IEEE English for Technical Professionals
This new online course by IEEE enables professional engineers and technical professionals whose first language is not English to improve their language skills in a way that fits the needs and priorities of working adults in the engineering fields. As a professional in your field, you are well aware of the importance of understanding and maintaining standards for process, product, and discovery. This course presents the English language standards and practice activities that are essential for your daily success—whether you want to describe a project to a peer, submit a technical proposal to a funding source, or justify your technical findings to a supervisor. The goal is to help learners gain confidence and understanding about the ways in which technical or engineering communication works.
What you will learn:
- Each lesson includes modules on reading, writing, listening, speaking skills with a newly added speech-to-text enhancement
- Recurring characters bring the lessons to life as they interact with each other and the learner through animated business scenarios
- Short assessments and exercises throughout each lesson to help improve skills, with a final test at the end of each lesson
Lessons included:
- Lesson 1: The Basics
- Lesson 2: Business Documents, Questions, and the Technical Pursuit
- Lesson 3: Engineering Concepts and Complexity
- Lesson 4: The Future Tense for Technical Work
- Lesson 5: White Papers; Modifiers and Qualifiers
- Lesson 6: Making Recommendations; Interpreting Data; Ethical Persuasion for Technical Projects
- Lesson 7: Cause and Effect; Calls for Proposals
- Lesson 8: Technical Complexity in Communication
- Lesson 9: Numbers, Plain English, Jargon, and Technical Terms
- Lesson 10: Active and Passive Structures
- Lesson 11: Organization Needs; Seeing the Big Picture; Negotiating
- Lesson 12: Audience Needs and Assessment; Standards versus White Papers; Objectivity
- Lesson 13: Communicating within Expected Genres; Identifying Trustworthy Sources or Bias in
- Lesson 14: A Review of Major Course Takeaways
Course Program Length: 21 hours
Instructors
Traci Nathans-Kelly
Traci Nathans-Kelly, PhD, currently teaches in Cornell University's College of Engineering in the Engineering Communications Program. Previously, she worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Engineering in the Technical Communication program. She teaches technical/engineering communication, technical/engineering presentations, technical editing, writing user manuals, and other topics. She also served Wiley-IEEE Press as the series editor for the Engineering Professional Communication line and as the IEEE Press Liaison for the IEEE Professional Communication Society. Inside IEEE, she serves on the Educational Activities Board in the Continuing Education division. She has worked with practicing professional engineers, technical experts, scientists, and related field experts for over 20 years, helping them to strengthen their abilities to become impactful contributors in their organizations. She has conducted workshops and training for such entities as The Boeing Company, Flad Architects, IEEE-USA, Wolters Kluwer, and a host of others. In the past, she has trained practicing engineers and technical experts at AT&T, CN Railroad, FedEx, GE, Google, Harley Davidson, IBM, Intel, John Deere, Johnson Controls, Kohler, Kraft, Lockheed Martin, Medtronic, Mercury Marine, Motorola, NASA, Ocean Spray, Sanofi Pasteur, Sirius, SkullCandy, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Department of Defense, the US Army, the US National Security Agency, the US Navy/Nuclear Submarines Development Unit, and many more.
Susan Matson
Susan Matson, curriculum specialist, has over 35 combined years of teaching and curriculum development related to ESL learning. She was a Teaching Fellow for the U.S. Department of State in Eastern Europe as well as National Director of Curriculum for a multi-site Intensive English Program in the U.S. Her teaching experience has included working professionals as well as university-bound non-native speakers of English in multiple settings. She received her M.S. in Education from Johns Hopkins University and ESL Certification from American University in Washington, DC.
Audience: Entry or mid-level technical professionals, engineers, managers.
Publication Year: 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5386-8598-3
Upon successful completion of this course program, you are eligible to receive a digital badge that can be shared on LinkedIn and other social networks. If you would like to request a badge for this program, please contact us: eab-ceuadmin@ieee.org.