A Comprehensive Guide on How to Write an Engineering Essay

Writing guide
Posted on December 26, 2018

Engineering is one the most complicated scientific disciplines that in particular offers broad topic choices and appliances to both academic performance and real-life situations. Therefore, an engineering essay writing isn’t an easy task. There are some factors of good essay writing that make such a mission almost impossible for most students to compete at the highest possible level. First and foremost, you should choose a valuable essay topic even if the approximate field of study is given – Engineering. What is little-investigated in Engineering today?

Remember that engineering belongs to exact sciences the terminology of which is highly specialized. The appropriate use of relevant engineering terms is the essence of your engineering essay. Concentrate on the content of your paper that should be informative for the audience using the proper academic vocabulary and strong facts. In the meantime, read 10 fun and exciting facts about engineering provided by the national society of professional engineers.

Finally, you shouldn’t forget about the standard structure of an essay that shows the logical flow of thoughts – from general points to specific ones with logical conclusions. The structural integrity of the text makes an essay look well-structured and easy to follow. When you are ready to start the endeavor to write a good essay on Engineering (and you need to get ready to write essays successfully if you want to finish your studies on Engineering or cross-disciplines), do all your best immediately at the beginning of the writing process.

Key Pre-Writing Tips to Set You Right on the Productive Writing Stage

plan for writing

It is evident that any productive process is comprised of some key steps. So to write a comprehensive engineering essay that would appeal to the target audience, you should have a plan of action and milestones. Think of all points your essay should have – a well-chosen topic, a well-developed outline, a thesis statement, the main parts with the relevant ideas, etc. There are some pre-writing tips that you’ll find useful for your essay writing that should be coherent and logical. If that’s the task you don’t think you can cope with on your own, professional writers can save the day. They receive loads of messages like “I need help writing my essay” from students, so they’re sure to guide you as you write your engineering essays.

The primary aim of an essay author is to determine the audience that will read a particular piece of writing and the purpose of essay writing. It allows to set the tone for the content and establish the approximate ultimate effects of the essay – demonstrative, informative, convincing, etc. One of the most often used reasons to start an engineering essay is to have an excellent academic performance that depends on the successful assessment of every single essay.

Then, it is significant to choose a good essay topic on Engineering that can be found in this guide as well. After you determine the target audience and the purpose of your writing, it is much easier to choose a topic. The first demand of this endeavor is to follow what is defined in the requirements of your assignment given by your instructor(s). For example, your instructions are as follows below:

  • You need to write an essay that is a three-part paper that develops a position in response to the essay question: What are the critical issues raised in Engineering during the 21st century? Find some relevant examples that support your argument.

In the case when the topic sounds too general, you should appeal to your own preferences concerning what issue in Engineering you consider as the most critical and why. Almost any subject in the engineering sphere will suffice for writing a good essay to the fullest extent. Remember that a poor example of topics in engineering is a general, non-debatable theme because this science requires a narrow approach with deepening into the main analysis of the theory and practice.

The following examples represent some proper topics for the engineering essay that can guide you on how to choose your own topic:

  • Achievements of Engineering in the Android App Development;
  • The Management of Engineering Projects;
  • The Significance of the Renewable Energy Industry for the Future of Engineering;
  • A Closer Look at the Commercial Work in Engineering and Its Relevance for the Industry;
  • How Can Engineering Help with the Reduction of Pollution in the World?
  • The History of Engineering Assistance in Exploring the Mining Industry;
  • How Far Has the Genetic Engineering Come Today?
  • Is It possible to Entirely Replace the Human Labor with Robotics?
  • How Can Engineering Help with Reducing the Costs of Manufacturing in Every Possible Industry?
  • 7 Appliances of Engineering Achievements in Little-Investigated Fields of Study Like Medicine or Public Services;
  • Investigation of Some Engineering Mistakes in the Aviation Field;
  • The Modern Application of Aerodynamics and Fluid Mechanics;
  • Materials and Structures Suitable for Better Bridge-Building;
  • The Structural Organization of the Civil Engineering Units;
  • Assessment of Electrical Engineering in the Telecommunication Field;
  • Is Bio-Systems Engineering Going to Replace Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science in the future?
  • The Engineering Background in Automatic Piloting and Its Effects on the Modern Aviation.

These topics address some issues that are not only included in the assignments but represent the field of interest of most researchers and ordinary people. However, keep in mind that the given topics illustrate the broad set of variants and guide you in any particular direction of engineering research. Additionally, it is useful to introduce the basic crude notions that don’t serve as proper topic examples:

  • Why Is Engineering Important?
  • What Engineers Do?
  • When Did Engineers Appear?

All the mentioned examples aren’t interesting to work on as this information is easily found on the Internet today. Moreover, they don’t take into account the structural differentiation of engineering. Know that it includes such types as mechanical, civil, electrical, genetic, and others? If you are not familiar with the classification of the engineering field, you can find it at Engineer Jobs. Besides, do not pick a topic that cannot be investigated right now due to the lack of knowledge because engineering is not a fiction and requires a proven scientific background.

The next step after the topic is known is to organize the future essay. Furthermore, an engineering essay has a crucial factor that differs it from other disciplines in various fields of investigation. The most fundamental part of engineering is the combination of the theoretical framework and practical appliances that play a critical role in the overall perception of the science. Thus, you should keep in mind the cooperation of both mentioned factors by providing the functional background of the issue is essential. One way to give credibility to the previous statement is to implement charts, formulas, and other specific features of the practical application. Finally, every academic writer should remember to use only credible sources of information and literature.

Writing an Essay on Engineering as Required by Your Instructor

After considering the audience, purpose, and topics of the paper, it is useful to start with the general outline of an essay. Ignoring this stage of writing is an unforgiving mistake that many fledgling writers do because of the lack of skills or experience. Taking this step, you should determine the crucial features of your engineering essay that can help to guide a potential reader through the argumentation of the paper. First of all, it is essential to establish a thesis statement as the central idea of essay writing that should be a core concept of the whole paper. Secondly, after deciding what statement is fundamental, you should establish some supporting points. Thirdly, research the credible sources that may assist in making your essay trustworthy. Also, outlining includes the approximate structure of how your essay will look.

As an example of an appropriate way to state a topic, argument and support some main points, you are offered to follow one of the mentioned topics: “The Management of Engineering Projects”.

  • Its central argument is: “The management of engineering projects is a complex mission that requires thorough consideration of all possible consequences and comprehensive knowledge of the field.”
  • The supporting point is: “To make the management of engineering projects successful, it is better to describe every stage of the project in detail for a better understanding of the main notions. Besides, it is essential to point out some possible variants of what can go wrong during an engineering project.”

As opposed to a good way to develop an essay, it is worth to find out what is a poor instance of essay writing. Let’s consider it based on the same topic example: “The Management of Engineering Projects”. It is inappropriate to state that “Engineering project management is a complex task.” Besides, the supporting point as follows: “It is important to manage engineering projects successfully.” won’t enhance your essay at all.

So an outline of your writing plan for engineering essays should look like the following one:

  • Determine the audience and purpose of essay writing;
  • Decide on an essay topic;
  • Research some reliable sources of information;
  • Develop the main arguments and supporting points;
  • Start writing an essay according to the basic structure;
  • Use the sources with the proper citations and references;
  • Proofread and edit.

The Basic Structure of an Engineering Essay

Previously, it was mentioned that an engineering essay differs from the other sciences and study areas due to the combination of the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge. Taking into consideration that this is an essay and not a research project or a term paper, your engineering essay should pursue the standard structure with common points such as introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion. However, one aspect that can stand as the substantial difference between an engineering essay and, for example, a literature essay is the use of charts or other forms of explanation of the practical appliances of engineering concepts and ideas. Also, the presence of tables changes the whole structure of an essay, but it is easy to handle this factor. If you want to include some charts in the composition, it can be done right after the characterized concepts or after the reference page in appendices that is one of the most general ways.

The Introduction That Involves a Reader in Further Reading

One way to interest the audience with the introduction is to use the practice of attention-getters that are the controversial or debatable positions that simultaneously involve a reader in further reading. Further, remember that the introduction is the front of your writing, and the proper establishment of the engineering issue helps to convey a point and possibly encourage further discussion or research after concluding the paper. Finally, it should be short and provide a quick guide through the topic. In fact, the primary argument, some keywords, and the thesis statement are the fundamental aspects of the introductory paragraph that starts the cooperation with an audience.

However, it is possible to discourage a reader from further reading starting from the introduction of the essay. The easiest way to do it is to write the vague concepts that have no actual attachment to the topic or the argument. Also, remember not to write general ideas that are repetitive, and can be traced in almost every engineering essay such as the importance of this area or not-existing links to the non-technological sciences, for instance, history, management, leadership, human resources, and other. Do not forget that engineering is a precise field of study and includes theoretical and practical frameworks.

The Thesis Statement That Is the Core of Your Essay

A thesis is the last sentence of the introduction that presents the primary argument to the reader. It is the core of the whole essay, the central idea that guides a reader through your flow of thoughts in an essay, which stands as the statement that needs to be proven in the next essay parts. In fact, the proper thesis statement should be a narrow and a debatable one with the hint of the theoretical and practical appliance after the conclusion. It is possible to construct thesis statements poorly, and the following examples show how it should not be done:

  • “Engineering can help with the reduction of pollution in the world” – It isn’t known in what way engineering helps to deal with the polluted environment in the world;
  • “Without civil engineering, cities would be impossible” – It isn’t stated in what way it makes cities impossible to exist;
  • “Engineering made significant achievement in all aspects of everyday life” There is no example of significant achievements or aspects in everyday life in which engineering plays a great role.

Besides all the weaknesses of the examples above, they are too general and not intriguing. They put the reader in confusion whether it is worth to continue reading the text as these instances sound similar to well-known ideas as well. Moreover, the audience should not agree with your thesis statement simultaneously after reading it for the first time. As a rule, any thesis statement should be proven later as the result of extensive research of credible information sources. But all the main ideas of your essay should be shown in your thesis statement. Follow some examples for the better understanding of the essence of the thesis statements:

  • Pollution is one of the most pressing challenges of the modern society, but chemical and electrical engineering are capable of improving the situation with the help of the new advancement such as electric vehicles and material for the factories.
  • Civil engineering defined the modern notion of cities with the advancement of bridge-building, new technologies for skyscrapers, and the development of sewers and waste disposal strategies.
  • Instead of focusing on the achievement of engineering for the various aspects of everyday life, it is crucial to focus the attention of the public on its’ hazards that can happen in the future.

The Body Paragraphs That Move Smoothly

The body part of your essay should develop the thesis statement established in the introduction with the help of consequential supporting points. Also, this part should be logical with the smooth transition and proper development of the core ideas you’re going to express in each paragraph. Remember about the significance of using a topic sentence that is the first lines of each paragraph. It is done with the aim to determine the sub-point(s) of each particular main point. Finally, be precise when describing the core concept and brief along with keeping the strict engineering vocabulary.

The Conclusion That Is Logical to Complete Your Essay

The last paragraph finishes the debate regarding the credibility of the thesis statement and summarizes the whole work. For that reason, you should restate the thesis statement to remind from what that all starts and the main points of the essay described briefly. Do not implement something new into conclusion because it is only a summary that should be logical enough so that no questions will enter the reader’s mind.

Some Additional Aspects of the Engineering Essay Writing from Our Experts

Remember about the logical flow of writing that eases the task for a potential reader to guess what this essay is about.

  • Don’t forget to use some transitional words assisting to achieve the desired logic of the paper.
  • Don’t end the paragraph with the citations. Moreover, don’t include any citation in the introduction and conclusion of your essay.
  • Address the overall readability of essay content by making the sections no more than two hundred words. In other words, it should have a minimum of three sentences or four lines.

The Use of Correct Sources for Academic Writing

Besides your own original essay ideas, you need to rely on other relevant information. The use of credible sources is essential to support the arguments in the academic paper. Due to the fact that engineering is a broad science, the amount of credible pieces of research and studies that can assist you in writing is extensive as well. The following databases are helpful while constructing an engineering essay and maintaining academic integrity:

Referencing Is a Key Success Factor

For an engineering essay, you may use such formatting styles as MLA or APA with the following referencing forms:

  • MLA – Author’s Name. Publication Name. Publication Information (edition, volume, issue, publisher). Year of publication.
  • APA – Author’s Name. (Date). Publication Name. The source of the Publication. Publication Information (edition, volume, issue). When it was retrieved. Link.

Proofreading and Editing Are Final Touches to Your Essay Writing

For the final stage of essay writing, you may use all the available variants for proofreading and editing. Either way, don’t ignore it. You can read the written paper several times or offer it to someone for the feedback and fresh perspective. Besides, various web resources available on the Internet can help with spelling and grammatical checking along with checking for plagiarism. Eventually, after using some online resources, don’t be lazy to recheck your essay. But it is advisable to do it after some time after finishing a paper. As a result, your engineering masterpiece is ready for the final submission.

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