FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, MINNA,

School of Engineering and

Engineering Technology

ABE 412 Lecture Note

Course Code: ABE 412
• CourseTitle: Engineering Communication
• Credit Unit: 1 CREDIT
• Lecturers:
• 1. Engr. Prof. Mrs. Zinash D. OSUNDE
Email: [email protected]
[email protected]
• 2. Engr. Dr. Peter Adeoye
• Time and Place: Thursday 12:00pm –
13:00pm; Venue: PTDF Lecture hall
• January 11th – April 26rd , 2018
 COURSE CONTENT
Introduction; elements in communication,
principles of effective communication;
communication noise, types of
communication, Oral presentation, visual aids;
basic power point guidelines.
Elements of technical report; technical report writing
and presentation; tools required in technical report
presentation; application; common mistakes in
technical report writing and use of English;
 WHAT IS COMMUNICATION?

Communication can be defined as:

The exchange of information and the transmission of
meaning.

The transfer of information from the 'sender' to the

'receiver' with information being understood by the
receiver.
• Communication requires that the communicating
parties share an area of communicative
commonality.

• The communication process is complete once the

receiver has understood the sender.
Communication is a process and some specific skills
are involved in successful communication,

• Processing skills that are interpersonal as well as

intrapersonal
• Good listening skill and appropriately evaluating
what is being shared. Listening entails the reception
and correct understanding of verbal communication
and without effective listening skills, the verbal
message can be distorted or ignored, thereby
causing the communication process to fail.
• Basic observation and analytical skills for
productive level of communication
Professional engineers use communication for many
different purposes such as :
Presenting ideas
Describing solutions
Reporting results
Discussing work with collaborators or customers
etc..
This communication can be in technical or non
technical environment
An engineer should be able to identify and use
appropriate technical terminologies and literatures
where applicable.
 Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation
(BEME)
S/no item material description quantity unit price cost
1 Hopper mild steel 785.5 x 322.3mm 2 sheet 6,000 12,000
2 Shaft
3
4
5

Labour cost 30% of total

Overhead cost 15% of total

The table above shows the COREN approved table format for costing of
engineering projects (engineers are expected to present costing of any project in this
form)
 ELEMENTS IN COMMUNICATION

The four basic elements in communication are

the sender,
the receiver,
the message and
feed back.
While elements in communication process include
idea, feeling
encoding,
decoding,
ELEMENTS IN COMMUNICATION
 

Speaker Message Listener

Idea or Encoding in
Channel Decoding Idea or
words, process Idea
Feeling gestures, etc or feeling Feeling

Feed back
 Encoding Decoding
SENDER MESSAG RECEIVER
E
CHANNE

Noise

FEEDBACK
 ESSENTIALS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Effective transfer of information requires a code which is

understood by the one who delivers the information as
well as by the receiver.
Effective communication needs a certain relationship
between the communicating parties to ensure that both use
the same code.
The sender of the message should create the right climate to
motivate the receiver in order that the latter may feel
invited to receive the message.
The sender of the message should obtain feedback. He
should obtain evidence whether the receiver has
understood the communicated message as it was intended
by the sender.
EACH COMMUNICATION HAS AN EMOTIONAL AND A RATIONAL ASPECT.

Contents (rational) Relation (emotional)

understandable, objective
arguments  positive feelings towards the other
confirmation, repetition,
attention...  symmetric / asymmetric relationship
The emotional level –
this determines the communication process.
A harmonic relationship will have a positive impact on
the exchange on the rational level.
Vice versa negative feelings like aggression or distrust
disturb the rational communication level.
Symmetry/Asymmetry of a relation
this is determined by personal status.
If both the sender and the recipient have the same status
(academic title, function in organisation, economic
situation etc.) the communication can be considered as
symmetric.
While the opposite is asymmetry
In a communication between persons with different
status also symmetry can be evoked, through
respective behaviour of the person with higher
status.
Ideally symmetry and asymmetry alternate and
enhance mutual learning by exchange of
complementary information.
Conversations between students and professors or
clients and consultants are examples of
communication which in the beginning is always
asymmetric.
 COMMUNICATION NOISE

In any communication model, noise is any

interference with the decoding of messages sent
over a channel by an encoder.
Examples of noise:
1. Environmental Noise
This is noise that physically disrupts communication,
such as standing next to loud speakers at a party, or
the noise from group of students next to a
classroom, making it difficult to the students in the
class hear the Lecturer.
2. Physiological-Impairment Noise
This type of noise includes physical maladies that
prevent effective communication, such as actual
deafness or blindness preventing messages from
being received as they were intended.
3. Semantic Noise
This deals with different interpretations of the
meanings of certain words. For example, the word
"weed" can be interpreted as an undesirable plant
in your yard, or as a euphemism for hard drug.
4. Syntactical Noise
This includes mistakes in grammar which can disrupt
communication, such as abrupt changes in verb tense
during a sentence or using wrong tense
5. Organisational Noise
Poorly structured communication can prevent the
receiver from accurate interpretation. For example,
unclear and badly stated directions can make the
receiver even more lost.
6. Cultural Noise
Stereotypical assumptions can cause misunderstandings,
such as unintentionally offending a non-Christian
person by wishing him/her a "Merry Christmas".
7. Psychological Noise
Certain attitudes can also make communication
difficult. For instance, great anger or sadness may
cause someone to lose focus on the present
moment.
 TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

Basically there are four types of communication

Visual Communication
Written Communication
Verbal Communication
Non-verbal Communication
 VISUAL COMMUNICATION
visual communication is used to provide essential
information, outline specific points that need to be
emphasized and to share ideas that relate to the
subject matter.
Visual communication is carried out through visual
aids.
Two dimensional images are frequently used for
visual communication,
Visual communications gadgets include specially
designed signs, electronic boards, slides, charts,
animation (digital or analogue), and film.
Evaluation of a good visual communication design is
mainly based
• on measuring comprehension by the audience,
• not on personal aesthetic and/or artistic preference
as there are no universally agreed-upon principles
of beauty and ugliness.
EXAMPLES OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION SIGNS
EXAMPLES OF VISUAL SIGNS
COMBINATION OF VISUAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
VISUALS
300

250

200
Evaporation

150

100

50

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Months

Forecast Value (mm) Observed Value (mm)

 WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Written communication is important both in and off
the work place
this form of communication involves either writing or
typing out information, facts and other types of
necessary information.
Examples written communications include reports,
evaluation, physical and electronic memos, training
materials, proposals, contract documents and other
types of documents similar in nature.
Written communication documents could be formal
and informal depending on the message that are
 VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Verbal means that certain sounds, specific languages and
spoken word may be used.
Through verbal communication ideas, information and
thoughts are successfully shared with the intended
audience
Diversity of individuals should be taken into consideration
and basic foundation for verbal communication should
be created
Verbal communication is the core component when it
comes to the overall success of communication.
 NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Non-verbal communication: in this case a physical manner of
communication is being used to share Ideas and meanings
among others.
Non-verbal communication constitutes the majority of all signs
and messages sent or received during verbal communication.
It falls into three parts: body language, rapport and tonality.
It is possible to influence the emotional communication level by
controlling body language. You can read from mimics and
gestures if somebody feels comfortable and is interested
(steady eye contact, arms open) or if somebody doesn’t want
to listen anymore (rare eye contact, nervous finger tipping).
Especially feet movements tell a lot about one’s emotions
since they are merely controlled by the individual.
The rapport, which represents the initiation of the
communication and the environment in which it
takes places,
It is the basis for willingness and ability to exchange
information, ideas, opinion.
That is why people firstly start with a cup of coffee
and a small-talk about rather unimportant matters.
Finally, the tonality underlines simply the quality of
the tone
 ORAL PRESENTATION
It is an important Component of verbal communication
oral communication and presentation skills are
considered one of the best career enhancers and to
be the single biggest factor in determining a
student’s career success or failure.
It gives room for on the spot questions and comments
Basic Requirements for oral presentation are:
• Presenters Appearance
• Mastery of the subject matter
• Confidence
• Use of Visual Aids
VISUAL AIDS IN PRESENTATION
Visual aids can enhance the presentation and help to
overcome barriers of communication.
visual aids can be given as handouts, when giving
oral presentation, present them on-screen or in
other forms
Visual aids used in communication include: charts
pictures, schedules, financial statements, drawings,
videos, slides or sketches, etc..
The type of visual aids used depends on the
information to be presented
 IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL AIDS

1. Improve Information Processing: Combining

visual aids with a presentation can present the
audience with various ways to receive and process
the information.
As a result, the chance that the audience understand
what is been communicated is increased.
Some people understand things better orally; others
prefer the written word, while others prefer a
graph, table or any type of visuals. This gives the
audience various options of information
processing.
2. Reduce Information Overload: A common
communication barrier employers and employees
face when presenting or receiving information is
that too much information is presented at once.
When this happens, it's hard to determine which
information is most important and relevant to their
tasks and responsibilities.
Visual aids, such as pictures, graphs and flow charts,
can condense large chunks of information into the
most important portions thus, reducing the
information overload
3. Improve Information Retention
Using visual aids, along with verbal or written forms of
communication, improve the audience information
retention ability.
4. Help to overcome Language Barriers
Language barriers are a common communication
barriers, especially where there are diverse audience.
Non-native speakers of the language of presentation
may not fully understand information during a verbal
presentation;
however, with visual aids they can use deductive
reasoning to grasp the main message.
5. Save Time
A picture is still worth 1,000 words; thus, visual aids
save time in conveying ideas. This is true in
presenting written report or oral presentation.
Visual aids provide a quick way to get the main points
of the presentation.
BASIC GUIDELINES IN PREPARATION AND USE OF
POWER POINT
PPT is a software designed as a convenient way to
display information that would support the speaker
and supplement the presentation
PPT should be used to emphasize points,
Should keep the presenter on track,
It is used to illustrate a point with a graphic or photo
or any visual means.
Presenter should speak to the PPT slides and not
read it
 PPT SLIDE PREPARATION

The following guidelines should be followed while

preparing power point slides:
The number of slides should be limited according to
the time given or information to be presented
Too many slides may not aid the presentation
Too much text in the slides should be avoided
Content and structure should be limited to core
subject
Font size minimum 30
in font size differentiate between title and body
maximum of 10 lines per slide,
not more than 30 words per slide
Use similar colour and font size throughout the
presentation
Use animations with caution