Engineering Speaking by Design: Delivering Technical Presentations with Real Impact (Paperback)

From the Authors of Engineering Writing by Design: Creating Formal Documents of Lasting Value

Engineering presentations are often a topic of frustration. Engineers complain that they don't enjoy public speaking, and that they don't know how to address audiences with varying levels of technical knowledge. Their colleagues complain about the state of information transfer in the profession. Non-engineers complain that engineers are boring and talk over everybody’s heads.

Although many public speaking books exist, most concentrate on surface issues, failing to distinguish the formal oral technical presentation from general public speaking.

Engineering Speaking by Design: Delivering Technical Presentations with Real Impact targets the formal oral technical presentation skills needed to succeed in modern engineering. Providing clear and concise instruction supported by illustrative examples, the book explains how to avoid logical fallacies (both formal and informal), use physical reasoning to catch mistakes in claims, master the essentials of presentation style, conquer the elements of mathematical exposition, and forge a connection with the audience. Each chapter ends with a convenient checklist, bulleted summary, and set of exercises. A solutions manual is available with qualifying course adoption.

Yet the book’s most unique feature is its conceptual organization around the engineering design process. This is the process taught in most engineering survey courses: understand the problem, collect relevant information, generate alternative solutions, choose a preferred solution, refine the chosen solution, and so on. Since virtually all engineers learn and practice this process, it is so familiar that it can be applied seamlessly to formal oral technical presentations.

Thus, Engineering Speaking by Design: Delivering Technical Presentations with Real Impact is inherently valuable in that it shows engineers how to leverage what they already know. The book’s mantra is: if you can think like an engineer, you can speak like an engineer.

《工程寫作設計：創造持久價值的正式文件》的作者們呈獻
工程演講常常令人困擾。工程師抱怨他們不喜歡公開演講，也不知道如何應對具有不同技術知識水平的觀眾。他們的同事抱怨這個行業的信息傳遞狀況。非工程師抱怨工程師很無聊，講話超過大家的理解範圍。

儘管有很多公開演講的書籍，但大多數都集中在表面問題上，未能區分正式口頭技術演講和一般公開演講。

《工程演講設計：帶來真正影響的技術演講》專注於現代工程成功所需的正式口頭技術演講技巧。本書提供清晰簡明的指導，並以實例加以說明，解釋如何避免邏輯謬誤（包括正式和非正式的），使用物理推理來發現主張中的錯誤，掌握演講風格的基本要素，掌握數學表達的要素，並與觀眾建立聯繫。每章結束時都有一份方便的檢查表、要點摘要和一套練習題。有資格採用課程的教師可以獲得解答手冊。

然而，本書最獨特的特點是其圍繞工程設計過程的概念組織。這是大多數工程調查課程教授的過程：了解問題，收集相關信息，生成替代解決方案，選擇首選解決方案，完善所選解決方案，等等。由於幾乎所有工程師都學習並實踐這個過程，它非常熟悉，可以無縫應用於正式口頭技術演講。

因此，《工程演講設計：帶來真正影響的技術演講》本質上具有價值，因為它向工程師展示如何利用他們已經知道的知識。本書的口號是：如果你能像一個工程師一樣思考，你就能像一個工程師一樣演講。