TECHNICAL ENGLISH

The table below indicates some good and poor choices for words and terms to use in technical papers.

 

Table 2: Technical Words and Phrases

Good	Bad
calculated	found,
measured	read
chose	optimized
parallax error	human error
damper	dampener (makes things wet)
resistor	resister (someone who resists)
build, calculate, write	create
shows	represent

 

Table 3: Plain English

Good	Bad
was	it became obvious that came in at representing

Generally bad phrases,

in order to be

needed to be ----> is

needed to be used

so as to

decided to be

can be located

found to have

found through

it was found that

implementation of

important

precise

exact

perfect

noted to be

involved

allowed for it

was found to be

was looked thorough ---> reviewed

along with - with

also

then

decided on - selected

found - measured, calculated

the wearing of

needed to