Jonah Tucker

Lynn Taylor

ENGL 1010-032

20 April 2017

Informative Report Essay: Mechanical Engineering

This paper is about exploring the route to becoming an engineer, what college courses may be

required and additionally, the type and amount of writing involved in becoming an engineer. In the route

to becoming an engineer there are certain questions a person must answer to determine if it is a good

career for them: Will the career hold your interest, what are the skills necessary to be successful, and what

traits does a person need to become a prosperous engineer? College is a very important part of becoming

an engineer, so one needs to figure out the best courses for their pursuit. All throughout the process of

becoming an engineer, writing will be required. What type of writing does that involve? These questions

are important to explore and their answers could provide meaningful direction that might save much time,

energy, and money.

First, lets talk about the route to becoming an engineer. Before one starts this route, it is

important to take a self-assessment. Will the career hold your interest? To answer this question, a potential

engineer must know what the job entails, and their personal preferences. According to

TryEngineering.org, you must like math and science, to solve problems, to think of new ways to do

things, puzzles and other mind challenging games, working with computers, and a challenge. An

additional question to ask would be, what are the skills necessary to be successful? An adept engineer has

STEM skills. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Finally, what traits

does a person need to become a prosperous engineer? Again, according to TryEngineering.org, traits

required are technical competence, communication skills, leadership skills, and teamwork. It seems that

all of these skills involve effective communication and an ability to interact with other people. In general,

this may be true of all careers, but especially professional and high-level ones such as engineering.
Perhaps it would not be hard to imagine an engineer who could not do these things, he or she would soon

find themselves frustrated in their place of employment which could result in them being fired.

Secondly, lets talk about the course work required to become a professional engineer. For the

course work, this paper will be focused on Mechanical Engineering. You must take many courses in math,

physics, Mechanical Engineering, thermal-fluids, solid mechanics, and mechatronics. You can expect to

be in school for at least four years to get your bachelors degree. The coursework is intense enough that a

person may consider having no other focus besides school work. This means you wont have the ability to

have a part-time job unrelated to your pursued field if you wish to have the best chances for success. In an

interview held with Wayco Scroggin, a Mechanical Engineer, who works as a director of production at

SARCOS, Scroggin explains the advantages of pursuing a doctorates degree rather than just stopping at a

bachelors or masters degree. He reasons the financial benefits make it worth the required sacrifice. For

example, the average starting salary for Mechanical Engineers with a bachelors degree is estimated at

$61,300, while a masters degree is $75,700 (Chron). The doctorates degree was estimated at about

$85,500 $131,483 (PayScale).

Scroggin himself never got a doctorates but he explained that if he had to redo his education, he

would go straight through to a Ph.D. This is due to the incredible jump in pay. When going from a

Masters to a Doctorate of Mechanical Engineering, Scroggin explains that there is a significant change in

the work, you go from a hands-on to a theoretical engineer. Of course, going straight to Ph.D. requires

significant sacrifices, there may be valid reasons why people would not want to go that far. Even if one

isnt planning on getting a Doctorates degree, Scroggin still recommends doing an internship during

coursework for you Bachelors degree to decide whether or not you want to go into Mechanical

Engineering. Both school work and future marketability would benefit from the internship. One additional

tidbit of information Scroggin gave that may be of interest to all future Mechanical Engineers is that if

you have the choice, it is better that you get a job that you enjoy rather than a job that pays well.

Additionally, Scroggin explains that communication in engineering is very important because you need
your team members and other companies to be able to create specific and accurate components for your

project to work.

Finally, lets talk about the type of writing involved with engineering. Certainly, writing is

involved in most professional work. A high-level of expertise is expected, but what is required

specifically in engineering? Typically, in all the coursework of Engineering, there is a different type of

writing than traditional English courses. For Mechanical Engineering, these writing courses include ME

112 (Mechanical Systems Design), ME 131A (Heat Transfer), and ME 140 (Advanced Thermal Systems).

This suggests that all writing is technical and specific to the field, which to outsiders may seem dry and

overly technical. Good writing may not be the focus of the coursework but would still be important.

According to James R. Koelsch, contributing editor of Automation World, who writes, Is Writing an

Essential Skill for Engineers, an engineer needs to be more than a number cruncher. He writes,

Technical skills may still be king, but engineers are finding that they also need a broad array of the so-

called soft skills if they are going to be effective in todays multidisciplinary teams. This quote suggests

many engineers feel that it is a waste of time to focus on enhancing their writing skills, preferring instead

just to target math and sciences. Yet Koelsch argues, A lot of good ideas never see the light of day

because the engineers who have them are unable to communicate their ideas.

In summary, this paper discussed three aspects to becoming an engineer. First, we addressed the

necessary skill sets and interests required of an engineer. These included a liking of math and science, the

ability to solve problems, think of new ways to do things, and much more. Next, college class

requirements were reviewed for the purpose of showing the necessary route involved. Much of the

schooling involves physics, Mechanical Engineering, and various math courses. An engineer can get a

Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorates degree, each with differing salaries. One interviewed Mechanical

Engineer recommended getting a Ph.D. directly as it had the most financial benefit. Lastly, the paper

presented the importance of writing in the field of Mechanical Engineering. If the Mechanical Engineer

doesnt want to limit him or herself to being just a number cruncher(Koelsch) or allowing important

ideas to be overlooked, they need to be proficient at conveying their ideas clearly.

 Works Cited
How will I know if engineering is right for me? TryEngineering,
http://tryengineering.org/ask-expert/how-will-i-know-if-engineering-right-me .
Accessed 23 April 2017.
What skills do I need to develop to become an effective engineer? TryEngineering,
http://tryengineering.org/ask-expert/what-skills-do-i-need-develop-become-
effective-engineer . Accessed 23 April 2017
What is the Starting Salary for a Mechanical Engineer With a Masters Degree?
Chron, http://work.chron.com/starting-salary-mechanical-engineer-masters-
degree-26723.html . Accessed 23 April 2017
Doctorate (PhD), Mechanical Engineering (ME) Degree Average Salary Payscale,
http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Degree=Doctorate_(PhD)
%2C_Mechanical_Engineering_(ME)/Salary Accessed 23 April 2017
Scroggin, Wayco. Professional Interview. 16 Feb. 2017
Is Writing an Essential Skill for Engineers? James R. Koelsch,
https://www.automationworld.com/automation-team/writing-essential-skill-
engineers . Accessed 23 April 2017