Corrected Terminology for Technical Reports

Nothing shows up a new technical author’s inexperience more than using impulsive words in the technical report.

The following list is intended to help fledgling technical authors and engineers use corrected technical terms and so save personal embarrassment.

Corrected Terminology	Meaning
“It has long been known that…”	I haven’t bothered to look up the original reference.
“While it has not been possible to provide definite answers to these questions…”	The experiments didn’t work out, but I figured I could at least get publication out of it.
“High purity…”“Very high purity…”“Extremely high purity…”“Super purity…”	Composition unknown except for the exaggerated claim of the suppliers.
“… accidentally strained during mounting.”	…dropped on the floor.
“…handled with extreme care throughout the experiments.”	…not dropped on the floor.
“It is clear that much additional work will be required before a complete understanding…”	I don’t understand it.
“Unfortunately a quantitative theory to account for these effects has not been formulated…”	Neither does anybody else.
“It is hoped that this work will stimulate further work in the field.”	This report isn’t very good, but neither are any of the others on this miserable subject.
“The agreement with the predicted curve is……excellent.”…good.” …satisfactory.” …fair.”	. Fair. . Poor.Doubtful. Imaginary.
…as good as could be expected considering the approximations made in the analysis.”	Non-existent.
“Of great theoretical and practical importance.”	Interesting to me.
“Three of the samples we chosen for detailed study.”	The results on the others didn’t make sense and were ignored.
“These results will be reported at a later date.”	If you forget to chase I will be spared the embarrassment.
“”Typical results are shown.”	The best results are shown.
“A definitive answer will require more experimentation.”	In the end we figured out how to do it.
“The results support our speculative theory.”	Two errors must have cancelled out.

Not my usual post but I thought you might enjoy this list. It was actually given to me in 1979 by the Chief Engineer of the company I worked for and no, he wasn’t serious.

Photo; labyrinthine circuit board lines, cc quapan,

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