1/20 Blog Post 2: Selzer, "The Composing Processes of the Engineer"

In Jack Selzer's "The Composing Processes of the Engineer," the author analyzes the writing process of a Chicago engineer, Kenneth E. Nelson. Selzer uses a comprehensive approach to study Nelson's writing, drawing from a number of sources collected from Nelson himself, such as all of his pre-writing materials like notes, outlines, and drafts. Selzer also conducted interviews with Nelson before and after written works were completed.

Selzer compares and contrasts Nelson's writing process with conventional methods of writing used by non-technical writers. To Selzer's apparent surprise, Nelson displays a great deal of creativity in his technical writing, particularly with regard to his audience. Since most of Nelson's written work deals with projects and project proposals, his ability to cater to his audience is essential to the success of his writing, and by extension the success of his career.

Another way that Nelson generates content for his papers is through research. As Selzer details, Nelson uses both library resources and the experience of his colleagues to build his written documents. Kenneth Nelson even refers to past writing, especially if the audience of his document is someone he has worked with before.

Another observation that Selzer makes about Kenneth Nelson is that Nelson creates a plan immediately and sticks to it. Nelson creates and assembles information according to a preliminary plan, and then arranges the content to suit the purpose of the document. Thorough planning and construction of the ideas and content of the document then translate to a relatively seamless draft and revision process. Nelson first creates a well-built document in the planning and outline phases, and merely refines the document in the draft and revision stages.

I thought that Selzer's conclusion was a little cloudy. He concludes that no real conclusion can be made from a single case study, which is probably fairly accurate. Selzer also suggests that, since Nelson's writing process showed some similarities to professional writers' writing processes, technical writers could be well-served to learn many techniques for creating written works.