Hi Jerry,
Please include me dalero@cbpmail.net
I am putting together information for product reps
Thanks
Jerry,
Please include me as well.
gwbevier@earthlink.net
Thanks
Wayne:
I worked for an architectural engineering firm that used the format to be in their master specifications for over fifty years. I can attest that not once in all the years we used them was their a change order claim based on that format. Legitimate claims of misinformation must based on inconsistency, not propriety of format.
Throwing an isolated to be into the specifications is a mistake, but I see no problem in using different sentence formats for drawings and specifications. They are different media. If we were to insist on the Kings English in “texting” it would kill a legitimate media.
Richard,
Once upon a time in the Canadian West, Calgary AB to be exact, I worked on a new structured parking garage project that connected to the recently completed City Hall. Selective demo to make the connection at the ground floor city hall required removal of some interior precast concrete panels. The note said PRECAST TO BE REMOVED. The GC sucessfully argued that “to be” meant in the future by the firm “Others”. $25,000 later, the GC removed the precast concrete panels.
I see “to be” used mostly in selective demo drawing notations and agree, to my knowledge (since the parking garage project incedent), it has not be a problem. However, this single occurrence did create a NEAT moment for me. I think it is poor notation wording that should be avoided. I prefer “REMOVE PRECAST” to “PRECAST TO BE REMOVED”.
My original posting was intended to address the use of “to be” in drawing notations where it occurs most often. I did not mention specifications. I will not use “to be” in drawing notations and specs and avoid the use of “shall” or “shall be” in specifications where ever possible and always in drawing notations.
Wayne
If any of you would include me on the “cc” list I’d appreciate it. In my coatings/waterproofing seminars Specifications are a prime “target” (I deal with a lot of government agencies…where it’s a miracle if they get 1,2 and 3 etc. in order… and large corporations where everything is done “in house”) - jim@alohacsi.com
Good grief! How can texting be compared with contract documents? Texting will be the death of what remains of our language; if that’s the new standard, specifications will be a great source for the “Favorite typos” discussion.
Iaw r agrmt, ium us ic, yoyo, mst fin aeap. adbb
What you saying Willis?
Aw, Sheldon, don’t worry. It’s easy - our kids will teach us the shorthand. Besides, donec volutpat adipiscing risus, in luctus diam sodales id!
oddly enough, I wanted to take shorthand in highschool but my mother wouldn’t permit it – said I would be relegated to the secretarial pool if anyone knew I knew it. now there’s a whole other “shorthand” out there… and I still don’t know it.
It’s interesting how our perceptions have changed over the years. In high school my mom begged me to take typing, but I refused for the same reasons Ann’s mom gave, all because I wanted to be an Architect. Now what do I do? I type all day! Go figure!
Margaret:
I type all day and often late into the night too! I took a typing class in high school. I had to go to summer school to get the class. It’s OK for Real Men to type because now it’s known as keyboarding.
I once knew how to type, in the sense of being able to create a document from scratch, neatly laid out and with no “typos”.
What I do now, with the most frequent command being Ctrl/Z shouldn’t be misconstrued as typing.
deto (darn!)…dito (darn!)…ditto (whew!)
Ron, at least you didn’t do what I often do - make the exact same mistake 2 or 3 times. “Darn” is the least of what I mutter to myself when I do that…
Typing wasn’t offered in my high school, and my brother taught himself using a kit of sorts, which consisted of a keyboard chart on the wall and covers for all the keys. As I did with a lot of stuff my brother learned, I learned after he did. I still couldn’t type well because I didn’t have enough strength in my pinkies - but the keyboard now doesn’t need strength, so I’m doing OK.
I did, however, learn language in high school. English and French. French grammar taught me more about English grammar than English did. There are reasons we use the forms of words, tenses, and patterns we do and all the reasons boil down to communication. If we can’t make others understand what we want them to understand, the language isn’t working. I remember some confusion not too long ago with the meaning of “LOL”; some thought it meant “laugh out loud” and others thought it meant “lots of love”. There’s quite a difference in meaning there, and I imagine some embarrassing misunderstandings happened.
We do need rules to communicate, and everyone has to understand the same rules in the same way.
“…make the exact same mistake 2 or 3 times.”
If you make a non-correctable mistake, be sure to do it again…and preferably a third time.
Then it’s not a mistake - it’s a “Standard”. 
(Learned that one in my hobby/avocation as a musician - if you play a “clam” (wrong note) play it again quickly…and if you do it a third time it might be copied by others and become a well-know “hook”!)
LOL!
Jim,
That what they say in music! If you play a bad note, play the bad note two more times and call it “jazz”.