Enter the Branches Start Date

Don't you hate those titles where you have to read three-quarters of a novel before the meaning becomes apparent. Well, I'll get to the bottom of my title straight away.

It is actually a classic piece of ambiguity that I came across while writing for a major engineering company. It is a fine example of why good technical writers are essential, as ambiguous instructions in many businesses could cost you money, or even lives.

This well-meaning engineer actually meant to convey ...

Enter the start-date of the Branch

... which is how we eventually rewrote it, minus any ambiguity.

It is not that engineers can't write good English. They are by necessity intelligent guys and gals, but they are not in the business of writing. They are usually under pressure to implement their particular piece of engineering, and most often we find that their manuals and instructions have been written hurriedly and very often in a multitude of styles, including everyday language, which mostly has no place in technical writing.

This is what happened here. This engineer wrote this instruction as it sounds. Unfortunately, in English spoken language, "branches" plural sounds exactly like "branch's" possessive. It's not as though the writer does not understand the difference: the instruction was written quickly and the words were conveyed as they sounded.

The reality is that the engineer's budget rarely allows for a quality edit of the written material. Consequently, we see this kind of ambiguity in manuals and procedures all the time. But this one is a classic, you must admit. In five short words it conveys totally the wrong meaning. Even if the writer had used the apostrophe, we class it as a no-no in technical writing. The positioning of the possessive apostrophe always causes confusion with people, even some of the most intelligent. It is easy to get it wrong, and if you are writing for those for whom English is a second language, or you are hoping to get your manuals translated, it is far better to avoid quote marks of all kinds, whether single ones or double ones.

What is wrong with "of the ...."? We are not in the business of writing novels. We write in language that can only be read one way, and at E-Writers we take our quality edits very seriously. Concise, well-written, unambiguous instructions can save you time and money, and if your business involves large machinery, it can even prevent injury and save lives.

Nick