Surbeck-McLearie Technical Communication Award Nomination

I was recently nominated for the Surbeck-McLearie Technical Communication Award. This was, in part, because of the writing done on this blog. Consequently, I wanted to share about it here. Also, I wanted to thank my professor, Dr. Kremmel. Her pushing me is a large reason I was nominated for this award.

Below are the documents that I submitted to the committee that is giving out this award.

Submission Letter:

Dear Humanities Writing Committee,

I am a junior chemical engineering student at SD Mines, and I am honored to be nominated for the Surbeck-McLearie Technical Communication Award. ENGL 289 was pivotal in developing my written and oral communication skills. In following the lessons of this course, I am writing to this committee to demonstrate why I should be the recipient of this award.

Unlike many engineering students, talking to people is not a struggle for me. However, the team projects and group discussions in ENGL 289 taught me the difference between talking and communicating. Talking is worthless when the audience cannot understand the purpose. The communication skills developed over the semester allowed me to effectively teach the synthesis of Tartaric Acid to my peers.

My development was primarily through understanding the six rhetorical techniques of STEM communication, as laid out by Christopher Thiass in his book Writing Science in the Twenty-First Century. Understanding my purposes for writing had the largest impact on my communication skills. It allows me to craft concise and effective messages. I applied this technique by giving feedback to my classmates, both verbally and in memo format.

To demonstrate the application of these rhetorical techniques, I am submitting my proposal for the creation of a STEM blog to the committee for evaluation. (This is attached unedited). This proposal specifically demonstrates my awareness of my audience and my reasons for writing. Other highlights of the proposal are my ordering of information and the professional document design.

To close, I would like to thank my professor, Dr. Kremmel. She demanded a lot of effort from me, however, it was for my benefit. Her thoughtful assignments and intentional class discussions gave me the ability to professionally communicate in any STEM work field. Also, I’d like to thank the committee again for the nomination, I am grateful.

Sincerely,

Daniel Sechler

Submission Document:

To: Dr. Kremmel

From: Daniel Sechler

Subject: Proposal for Blog on Chemical Engineering

Date: 10/20/2021

Summary:

The purpose of this blog will be to educate an audience of peers, family, friends, and business professionals on how Chemical Engineering is addressing the need for renewable resources. A secondary purpose will be demonstrating my ability to communicate complex topics to a wide audience for future employers. Personal and professional social media will be used to grow the audience beyond my classmates. Wix.com will be used to host the blog because it provides a user-friendly interface. All posts will have consistent formatting and professional style and tone. The required ten posts will be completed from November 5 to December 10. However, the blog will continue to be updated once a week following the completion of the course.

Introduction:

Everything needs fuel. Fuel produces energy. The transformation of fuel into energy powers the brain lights up the rooms and propels airplanes. Fuel can take the form of UV light, petroleum, or wind. However, many fuel resources (e.g., coal) are being depleted. Chemical Engineers are at the forefront of combatting this issue by developing new fuel resources. Education is a dangerous weapon. The more people know, the greater the support for renewable resources.

I will create and maintain a blog that examines the Chemical Engineering field’s approach to renewable energy resources. As a junior Chemical Engineering student, I, along with my fellow classmates, will be responsible for solving the rising energy crisis. This means I have a vested interest in educating my peers and future generation on the importance of this issue. I will do this by writing a variety of blog posts on how Chemical Engineers are attacking this problem from all sides. I will share posts on personal social media accounts to reach family members, friends, and a broader non-engineering audience.

This blog will also be used as a professional overview of my skill set and my engineering viewpoints for future employers. I will carefully proofread my work and ask for revisions and feedback from my peers to maintain a professional style and tone. This blog is intended as a science blog. The posts will be written from my perspective, however, to remain professional and ethical, I will rely on facts found in authoritative sources. Through design, tone, style, audience awareness, and specific purpose for each blog post, this blog will demonstrate my ability to personably communicate complicated topics to prospective employers.

Scope:

The blog is primarily intended to reach my peers within this class. However, as stated in the introduction, it will also be used to gain the interest of prospective employers and educate a wider non-engineering audience. Sharing links to my blog on LinkedIn and Facebook will demonstrate my skill set to professional engineers and educate a broader grouping of individuals on renewable resources technology.

Initially, the blog will include ten posts that meet the course requirements. The first post will focus on introducing my audience to the field of Chemical Engineering. The following posts’ subjects will be narrowed to unique ways Chemical Engineers find and develop renewable fuel and energy resources. This blog will span beyond just the class assignments. I will seek to regularly update this resource once a week following the close of this course. The purpose of this blog does not end with the completion of the course, consequently, I do not want to end my writing just because it is no longer graded.

Methods:

Of the different websites for hosting blogs, I believe Wix gives me the most design options. Thus, Wix.com will be used to host my blog. Wix’s design options are easy to use and will help me create the most user-friendly interface for my readers. There will be an open comment section to allow for open discussion with myself and my readers. I believe this is vital if I am seeking to educate. However, I will not allow profanity/obscenity in my comment section. All other speech will be permitted to foster open discussion and debate.

I will use a professional first-person writing style. Keeping in mind document design parameters, each post will be crafted to use consistent formatting. Posts will be single-spaced, use distinct heading when needed, make use of active white space, include works cited sections, and have ethically sourced images. One guest blogger will appear on my blog to discuss how their, non-Chemical Engineering field is addressing the issue of limited energy resources. I believe Livi Jurrens would be a fantastic candite for this as her blog will be addressing the development and need for electric vehicles.

Social media will be an integral part of growing my audience. LinkedIn will be used to share my work with the business world. This platform is uniquely suited for reaching engineers and hiring managers. The use of my personal Facebook and Twitter will allow me to share my work with family and friends. These platforms will allow me to reach an audience that is slightly older than I am. I believe they could offer interesting viewpoints on my writing alongside helping create a productive discussion on my posts. My personal Instagram will be used to share my work with my peers. My audience gained from Instagram will likely be the youngest. Teaching them will help grow support for renewable resources development among the future leaders of this country.

Potential Problems:

I believe the biggest problem with starting a blog, let alone a science blog, is gaining an audience. In a social media surfing world, the headline is often all someone reads before they are bored. The use of social media should help grow my audience beyond the classroom. By catering my social media posts to the audiences of the respective platforms, I should draw in a wide audience of individuals. For example, a post on LinkedIn may read “Bio-fuel development has grown from ethanol to a variety of renewable bio-diesels and oils. Check out my blog post on how this has been driven by the Chemical Engineering industry”. However, a post about the same article on Facebook may read “The reason why its hard to buy gasoline without ethanol. Read my most recent blog post to see why”. Good messaging will be the most useful tool for gaining an audience.

Another issue I may encounter is finding niche topics to discuss. All blogs are designed, in part, to entertain their audience. To do this I will need a wide range of interesting subjects to discuss. Thus, I will not limit the scope of my blog to only biofuels. Instead, I will try and discuss other common renewable energy resources. For example, my guest blogger post may discuss electric vehicles and one of my posts may discuss environmental hazards posed by common household goods. Using a wide variety of topics that address the need for greener practices within my field will keep my subfield from limiting the topics of my posts.

Project Outline:

Post Schedule

• November 5: The introduction post will coincide with the competition for the draft of my blog. This post will be a video of me going over my experiences as a Chemical Engineering student.

• November 8: This post will discuss the need for practicing Green Chemistry in the Chemical Engineering Industry.

• November 12: The post will discuss how Chemical Engineering helped create and continues to create the biofuel industry.

• November 15: An examination of a documentary on algae being used to create a renewable fuel source.

• November 19: The post will show how a safe, at-home experiment can be performed by children. This experiment will demonstrate a common water treatment method.

• November 22: The post will be a video presentation on solar power and the search for effective battery solutions.

• November 26: A guest post, most likely to feature Livi Jurrens, giving their perspective on electric vehicles.

• November 29: A link to a post I have written on another blog platform. This may be a post on my experiences with how the business I interned with addressed cybersecurity issues.

• December 3-6: An overview of my poster presentation given in class. This will include a digital form of my poster.

• December 10: A reflection on my blog to this point. This post will include a Table of Contents for my previous posts.

Other Important Dates

• November 5: Draft of Blog Due

• November 17: Progress Report Speech

• December 3-6: Poster Presentation