have a very bad effect on your company and could also give the competitors a leg up.

Something to Ponder
Without mechanical engineers this world would not be the same. Imagine if everything mechanical was taken out of this world.  Some examples would be, any vehicle, appliances, tractors, equipment, and the list goes on. People use things all the time that somewhere along the line a mechanical engineer designed, made, or tested. According to Teaching Tomorrow’s Engineers the mechanical engineering field is always changing and will hopefully be able to keep up with ever growing 

Picture 1

Picture 2