Table Of ContentEffective
writing
for
Engineers,
Managers,
Scientists
Second Edition
H. J. Tichy
For over twenty years Effective Writ¬
ing for Engineers, Managers, Scien¬
tists has helped to make better
writing easier for professionals in
science, technology, and business.
Those in research, development,
production, marketing, economics,
finance, personnel, public relations,
and numerous other occupations
have recognized in Effective Writing
a classic source of instruction, ad¬
vice, and invaluable inspiration.
Because long experience in in¬
dustry and publishing has familiar¬
ized the authors with the writing
problems of the readers, Effective
Writing is not a dreary compilation
of rules but the cogent discussion of
the principles of writing and the
techniques of style needed by
writers on technical subjects.
Readers particularly like the discus¬
sions of how and why usage and
writing methods have changed—for
example, from the single word in
the avoidance of sexist language to
the order and contents of journal
articles and reports.
This expanded edition contains
many up-to-date examples illus¬
trating methods of beginning and
developing a wide variety of papers.
These interesting examples, partic¬
ularly helpful to those who have
trouble starting and continuing to
write, are taken from recent publi¬
cations in science and technology as
well as magazines and newspapers.
And to make Effective Writing a
comprehensive guide for those
working in a course or by them¬
selves to write more clearly briefly
and effectively, this edition includes:
words and phrases often misused
(nearly 100 pages)
documentation
punctuation
memorandums
minutes
style guides
news releases
employment resumes
(continued on back flap)
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Effective
Writing
Effective
Writing
For Engineers, Managers, Scientists
SECOND EDITION
H. J. Tichy
Professor Emerita
Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University
of New York
with
Sylvia Fourdrinier
Former Managing Editor, AIChE Journal and Symposium Series
WILEY
A Wiley-Interscience Publication
JOHN WILEY & SONS
New York / Chichester / Brisbane / Toronto / Singapore
Copyright © 1988 by H. J. Tichy
All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work
beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the
1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission
of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for
permission or further information should be addressed to
the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data:
Tichy, H. J. (Henrietta J.)
Effective writing for engineers, managers, scientists / H. J. Tichy
with Sylvia Fourdrinier.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
"A Wiley-Interscience publication.”
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-80708-7
1. English language—Rhetoric. 2. English language—Technical
English. 3. English language—Business English. 4. Technical
writing. 5. Business report writing. I. Fourdrinier, Sylvia.
II. Title.
PE1475.T53 1988 87-28576]
808'.0666—dcl9 CIP
Printed in the United States of America
10 987654321
Preface
One gratification of preparing the second edition of Effective Writing is
the opportunity to fulfill the wishes and needs expressed by readers of
the first edition. They telephoned and wrote from places too numerous
to list, but a few examples give a good idea of the range: Albuquerque,
Anchorage, Ashdod, Beirut, Berkeley, Brooklyn, Calcutta, Capetown,
Carbondale, Detroit, Dhahran, Dobbs Ferry, and so on, past Hursley
Park, Kirribilli, and Poughkeepsie to Yellowstone and Yokohama, Zion
and Zurich. Instructors and students wrote from community colleges,
four-year colleges, university graduate courses, and even from writing
classes for the members of the faculties of university departments of sci¬
ence and technology who were studying to improve the writing of their
students as well as their own. Readers learning alone also sent comments
and requests: a solitary forest worker teaching himself better ways of
writing reports, a supervisor training student nurses to improve para¬
graphs, a lawyer in a tower fifty stories above Fifth Avenue in Manhattan
who was working late to achieve briefer style, and an engineer on a tanker
in mid-Atlantic who was having trouble starting to write reports.
In spite of the variety of places and people, the comments and requests
are similar. "Examples, examples, and more examples,” is the cry from
readers who feared that in bringing the book up to date we might discard
some of the illustrative paragraphs. We are glad to answer the request
with a large number of illustrations of ways to begin, ways to develop
paragraphs, ways to organize. We culled these from a variety of sources
to offer many approaches, many styles, and many kinds of effective writ¬
ing with brief comments on each. Some of the examples are paragraphs
such as readers who study and apply the recommended principles may
hope to write soon themselves; others are illustrations of classic excel¬
lence to serve as inspiration. Many readers of the first edition confessed
that they had always been unwilling to read outside their own scientific
or technological fields and the daily paper, but that some of our examples
had led them to want to read more works by the same authors and to
enjoy magazines, books, and journals in fields other than their own. They
had discovered a main road to good writing—reading for enjoyment.
Writers in business, science, and technology who for all their working
years had been writing only letters, reports, and memorandums asked
for help with other forms that they are now being asked to write. We
added advice about the most frequent requests: minutes, news releases,
resumes, and style guides. Our own experience in large and small com¬
panies and in government convinced us that many writers there need the
new section on reports, which modernizes every phase from initial or¬
ganization to final selection of style. We also noted increased difficulties
with diction, as did our readers; and so we provided "Appendix B: Problem
Words and Phrases” to guide writers away from common errors as well
as from the old familiar mistakes.
Two specific problems of usage are treated in detail to meet reader
requests and our own sense of the prevailing needs. We are glad to see
that the formal style previously required in some company reports, in
journals, and in the theses of many graduate schools is now seldom used.
Thus writers are free to choose more natural styles that permit the active
voice and even, where appropriate, personal pronouns. To switch from
the impersonal passive voice to the active voice requires practice and a
knowledge of the appropriate uses of each, instruction which this edition
supplies. Many readers tell us that they face another new difficulty, avoid¬
ing sexism in language without breaking established rules or writing
awkwardly. We all share this problem and must search for the form that
will serve best in each instance. The available choices discussed here
should help writers to find appropriate ones and to avoid ineffective rep¬
etition, fads, and expressions that do not suit the writers’ styles. Patience
and constant vigilance are necessary, especially if the language grew in
social climates very different from those of the present.
Another change in this edition is the expanded discussion of fallacies
about writing. Well-meaning writers and editors accept and recommend
to others a growing number of these fallacies. From the ubiquitous "Never
begin a sentence with because (or whatever word the teacher detests)” to
"Punctuate the way you breathe,” these admonitions remain with stu¬
dents and are passed on long after everything else in the lower-school
course has been forgotten.
A large number of pleas for punctuation rules and advice about doc¬
umentation convinced us that many readers want everything in one book
that they can use as a reference book, carry between home and office,
study on trips, and, they tell us, read on vacation. Having added a com¬
prehensive section on punctuation and a representative selection of mod¬
ern documentation with examples, we hope that this edition will prove
to be as complete as necessary.
Finally, we have kept the techniques and material that readers es¬
pecially liked in the first edition, particularly the concentration on com¬
mon errors and weaknesses instead of a general study of every point of
grammar and rhetoric. "I couldn’t face memorizing rules and lists,” wrote
a reader who studies by herself. "I was lucky to be able to rely on your
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