Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 59 total)
  • Is my boss a pointless pedant or am I being overly sensitive?
  • Onzadog
    Free Member

    Just had a report handed back to me. There a few valid points he's made so I'm fine with that. However, the phrase "The carriageway is 7.5 metres wide." has been changed to "The carriageway measures 7.5 metres in width." Are they not both a clear and understandable statement of fact?

    I asked what the reason was behind that particular chage and all he could offer was because it was a technical report. He clearly didn't want to be pressed on the matter. Have I missed something or is he just "one of those bosses"?

    Edited for spelling (which spell check picks up on the real thing)

    carriegold
    Free Member

    well he might just be one of 'those' bosses but measures usually does not have a double 's' in the middle.

    You could point that out – but it may lead to a P45

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I always thought 'Carriageway' was one word with an 'e' in the middle?

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    thegreatape
    Free Member

    And carriageway has an e in it.

    finbar
    Free Member

    The carriageways is 7.5 metres wide.

    Surely?

    dmiller
    Free Member

    Measures implies a level of accuracy I suppose (we didn't just assume it, we measured it).

    To be honest though he sounds like a cock.

    GJP
    Free Member

    I would side with your boss on this one and given the limited context we have to go on his rationale sounds like a reasonable one.

    trail_rat
    Free Member

    The carriage ways is 7.5 metres wide

    makes no sense

    The carriagway meassures 7.5 metres in width

    technically better but spelling is shocking

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Well they are 'carriageways' not 'carriage ways' and also if you term them in plural it would be 'are' not 'is'.

    I don't think he is being overly pedantic.

    TandemJeremy
    Free Member

    His is better english and clearer IMO Carriageways (plural) is ( singular)

    Not important tho – he sounds like he is one who likes language to "sound professional"

    convert
    Full Member

    The carriage ways is 7.5 metres wide.

    That makes no sense – why two words? If it is "ways" you should be using "are" not "is". I'm a fine one to speak though!

    KennySenior
    Free Member

    Has he explained why he chaged it yet?

    akira
    Full Member

    The carriageway is 7.5 metres wide.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    My boss (and previous) change stuff that's equally inconsequential.

    Some folk need to change stuff so it's in their style…I've found myself having the same urge, and try to resist!

    tiger_roach
    Free Member

    Where is this carriageway?

    flatfish
    Free Member

    His is better english and clearer IMO

    How would you know TJ? You speak jock-anese.

    akira
    Full Member

    No idea why your bosss is change it……

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    Okay, can we overlook the spelling mistakes please? They were not there in the original. I know my spelling isn't great so I stick it all through the spell check. One of the reasons I prefer Firefox as a browser is that it checks stuff like this as I go. I'm much safer on STW when I post from home. 😉

    The suggestion that "measures" sounds like we did something is reasonable. Just wonder why the boss couldn't have said that.

    chewkw
    Free Member

    Your boss is better.

    You're fired.

    😆

    CaptainMainwaring
    Free Member

    If it has to go in a document where preciseness is required and people expect certain specific working his version is probably better

    mastiles_fanylion
    Free Member

    Just wonder why the boss couldn't have said that.

    Perhaps he felt uncomfortable with such a small change being questioned by one of his employees in an equal measure to how you feel about him telling you to change it in the first place.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    Guys, you might be missing the point of my post. I just wanted you guys to call him a few names and say he was being petty, or come up with a valid reason why his works better and then call him names for being too important to explain why his was better.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    If he's got a good reason for it and an explaination, I can use that to trigger me doing it differently next time. This place has a nasty habit of change for the sake of it.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Do you have any Bombers to hand? It'd settle the argument in your favour?

    BigJohn
    Full Member

    People who know how to manage their bosses often put a couple of clunky bits of writing in their reports just so the boss will have something to change.

    That way, everybody's happy.

    MarkDatz
    Free Member

    hes totaly a dik hes probibly jelus u shuld tel him to stop been a dik

    rkk01
    Free Member

    He's not (necessarily) being petty.

    Stating that a value has been surveyed, measured, reported, or analysed as x, y, or z gives a whole lot of additional meaning, without the use of a lot of extra words… it gives the reader confidence – it helps to convince a perhaps sceptical audience of the strength of your argument.

    Reviewing technical reports is the bane of my life. It seems to take grads about 5-10yrs before they learn to compose a good technical report.

    A technical report needs to be concise and precise. The least possible words should be used to convey the greatest possible meaning and with clarity.

    There should be no room for "reading between the lines" – that's the space were the lawyers make their money, because the meaning that you want to convey may not be the meaning that a reader takes from your writing – and that reader may not be your client it may be (and often is)a third party who might not appreciate, or care, about the brief that you were given…

    I am forever trying to convince other people that the quality of writing is as important as the quality of the science or engineering content in a report. The report is the shop window, it may be all that the client gets for a very substantial fee. If the spelling, grammar and construction is poor, the report will give the impression that the content is also poor – even if it is not…. and that's before we get to unintentional changes of meaning resulting from poor English….

    molgrips
    Free Member

    +1 for the above.

    Saying 'it measures X' says you went out and measured it, hopefully in an appropriate manner. Saying 'it is X' implies it's guaranteed to be X at all times. It could vary.

    You could've merely specced X and then are assuming it actually is X, for instance.

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    See, if there's a reason, I don't mind. I just think he sould have taken a moment to share that thinking with me.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    did you measure it?

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    I did measure it, it was 7.5 metres wide.

    tommid
    Free Member

    Sounds like all of the management at my place of work (don't mean to sound like some kind of 70's work shy union member).

    rkk01
    Free Member

    See, if there's a reason, I don't mind. I just think he sould have taken a moment to share that thinking with me

    Hmmm – a good boss would sit down and go through a report review and explain why they have changed or want you to change bits… that's the way that you learn, and the boss / organisation benefits from your increasing capability.

    BUT, some bosses are quite happy to maintain a differential between them and you. If they explain to you how to write a good report, you might soon end up doing it better than them: good for you, good for your clients, good for your organisation – and good for your boss if it enhances their team capabilities… but bad for a small minded boss who wants to keep you in you place.

    thebunk
    Full Member

    Post up the whole thing, before and after his changes, and we'll tell you who the better man is 😈

    Onzadog
    Free Member

    Like I said at the start, I can see the reason behind most of his changes and he's being doing these things over 20 years. This was my second one. I'm not going to claim to be better at it than him. I'm feeling like rkk01 has hit the nail on the head.

    He's also a consultant so possibly workjing extra hard right now to justify his position.

    BigDummy
    Free Member

    [chuckles at akira]

    As far as I'm concerned, those two constructions mean exactly the same thing. I'd use "it is Xm wide" but if it's a convention of technical writing in your discipline to use the other construction then I'd roll with that.

    Zulu-Eleven
    Free Member

    Lesson from a secretary I once knew – she'd always deliberately leave some "low hanging fruit" typo/phrase in something like that, just so the boss would notice it and be happy, if she didn't then he'd find something else that actually had nothing wrong with it, and it would end up with her having to do a load more work to rewrite it just so he'd proved his worth…

    konabunny
    Free Member

    I disagree with most of the above.

    "The carriageway is 7.5 wide" is clearer, shorter, in the active voice and in particular doesn't use "measures" to refer to the thing being measured instead of the thing doing the measuring which is OK English but a bit bizarre.

    Having said that, having written shitloads of reports in consistent style under pressure and having to teach some people that had real difficulty writing in sentences, I'd be tempted to say – just hang tight. Some stuff will make sense to you over time, and the other stuff is just style, some of which you can change when you call the shots on reports and some of which will be corporate style.

    Everyone who reads or writes for a living should read Orwell's classic essay Politics and the English Language: http://orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit

    I think the following rules will cover most cases:
    * Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
    * Never use a long word where a short one will do.
    * If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
    * Never use the passive where you can use the active.
    * Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
    * Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Never use a foreign phrase

    The carriageway measures 24' 7" wide.

    🙂

    rkk01
    Free Member

    As far as I'm concerned, those two constructions mean exactly the same thing.

    Possibly. To a critical audience, possibly not.

    "The carriageway is 7.5 metres wide."

    Is this established fact, opinion, estimate, conjecture, annecdotal??

    "The carriageway measures 7.5 metres in width."

    For one additional word this statement conveys a totally different meaning. The cynical / unconvinced reader will now want to seek out the appendices with the verifying survey / data / measurement that backs up the statement.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 59 total)

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