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The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I don't know. I learned to write on a typewriter (I still contend that my single typing class in high school was the most critical in gaining a skill that I did not already have some aspect of that I would be using for the rest of my life) and therefore I still put TWO spaces after a period. Yes, I know that many environments, including Eng-Tips, will automatically reduce that to a single space, but I still type the two spaces anyway. Besides, if and when you edit one of these computer modified text files, you'll notice that the TWO spaces are still there so at least when I'm editing a post I still see what I'm comfortable with. BTW, I still think the two spaces looks better but I know that most people think that's an archaic usage.

John R. Baker, P.E.
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

(OP)
JohnRBaker,

I took typing in high school, never suspecting how important and useful this skill would be. I do two spaces at the end of my sentences. HTML browsers regard spaces, tabs and returns as whitespace, and they do with them whatever they damn well please.

LaTeX can be made to recognize periods that are not the end of sentences.

--
JHG

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Typing, yes. Two spaces, yes. And competent writing has been my most important asset in my working life. Technical ability will only take you so far if your writing lets you down.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I agree, and while no one will ever accuse me of being an English scholar, I do try to go out of my way to always compose a proper sentence using the correct verbiage. However, my biggest weakness is my ability to spell, or lack thereof. Thank God for spellcheck.

John R. Baker, P.E.
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I started putting two spaces in after a full stop to prevent the yelling from our secretary. In those days, engineers were allowed to type their own reports, but not allowed to submit them to the central archive. That password was held by designated secretaries. Their rules held.

Steve

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I concur with typing being one of the most useful classes from high school. I also had an English teacher midway through high school that was a very strict grammarian and hopefully still remember most of those lessons. In college I effectively minored in English Literature to avoid all of the -ology courses for electives, which I think also helps. Clearly the ability to write properly is a big asset in engineering.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Is it time yet for "the pen is mightier than the sword" joke?

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I found the wordprocessor was a revelation to my writing ability. I like to start my documents in the middle and rearrange many times. Starting at the beginning was a big block before I started using computers to write documents.

Steve

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I understand how word processing can make writing easier, I think it's also been a little detrimental for kids learning to write. Based upon my experience with my children (ages 20, 18 and 14), children are not being taught to make an outline before writing. As a result, I've read some papers that go all over the place because they were told to write first and edit later (which to my experience, never works too well with inexperienced writers). I felt that they should be taught that before they started writing their paper, they should had at least a basic outline so they knew what they wanted to write about. I'm not saying that the paper had to end up exactly like their original outline, but it at least gave them a framework to base their story, essay, or research paper. Having the outline gave the paper some structure, unlike those without that seemed to become an amorphous blob.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

The only reason to use 1 space instead of 2 is that it looks wonky? That's not a reason.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

No, the primary reason for using 1 space instead of 2 is simply this: the norm has changed. But I still use 2 spaces simply because it's a habit that I do without thinking.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Two spaces is what I learned too. One everywhere else. Maybe the one space thing is to conserve paper?

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)


RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Another example of the 'Law of Unintended Consequences' at work.

Of course, computers were supposed to reduce the consumption of paper. The irony is that prior to things like word processors and PC's on everyone's desk, the cost of producing a paper document was relatively high, but now it's cheap. Except for the cost of the paper itself, most all other aspects of the process have been reduced to where it costs almost nothing.

John R. Baker, P.E.
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

The one space thing is all to do with fixed width font (e.g. type writer keys) verses justified variable width fonts that most popular word processing fonts are. (There are monospaced fonts on word processors too but they are less popular with time).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monospaced_font

Posting guidelines FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm? (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: FAQ1088-1484: In layman terms, what is "engineering"?

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I have found some of the newer programs convert two spaces to a period with an auto cap on the next letter. But not Eng-tips of course.

Hydrae

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

A former classmate of my wife is an editor for the U.S. government. According to her, the Feds mandate 1 space to save paper, which, considering the amount they use, probably saves a bunch of money.


-5^2 = -25 winky smile

http://www.eng-tips.com/supportus.cfm

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

While I learned on a typewriter, I wound up doing a lot of docs in Ventura Publisher. In frequenting the VP forums, I learned a fair bit about writing.
Once word processors and publishing systems could parse the end of a sentence, they could space sentences without our "help" of using two spaces.
Since two spaces were not needed, I stopped using them.
There was also, of course, the elitist view that those using single spaces were somehow more knowledgeable than those using two spaces.

Jay Maechtlen
http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Government & save money, doesn't compute.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

"Those two words go to together like Military Intelligence." Thank you George Carlin (RIP)

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Joy of Teaching logic:
White space is good.
The use of double spaces after a period creates white space.
Therefore, using two spaces after a period is good.

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

(OP)
JohnRBaker,

Marilyn vos Savant is the person responsible for popularizing the Monty Hall problem.

--
JHG

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

I found this document which might help:

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

(OP)
JohnRBaker,

You forgot to eschew obfuscation.

--
JHG

RE: The Joys of Teaching Engineers to Write

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do...

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