Lulay's Technical Writing Pet Peeves: Common Mistakes and Corrections - Prof. Kenneth E. L, Exams of Engineering

Download Lulay's Technical Writing Pet Peeves: Common Mistakes and Corrections - Prof. Kenneth E. L and more Exams Engineering in PDF only on Docsity! University of Portland School of Engineering Lulay’s Pet Peeves Examples and descriptions of common technical writing mistakes: CAPITALIZATION When referring to the title of something specific it should be capitalized. Example: Our group accomplished every required task. However, Group J2 did not! This is a problem encountered at many universities, but not at the University of Portland! Names of elements are not capitalized: We tested 2024-T351 aluminum alloy. WORD USE/SPELLING “Testing for…” Correct: The hardness of the material was measured. Incorrect: The material was tested for hardness. (This implies you are testing to see if it has hardness. All materials have some level of hardness. It is proper to say a doctor would test for an infection in a person – that makes sense because the test is to determine if the person has an infection.) Proper use of its and it’s It’s means it is – example: It’s reasonable to expect that to happen. Ownership use example: Its wheel fell off. Possessive An apostrophe is used to show ownership or close relation by a noun: Those are the cow’s horns. That is the horse’s tail-end. The bus’ (or bus’s) seats are comfortable. The steel’s hardness was measured. Its is possessive – example: Its strength lies in its numbers. The word “affect” is a verb transitive (it is generally not a noun). If you can substitute the word “alter” (as in change), then affect would be the correct word not effect. A way to remember this is that both alter and affect start with an “a.” Example: The cost of the material will alter my decision. This has the same meaning as: The cost of the material will affect my decision. Or: The strength of the steel was altered by heat treating. This has the same meaning as: The strength of the steel was affected by heat treating. (affect = alter, affected = altered). Affect is a noun when used as a psychological description: He has a flat affect (meaning, he has little personality). This is not a common use of the word in engineering documents. 1 The word “effect” is generally a noun. One way to tell a noun is that they may be preceded by “the” or “an” referring to “effect.” Proper use: The cost of the material had an effect on my decision. Don’t be confused by modifying words between “the” or “an” and “effect”: The cost of the material had a very significant effect on my decision. “Good” is an adjective, “well” is an adverb. Correct examples: That is a good dog. He is doing very well. Adverbs often end with “ly”. Example: “He ran very slowly.” Not, “He ran very slow”. He may be slow, but he runs slowly. The word “too” expresses excessive amount: That took too long to complete. If comparing things, use “than” not “then.” Steel is generally harder than aluminum. TENSE When reporting work that you have performed (in a report, letter, memo, etc.) use past tense: Correct: The hardness was measured after quenching. Incorrect: The hardness will be measured after quenching. If the work has yet to be completed, or if making recommendations regarding what should be done then use future tense. Correct: The hardness will be measured after quenching. Incorrect: The hardness was measured after quenching. AVOID THESE WORDS Avoid inappropriate use of the word “look.” Incorrect: If you look at Figure 1 the hardness decreases as a function of tempering time. (What if I don’t look at it? Will the hardness still decrease as a function of tempering time?) Correct: As shown in Figure 1, the hardness… Incorrect: This test looked at the effects of… Correct: The test investigated the effects of… Avoid inappropriate use of the word “efficient.” “Efficient” is ambiguous. It can mean efficient use of time, energy, resources, etc. So if you use “efficient” it should be clear what it means. Avoid using “prove” in technical writing. It takes very significant data to prove something. Correct: The data shows that apples always fall downward. Incorrect: The data proves that apples always fall downward. 2