Eliminating Noise in Writing

1
Eliminating Noise in Writing

• Compiled by
• Dr. Aly N. El-Bahrawy

2
Sources of Noise

• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Sentence structure
• Technical usage

3
Spelling and Spell Checkers

• You can still make mistakes
• Forms mailed (nailed) to you
• Poor spelling annoys and distracts
• Careless speller can also be inept in technical
  matters
• Spell checker and a current dictionary
• English is dynamic, and language of technology
  changes rapidly.

4
Punctuation

• Controlling flow of traffic is vital
• as flow of meaning in sentences
• Traffic signals punctuation marks
• In spoken language (pitch, breath pauses,
  emphasis)

5
Commas

• Missing comma causes noise
• After the construction workers finished eating
  rats emerged to look for the scraps.
• After the construction workers finished eating,
  rats emerged to look for scraps.
• As you can see the efficiency peaks around 10-20
• As you can see, the efficiency peaks around 10-20

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Serial Comma

• The serial comma has become practically mandatory
  in most scientific, technical, and legal writing.
• Tomorrows engineers will have to manage
  information overload, communicate skillfully, and
  use a computer as an extension of themselves.

7
Parentheses

• set off facts or references
• Resistor R5 introduces feedback in the circuit
  (see Figure 5).
• This reference book (published in 2003) contains
  up-to-date information.

8
Dash

• Call attention to words after it
• Less formal than other marks
• He was tall, handsome, richand stupid.
• Staying up all night to finish a lab report is
  not so terribleonce in a while.
• My opinionwhether you want to hear it or not is
  that the drill does not meet the specifications.
• The other n dash 31-41 350-400.

9
Colon

• Time notation and book title division
• The proposal is due on Monday at 830 sharp
• The book recommended is Technical Communication
  The Practical Craft.
• Introduction of informal list
• For the final exam you will need several items a
  pencil, a calculator, and three sheets of graph
  paper.

10
Hyphens

• Most underused in technical writing
• We used a 16-key keypad.
• The equation assumes a one-dimensional plane-wave
  propagation inside the horn.
• Research showed that the computer-aided students
  improved their grades dramatically.
• direct axis transient open circuit time constant
• can you punctuate this?

11
Exclamation Point

• Avoid in professional writing except for warning
• Can be interpreted as sarcastic
• DANGER Sodium Cyanide is extremely toxic!
• After reading your report, I feel you might
  benefit from our on-site course in technical
  writing!

12
Quotation Marks

• Set off direct quotations
• The manager stressed that the keyword was
  Preparedness.
• We left the game after the band played The
  Eyes of Texas it was too hot and humid.
• If quoted material takes more that two lines,
  set it off by a space and indent it from both
  right and left. You may use a slightly smaller
  font size.

13
Semicolon

• Disappearing from technical writing
• Your program is working well however, mine is a
  disaster.
• (therefore, namely, consequently, accordingly)
• Take Professor Hixsons class you will find he
  is a great teacher.
• I suggest you choose one social science subject,
  such as psychology or philosophy one natural
  science course, such as chemistry, physics or
  biology and one math class.

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Sentence Sense

• Connecting subjects to verbs
• Modifiers
• Parallelism
• Fragments
• Active or passive voice
• Sexist language
• Transitions
• Sentence length

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Connecting Subjects to Verbs

• A 35 mm film of some high buildings are strongly
  recommended.
• Only one of the pre-1925 high-rise structures
  were damaged in the quake.
• Twelve ounces of adhesive was added.
• Either the old manual or the recent procedures
  are acceptable.
• (neither/nor)

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Modifiers

• Word(s) to add meaning to sentence
• After testing the mechanism, the theory was
  easily understood.
• After testing the mechanism we understood the
  theory.
• I was ordered to get there as soon as possible by
  fax.
• By the age of four her father knew she would be
  an engineer.

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Parallelism

• List items sharing grammatical structure
• I like to jog, wrestling, and play the fiddle.
• The team concluded that they should call in a
  consultant, or having three more engineers
  reassigned.
• The back-up system should be efficient, should
  meet the safety specifications, and have complete
  reliability.

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Fragments

• Partial statements conveying incomplete
  information
• She decided to major in petroleum engineering.
  Even though it would take five years.
• Delays in the October shipments have occurred.
  Due to the strike.
• How do you remedy the sentences?

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Active or Passive Voice

• The engineer wrote the report (active)
• The report was written by the engineer (passive)
• It has been decided to terminate your employment.
  
• We have decided to fire you.
• The button in pressed twice.
• Press the button twice.
• Electricity was discovered thousands of years
  ago.
• The bridge was torn down in 1992.
• Use active voice, unless there is a company
  policy against its use.

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Sexist Language

• offensive to use gender-specific terms
• Every engineer should be at his desk by 9 AM.
• Every engineers should be at his or her desk by 9
  AM.
• Engineers should be at their desks by 9 AM.
• Chairman, chairwoman or chairperson?
• Sarah is the chair of the new committee.
• Sarah is chairing the new committee.

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Transitions

• Signposts directing the readers thinking
• The groups plans have been extended. The
  completion date for the project is as originally
  planned.
• The groups plans have been extended.
  Nevertheless (Unfortunately), The completion date
  for the project is as originally planned.
• Even though the groups plans have been extended,
  the completion date for the project is as
  originally planned.

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Transitions

• Sequence
• beforelater, first second, in addition,
  additionally, then, next, finally
• Contrast
• but, however, yet, still, nevertheless, although,
  on the contrary, in contrast, on the other hand
• Cause and Effect
• consequently, therefore, so, thus, hence
• Elaboration
• further, furthermore, for example, moreover, in
  fact, indeed, certainly, besides

23
Sentence Length

• Very long sentence
• We finally had a long discussion with the R D
  staff but were not able to convince them that
  they should commit to a specific date for
  implementation of the design, but instead they
  responded with a proposal to extend the project,
  which would result in a lot of more work for all
  of us and a considerable loss of profits for the
  company.

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Sentence Length

• Too many short sentences
• The Kw766XTR is a low-profile desktop scanner. It
  has outstanding performance. It offers a
  frequency range of 29-54 and 10-174 MHz. It
  includes fifty memory channels. The design is
  sleek. Individual channels can be locked out.
  They can also be delayed.

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Technical Usage

• Useless Jargon
• Useful Jargon
• Abbreviations
• Numbers
• Units of measurements
• Equations

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Useless Jargon

• A French word meaning the twittering of birds
• High-tech jargon techno-babble
• The Electrotechnophrase Generator
• Unless jargon holds a precise meaning
• for both writer and reader,
• no communication takes place.

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Useful Jargon

• Necessary terminology in specialized fields
• Chemist deoxyribose
• Geologist Paleozoic era
• Computer engineer packet switching
• Common words used by experts
• Charge, conductor, mole, mouse, operator
• Useful tools to communicate with readers
• The way to avoid noise
• when using technical terminology
• is to know your audience

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Abbreviations

• Time savers and less boring
• CAD/CAM
• Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided
  Manufacturing
• Spell them out the first time you use them
• Initializations and Acronyms
• GPA, IBM, UHF / AIDS, NASA, RAM
• Use correct a/an before the intialism
• An LED readout / a UHF
• Form plural by adding a lowercase s.
• We ordered three CRTs.

29
Numbers

• Necessary degree of precision
• Words versus numerals
• Cardinal and ordinal (three/ third)
• Cardinal numbers
• Words from one to ten, or figures otherwise
• Two transistors, 12 capacitors (not in one
  sentence)
• Time, money, measurements
• 1 AM, 5.48, 12.4 m, 18 ft
• Ordinal numbers
• Spelled out if single words
• Second harmonic, 21st element

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Numbers

• Spell at the beginning of a sentence
• Thirty-two computers were manufactured today.
• Form plural using a lowercase s
• 80s, 1920s, nines, sixes
• Place a zero before the decimal point
• 0.345 cm, 19.40 tons
• Use scientific notation for large numbers
• .0538 m or 5.38 x 10-2 m

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Units of Measurement

• Be consistent
• Do not mix units
• Use accepted symbols
• Write the other unit in parentheses
• 212 ºF (100 ºC), 5.08 cm (2 in)
• Do not get confused by
• C (Celsius, coulomb)
• g (gram, G gauss)
• m (thousandth, M million)
• s (second, S siemens)
• G (gauss, gravity, giga)

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Units of Measurement

• Units derived from names of persons
• Lowercase if spelled out with plural s, uppercase
  if abbreviated
• Amperes A, newtons N, volts V, webers Wb
• SI prefixes
• 1015 peta- P 10-15 femto- f
• 1012 tera- T 10-12 peco- p
• 109 giga- G 10-9 nano n
• 106 mega- M 10-6 micro- m
• 103 kilo- k 10-3 milli- m

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Equations

• Communicate ideas more efficiently than words
• Equation editor

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Edit, Edit, Edit

• Have the time and take the trouble
• to edit carefully
• Look with editorial eye for documents going
  outside
• Use word processor help, but not blindly.
• Your name is on the document, not the word
  processors manufacturer.

35
Editing at Different Levels

• Check for TECHNICAL ACCURACY
• Different levels
• Level 1 format, organization, and appearance
• (specifications, length, font size, margins,
  headings, graphics)
• Level 2 paragraph and sentence
• (length, structure, verbiage, word choice, sense)
• Level 3 nitty-gritty
• (mechanics, spelling, punctuation, etc.)
• Collaborative editing
• Two heads are better than one (using levels)