I am working on a project in which I am trying to use a "study" that was done by somebody else.
I put "study" in scare quotes because this book is practically useless. It has a bunch of verbage in the front but the bulk of it is about 100 pages of computer printout and a dozen graphic plates. Not only is the printout basically an incomprehensible wall of numbers but the graphic plates are impossible to read (labels plotted on top of one another, for example).
Look, people. Engineering reports by their very nature are difficult for lay people to understand. You have to make your writing clear, concise, and succinct. Your study is useless without tables listing the design parameters. Your printouts are worthless without summary sheets. And fer chrissake, your verbage should MAKE SOME FUCKING SENSE.
I had already decided that if this report had been sent out with my company logo on it, the author would have been fired, when I was reading through it looking for something and came across this sentence:
"Most of these problems can be eliminated by proper channel maintenance and have been exasperated by debris left from Hurricane Katrina."
I actually threw the book across the room at that point. Goddamnit so much.
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