Communication in the field of Civil Engineering

Communication Problem

Civil Engineering is a fairly broad field which covers many different topics from earth works to pipe flow and is involved in the design of projects from sky scrapers to neighborhood homes. Civil Engineering is not only a broad field but also a very technical field as it involves not only research and development but also design and implementation.

Due to the nature of their jobs, Civil Engineers (CEs) work and communicate with many groups of people including other CEs, private owners, contractors, architects, government officials, and the general public. As a CE, one communicates with people of all levels of technical understanding of the subject including those who know nothing to those who know more than they ever will. Due to the multi subjected and technical nature of Civil Engineering and the breadth in understanding of the persons involved in projects, CEs must be able to communicate precise and accurately with a variety of audiences. This need for transfer of technical information to audiences with different levels of understanding is significant problem in Civil Engineering.

Communication Medias

CEs use an assortment of communication medias depending on their jobs requirements. Designers use Plans, Specifications, and Precedence Diagrams while Researchers use Professional Journals, Lab Notebooks, Research Publications, and databases. All CEs use schedules, memos, meetings, e-mails, phones, and just about anything else one can think of more to effectively communicate.

Effective Communication

In order to communicate effectively in the field of Civil Engineering one must know their audience. One needs to know how much experience the audience has in the particular field and in related fields. One also needs know how evolved their audience is in the particular project. Knowing these things lets the CE include the appropriate amount of background and use technical terminology in line with the audience’s understanding. If the audience can’t comprehend what is being communicated or place it in reference to what is happening, then the communication has failed. So effective communication is displaying and conveying the appropriate information in a form that the recipient can understand.

Communication Skills

CEs vary rarely work alone. So despite common jokes, CEs need, and have, people skills along with technical skills in order to effectively communicate. These people skills include being able to give presentations and answer questions from management along with being able to lead their co-workers in projects. They need to be able to understand the human component of projects. This is just as important as being educated in the technical component.