English Can Be Fun--Sometimes! [Essay]

How often have you started reading a report, a paper, or a set of instructions and wondered what the writer was trying to convey? Unfortunately, it is a too-frequent occurance. We have too often read reports and other materials written by engineers, dealing with new products (test reports, user instructions) that were not readily understandable. User instructions often are of that nature, especially if the product is developed in a non-English-speaking country. Because of the many nuances in the English language, along with homonyms and synonyms, the user instructions can become totally unreadable (or not understandable). Figure 1 is one example of user instructions that are totally incomprehensive to the reader. It isn't clear as to the product use, much less the procedure of loading whatever it is.