Brad Henderson

University of California, Davis | UCD · UWP

In sentences, another multi-word element that can function as a part of speech (adjective, adverb, or noun) is the verbal phrase (VP). Verbal phrases are constructed around a verb form known as a verbal (Vv), and just as prepositions head up prepositional phrases and relative pronouns head up relative clauses, verbals head up verbal phrases. Verbal...

Consider this scenario: You and your engineering team are moving along a large-scale, high-stake project. An unexpected problem emerges and progress halts. You determine how to fix the problem, but the fix will be expensive. Now, suddenly, your project requires an additional $108 K in unanticipated funding to reach completion.

You already have some familiarity with basic sentence equation one (B1). At its core is the most basic of basic clauses, the spark-producing noun and verb pair, “Ns + V” (see Fig. 5.1).

In Chaps. 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_14 through 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_21, we find our math touchstone in the world of software engineering, where flowcharted algorithms made of symbols, functions, arrows, and labels provide software designers with a top-level view of how a program moves through its operations—start to finish, input to output. A...

The first two Category I errors we will discuss are run-on sentences (OFI #5) and sentence fragments (OFI #6). Figure 11.1 displays these two errors along with the other category II errors on the OFI wheel.

Chapters 10 and 11 have presented a sequence of ten OFIs that focus on concision, clarity, and correctness as fundamental features of excellence in sentence design. Beyond these general attributes of high quality, there is another. A sentence that is lean, lucid, and technically correct can still be suboptimal at communicating its intended message...

Engineers must routinely write technical documents for other engineers. However, since engineers are the ones who design a company’s products and processes—and since the technical expertise and responsibility associated with those products and processes link back to engineering—engineers are also called upon to explain, review, and disseminate tech...

Aside from using the recommended document algorithms and geometries to guide the design and production of your engineering documents, I suggest that you also be aware of and incorporate (whenever useful and applicable) a set of essential features that often distinguish effective versus ineffective engineering documents. Below, I have put together a...

Project reports accomplish a variety of functions, including recording a project’s purpose, scope, and metrics; showcasing a project’s findings and results; and answering a project’s objective with conclusions and recommendations. Project reports also take on the critical task of officially documenting the work done to complete an engineering activ...

This chapter covers what you need to know about the sentence algebra variables N, V, and X to understand how they function in sentence equations. We classify them (see Fig. 3.1) as the core variables because noun and verb (N + V) pairs are the central spark-producing elements of English sentences. We also consider pronouns (Xs) to be core variables...

In doing your job as a professional engineer, solving real-world engineering problems sometimes requires you to engage in creative, out-of-the-box thinking to invent new solutions or technologies. Yet invention is not always the best path for addressing engineering problems. In other cases, your education and applied experience already equip you wi...

This book presents the generative rules for formal written communication, in an engineering context, through the lens of mathematics. Aimed at engineering students headed for careers in industry and professionals needing a “just in time” writing resource, this pragmatic text covers all that engineers need to become successful workplace writers, and...

Part I Chapters 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_2 through 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_8 present the “grammar” of math-based writing that I call sentence algebra. In Part I, we will use the sentence algebra system to investigate sentences as if they were little message-carrying machines that can be modeled with functional equations. In these equations, up t...

No matter where you are from around the globe, if you’re an engineer, it’s almost certain that you can read, write, and speak about engineering content using numbers, symbols, and equations. For this reason, math can be thought of as a universal language among engineers. Is it possible to use this common-ground language of numbers, symbols, and equ...

Engineers write proposals to identify engineering opportunities and then obtain a charter to do and the resources to support an associated engineering project. Proposals generate technical work.

This chapter completes our discussion of the eight fundamental building blocks of English sentences or eight parts of speech. In Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_3, we examined N = nouns, V = verbs, and X = pronouns and the ways that these essential components pair together—either as Ns + V or Xs + V—to form spark-producing cores of sentences. Along...

The engineering writer’s first order of business regarding sentence-level quality control is to make certain that every sentence is concise and clear. This book calls the process simplify and clarify. This chapter reviews four specific techniques for eliminating words and phrasing that unnecessarily complicate and obfuscate a sentence’s intended me...

Chapters 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_2–10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_6 have examined the sentence algebra fundamentals. Chapters 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_3 and 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_4 presented the eight functional roles that words and word groups can play in a sentence, that is, the eight parts of speech and the algebraic variables associated with...

The 4th basic sentence formula (B4) embodies a standard subject-noun-plus-verb “spark” plus two instances of flow. Like basic sentence B2, the main verb transfers action directly onto a noun object (No) in the predicate (stage one flow). Yet with B4, there is a second line of flow that extends “spark” further (stage two flow). This transfer goes fr...

Engineering projects often begin with the engineer writing a project proposal to gain funding and authorization (see Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_15) and end with the engineer preparing a final project report (see Chap. 10.1007/978-3-030-10756-7_17). While a project is “in progress,” if you are the project engineer, you will most likely need to...

In industry, people get paid to do things, not know things. College grade point averages are superseded by employee performance reviews as metrics for success. The essential workplace document that supports skill training or teaching an employee how to do something (typically an assigned job task) is called a skill-transfer document. The term “skil...

The fourth and final set of sentence optimization techniques address the Category II errors. These are shown in Fig. 13.1 as OFIs #15 through #20. While Category II errors do impair sentence quality, they typically do not violate basic grammar and punctuation rules. As a result, and because of their tendency to be less interruptive to readers than...