Writing in Engineering - ENGIN 351

Choosing a Topic

When choosing a topic for a class assignment or research project, start brainstorming with these questions:

What (emerging) technology interests you?
How is this technology being used in the field?
What should engineers consider when designing for this use?
How might public policy or industry standards affect how this technology is developed?

Explore current trends in engineering and technology in IEEE Spectrum Magazine (open IEEE Xplore linked below and choose IEEE Spectrum in the blue bar across the top of the page ),

or MIT Technology Review, Gale in Context: Environmental Studies, or Chemical & Engineering News.

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
IEEE Spectrum is available through IEEE Xplore.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password. As of May 2022, IEEE no longer supports Internet Explorer, please use another browser for the best experience.

MIT Technology Reivew
- Available from 1987 to the present in our subscription database called ABI/INFORM
- Also available in print at the Science & Engineering Library on the new magazine rack, or on the shelves at call number T171 .M47

Gale In Context: Environmental Studies This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search by topic and/or geography: agriculture, food, energy, pollution, economic development, social factors and in journals, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias as well as primary sources.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

Chemical & Engineering News
Chemical & Engineering News is the American Chemical Society's go-to source for news on the latest research, industry and policy trends, and other information from the global chemistry and chemical engineering communities.

Browse or search topics in encyclopedias listed on the Books & background information page.

For industry standards, see the Standards page on this guide.

Create a search strategy

A search strategy is the combination of keywords and synonyms you choose and the way you connect them with AND, OR, and NOT (also known as “Boolean operators”).

Developing a Search Strategy is a handout that will lead you through this process with examples.

For example, you are interested in learning about design consideration for mitigating lightning strikes on offshore wind turbines. By breaking this question into concepts, we get the Boolean search query below:

(lightning) AND (mitigation OR protection) AND (offshore) AND (wind turbine)

Acknowledgement: This handout was created by Sarah Lucchesi while working at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.