S., you say you’ve worked with brilliant engineers who were practically illiterate. I never have; some were better writers than others but most were pretty fair. If they were poor writers, they tended to be poor engineers, too. And the best doc writer I ever met absolutely hated it! As you say, he took the time and effort to do it right (so he wouldn’t have to do it over).

My degree is in Mathematics (emphasis in Computer Science), with a minor in English (emphasis in Creative Writing, not Technical Writing) and I often mention this about my college days: as students often did (at least in those days), we’d sit around during breaks and discuss majors and minors. If it was in one of my hard-science classes, when I mentioned my minor was English, it was like, “Cool, have you had this class yet? What did you think of that professor?” In other words, the guys following the hard science curriculum more or less expected that we had varied interests and that often included the fuzzy subjects. I’ve since run into many engineers with background in writing, photography, music (lots of musicians), etc.

But in the English classes, when I mentioned that I was majoring in Math, you could practically hear their chins hit the floor. For those students, it was as if people in the hard sciences couldn’t understand the arts and people in the arts couldn’t do hard science (sadly, there’s some evidence to that effect).

I take my writing very seriously and I am meticulous about it. However, in the engineering world, I find I am the exception. My point is not that I’m a great writer. It’s that I take the time and effort to communicate clearly. Most engineers simply do not expend that effort in their writing.

Much of what I read from other engineers falls into two categories: 1) prose that is overly wordy in order to ‘sound’ sophisticated, and 2) text that says nothing and simply fulfills an obligation to write a document. Both of these scenarios produce worthless documents that waste the employee’s time and the employer’s money.

I’ve also found that engineering prowess does not translate to comparable writing skills. I have worked with brilliant engineers who are practically illiterate. However, the contrary does not seem to be true. Very few of the incompetent engineers I have encountered turned out to be great writers.

Engineering expertise may be an innate talent, but competent writing skills certainly are not. It just takes a bit more time and effort than most engineers are willing to offer.

It’s hard to quantify how an engineer’s time is allocated between problem solving, writing about it, and talking about it, since the three legs of the stool support each other. When you catch your reference guy in the hall and ask for clarification on how a certain part works, are you problem solving or verbally communicating? When you are performing a peer review and ask if a certain paragraph is clear, are you talking or writing?