Title: Academic Writing for Engineering Publication: Guide for Non-native English Speakers

Abstract: 

Writing is more than fluent speaking or a good command of grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Writing is a complex task that requires training and practice of many techniques, such as organizing ideas logically, constructing sentences and paragraphs coherently, presenting with appropriate tones, formatting in a stylish manner, and executing in an ethical and professional way. Written communication reveals our intelligence of thinking, ability of using words, level of education, and so forth. Good writers are usually creative people with brilliant ideas, which can help capable writers excel in their career development. Writing skills are important to students’ employability and career advancement. Regardless of your jobs, you might need to write daily. Writing is a great way to extend your voices that conveys your thoughts and ideas to many people in the world. After this training, students can write with clarity and conciseness. They should be able to convey complex technical information in a simple way. Course materials will be presented following writing sequence. It begins with preparation and outline, continues with drafting and revision, and ends with formatting and proofreading. Admittedly, they often relate to each other and overlap without a clear boundary. The following is a brief chart of these three parts:

(1) Ethics and Professionalism

(2) Preparing and Outlining

(3) Drafting (literature review, methodology, results & discussion, conclusions)

(4) Paragraphs

(5) Sentences

(6) Words and Phrases

(7) Punctuation

(8) Finalization (formatting, proofreading and Others)

(9) Other topics upon request

Lecturer: Zhongchao Tan

Date/Time: 8:30 – 10:30AM, every Tuesday between 11 May~ 1 JUN, 2021

Online Platform: Tecent Conference ID:444 5818 8376

Brief introduction of the lecturer: 

Professor Zhongchao Tan is associate dean of School of Engineering, Director of Green Energy and Pollution Control Laboratory, Executive Director of Micro Nano Energy and Environment Joint Research Center between Tsinghua University and University of Waterloo, Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (AME), Canadian Society of Chemical Engineers (CSME) and other organizations, Deputy Editor of Sustainable Environment Research and Nanotechnology for Environmental Engineering. He received his bachelor's degree and master's degree from Tsinghua University in 1996 and 1999, and received his PhD from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2004. His research fields are filtration and separation technology of green energy and clean environment. He has published 3 books, more than 100 academic papers, and is tutor of more than 30 master's and doctoral students. Academic Writing for Engineering Publication, his monograph published on May 27, 2020, once ranked the TOP one of the ranking of technical thinking and writing in the Kindle Store Amazon.ca. As a Chinese Canadian, he has studied and worked in US and Canada for 22 years, which made him understand the language and culture differences between eastern and western very well.