Mechanics in Technical Writing

8/9/2019 Mechanics in Technical Writing

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MECHANICS IN TECHNICAL WRITINGBy

Dr. Estefania W. Kollin

Any form of writing uses tools (mechanics) to enhance the communicationprocess and facilitate the understanding of the message. These tools particular to

technical writing refers to the use of punctuation marks, abbreviation, numbers,

capitalization and symbols.

The guidelines in the use of these tools in technical writing are discussed and

illustrated here. These are generally followed by technical writers because these are

accepted by widely recognized authorities and may be used with confidence.

Period

1. A period is placed after a complete declarative or imperative sentence but not

after a phrase or an incomplete sentence.

Correct: The study was conducted to analyze the relationship of socio-cultural

and politico-economic factors with rubber technology adoption in

Pattani, Thailand.

Wrong: Rubber technology components.

1. Formulas of fertilizers.

2.

Rate of fertilizers.3. Treatment of brown blast.

2. Titles of papers, center headings, and subheadings, legends of tables unless

stated in sentence forms do not require terminal punctuations.

Comma

Uses of comma:

1.

To separate words, phrases, or clauses in series.

e.g. The criteria used were cropped area, crop yields, and water adequacy.


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2. To separate long clauses joined by and, but, or, for, yet, so although it is omitted

if the clauses are short.

e.g.Conversion of each day within the year into its equivalent Julian date was

made, and from this, week number was determined for each irrigation.

3. To separate introductory phrase or clause from the main clause.

e.g. 1. From the identified strengths and weaknesses of the current practices,

alternative strategies were formulated.

2. When the target changes course, radar detects the change.

4. To set off non-restrictive appositives, phrases and clauses in place of dashes and

parentheses.

e.g. 1. The local NIA-PIO, through a loan assistance amounting to P384,000.00,

carried out the general rehabilitation work for the system.

2. The system, CUSARICA CIS, was turned over to 185 farmer-members for

them to manage and maintain.

5. To separate coordinate but not cumulative adjectives.

e.g.1. The political, technical, economic and cultural reasons were clustered for

quantification.

2. The standard cultural pond management practices were observed.

6. To set off conjunctive adverb and transitional phrases.

e.g. 1. The respondents admitted, however, that their organization is not

financially capable to implement changes.

2. Moreover, results are expected to be disseminated to those in the fields

of agriculture, resource and food systems in general, and water

management in particular.


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Colon

Uses of colon:

1. Separate the sentence stem from supporting statements or examples.

e.g. The irrigators association elected the following officers: president,

secretary, treasurer, auditor and business manager.

2. Separate two independent clauses when the second closely relates to the first.

e.g. Feed mixing is a simple farm operation: it may be done mechanically or

manually. (The first word of the second clause may not be capitalized unless

it needs great emphasis otherwise, it might as well start a new sentence or

subordinated to the first clause).

Semi-colon

1. The semi-colon may replace coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, yet,

so) joining two independent clauses.

e.g. The mixture was taken; a portion was warmed to 29 C just before feeding.

Bottle-feeding is another alternative of feeding the milk replacer to piglets;

this method is laborious and time consuming.

2.

It is used before a coordinating conjunction joining two long independent clausesor before conjunctive adverbs like therefore, however, also, besides,

nevertheless, consequently, furthermore.

e.g. The average growth rate of pigs from 40 lbs to 150 lbs increased with the

increase in weaning weight; but the heavier pigs at weaning did not

indicate significantly better efficiency and average growth rate than the

lighter pigs.

e.g. The most abnormalities in swine, which may be transmitted to the

offspring, are hernia, atresia ani and cryptorchidism; therefore,identification and culling of the source is the only effective measure of

eradication.


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3. If items in a series have internal punctuations, a semi-colon is used to separate

them.

e.g. Do not vaccinate pigs which look unhealthy, are sick or weakened by

parasites, malnutrition and other factors; pigs recently exposed to

infection; and those less than six weeks.

Abbreviation

1. Abbreviation should be singular in form except Nos., Figs., Vols. that stands for

numbers, figures, and volumes, respectively.

Examples: 2 kilograms2 kg 5 yards5 yd

9 miles9 mi 8 kilometers8 km

7 meters7 m 12 inches12 in

2.

Small letters (lower case) are used in abbreviations except in proper nouns and

adjectives or capitalized words.

Examples: 4 sq m 8 ft 20 km

but: British thermal unitBtu

Philippine National BankPNB

CentigradeC

3. Common units of weight and measure are usually abbreviated when they follow

a numeral. Preferably, however, they are spelled out in the text.

Examples: 6 h 10 ft/s 50 cal

4 t 20 mg 12 g

4. The word number is abbreviated and capitalized only when it is followed by a

numeral.

Examples: No. 5 won. butThe winning number was 354.

5. Abbreviations do not end with a period unless it forms a word with a different

meaning.

Examples: lbpound but Fig. 8

kmkilometer No. 13


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6. Preferably, four letter words and less are not be abbreviated.

Examples: 1 day 0.5 mile 2 tons

7. Acronyms do not need spaces or periods in between letters.

Examples: CLSU CVSM CAg DepEd

8. When a word is used repeatedly, the accepted abbreviation should be used only

after it is spelled out.

Examples: The Human Resources Management Office (HRMO)

requested the president for the use of the Research,

Extension and Training (RET) amphitheater for a seminar

on Filipino values. The seminar was organized by the

HRMO for the benefit of the faculty and staff of the

University. The RET amphitheater is air-conditioned and

can accommodate 350 participants.

9. A title or designation may be abbreviated only when it is followed by a proper

name and initials.

Examples: Prof. I. V. Beltran

Pres. R. C. Undan

but Professor BeltranPresident Undan

Numbers

1. Write out all numbers ten and below. Exceptions are numbers used with

technical units; as indicators of percentage, money, time, date, page, table,

figure, proportion, and number in series.

Examples: one needle two cans three treatments

2.

Compound number adjectives have the first or the shorter number spelled out.

Examples: 6 three lined sheets two 8 stripe tigers

2 four colored ball pens 5 12 legged centipede


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but: six 5 month old pigs three 10-meter rows

3. A zero is placed before a decimal point when writing numbers without integers.

Examples: 0.75 0.05

4. Fractions are spelled out when used without technical units.

Examples: The evaluated three-fourths of the experimental plants.

Two-thirds of the class passed the examination.

but: The planting distance between seedlings must be m.

The test lasted for 2 days.

5. Preferably, no comma is used in four digit numbers.

Examples: 1243 5634 2800

but: 12,500 67,890 90,000

6. Numbers that begin sentences and round number estimates are always spelled

out.

Examples: Twenty-five students were qualified for the scholarship.

One hundred chicks were distributed equally in the four

treatments.

7.

Preferably, avoid starting a sentence with a numeral.

Examples: The scholarship was given to 25 qualified students.

Each of the four treatments used in the study had 25

chicks.

8. Round number estimates are spelled out always.

Examples: Almost one thousand applicants took the test for thescholarship.

About twenty types of insects were collected in the area.


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9. Writing two numerals in succession should be avoided otherwise spell out the

other.

Examples: The study identified 19 out of the 30 specimens on July 15.

On July 15, nineteen out of the 30 specimens were

identified.

10.Figures and words of extremely large numbers may be combined.

Examples: 23 millions 500 thousand 1 million

Capitalization

1. Always capitalize the first word in a sentence.

2.

Capitalize principal words in titles except when following a style guide that does

not require this like journal, magazine, and newspaper articles.

3. Capitalize nouns and adjectives, abbreviation of proper nouns and adjectives,

and words derived from proper nouns except when these have been already

considered common nouns because of their frequent use.

Examples: Fahrenheit scale Levis pants

Filipino citizen Philippine seas

Bulb of 50 watts Pasteurized milk

4. The first word after a colon is not capitalized if it is merely supplementing the

preceding group of words. Capitalize the word if the material following it is in

sentence form.

5. The first word of fragmentary quotation is not capitalized.

6. Words used to indicate direction preceding a proper noun is not capitalized but

capitalize a descriptive term denoting definite region, locality or geographic

feature.


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Symbols

1. Symbols are generally avoided in the text. However, they are justifiably used in

tables, diagrams and formula.

Examples: for inch # for number for foot / for per

x for by & for and

% for percent o for degree

Mechanics in Technical Writing

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