TRANSLATING ENGINEERING INTO ENGLISH Tricia Spayer
2015
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This is what I consider the gist of my job I need to take complex material and translate into something regular people can understand
Sometimes given material to put into documentation
Translating Engineering into English 2
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Most times I write my own material, but sometimes I’m given some information I can add to our documentation Sometimes even I can’t understand it If I can’t understand it, how is our customer going to understand it? I’m also an engineer so I’m qualified to make fun of myself
Speak their language
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Your audience doesn’t care about all the cool features that you’ve designed. User wants to get in, do the task, and get out. Write like you speak This is also true in TM
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including this information so the rest of the slides make a little sense We make computers with software that talk to camera modules Systems take picture of every part Bad parts are blown off the line
Cleaning must begin with an assessment of the nature of the
contaminate, mitigated by the type of surface to be cleaned.
Cleaning involves a sequence of operations which may include all of the following, or optionally, steps may be omitted if considered superfluous based upon the initial assessment:
Dusting to remove particulate accumulation by means of compressed gas, or wiping with soft cloth or a soft bristle brush.
Flushing with aromatic, aliphatic, or aqueous solvents to remove soluble adherents.
Scouring with an aqueous slurry of precipitated chalk or other mild abrasive.
Washing with soft cloth and a solution consisting of 600 ml of deionized water, 400 ml isopropanol and 5 ml of a non-ionic detergent solution such as Joy.
Translating Engineering into English 5
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Don’t even try to read this – I’m going to dissect it for you. Just know it’s a wordy pile of pretentious prose. Our inspection modules contained specialized mirrors that take special care when cleaning We had to teach our customers how to clean them
… nature of the contaminate, mitigated ...
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Cleaning must begin with an assessment of the nature of the contaminate, mitigated by the type of surface to be cleaned This was the first sentence of that pile of…. Information I got I flagged some words that made it hard to read and understand Determine what needs to be cleaned
Duh.
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Determine what needs to be cleaned Of course you’re going to look at it & figure out what needs to be cleaned. Does that need to be written down? I don’t think so! Big fat delete!
...superfluous …
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Cleaning involves a sequence of operations which may include all of the following, or optionally, steps may be omitted if considered superfluous based upon the initial assessment This is just a big block of blowhard text. Who talks like this. Wow. Gee, you think so? Could I really omit superfluous steps if I consider them superfluous during my assessment?
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Clean the surface using one of the following methods:
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Clean the surface using one of the following methods: You don’t need to do the first, you don’t need to do them all. You just need to do at least one of them to get the crap off your mirrors!
...particulate accumulation …
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Dusting to remove particulate accumulation by means of compressed gas, or wiping with soft cloth or a soft bristle brush. This is one of the options – that could be considered superfluous. Actually not too out of the ball park. But still way too wordy. Remove particulate accumulation. How ‘bout DUST!
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Dust the surface using compressed gas, or wipe using a soft cloth or soft brush
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Dust the surface using compressed gas, or wipe using a soft cloth or soft brush
…aromatic, aliphatic, or aqueous … soluble adherents.
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Flushing with aromatic, aliphatic, or aqueous solvents to remove soluble adherents. I love this one. I had to not only break out my dictionary, but go online to a chemistry dictionary to decipher these. Aromatic: Toluene, Xylene, Benzene. You mean it smells good? Aliphatic: Methylene chloride, trichlorethane, methanol, isopropanol, ethanol, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone. Aqueous: Distilled water, deionized water.
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Flush the surface using isopropyl alcohol or distilled water.
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How about something the customer is actually going to understand? Or better yet, have on hand? Flush the surface using isopropyl alcohol or distilled water. These are items they MAY have on hand, or can at least run down to the nearest drug store to pick some up. Aliphatic – my eye
…aqueous slurry of precipitated chalk ...
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Scouring with an aqueous slurry of precipitated chalk or other mild abrasive. My personal favorite. Again. Had to break out the dictionary and chemical dictionary. Aqueous – watered down. Slurry - thin mud, thin, liquid cement. Precipitated chalk – watered down calcium carbonate – used in toothpaste. Scour the surface using a mild abrasive such as precipitated chalk.
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Scour the surface using a mild abrasive such as watered-down toothpaste.
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OK, the customer probably isn’t going to bring in toothpaste to clean his mirrors, but this is how this sentence translated into English. I may need to translate it even more into something he’s going to have on hand
600 ml … 400 ml … 5 ml…
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Washing with soft cloth and a solution consisting of 600 ml of deionized water, 400 ml isopropanol and 5 ml of a non-ionic detergent solution such as Joy. Really? What maintenance guy is going to break out a beaker and measure 600ml of deionized water. No one I know. Wash the surface with a mild solution of deionized water, isopropyl alcohol, and dishwashing liquid.
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Wash the surface with a mild solution of deionized water, isopropyl alcohol, and dishwashing liquid.
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Who cares what the mixture is? You’re just cleaning it for heavens sake! Not making a bomb! I hope. Wash the surface with a mild solution of deionized water, isopropyl alcohol, and dishwashing liquid.
To clean glass surfaces: Blow off dust with canned, compressed air Use a clean non-abrasive cloth dampened with lens cleaning solution If surface has compound on it, first clean with alcohol, then with lens cleaning solution
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After talking to all our engineers & finding out how we really cleaned these mirrors out in the field, I used items that the customer really might have on hand. Most importantly, he should be able to understand this.
