Let’s face it, engineers may not all be the best communicators. One of the (fine) engineers I work with has a difficult time forming coherent sentences before 09:00. We usually agree to postpone any project discussions until after then and a couple cups of coffee.
Translation device. Apparently
Take the difficulty of communicating with other engineers, or, heaven forbid, non-technical staff, in your own organization and culture, and then multiply that by several orders of magnitude to communicate with other organizations, across time zones, possibly in second languages. How can we employ some simple hacks to the structure of our language so it does not become a barrier?
Date Format
8/9/16.
What month is it? What day is it? Pretty obvious, right? 8th of September?
Well, it might be for someone in the U.S. who is not aware that other parts of the world may use the DD/MM/YY format, in place of the MM/DD/YY format Americans generally apply. Personally DD/MM/YY seems a little more logical, but that’s not the point. Folks communicating across oceans may not be aware what system is in use – the originator’s? Addressee’s? With international commerce, we have suppliers around the world, multiple collaborators, expat consultants – who wants to take the time to remind everyone what “the system is” when putting official dates on documents, drawings, etc?
A far easier and more explicit (that word may be used again) strategy is to use the following: 8 Sep 16. Capitalize SEP if you wish. As is the case for many systems/standards, this is followed by the U.S. Military, which has a global mission and a similar desire to avoid confusion in crunch time. It’s a simple, effective system – might as well make it your standard.
Contractions
Its really hard to remember if them’s the right contractions, and they can be a little colloquial, ain’t it so? Now imagine you are a non-native English speaker, trying to deal with a mass of contractions, many incorrectly applied. When writing to foreign clients, eliminate contractions. You do not need them; just spell it out. Now, make exceptions if you want to sound a little less formal when writing to someone for whom English is their primary language, because it’s a way to sound a little friendlier, right? But in general, make it easier for your audience – eliminate the contractions. Be explicit.
Pronouns
This is going to go one step deeper in “Newspeak”, and probably some English teacher will take me to task for this. Or that. Or it. Or those. However, if you want to make it more obvious what you are referring to, eliminate pronouns. Sure, you could probably figure out that “this” in a report is referring to the subject of the previous sentence. Let’s try.
The power plant efficiency is reduced due to lower cooling water flow and fouling in the condenser. That should be rectified during the next major outage.
Are we talking about the cooling water flow or the fouling? Or both? Probably both? Perhaps just the latter? Rather than pulling in our language specialist to interpret what it (the second sentence) grammatically should be referring to, just say what you want to say without pronouns – explicitly. So it might be viewed as repetitive – big deal. Our technical communications will not be candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Outside chance for the Newbery. The sentence is a success if the client understands what they are supposed to do. The condenser fouling should be rectified during the next major outage. Used a few more characters. Oh well.
Idioms
Avoiding these should be rather obvious but using them is second nature to us, and idioms slip into our communications unconsciously. Foreign clients are not going to get your obscure reference to Shaka. When the walls fell. Comedy ensures when one’s idioms aren’t quite the correct ones: an oft used phrase in our office appears to be “nip that in the butt”. For one I am not going to nip anything in the butt, secondly we should be hesitant to expect that of the client. My personal favorite idiom of my own construction is “burn that bridge when we come to it”, but that’s used deliberately and only for inside jokes. No, for international communications, let’s use dry, idiom-free language. Impress people with our depth of technical expertise, not our cool Cali or hillbilly jargon.
Metric System
Another strategy that should be obvious, but one that never ceases to amaze me when violated. When talking to international clients, speak their language. Why does someone describe length in feet, weight in pounds, for a foreign audience? Do they think that because our nation uses that ridiculous, contorted units system, somehow it can impressed on their target audience with enough repetition? Worse yet are series of calculations one presents in English (with Metric equivalents), thinking one is being rigorous. That demonstrates several things to the reader:
- We are so hidebound that you can only do the work in your “native” system, and have to convert later
- We are putting the numbers of importance to them as secondary
- We like wasting time and ink (physical or digital)
- We probably made some mistakes converting
Most all universities teach both systems, and a true engineer can flex between lbm, slugs, kilograms, and metric tons with ease. Well, relative ease – it’s been a while since I’ve had to pull out a slug. Every engineer should get an innate feel for moving between systems; I do this by knowing what one standard dimension is in either system.
1 bar = 14.5 psi = sort of an atmosphere = sort of a kg/cm2.
0 C = 273 K = 492 R = 32 F.
The other benefit of getting an innate feel for unit systems is for error checking – relying too much on conversion calculators without a bit of mental sanity checking can be hazardous. So, learn to speak all unit languages, and use the correct one only when addressing your audience.
Having said that, Convert.exe is a very tidy tool for your digital toolbox.
Real Name
Last tip is to start using your real name in written communications, if you are used to being called by a nickname. This became more of an issue after 11 SEP 01, when travel documents had to match. However, it still adds clarity to be consistent with your name. As a counterexample, I tried to open a bank account overseas using my real name (William), but also had documents using the contraction (Bill). There were a couple challenges with this configuration: one was that “Bill” meant “Car” in their language, and the other was that they did not use the letter W. Anyway. Although conversationally nicknames may be fine (we do not really care what people call us, so long as they call us), the (Bill/Katster/Skeeter) constructions are a touch less professional than the full names (William/Katherine/???). As I get older I hardly ever use my nickname in written communications anymore.
Summary
Use these tips and tools as you see fit. Even if you never step outside the U.S. or deal with foreign clients, some of these will still be useful. If you do, then many are essential. Be explicit on the side of repetitive and boring when in technical mode, and save the colorful language for our social lives.
Leave a Reply