Markel - Chapters 16 and 19

Reading Markel after taking classes that require technical writing is like taking a time machine to see all the stuff I did wrong as I lurched through my upper-division classes. Even basic stuff like knowing the difference between an abstract and a letter of transmittal had to be learned through doing. Basically the Markel readings reminded me why it's absurd to not have English 402 as a requirement for the engineering design courses, as technical writing comprises a majority of the work. Obviously this reading wasn't a page-turner like 1984 but I appreciate that Markel spruces things up with figures and examples. Also the checklist on page 535 seems pretty handy. As an engineer, technical writing like proposals and recommendations are a large part of my work. In my internship I'd say that it is already about 40% of the work that I do on any given day, and I see no reason why that would decrease as I gain responsibility. For instance, I've written a technical instruction manual on the operation of several pieces of equipment and am currently working on a project that involves a significant amount of technical writing (I don't know if I can say specifically what it is due to NDA). Thus the recommendation chapter seemed really relevant to me (I've only written a couple proposals and those were for class).