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

 

[gbam]

Have you reviewed other reports from your company? A good approach would be to pattern your report after other approved reports from your company on similar topics.

 

[moon161]

Some rules that have helped me:
Language should be clear, concise and active.

Don't go over 30 words in a sentence- break it up when it gets too big. If you can, keep sentences under 20 words.

 

[dik]

the punishment for a misspelled word: write it 100 times.

That was the beginning of the downfall...

Dik

 

[dik]

A good approach would be to pattern your report after other approved reports from your company on similar topics

Not from one of the companies I work for... that's why I do my own reports.

Dik

 

[dik]

The topic reminded me of a powerpoint presentation I made for the office's engineers. It was an introduction I made prior to doing a critique on the Algo Centre Mall collapse.

https://files.engineering.com/getfi...fa-af1b-ae5bef59e234&file=ForensicReports.ppt

 

[epoxybot]

Dik - I started reading the Wikipedia page for the Algo Centre Mall collapse and it passed through my mind that it sounded like a Harry S. Peterson job, low & behold. I sat through a Harry S. Peterson Company presentation years ago where they went on at length about their warranty work. I came to realize their offerings were not particularly durable but since they were habitually repairing their work; the design community came to believe the warranty response equated to quality. I have never seen a HSP Iso-Flex Cold-formed Polyurethane Expansion Joint that ever performed as intended in a traffic lane. All that needs occur is for a vehicle to stop on top of the joint & turn the wheel, to tear the thing apart.

 

[dik]

Epoxybot: Harry S. Peterson fell out of favour with me about 30 years ago or so. I'd talked about them about a parkade I did in Kensington Market in Toronto. I came away from that meeting thinking their expertise wasn't up to 'snuff'... For jointing over beams, we used a tooled joint, filled with a firm well bonded polyurethane... and periodically had 'real' expansion joints; they were expensive... about $50 per foot, back then. We had the impression that you could either have a cheap joint, or one that worked and had some durability. I was with RJC at the time who were one of the best concrete engineering consultants in Canada.

I should take a gander at Wiki to see if they got it right...

Dik

 

[bridgebuster]

dik,

I enjoyed your PowerPoint presentation. However, one of my English teachers in high school would have reprimanded you for writing


Of course, in junior year of HS I was reprimanded by an English teacher for writing "...his own father..."

 

[racookpe1978]

I would remind the original poster that CORRECT ENGINEERING DESIGN and CORRECT ENGINEERING REPORTS are NOT "racist" in any form nor intent.

Note that the "race" of the individual does not matter, if the designer's math, the design logic, the design intent, and the design quality are CORRECT. However, since the writer seems to "feel" that bad writing and grammatical errors and spelling errors (such as in the title of this post) can be excused - should be excused ? - if the writer is not an original English speaker, I wonder if the original writer also feels that math errors and lookup table errors and material selection errors also need to be excused so nobody gets upset by politically corrupt (er, politically correct) thoughts?

 

[dik]

agreed... redundant, will modify it. It was well received by the office engineers, albeit, a bit too long.

Dik

 

[dik]

BB: corrected... any other exceptions?

Dik

 

[bridgebuster]

dik - you didn't have to correct the text on my account. It brought back a high school memory from 40+ years ago. I couldn't resist some good natured ribbing.

 

[dik]

No offense taken... needed correcting.

Dik

 

[steelnz2003]

I have done many engineering reviews for non-English speakers and spotted with simple spelling and grammar mistakes but still, I understand the content and never commented on it unless it is noted in the drawings.

If as peer review my comments will be grammar and spelling it won't benefit to the engineering outcome of the project.

 

[dik]

Even for reports by people where English is the first language, my writing style and approach are often different from the report I'm reviewing. Obvious errors I correct, but, not the style or form... I do not want to re-write the report.

Dik

 

[BUGGAR]

"The Elements of Style"

 

[chicopee]

I am sure that I passed the deadline but here is a thought. A course in technical writing is always advisable.