Task 3: The Importance of communication skills for engineers

Hi, I am Jocelyn. Recently, I came across a quote as follows, 

“I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread

inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important).

It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult

concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.”

Personally i feel that it is important for engineers to be able to explain to general public. However, it might also be hard for engineers to find a common language to explain to general public.


Revised Version [9 Sep 2019]:

“I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread
inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important).
It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult
concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.”
Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA, (2011)

Personally, I feel that engineer’s presentation will involve a lot of technical terms, hence it is difficult for engineers to be able to explain the information to public and for them to understand. However, to allow the public to have a better understanding, engineers can replace the technical terms to layman terms or uses graphics to explain to the public.