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Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

(OP)
For report writing, do any of you use past or present tense? For example, the analysis shows... or do you say...analysis has shown... OR does it even matter?

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

I'm not sure if I'm correct but I always try to write is the first person, present tense. Many times I slip into third person or past tense and don't even realize it.

I would be interested in any other opinions as to which is the best for technical writing. Or just writing in general.

Regards,

ietech

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

I would go for:

"Research has shown", because you are discussing something that has happened in the past.

And:

"Figure 1 shows...", when you are refering to something within the report.

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Sure, "the thingy broke and we have no idea why"

TTFN

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Parallelism is all that matters.  Don't change tense in the middle of your report.

Also, first or third person doesn't really matter also, although first person is typically for narratives which an engineering report is not.  Whatever you do, do not use second person.  I see too many people use second person, especially for things like work instructions.

--Scott

For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Now I'm puzzled, what is parallelism, in this context? Consistency of point of view and narrative voice?

Cheers

Greg Locock

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Parallelism in terms of writing basically means consistency.  You see it most notably when during a list.

For example,
On Saturday, I went for groceries, had a baby, and spent the night at the hospital.

The non-parrallel example,
On Saturday, I went for groceries, then had a baby, and ended up having to spend all night at the hospital.

--Scott

For some pleasure reading, try FAQ731-376

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Interesting... I wonder how 1st person versus 3rd person affects the impact/credibility of the report in the eyes of the reader.

To me 1st person has always had more credibility as you can reasonably assume the individual who wrote whatever was an active participant while the 3rd person approach suggests the writer simply observed what others did or whatever happened.

Food for thought?

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

swertel,
Can you give us an example of second person?  This guy would not want to commit that heinous crime.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

ietech and kiwikid - I am pretty sure it is preferable to avoid "I" and "me" in a technical report if at all possible.

metman - example of 2nd person instructions.
First you check the oil level.
Then get in the car and buckle your seatbelt.
Make sure there is no-one behind you.
Put your car in reverse and back out of your garage.


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RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Traditionally scientific and engineering reports have been written in the impersonal, passive, third person: "Subsequently the rate of the spring was measured and found to be 34.5 +/- 1.0 N/mm".

However both at school and university I have been repeatedly told that first person active is acceptable: "I next measured the spring's rate, which was 34.5 +/- 1.0 N/mm".

Mostly I stick with third person passive, just from habit.

 

Cheers

Greg Locock

RE: Engineering Reports - Present or Past?????

Look at technical journals published by IEEE etc.  I can't recall ever seeing one written in the first person.

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