How do you write notes now?
Answer honestly — nobody is marking this:
- When you add a note to a drawing, do you think it in Portuguese first?
- Have you ever copied a note from an older set because you were not sure how to word a new one?
- Has a contractor ever done something different from what a note of yours intended?
The third question is the one this unit exists for.
Two versions of the same requirement
One of these is enforceable. The other is a suggestion.
Same intention, different instrument
| Version | What it actually does |
|---|---|
| The conductors need to be the right size — check the code table. | Describes a concern. Binds nobody. If the wrong size goes in, this sentence does not establish that anyone failed. |
| Conductors shall be sized per CEC Table 310.16 and protected in accordance with CEC Article 240. | Creates an obligation, names the standard, and is checkable against a specific table. If the wrong size goes in, this sentence is what proves it. |
The second is from your own Wooster Avenue set. Notice four things it does that the first does not:
- Names the thing, not the person. Conductors, not you or the electrician.
- Uses shall. Not need to be, not should, not will.
- Cites a specific authority. Not the code table — CEC Table 310.16.
- Covers a second requirement in the same breath without repeating the subject.
What spec English is for
A specification note is read by four different people, and it has to survive all of them:
- the contractor, who needs to know exactly what to build;
- the plan checker, who needs to confirm it meets code;
- the inspector, who checks the built work against it;
- and, if something goes wrong, whoever has to decide whose fault it was.
That last reader is why vagueness is expensive. A note that could mean two things will eventually be read the cheaper way.
The verbs that carry obligation
You will meet all of these in your own notes next lesson. Listen and repeat.
What do you already control?
Measurement, not teaching. Answer from what you know now.
Match each spec phrase to what it actually signals. Click the phrase, then its meaning.
Choose the version that would survive a plan check.
1. You need the contractor to confirm site conditions before building. Which note does that?
2. Which of these grants a choice rather than imposing a requirement?
3. Why does spec English usually avoid naming the contractor as the subject?
4. Which citation is enforceable?
Write three requirements
Your Day One marker for this unit. You will rewrite these in Lesson 8.
Task card
Your teacher describes three things, in plain speech. You write them as drawing notes.
Turn each spoken intention into a note you would be willing to put on a stamped set.
- “The electrician has to run the new circuit from the existing main panel, not a new one.”
- “Whatever equipment they use has to be proper listed equipment, and the city has to be able to inspect it.”
- “They need to leave enough space in front of the subpanel to open it and work on it.”
Write them by hand or type them. Keep them — they are compared directly against your Lesson 8 versions.
What was hardest?
- Which of the three was hardest to word, and why?
- Did you write any of them starting with The contractor…? What made that feel natural?
- In Portuguese, would you have used deverá in all three? Would that have been right in all three?
Before the next lesson
Homework. Open the electrical notes on your Wooster Avenue set — the sheet with the CEC citations. Do not study it. Just count how many sentences contain the word shall, and how many do not. Bring both numbers.