Mechanical Engineering Cultural Artifact: Lab Report
The Mechanical Engineering cultural artifact is a lab report provided by James Miller. The report is the final documentation of a multiple-part lab experiment testing the effectiveness of two different kinds of airfoil, which is a material used in the aerospace industry to build things such as aircraft wings and helicopter blades. Airfoil can refer to the special shape of an airplane wing, which works with air pressure to create a force of lift. The experiment explores how two types of airfoil produce lift to determine which is more effective in the circumstances of the experiment.
The report begins with a brief summary of its content, as well as background information about the topic of the experiment and the techniques used. This informs the reader that the author is knowledgeable about the topic, which, in turn, creates ethos for the author. If the student writing the report demonstrates their knowledge of the topic, their results and conclusions appear more trustworthy than someone who knows nothing about the material they're testing or the tests they are using.
After the introduction, the author outlines the experiment's step-by-step procedure. They explain how they both set up and conducted the experiment. This also lends credibility to the students, as it proves them to be honest and open about their methods. The reader is given all the relevant information about every step taken, allowing them to see every part of the experiment. The audience for this report, which would typically be engineers in the field who would fully comprehend all of the mathematics and be familiar with the experimental procedures, is shown in detail that the students took the correct actions at every step, making their results credible and reliable.
Rather than rely on opinion or argument, this report creates ethos through a strong focus on fact, as is typical of technical writing. The report is full of visual representations of the author’s data and process, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, and equations, to provide evidence of the authors' procedure and results. Their conscientiousness relates to an engineering composition research finding that "in Laboratory, students were concerned with projecting the ethos of ones who were knowledgeable and tried hard" (Herrington 408). To an engineer, this airfoil report would seem incredibly trustworthy because of its attention to detail and mathematical facts.
The report begins with a brief summary of its content, as well as background information about the topic of the experiment and the techniques used. This informs the reader that the author is knowledgeable about the topic, which, in turn, creates ethos for the author. If the student writing the report demonstrates their knowledge of the topic, their results and conclusions appear more trustworthy than someone who knows nothing about the material they're testing or the tests they are using.
After the introduction, the author outlines the experiment's step-by-step procedure. They explain how they both set up and conducted the experiment. This also lends credibility to the students, as it proves them to be honest and open about their methods. The reader is given all the relevant information about every step taken, allowing them to see every part of the experiment. The audience for this report, which would typically be engineers in the field who would fully comprehend all of the mathematics and be familiar with the experimental procedures, is shown in detail that the students took the correct actions at every step, making their results credible and reliable.
Rather than rely on opinion or argument, this report creates ethos through a strong focus on fact, as is typical of technical writing. The report is full of visual representations of the author’s data and process, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, and equations, to provide evidence of the authors' procedure and results. Their conscientiousness relates to an engineering composition research finding that "in Laboratory, students were concerned with projecting the ethos of ones who were knowledgeable and tried hard" (Herrington 408). To an engineer, this airfoil report would seem incredibly trustworthy because of its attention to detail and mathematical facts.