Technical Writing

Spring 2019
Lectures 6 & 7

ESSENTIAL STYLES OF
WRITING
1
1. Numbers
• Rule 1
• All numbers below 10 should be spelled out.
➢There are five engineers working in the project.
➢The lab contains nine PCs.
• Exceptions: proportion, page number, percentage, units of
measure, money, date, time. (3P, 2m, D, T)
➢November 2, 2016.
➢3 am
➢Page 9
➢7 meters
➢8 %
➢$ 6
➢3 : 5
2
 Cont 1
▪ Numbers greater than 10 are written in numerals.
1000 kg
20,000,000 people
20 times the amount
▪ Large numbers can be written in different ways such as
20,000,000 (20 000 000) 20x106
or 20 million
▪ Numbers in thousands should be written with a separating
comma between each three digits starting from the right hand
side such as
50415300 should be 50,415,300
▪ Extremely large or small numbers can be written in scientific
notation such as:
5.67x10-5 = 0.0000567
3
1.35x108 = 135,000,000 = 135 million
 .
Cont 2

• Approximated quantities should be spelled out (written).

• Words used to express an approximation are: almost,
approximately, up-to, nearly, about, roughly, or in the
order of.
➢I almost have a quarter of the tank full.
➢It means 0.25 of the tank is full. (X)
➢(quarter, half, three quarters, one third, two third)
• If you have to write many numbers sequentially (one after
the other) in the same section, write them all numerals.
• Exceptions: If all the numbers are less than 9 write them
all out.
• Our PC lab contains 15 monitors, 5 printers, 5 scanners, 1
data show, and 1 plotter.
• The room has four fans, one air conditioner, and two air
4
heaters.
Cont. 3
• Sentence should not begin with a number. It usually
confuses the reader. (Punctuation)
➢….100 students are registered for the course of IT. (X)
➢The IT course has 100 students registered for the first term.
➢Example: I paid in my electricity bill a sum of LE 100. 70
percent of the amount was due to the air conditioner. (X)
• Adopt a consistent style of numbers throughout your
writing.
➢The control system requires 5 resistors, III capacitors, and
2.0 inductors. More than 1/2 of the volt is lost in the
resistors. (X)
• When one number appears immediately after another as
part of the same phrase, one of the numbers (preferably
the shortest) is spelled out.
➢I have 10 17-inch monitors in the lab (x).
➢I have ten 17-inch monitors in the lab. 5
 2. Units
• Consistent
✓Adopt one system of units throughout your
writing.
✓The air pressure in the tire is 45 psia at a
temperature of 300 K. (x)
✓The air pressure in the tire is 3 bar at a
temperature of 300 K.
• Write units as words or symbols.
✓10 A not 10 Amp.
✓5 ohms () not 5 oh.
• Write the units in words if they are single.
✓24 hours or 24 h
✓220 Volts or 220 V
6
Cont. 1
• Write the units in symbols if they are compound. Also
write it in their suitable form.
✓ 90 km/h
✓ 60 W = 60 J/s
✓ 1.007 kJ/(kg.K) not 1.007 kJ/kg/K
• Units accompanied with a number are written in words
if the number is one or fraction.
• 0.5 ton not 0.5 tons
• 2.2 tons not 2.2 ton
• 1/2 second not ½ seconds
➢ Exceptions
• Use number “0” as plural: Zero volts & 0 kilograms
• There is no plural in units written in symbols.
• 100 W not 100 Ws
• 65 kg not 65 kgs 7
 Cont. 2

• If it is necessary to have two units of

measure on the same text, write the
first clearly and place the second one in
parentheses.
• The air conditioner can remove 750 W
(250 Btu/min) from the conditioned
space.
• The monitor is 19-inch (48.26 cm).

8
3. Equations
▪ keep all of fraction symbols consistent and
in the same level.
▪ Do not write dy / dx + ky = ex / x

x
dy e
+ ky =
dx x

y = ek + z
k+ z
or.... y = e ?!!!!

9
Cont. 1

• You can use some words to introduce an equation

such as
• as follows: such as:
• is given by : is given by
• as, is, using: or using
• The current in the wire is calculated by using:
V=IR (1)
• The current in the wire is calculated by using
V=IR (1)

10
Symbols
▪Avoid duplicating a symbol
Example 1
➢The C of the capacitor is 0.1 Farad at a
temperature of 30˚C.
Example 2
• A cross-sectional area m2
• I current A

11
Useful Grammar Rules
•Whenever two or more words are
compounded to form an adjective, they are
hyphenated.
➢ High-voltage transformer.
➢ Long-range high-power radar.
➢ State-of-the-art technology.
•Exception:
Adverb-participle combinations are not
hyphenated (words ending with “ly”).
➢ Technically accurate report.
➢ Financially stable organization. 12
Continued 1

•Exception:
Adjectives ending with “ly” are hyphenated if
they are compounded with participle ending
with “ing”.
➢ Easily-describing technique.
➢ Friendly-sounding voice.
•A modifier hyphenated before a noun
keeps the hyphen when it follows any form
of verb “to be”.
➢The student is scientific-oriented.
➢The lab time table was properly-scheduled.
13
Continued- 2

•Many compound words that are hyphenated

before a noun are not hyphenated when they
come after the noun.
➢ This is my up-to-date report.
➢ This report is up to date.
•Exception: Do not hyphenate scientific terms.
➢ An apple tree trunk.
➢ Sulfur dioxide emissions.
➢ Chicken flu epidemic.
➢ Swine flu epidemic.
14
Continued - 3
•Two words are hyphenated if without the
hyphen the idea is not clear enough.
➢ Feed-pipe.
➢ Safety-valve.
➢ Heat-pump. (or heat pump).
•Exception: frequently used compounds are
not hyphenated (scientific terms).
➢ Heat pump.
➢ Vapor compression cycle.
➢ Steel tank.
➢ Water tank. 15
 Continued - 4

•Be sure to put a full stop, a question mark,

or an exclamation mark at the end of each
sentence.
➢ A computer consists of four main units, (figure 1.) (x)
➢ A computer consists of four main units, (figure 1). (√)
➢ A computer consists of four main units, figure 1. (√)
➢ The system performance was amazing, (did you
expect that?) (x)
➢ The system performance was amazing, (did you
expect that?). (√) (x)
➢ Did you expect the amazing performance of the
system? (√)
16
Continued 4

•Avoid dangling words (participle attached to

the wrong subject).
➢King Tut's tomb was unearthed while digging for
artifacts. (√) (x)
➢Archaeologists unearthed King Tut's tomb while
they were digging for artifacts.
•Avoid sentence fragments.
➢Maxwell’s remarkable discovery that the speed
of…. (x)
➢Maxwell made the remarkable discovery that the
speed of propagation of electromagnetic effects is
precisely the same as the speed of light in the same
medium. (√) 17
Abbreviation
•Goal: shorthand for repeated statements.
•Note: It should be standard and indicative.
• IEEE, SAE, ASTM, etc. (acronyms & uppercase)
DOS, ROM, etc.
• ppm, rpm, bps, etc. (units of measure, lowercase)
• USA, UAE, SA, etc. (country)
• TPO, RSVP, ASAP, etc.
•Important notes:
• Omit internal periods from an abbreviation.
• Use periods only if the abbreviation is a unit of
measure (N.m), number (no.), figure (fig.), edition
(ed.), et cetera (etc.), or affiliation (Dr., Eng., Prof.,
Mr., Ms., etc.). 18
 Capitalization.
•Goal:
• Indicative of trade names, governmental agencies
and so on, companies, proper names (scientists).
• Capitalize all proper adjectives and nouns (unless
familiar).
• Do not capitalize a word for no reason except
showing importance.
➢Diesel, Hertz, Otto, Mach number, Kelvin, etc.
• Note that some words are frequently used and
became familiar, therefore they do not need
capitalization.
➢diesel, hertz, etc. 19