TWR

Use Of English

· Petra

Parts of speech

  • Sentence structure
  • Guidelines for structuring ideas in a sentence
  • Active and passive voice
  • Concord
  • Punctuation

Technical writing is an aspect of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). In ESP, English is taught to suit the specific needs of diverse professions, occupations or activities. Now, technical writing is a form of writing that documents information about different specialties such as medical practice, computer and software engineering, technology, social science and so on. In technical writing, it is expected that appropriate register, vocabulary, voice, tense and rule of concord pertaining to the field under discourse be used. Areas to pay attention to in technical writing are discussed below.

PARTS OF SPEECH

To do any kind of writing, words are needed and these words are taken from the seven parts of speech namely:

  1. Nouns
  2. Verbs
  3. Adjective
  4. Adverb
  5. Pronoun
  6. Preposition
  7. Conjunction

SENTENCE STRUCTURE

  • A sentence is a group of words that makes a complete thought which conveys a question, statement or a command, having a subject and a predicate.
  • Mastering the art of constructing refined sentences is essential to a good technical writing. It helps a writer communicate his thoughts effectively. A sentence structure is, therefore,

A. How sentences are arranged grammatically to follow the subject-verb-object (SVO), subject-object-verb (SOV), verb-subject-object (VSO) and so on.

A subject is a person or thing that performs an action. Example: Jacquard invented a programmable loom.

An object is a person or thing that receives an action. Example: He destroyed the portable player.

B. The four types of sentences - simple, compound, complex, compound-complex

SIMPLE SENTENCE

  • A simple sentence contains an independent clause and presents one single idea.
  • A clause is a group of words which contains a subject and a finite verb.
  • When a clause is independent, it makes a complete meaning and is a complete sentence on its own.
  • When a clause is dependent, it does not make complete meaning and needs to be attached to an independent clause to express a complete thought. A dependent clause is also called a subordinate clause.

Examples of independent clause/simple sentences:

  • Computers store data.
  • The hard drive holds all of our data.
  • Our CPU is constantly taking instructions.

COMPOUND SENTENCE

  • A compound sentence has two independent clauses joined together using coordinating conjunctions such as and, nor, for, yet, so, therefore, but, or, nor.

Examples:

  • The hard drive holds all of our data and our CPU is constantly taking instructions.
  • Computers communicate using machine language like binary but humans communicate using human languages like English.
  • We need to make a copy of our program in RAM so our CPU can process it.
  • A fitness tracker is a standalone device but it can also be a peripheral to your smartphone.

COMPLEX SENTENCES

  • A complex sentence contains one independent clause and one or more dependent or subordinate clauses.
  • When a clause is dependent, it does not make complete meaning and needs to be attached to an independent clause to express a complete thought.
  • A dependent clause is joined to an independent clause using subordinating conjunctions such as while, until, before, because, unless, if, although etc. Examples:
  • Some mobile devices are general purpose computing devices like tablets or smartphones while other mobile devices are optimized to perform a specific set of tasks like e-readers and smart watches.
  • Even though they are small, some mobile devices use peripherals such as bluetooth headphones.
  • Unless they are within their safe operating temperature range, don’t charge or discharge rechargeable batteries because batteries can swell, rupture and sometimes even catch fire.

GUIDELINES FOR A SUCCESSFUL TECHNICAL WRITING

  • Know your intended audience and plan ahead.
  • While a simple sentence can be effective for presenting your topic sentence in a paragraph, using a varied sentence structure is better than having strings of simple sentences. This is to avoid repetitive patterns.
  • Compound sentences join ideas that are related or have equal importance.
  • Do not overuse long sentences. This may cause your readers to lose track of main ideas.
  • Use clear words that are not ambiguous.
  • Be brief - only include relevant details.
  • Use more of active voice.

ACTIVE VOICE

  • Voice is the form of the verb that shows when a grammatical subject is the doer of an action or the receiver of an action. In the English language, we have the active and the passive voice.
  • ACTIVE VOICE: Here, the subject performs the action expressed by the verb. In technical writing, it is advisable to use more of active voice so it becomes clear who/what is carrying out an action or who invented what. Using the active voice emphasizes the agent of action.

Examples:

  • Charles Babbage invented computer.
  • I designed the website.

PASSIVE VOICE

  • The subject receives the action depicted by the verb and it is formed by using the auxiliary verb ‘to be’ + past participle of the main verb.
  • Passive voice is used to avoid repetition or when the actor of an action is not known, or when the writer wants to hide the agent of an action.

Examples:

  • Computers were invented (by Charles Babbage).
  • The website was designed (by me).

CONCORD

  • Concord means agreement.
  • In grammar, there are rules guiding the usage of certain words. As a writer, knowledge of these rules helps in communicating your ideas clearer.

Some of the rules are:

  1. Subject and verb agreement
  • A singular subject goes with a singular verb Example: The motherboard holds our computer together.
  • Plural subjects go with plural verbs

Example:

  • The motherboard and RAM are components of the CPU.
  1. Proximity concord
  • In a list of nouns or pronouns, the choice of verb is determined by the noun or pronoun closest to it.

Examples:

  • Either John or I am to be held responsible for the launching of the product.
  • The manager or the engineer is coming for the event.
  1. Accompaniment concord
  • When any of these words are used, alongside, together with, in collaboration with, including, with, as well as and so on, the verb is determined by the subject that comes before these accompaniment markers.

Examples:

  • The mouse together with the keyboard is spoilt.
  • The men as well as the engineer are at the site.
  1. Notional concord
  • This refers to agreement of verbs with collective nouns based on meaning rather than grammatical form.
  • The context determines if the verb would be singular or plural.

Example:

  • The committee decide who stays.
  • The committee meets every Thursday.
  • The police are here.
  • The police is your friend.

PUNCTUATION

  • End every sentence with a full stop, question mark or exclamation as is fit.
  • Capitalize the first letter of the first word in a sentence.
  • Capitalize people’s names: James, Rebecca
  • Days of the week: Monday, Sunday
  • Months of the year: July, June, March
  • Public holidays: Christmas, Easter, Sallah
  • Nationalities: Spanish, Nigerian
  • Languages: Igbo, German
  • Geographical locations: Mount Everest, The Mediterranean Sea
  • Company names: Apple, Microsoft
  • Religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
  • First letter of the content words in titles of books: The Guardian Newspaper, Shakespeare