Prompt 3

By: Cameron B.

            My dad is a civil engineer who worked for Michigan Department of Transportation, or MDOT. On a daily basis, he would write analysis reports on jobs and occasionally he would write on the misconceptions that people see engineers as. He told me he writes the analysis papers carefully with many details so that when another engineer or his boss would read it, they would clearly see what he is saying or trying to explain. When he would write about other topics such as the misconceptions engineers face, he would write critically, meaning he would analyze specific misconceptions and then write about how they didn't make sense or how they were wrong. He said that a common misconception for civil engineers is that most think that they will work in construction, meaning they will spend all summer out in the field in 90 degree weather working their butt's off, and that deters some people from wanting to become civil engineers. This is not true, there are many different parts to civil engineering, including design, construction, materials, etc. My plan for civil engineering is design, which does exactly what it sounds like. I would design bridges and other structures that would be used in the field and would be built by those in construction. My dad also said that in his writing, he tries to provide facts about the misconceptions in civil engineering. He points out that the male to female ratio in his office is almost 1:1, meaning that just as many women can work as civil engineers as men. I also learned that communication in civil engineering is very important. Work reports must be very detailed so that anyone can read them and be able to correctly interpret them so that the project will be successful and follow all guidelines and restrictions. I also learned that writing in civil engineering is important because that is how most engineers in general communicate to each other.
           My dad also talked about how important email was within his job. He would communicate with many of his co-workers through email. He could update them on a project, ask how they were coming, and much more. He received hundreds of emails a day, and this led to effective communication. The emails he would receive could also be very important, and email is so effective because it can be used on any device with internet capability. He could respond to important emails from home, which was a plus for communication.