Engineering writing style

For academic writing, you need to get a balance between being too informal and being too formal.

Too Informal	Appropriate academic style	Too formal (forced formality)
Vague Emotional Chatty or personal 2-word verbs when there is a single alternative And/so/but after a full stop.	Precise Coherent Direct Concise Simple (Clear)	Excessive nominalisation Wordy phrases e.g. in view of the fact that ‘Showy’ phrases e.g. 'commence' rather than 'start' Distorted passive e.g. the measuring of the length was repeated three times.
See Bailey, S, 2003, Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. London: Routledge. P105-8	See Civil Engineering Writing Project (Portland State University)	See Beer, D and McMurrey, D, 1997, A Guide to Writing as an Engineer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. P18-24

Too Informal

Appropriate academic style

Too formal (forced formality)

Vague

Emotional

Chatty or personal

2-word verbs when there is a single alternative

And/so/but after a full stop.

Precise

Coherent

Direct

Concise

Simple (Clear)

Excessive nominalisation

Wordy phrases e.g. in view of the fact that

‘Showy’ phrases e.g. 'commence' rather than 'start'

Distorted passive e.g. the measuring of the length was repeated three times.

See Bailey, S, 2003, Academic Writing: A Handbook for International Students. London: Routledge. P105-8

See Beer, D and McMurrey, D, 1997, A Guide to Writing as an Engineer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. P18-24

This video gives an overview of engineering writing style. For more videos, see our You Tube Channel