VOLUME 33, NO. 2, W R U A R Y . 1956
WHAT COLLEGES ARE DOING TO TRAIN CHEMISTS AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERS IN TECHNICAL WRITING1 KENNETH A. KOBE University of Texas, Austin, Texas
R ~ x N aTformer ~ student returned to see horn the department was doing without him. He made a significant statement: "Although I am in technical work, my job is selling. I have to sell my ideas to my superiors, hy both oral persuasion and written reports." He went on to elaborate how important it was to him personally to make an excellent impression in selling his ideas, because he actually was selling himself as far as advancement in the company was concerned. This began some reminiscences concerning the attitude t,his man, as a student, had toward t,he emphasis the faculty placed on content, form, and English in the required reports in various courses. The faculty just had not done a convincing job of selling report writing t,o t,he students. Their at,tit,ude largely remains: "Yes, but. . . ". We should sell the idea t.o the st,udents. Let us look a t the evidence. Back in 1937, Chemical Industries ran a series of articles2 on Why Chemists Get Fired. Some statements made apply to all technical men. 'Presented as part of the Symposium on Training Chemists and Chemical Enginheers in Technical Writing before the Division of Chemical Literature a t the 128th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Minneapolis, September, 1 % ~ . 2 Symposium, Why Chemists Get F i d , Chem. Ind., 41, 237, 351 (1037).
A criticism repeated again and again by executives of chemical companies can be epitomized by the statement of Dr. Robert E. Wilson, then president of t,he PanAmerican Petroleum and Transport Company and now chairman of the board of directors of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana: "In my experience the greatest weakness of the average chemical engineer today is in the lack of ability to assemble a good report which is a t once well organized, clear, and persuasive." That the complaint has not changed from that of 1937 is shown in an editorials which summarizes the statements of a number of executives. The late Willard Dow, then president of the Dow Chemical Company, stated, "The average engineer is most inadequately equipped to express himself in the English language." This criticism is not direct,ed merely a t the four-year graduate. The American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Training found in its survey of graduate training a t the doctorate level4 that chemical industrial research executives were still asking for the same thing: "Industrial research is badly in need of men who possess. . .the ahilit,y to express concln3
MURPHY,W. J., Znd. Eng. Chem., 39,807 (1947). BILL~MOS, E. M., Chem. E n g . News, 25, 20TG (1947).
56
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
schools now require a course in technical writing and 39 schools require courses in speech.' In the 41 chemical engineering schools requiring a technical-writing course, the maxinlum credit is 9 REPORTING IS UNIVERSAL semester-hours a t the University of Virginia, follo~red Does the ability to write excellent reports pay off by 6 semester-hours a t Vanderbilt University. Four only in progress in a technical branch? No, its merit semester-hour courses are given a t 4 schools; 3 semesgoes beyond the limits of the plant, laboratory, or ter-hour courses a t 16 schools; 2 semester-hour courses design office. This can be illustrated by a letter re- at 17 schools, and one school gives a 1 semester-hour ceived during World War I1 from a former student who course. At two schools (Wisconsin and Mississippi) was a captain in the plans and training section of the the courses are taught by chemical engineers in their XVI Corps. After an inspection of a division of the own department. At Iowa State College the course is Corps he had to prepare a report on its state of training. given in civil engineering. In the 39 schools requiring speech courses the usual As he related it, he prepared the report in "good old chemical engineering style" and submitted it to the course is a 2 semester-hour course (19 schools) or a 3 chief of training. After a meek it was returned with a semester-hour course (11 schools), though 3 schools note from the Chief of Staff stating, "I want all our require a 4 semester-hour course. Because of the more "cultural" education of the reports to look like this one." Within a month the chemist in many liberal-arts schools, it is doubtful that captain became a major. The chemist and the chemical engineer must be able the percentage of schools that require technical English to prepare their technical report with a degree of facility courses is as high as for the chemical engineers. In equal to that used in their technical work. After the universities where the curriculum for the professional decarefully planned experimental investigation has been greein chemistry isin a professional school, the chemist completed, the data evaluated and correlated, and the may take the same course as the chemical engineer conclusions and recommendations carefully drawn, (as they do at the University of Minnesota) or a slightly the comprehensive report must be written. Productive modified course (as they do a t the University of Texas). work ceases, and no further technical accomplishment In some chemistry departments, an individual prois made until the report has been completed. "Thus, a fessor has recognized the need for improved technical really effective engineer or chemist is the one who can writing and has put in his-own courses, as has Professor write an adequate report in the shortest possible time; Mellon at Purdue University urith his courses in he is the one who gets the most technical work done chemical literature and chemical writing. in a given period of time and advances his ideas to his CONTINUED PRACTICE IS NECESSARY superiors a t the earliest practical moment. There is, It is not enough to expose the student to a course in of course, a suitable compromise between the quality of work done, and a general concept of an optimum is technical writing. The rapid regression, no matter how high the initial degree of achievement, will undo applicable in this case.s most of the benefits of special training unless a conINDUSTRY DEMANDS SKILL IN REPORTING tinued use is made of the newly acquired skill in techniThis insistent demand of industry for men trained cal writing. Whether or not the student will exercise to express themselves clearly and forcefully in both his new ability and whether it will progress or regress written and spoken English has had its impact on the depends entirely on his instructors in his major field. If the attitude of the instructor in his professional colleges and universities. The departments of chemistry and chemical engineering have put pressure on the courses is one of indifference to good writing and good department of English to minimize its traditional form of reporting, then the student may take the easy training in composition and literature and to give way out and do a job which is good enough to "get by" special training adapted to the special needs of students with the instructor. After a long series of such mediin science and engineering. These needs are par- ocre jobs the student will no longer have either the will ticularly the subjects of letter writing, report writing, or the know-how to produce a report that wonld satisfy industry. and oral reporting. A unique system is used by the Department of Technical English courses are more frequent now. This program has been making rapid progress (from Chemical Engineering a t the University of Texas to the educational viewpoint). I n 1948 a survey of the insure a continuation and progression of skill in techdepartments of chemical engineering accredited by nical report writing. The student is given a sophomore A. I. Ch. E. and A. C. S. showed that 15 of 53 schools course in writing for engineers. Each instructor in had a special course in technical writing." recent junior and higher level courses takes the attitude that survey of the 1954-55 curricula of the 86 schools the student then can and must produce reports that accredited in chemical engineering showed that 41 would be accevtable to the English department. The sions arid substantiate them convincingly either orally or in witing and in terms adapted to the background and thinking processes of those addressed."
DRAEQER, A. A.: Personal communicstion, Jan. 14, 1947. ~KOBE K., A,, Trans. Ch. E. Div., A. S. E. E., 1948, Pt. 11, J . Eng. Educ., 39, 573 (1949). 5
7 KOBE,K. A,, "The chemical engineering curriculum, 195455," paper delivered at Fourth Summer School far Chemical Engineering Teachers, 1955.
VOLUME 33, NO. 2, FEBRUARY, 1956
57
student procures a brief text which tells him something shop where he gets individual instruction until his work is about literature surveys, forms of reports, laboratory brought up to a satisfactory level. It soon becomes reports, formal reports, and the mechanical preparation known to the students that this extra work is the fate of the man who cannot or will not produce good reports. of the r e p ~ r t . ~ After the student turns in his report, it is graded by If industry wants men well trained in technical the instructor for its technical content. The instructor English they must do two things. First, they must help also makes notations concerning gross errors in form, sell the student the idea that technical English is clarity of presentation, and the like. The report then important. How many company personnel men ask a goes to an assistant, an English major, who corrects student to bring to the interview some of his laborathe report carefully and grades it on the same basis as tory reports? How much stress is placed on performit would have been graded in the technical English ance in this field? Emphasis such as this wonld soon course. A rubber stamp is used to stamp on the title make all students aware of the interest of industry page of the report the various items of importance, like in good performance. Industry must also continue form, coherence, choice of words, etc., for which in- the training program begun at the school. It can dividual grades are given and then the grade for conduct special classes aud seminars for the new English in the over-all report. When the instmctor employees to tell them just how company reports are discusses the report with the student he emphasizes the to be made. Encouragement to take courses in public importance of the form and English, as well as the speaking and the like can be given in various vays. technical content. If a student consistently produces Technical men are trained to solve problems. If a reports poor in English, he is sent to the English work- "problem" exists in technical communications it can be solved by making the problem apparent and the 8 KOBE,K. A,, "Chemical Engineering Reports," Hemphill's solution worth-while. Bookstore, Auntin, Texas, 1950.
