May 2013
Intermediate to advanced
288 pages
7h 57m
English
Content preview from A Guide to Writing as an Engineer, 4th EditionBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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2
ELIMINATING SPORADIC NOISE IN ENGINEERING WRITING
I am not a picky person when it comes to spelling and grammar, but when I see a report or memo which has repeated errors I immediately question the ability and dedication of the person who wrote it. Why didn't they take the time and effort to do it right? Most of the successful engineers I know write clear, well-organized memos and reports. Engineers who can't write well are definitely held back from career advancement.
Richard L. Levine, Manager, Bell Northern Research, 1987.
There arises from a bad and inapt formation of words, a wonderful obstruction of the mind.
Sir Francis Bacon, 1561–1626.
Errors in writing, causing what Bacon calls “a wonderful obstruction of the mind,” are traditionally called faulty mechanics but can be viewed as sporadic or intermittent noise. Enough sporadic noise in a document, such as repeated misspellings or numerous sentence fragments, can easily turn into constant noise. Such noise will give your reader an impression of hastily, carelessly produced work undeserving of the response or feedback you hope for—as is bluntly expressed by an engineering manager in the opening quotation to this chapter.
To help you eliminate intermittent noise, this chapter shows where it is most likely to occur: in spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, and technical usage. This chapter also shows you how to edit your writing in order to remove sporadic noise.
SPELLING AND SPELL CHECKERS
Obviously, electronic spell ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.