Engineering Speaking by Design

Preface

In Life Without Principle, Henry Thoreau laments hearing a speaker who chose “a theme too foreign to himself.” As a result, there was “no truly central or centralizing thought in the lecture.” A century and a half later, you may have encountered the engineering speaker who is lost in his own slides and resorts to reading them verbatim, or the engineer who, although capable of connecting with her audience, seems uninterested in doing so. In fact, that speaker may be you.

Engineers are smart people and their work is important. They make their accomplishments known through presentations to colleagues, bosses, customers, and the public. Their task, which is far more difficult than that of the typical public speaker, is to convey highly ...