Engineering and science faculty complain that many engineering and science students in their classes have not acquired the basic writing skills that they need to perform effectively in the workplace even though they have taken a composition course. However, engineering and science faculty members typically do not have the time nor the inclination to teach writing in their classes.

The Carnegie Mellon Writing Tutor is a web accessible resource, intended to provide basic writing instruction for engineering and science students without requiring engineering and science faculty to teach writing.

Writing for
Non-technical audiences

Writing the Thesis Statement

The Carnegie Mellon Writing Tutor has a modular design. Each module provides instruction on a specific basic writing skill. We anticipate that the skills taught will include:

• addressing a general audience
• providing adequate framing statements
• writing clearly, punctuating accurately
• using articles appropriately (especially important for ESL students)
• citing sources
• avoiding wordiness
• improving graphics
• etc.

Each module will consist of two sections: an introductory instructional section and a practice section. The instructional section will present a set of principles to guide writing performance and the practice section will provide

Begin by reading through this interactive tutorial which covers the important principles to consider when writing for non-technical audiences. When you have finished you will be given an opportunity to practice comparing original paragraphs with a re-written versions.

Writing for Non-technical audiences

Testing your judgement for terms to define

In almost anything that you write, that is more than a few paragraphs long, it is important to provide your reader with a statement about your main point or your primary purpose for writing up front.

Writing the Thesis Statement