English for report witting 7

[steelnz2003]

Dear All,
Does anyone knows a good book or site I can use to help in report writing, I do not mean the technical words but choosing the right expression to sound professional.

Thanks

 

[SwinnyGG]

Engineering reports are not prose. Stick to the facts and you'll be fine.

 

[oldestguy]

Also, be sure the grammar is right and the spelling is right. A frequent mistake by new engineers these days is not knowing the three 2's and what they stand for. A common one that gets me and turns me off is the phrase "that is to bad". Then I think "what else is questionable about the report?"

 

[cvg]

if you are using MS Word, it has built in grammar checking. turn that feature on and try using it. Also, for readability - try to keep the Flesch reading ease score above 60. that will make it easily understood by most people. However I find that with engineering documents, I have difficulty exceeding 50 most of the time.

 

[bimr]

Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. (Scott, Foresman: 1981) is intended, according to the book's jacket, for writers "who no longer worry over their spelling and verb forms but are concerned with writing prose that is clear.

Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace.

 

[dik]

OG: You should take a look at the forensic report for the Algo Centre Mall collapse prepared for the OPP by the NORR partnership... just make you cringe due to the substantial errors contained within...

Dik

 

[steelnz2003]

Thanks all for your help it seems not easy for some non-native English speaker when the assessor is a picky person.

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

steelnz2003,

All reviewers of engineering documents are "picky". It comes with the job.

Engineering reports are just as important, and some would say, more important than engineering plans. English is a challenge for non-native speakers, but if you are going to study or work in an English speaking country, then you must be able to write clearly in English.

Mike Lambert

 

[steelnz2003]

Mike Lambert
I agree in case your area of practice is the legal document or you are doing contractual documents for me I am a structural designer doing calcs and reports and I never practice outside my area. I would say its level of importance depends on what you are doing. As non-English speaker will never ever be same as a native speaker I feel it falls in racism in such case.

 

[oldestguy]

One failing that I see in many geotech reports is "diarrhea of the pen", as my first boss put it. I suspect it was thought that the longer the report, the more it should cost. I admit I fell guilty to that early on when one client called to ask a simple basic question that was answered in the report. It was buried in a lot of language, not clearly standing out.

 

[dik]

OG: that only happens with Geotechnical reports...

Dik

 

[dik]

for writers "who no longer worry over their spelling and verb forms but are concerned with writing prose that is clear.

A lack of attention to detail is reflected in the quality of your work... any report that has errors in the prose or spelling is subject to this lack of detail; if it is clear, then, this is good. The quality can be diminished by carelessness.

Dik

 

[SwinnyGG]

As non-English speaker will never ever be same as a native speaker I feel it falls in racism in such case.

I could not possibly disagree MORE with this idea.

A productive engineer is useless if their ideas cannot be communicated.

If you cannot communicate clearly in the working language of the environment in which you work- whether that is English or French or Farsi or Algebra, that is YOUR problem to solve. No one else bears any responsibility whatsoever for your level of communication skill. If it is subpar, you are the one who bears the responsibility of fixing it.

I work with vendors and customers in other countries all the time. Daily.

When there is a language barrier, I take responsibility for finding a solution- whether that means hiring a translator to sit in meetings (which we have done and continue to do), translating word problems into math problems so they can cross the language barrier, whatever. What I DO NOT do, is accuse people of racism. That's asinine.

 

[oldestguy]

dik: In regard to your last post, I wonder if. we can't blame some of this on high school or even grade school teachers that can't even chew out a student. I hear there is even a shortage of teachers in my area probably due to this sort of thing, at least partially. I remember well in second grade after a fire drill getting my hands slapped with a ruler for running during the fire drill. Luckily I didn't get the behind paddling that the principal did at times.

 

[dik]

OG: agreed... there is an elegance in precision... something sorely missing, these days.

Dik

 

[bridgebuster]

As Andrew Jackson said "It's a damn poor mind that can only spell a word one way"or should it be "itz a dam pour mind that kan ownlee spel uh wurd one weigh"?

Anyway, I've always found the St. Martins Handbook to be very useful.

 

[dik]

BB: you see some of the early spelling in English prose, and, even American work... as long as it looked like a word and fit the context.

Dik

 

[dik]

OG: my problem in Grade School was behaviour... still is to some extent.

Dik

 

[bridgebuster]

dik - In 7th Grade our school got a new principal; I think she reviewed every test; the punishment for a misspelled word: write it 100 times.

 

[dik]

A productive engineer is useless if their ideas cannot be communicated.

Reminds me of the old saying, "I can explain it to you, but, I cannot understand it for you"

Dik