Chapter 2:

Eliminating Sporadic Noise in Engineering Writing

To help you eliminating the 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.

1- SPELLING AND SPELL CHECKERS:

It is important to learn how to use the electrical spelling check for sure; however,
obviously, electronic spell checkers do not eliminate the need to be a careful speller.
There are many spell check mistakes that cannot be corrected by the spell checkers,
which are:
a- Chaining from a existence word to another, such as see and sea, there and
their, and it's and its, and so on. Accordingly careful double check is needed.
b- Finger slip mistakes: such as unclear and nuclear, or mail and nail and so on.
The conclusion: do use the spelling check, but do not rely on it! Use a dictionary to
help you beside the electrical spell check, and be sure that the dictionary is not very
old. Age of the dictionary is important for science language because it changes very
quickly. You will not find the word "email" in old dictionaries for example.
Remember: Noise created by misspelling can bring readers to a stop and cause
them to seriously question your ability as a writer.

2- PUNCTUATION
Writing without punctuation is like driving without traffic light!
Punctuation must be used to indicate for the end of the sentence, or the end of the
paragraph, or the end of the meaning,…est.

How would you punctuate the following sentence:

"A woman without her man is nothing":

Men punctuate it as: A woman, without her man, is nothing, but Women can
punctuate it as :A woman, without her, man is nothing".

1- COMMA:
The commas are used in the following cases:

a- Full meaning Comma:

Commas play important rule to show the order of the writing sentences, and more
importantly, to make the writing easier to follow and to understand.

For example: read this:

"Before we arrived at the meeting we had already decided how to vote"

And "Before we arrived at the meeting, we had already decided how to vote"
Clearly the second one is clearer and easier to read.

Examples for Commas:

b- Serial commas:
Most technical editors prefer to put a comma before the and for a list within a
sentence: The serial comma has become practically mandatory in most scientific,
technical, and legal writing. Notice how the serial comma is useful in the following
sentences:

c- Commas for restrictive and nonrestrictive elements.

In this case comma is used to discriminate between restrictive information about the
objective or to show that it is not restrictive such as more information.
When we want to add more information, we use the comma, and when the
information is to restrict the objective, we do not use it.
Read and compare the following:
In conclusion: Notice in the preceding examples that the nonrestrictive elements
typically use which and commas, whereas the restrictive clauses use ‘‘that’’ and no
commas. (Trying on a ‘‘which hunt’’ and see what you find.)
2- SEMICOLONS:
Like it or not, semicolons seem to be disappearing from engineering writing. Often
the semicolon is replaced by a comma, which is an error according to traditional
punctuation rules. This is one of the most common mistakes in the English writing.
Simply when the next sentence is related to the sentence you are writing; a semicolon
is needed, which means, the information in the second sentence needs some
information from the sentence before to be fully understood.
Famous cases for semicolons with example:
a- The second sentence has a pronoun that is referred to the first sentence:
Engineers mainly avoid using the semicolons because they are less confident to
do so.

b- Semicolons usually used around the following words:

However, therefore, namely, consequently, and accordingly; because these words

usually joint two sentences together. If you use these words frequently, you NEED
to learn how to use the semicolons in such cases.

c- Semicolon is used to separate a series of short statements listed in a

sentence if anyone of the statements contains internal punctuation. The
semicolon will then divide the larger elements:

3- COLONS
Other than for time notation and book or article titles, colons are used within
sentences to introduce an informal list:
Notice that the colon does not change anything in the sentence, but it just put to make
you be aware that the coming are list of things belongs to the sentence before the
colon.
4- PARENTHESES:
Parentheses are used for several proposes, such as:

 Use parentheses to set off facts or references in your writing—almost like

a quick Interjection in speech:

 If what you place within parentheses is not a complete sentence, put any
required comma or period outside the parentheses, as shown in the first
and second examples:

Notice that; "like this one" is NOT FULL sentence.

 If your parenthetical material forms a complete sentence, as in the
example below:

In such case, put the period inside the closing parenthesis.

Finally, remember that using the parentheses require stop the reading flow,
(discontinuous reading), which is not preferable, so, mind to use the parentheses
as few as you can and when needed.

5- DASHES:
An em dash (–) can provide emphasis by calling attention to the words after it:
He was tall, handsome, rich—and stupid. So, what is after – is emphasized.
Em dash is regarded as less formal; so, avoid overusing it, mainly in very formal
writing (they almost do not exist).
With this caution in mind, dashes are helpful for the following purposes:

 Emphasis:
Example: Staying up all night to finish a lab project is not so terrible—once in a
while.
 Summary:
Example: Reading all warnings, wearing safety glasses and hardhats, and avoiding hot
materials —all these practices are crucial to sensible workshop procedure.
 Insertion:
Example: My opinion—whether you want to hear it or not— that the drill does not
meet the specifications promised by our supplier.
Notice that em dashes touch the words after and before it.
6- HYPHENS:
Hyphens have been called the most underused punctuation marks in technical
writing. Omitting them can sometimes create real noise, as when we read coop (an
enclosure for poultry or rabbits) but discover that co-op was meant.
Use dictionary to double check if there is a hyphen or not.

Following important rules for hyphens:

 Don’t hyphenate prefixes such as pre-, re-, semi-, sub-, and non- unless
leaving out a hyphen causes possible confusion or to make the word better
looking.
 Preconception does not need a hyphen, but pre-existing uses it to give the word
better looking, the same is for anti-inflationary, ultra-adaptable and re-
engineering.
Sometimes the hyphen changes the meaning such as: re-cover and recover, and
resent and re-sent. (Resent means dislike while re-sent means sent it again.).
 Don’t hyphenate compound words before a noun when the first one ends
in ly: For example: early warning system, optimally achieved goals, highly
sensitive cameras (we cannot write early-warning.).
• Stay alert for sentences in which you can eliminate noise by adding one or more
hyphens. A hyphen improves the second sentence of each of the following pairs:

In the first example, using hyphen makes the sentence grammatically correct! So,
without it becomes"16 keys", and no 'a', but when using hyphen, a 16-key becomes
single set of keys.
Sometimes hyphenating is really complex and complicated in the technical terms such
as "direct axis transient open circuit time constant", how would you punctuate it?
This is such complicate task and could need a specialist to do it, however, the best
solution is (direct-axis transient open-circuit time constant), this solution can may
only be found in a technical dictionary or by observing what the common practice is
among specialists in the field.

7- QUOTATION MARKS:
Use quotation marks to set off direct quotations in your text, and put any needed
period or comma within them, even if the quoted item is only one word. Although
British publishers use different guidelines, the American practice is always to put
commas and periods inside quotes, and semicolons and colons outside:

Most frequently used cases for quotations:

 After repeating speck such as:

 Just before the question mark to repeat a question was asked by others or
before question mark to determine what to ask exactly:
Their manager bluntly asked, ‘‘Are we on schedule?’’
What is the meaning of the term ‘‘antepenultimate’’?
 If you want to quote more than two line; it is better to re-write the block
of writing and then use [ ref] to show the source and in this case, there is
no need for quotation marks:

8- Common Mistakes:
The common mistake is identified as the mistake that either society comets it a lot.
Most famous mistakes notices are listed as:
 1- Making Subjects and Verbs Agree:
Which means if the subject is single; the verbs should be related to a single as
well, and the same when it is plural.
When the verbs come after the subjects directly; this mistake is rarely occurs,
but sometimes there are many words in between, for example:

Such kind of mistakes sometimes can't be corrected by the grammar check

software. The writer needs to know the MAIN subject in the sentence.
Moreover, sometimes the subject is regarded as 'an amount' rather than how
many units in the amount, so, in this case, we deal it as a single even if it
contains several units of the amount itself, for example:

Notice that twelve ounces of adhesive is regarded as one amount regardless of

how many ounces in this amount; that is why it is being considered as single.

Using either/or or neither/nor in sentences also creates some special problems, so,
simply the verb agrees with the word following "or" or "nor", or, "neither" or "nor"
works, as the following examples show:

2- Modifier Problems
 The modifier problems means, the problem that appears from adding a word or
group of words, to add meaning to other ideas in a sentence.

Several reasons cause the problems which are:

 The problem is adding the modifier part in wrong place, resulting to make the
sentence losses its meaning or even makes it read in wrong way.
For example, readers get the wrong impression (or no impression) about who is doing
what in a sentence. This is frequently because words like ‘‘I’’ or ‘‘we’’ or ‘‘the
engineers’’ or some other subject has been omitted. Consider the following:

In the revisions, notice that the correct subject is put in the main clause (in the first
two examples) and in the dependent clause (in the last example).

 Placing a modifier too far from the word or idea it modifies:

Sometimes the meaning cannot be extracted, as in the following:

The sentence would be correct if the telephone answering device was made of analog
devices, but much more likely the writer is concerned with the inaccuracies of an
analog tone-detector circuit, as shown in the revision.
 3- Unclear Pronouns:
When you use a pronoun in your writing, it is commonly assumed that you are
referring to whatever noun or nouns come just before it in the sentence. Thus, the
promotion was given to Vicky, who really deserved it, is perfectly clear: The "who"
refers to Vicky. Problems can occur, however, especially with the pronouns this and
that, with their plurals, and with which and it:

What does the "This" refer to in the second sentence—study, terrain, analysis,
simulation, decision, or construction? It should be construction since it’s the last noun
before the pronoun This. However, that’s unlikely to be what the writer meant. The
meaning is much clearer in the revision. In the second pair of sentences, readers can
eventually figure out that "These" refers to discoveries and not sources or notebooks,
but we don’t want them to have to figure things out.
4- Parallelism:
Parallelism refers to items in a list using the same style of phrasing. Faulty
parallelism creates noise because it is grammatically inconsistent.
Example: I like to jog, wrestling, and play the fiddle. In this example wrestling is not
correct, the correct is wrestle. So, we have to keep the same phrasing in the parallel
sentence.
Consider this example:

Notice that (1) to call in a consultant, and (2) having more engineers reassigned—two unparallel
phrases that causes a lack in the grammatical consistency.
More examples:

5- Fragments:
Sentence fragments are partial statements that create noise because they convey an
incomplete idea. Here’s an example:

Notice that saying the second statement alone and independent from the first; the
listeners will be lost and your listeners will be lost.
6- Two Latin Legacies: (Two famous and well tried advices from Latin history):
First: ‘‘Never End a Sentence with a Preposition.’’
It is a writing taboo to end the sentence with preposition, though in many cases
preposition is the best available end.
Study the following examples:

Though the second statement (natural version) sounds more natural, but the first
statement (hypercorrect version) is more correct.
Second: ‘‘Never Split an Infinitive.’’ :

An infinitive is the form of a verb combined with the word to, as in to go, to work, or to think.
Unless it is essential to make the meaning clearer; do not put words in between "to"
and its verb. If you have to; then put few words only.
Example:

7- Sexist Language:
Gender, or sex, is now only indicated in English by she/he, his/hers, her/him, and by a
small group of words describing activities formerly pursued by one sex or the other,
such as mailman, stewardess, chairman, or seamstress for female and tailor for a man.
It is unnecessarily restrictive—and to some people offensive—to use gender-specific
terms in writing and speech. In the following pairs, the problem versions are
restrictive; the revised versions are inclusive. The revisions show how you can easily
reword your sentences to include everyone they should:
The above examples show that it is easy to remove the gender problem by using a
unisex way, which is either using the plural or using his or her, he or she, and his or
hers.

8- Sentence Length (Asian style):

When dealing with highly technical subjects, you should rarely write sentences over
words long. Technical material can be difficult enough as it is. This difficulty
increases if your audience is less familiar with your field than you are. Even
nontechnical ideas are hard to grasp in long-winded sentences:

Nobody wants to be left breathless at the end of a mile-long sentence. If you find your
sentences tend to be lengthy, look for ways to break them into two or more separate
ones. The readability of your prose will be determined partly by the length of your
sentences.
Notice that very short sentences make the reader believes that you are a very beginner
at writing! For example:

9- Useless and Useful Jargon: (difficult and very specialized vocabularies):

Unless you are sure that the reader will understand you; using jargons is just type of
noise!
British say: Jargons are used for two reasons: to make the reader understands you, or
to make the reader does not understand you!
Example:
Phrases as: integrated logistical programming, differential heterodyne emission, or
functional cognitive parameters. Unless these words hold a precise meaning for writer
and reader, no communication takes place—only noise.
In conclusion, jargons are useful when they are used in the correct place, just as
chemical jargons in a chemical academicals report. That makes the report looks and
sounds professional.

10- Abbreviations:
Abbreviations are as much important as the good use of jargons!
When using the abbreviation notice the following:
 Take the first letter from each word and make it in capital letter:
Example:
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN).
 Create the abbreviation at the first time you face the abbreviated words, and
then just keep using the abbreviation instead.
 When using the abbreviation, do not forget to use a/an, or s for plural,
Example:
 Wireless Sensor Network (WSNs) this is the plural of WSN. The single is a
WSN. Same if single UHF, we use an UHF (Ultra High Frequency).
 Abbreviation is NOT acronyms! The different that acronyms are read as one
word together, not letter by letter as in abbreviation, for example:
Acronyms do the same but are pronounced as words: AIDS, FORTRAN, NAFTA,
NASA, RAM, and ROM.
Some acronyms become so commonplace that we think of them as ordinary words
and write them in lower case: bit, laser, pixel, radar, scuba, and sonar

11- Numbers:
Numbers are regarded as the engineer most important field. Accordingly, how to write
clear and noise free numbers is one of the most important advantages in the engineer
writing skills.
Numbers are expressed as:
 Words (twelve) or numerals (12).
 Cardinal numbers are one, two, three, etc.
 Ordinal numbers are first, second, third, etc.
Based on above, all the writing advices are shown below:

1. In mainstream nontechnical text, the rule is to write the cardinal numbers

from one to ten as words and all other numbers as figures.
Examples:
Two transistors, and 232 stainless steel bolts
Three linear actuators and 12 capacitors

2. However, when writing in a technical context, if the numeric value represents a

critical value; use the numeral. If the numeric value is not critical, use the word:
Example:
Make sure that the rim of the basket is exactly 10 feet from the floor. (not words
because it is a critical value).
She presented three arguments to support her assertion.

3. Use words, not numbers, when expressing rounded or approximate numbers:

Example:
There are now thousands of apps for the iPhone.
On Wikipedia, there are over three million articles in English.
or
On Wikipedia, there are over 3 million articles in English. (over 3 million is not an
around value so, both cases can be used.)

4. when more than one number appears in a sentence, write them all the same:
Example:
The IPET has 4000 members and 134 chapters in 6 regions.
(So, the rule from 1 to ten writing is applied when there is just one number in the
sentence.)

5. If two numeric values occur in a sequence, make one of them a word and the
other numerals:
Example:
The project calls for eight 6-foot boards.
6. Spell out ordinal numbers only if they are single words. Write the rest as
numerals plus the last two letters of the ordinal:
Examples:
Second harmonic, and 21st element.
Fourteenth attempt, and 73rd cycle

7. If a number begins a sentence, it’s a good idea to spell it out regardless of any
other rule:
Example:
Thirty-two computers were manufactured today.

8. To avoid writing out a large number at the beginning of a sentence, rewrite the
sentence so it doesn’t begin with a number:
Examples:
Last year, 5198 engines were manufactured in this division.
or
This division manufactured 5198 engines last year.
9. Punctuate large numbers according to your company’s preference or that of
your audience. Some countries use periods as decimal markers. Thus 10,354,978 and
10 354 978 and 10.354.978 can all mean different things in different parts of the
world.

10. Form the plural of a numeral by adding an s, with no apostrophe. Make a written
number plural by adding s, es, or by dropping the y and adding ies:
Such as: 80s, 1920s, nines, sixes, fours, or nineties.

11. Place a zero before the decimal point for numbers less than one. Omit all trailing
zeros unless they are needed to indicate precision.
Examples:
0.345 cm, 12.00 ft, 0.5 A, or 19.40 tons

12. Write fractions as numerals when they are joined by a whole number. Connect the
whole number and the fraction by a hyphen:
Example:
2-1/2 liters, and 32-2/3km

13. Time can be written out when not followed by a.m. or p.m. Use numerals to
express time in hours and minutes when followed by a.m. and p.m. or when
recording data. Universal Time (UTC, from the French for universal coordinated
time) uses the 24-hour clock.
Example: ten o’clock, and 10:41 a.m.
8:45 p.m., 4 hours 36 minutes 12 seconds, or 23:41 (= 11:41 p.m.)

14. When expressing very large or small numbers, use scientific notation. Some
numbers are easily read when expressed in either standard or scientific form.
Choose the best format and be consistent (choose one way and use it for all the
report):
Examples:
0.0538 m or 5.38×10−2 m, and 8.32×10−21 m/s or 367 345 199 m/s
 12- UNITS of MEASURMENT:

Although the U.S. public is not committed to the metric system, the engineering
profession is. Two versions of the metric system exist, but the more modern one, the
SI (from French Syst`eme International), is preferred. General advices:
 Do not mix English and metric units unless you are forced to.
 Be sure to use the commonly accepted abbreviation or symbol for a unit,
and leave a space between the numeral and the unit:
Examples:
70 ns, and 100 dB
12 V, and 34.62m
23 e/cm3, and 6Wb/m2
 You can provide both IS and English units of measurement if this could help
to increase your work understanding. (You need to make the decision before
starting your writing and it depends on who is going to read your writing.)
In such case; do so by writing them in parentheses after the primary units:
Example:
212◦F (100◦C), and 5.08cm (2 in)

 Make sure you use the correct symbol when referring to units of measurement,
and remember that similar symbols may stand for more than one thing. A great
deal of noise (or disaster) could result if you confused the following, for
example:
◦C (degrees Celsius), and C (coulomb——unit of electric charge)
g (gram), and G (gauss——measure of magnetic induction)
m (thousandth), and M (million)
n (nano-), and N newtons
s (second—as in time), and S (siemens—unit of conductance)

 Units of measurement derived from a person’s name usually are not

capitalized, even if the abbreviation for the unit is. (The unit is capital while
the name is not.)
Examples:
amperes A, farads F, henrys H, kelvins K, teslas T, volts V, and webers Wb.
 Note that when the name can take a plural form, an s is not added to the
abbreviation.
Example:
2048 KB, and equals 2 MB.
 When working with very large or very small units of measurement, be familiar
with the designated SI expressions and prefixes:

 Use a recent dictionary of scientific terms if you are unsure of the correct
spellings or symbols of the units you are using. Symbols and abbreviations are
indispensable to an engineer, but use them sparingly when writing for an
audience other than your peers. Sometimes, you can define things
parenthetically or with annotations, as in the following example:
P = IE (1)
where
P = power, measured in watts
I = current in amperes
E = EMF (electromotive force) in volts
 13- EQUATIONS
It would be hard to do much engineering without equations. They can communicate
ideas far more efficiently than words can—consider the ideas represented by E=mc2
for example. Many word-processing programs now make it easy to write equations in
text. Whether you use the computer to write equations or write them in longhand, take
care to ensure accuracy and legibility. An illegible or ambiguous equation is hardly
going to communicate data effectively, and an error in an equation could be fatal. In
other words, make sure your equations are noise-free.
Normally, center equations and number them sequentially in parentheses to the right
for reference. See Figure 2-2.
Leave a space between your text and any equation, and between lines of equations.
Also, space on both sides of operators such as=, +, or−, as shown in the equations on
the following page. If you have more than one equation in your document, keep the
equal signs and reference numbers parallel throughout:
Notice the standard punctuation marks at the appropriate places.
14- EDIT, EDIT, EDIT
If you look at the early handwritten drafts of some of the greatest writers’ works,
you’ll see alterations, additions, deletions, and other squiggles that indicate how much
revision went into the draft before it became a finished work. We could all produce
better written documents if we always:
1. Had the time to edit our work carefully.
2. Took the trouble to edit our work carefully.
For an engineer, time is frequently a problem. You can’t always find time for a
leisurely edit of your work. However, you would be ill-advised to send a first draft of
anything of importance to your readers. You must look over anything with an editorial
eye, especially if it’s going beyond your immediate colleagues. How much time you
invest in editing should be in direct proportion to the importance of the document.
Use all the assistance your word processor will give you, including any spelling,
grammar, or readability programs you may have, but don’t follow their suggestions
blindly. You have to be the final arbiter on the clarity and effectiveness of your work
—your name will be on the document, not your word processor’s manufacturer.
15- COLLABORAVIVE PROOFREADING
Nothing is wrong with having someone look over your writing before you submit it to
its intended audience. Two heads are usually better than one for discovering flaws in
writing. In industry, experts often cooperate in writing reports, proposals, and other
documents just as they work together on engineering projects. In fact, most lengthy
documents are produced by team effort, where different team members use their
particular strengths.
Collaborative editing can be as simple as asking a friend for his or her opinion of your
work and using those comments to improve your writing. The more skilled and frank
your friend is, the better. With a long document, however, collaborative editing can be
done by having different team members check the document for different potential
kinds of noise. This team approach to editing is fully discussed at the end of Chapter
3, under ‘‘Share the Load: Write as a Team.’’ Chapter 3 also gives you several
guidelines on how to eliminate noise not just within a sentence but in larger chunks of
writing—or even throughout an entire document.