Banned Words¶
The following words are inappropriate for usage in the Capstone Design course - both spoken in meetings/discussions, as well as written in reports and presentations. Although they are legitimate English words, and appropriate in other professional environments, experience shows that students use them improperly in Engineering Communication settings. These are trigger words because they passively suggest that the speaker is not confident in their work and/or are trying to avoid presenting quantifiable, achievable, or technically accurate information. Combinations are usually worse: optimal efficiency, theoretically robust...
The following table includes a list of words which are not appropriate for PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING communication and preferred alternatives.
| Trigger Word or Phrase | Best Use | Triggering because | Better to Say |
| Approximately | * Informal Discussions * Non-Technical Public Presentations |
* Commonly used to avoid commitment / responsibility * Conveys lack of confidence / ignorance |
In professional engineering communication, use of technical requirement and specifications is appropriate and preferred. In instances where the actual value is not known, say "…according to the requirements." |
| Exactly / Perfectly | |||
| Expensive / Cheap | |||
| Ideally / Theoretically | |||
| I Think / With Luck / We Hope | |||
| Robust | * Business * Sales |
* Lacks technical specification * Not quantifiable |
In Engineering, products are designed to achieve customer needs by meeting the engineering requirements. Engineers should reference the requirements rather than the customer needs. Marketers will often speak of the performance specifications of the actual product. |
| User-Friendly | |||
| Efficient / Optimal (Optimize) |
