Holistic Scientific-Technical Communication: A Teaching Proposal

Technical-scientific communication is essential, particularly for engineers, because they work in interrelationships with others. Such communication is characterized by three fundamental aspects: graphical, written, and oral transmission. In addition, each communication includes a system of signs and rules, some defined by standards, others adopted in a specific context, allowing information transmission. Finally, essential requirements of any communication are completeness, immediacy, and non-ambiguity. In general, most information exchanges integrate these forms and requirements. Still, they must also consider many aspects that lead to thinking of technical communication as "holistic communication". Considering the importance of technical-scientific communication in the professional career of engineers, the teaching programs in Engineering schools have begun to include specific activities and experiences to improve the students’ communications skills. Authors think it is necessary to consider these experiences holistically to allow the students to select the kinds of media concerning the information content and reflecting the audience’s needs. This approach could be similar to the design for X approach and may be considered a "communication for X" approach.