Tue 23 Oct 2007
After reading reviews of some technical documents which I have written, I could not help but feel as though my undergraduate curriculum in computer engineering had been a bit light on skills related to technical writing. I don’t think that I am alone here given that many of what are considered top engineering textbooks are so poorly written. The purpose of technical writing is to convey information in a clear, accurate and concise manner, however, basic errors still tend to make it into final book revisions. If we look at the following two sentences, the difference is just a single comma, but the meaning is totally different.
The data register is sent to the cross-bar before it is cleared. (Cross-bar is cleared.)
The data register is sent to the cross bar, before it is cleared. (Data register is cleared.)
I have started to remedy this situation by looking at a couple of books on grammar and English usage and trying to apply all of my mental utility to grasp the concepts. (As usual, here are a few PDFs to help with grammar and usage.) Hopefully we can all improve our writing a small amount and try to avoid mistakes such as the one that follows.
[Professor] Nelson admitted to smoking marijuana cigarettes soon after police arrived there, the complaint says. Police reported that they confiscated a number of items, including bags with marijuana and rolling papers. (reference)
( sp7084.pdf ) ( breviary_of_english_usage.pdf )
The image above is from the Early Office Museum.
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