The foreign language engineering writer - what makes a readable report?

Abstract

Writing in a foreign language brings its own set of complex difficulties, not least that the structure, notions and productive skills required by different genres are commonly often not understood by writers writing in their native languages. They have to be taught. The purpose of this exploratory research is to analyze some of the linguistic and organizational elements of a typical degree-level document (memo report) produced in one of the engineering programmes at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, UAE with a view to describing some salient features which contribute to its level of 'success' (readability) as judged by the subject teacher grading the document. Texts were analyzed according to specified linguistic features and use, style and organization. Successful application of these features was a factor in the response of the content teacher to the quality of the report. Recommendations are made as to how the readability of such documents might be improved by better preparing students to produce them, in particular by developing a better understanding of the relevant genre.