Your two numbers
Report the counts you brought. Then, before reading anything: what do you think the sentences without shall have in common with each other?
The notes, in full
Verbatim from your Wooster Avenue electrical sheet. Read for grammar, not for electricity.
Electrical notes
Electrical power shall be supplied from the existing 200A main electrical service panel. All work shall comply with the current edition of the California Electrical Code, applicable local amendments, and requirements of the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ).
Provide and install a 50A, 2-pole circuit breaker in the existing service panel to supply a 50A, main lug only (MLO) subpanel located in the backyard, within sight of the sauna unit, in accordance with CEC Articles 215 and 225.
Conductors shall be sized per CEC Table 310.16 and protected in accordance with CEC Article 240.
Conduit installation shall comply with CEC Chapter 3 (including Articles 300 and 352), including proper support, protection from physical damage, and burial depth where applicable per CEC Table 300.5.
All equipment shall be listed and labeled and installed in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions per CEC 110.3(B). All work shall be subject to inspection and approval by the AHJ.
Provide a disconnecting means for the sauna equipment in accordance with CEC 422.31(B), located within sight and readily accessible.
Sort every sentence into one of two boxes. There are only two, and between them they account for the whole sheet:
A · Declarative obligation
Starts with the thing. States what must be true of it.
Conductors shall be sized per…
B · Imperative instruction
Starts with the verb. Tells someone to do something.
Provide and install a 50A, 2-pole circuit breaker…
Both are correct spec English. They are not interchangeable, and the choice is not stylistic — see Phase 03.
Which register, and when
The choice is not stylistic
| Use | When you are… | From your sheet |
|---|---|---|
| Declarative X shall be… | Setting a performance requirement — how something must end up, regardless of how they get there | Conductors shall be sized per CEC Table 310.16. |
| Imperative Provide / Install… | Directing a specific action or item — this exact thing, in this exact place | Provide a disconnecting means… located within sight. |
The test. If a contractor could satisfy you several different ways and you do not care which — declarative. If you need one specific thing to appear — imperative.
Mixing them up is not a grammar error, it is a scope error. “Provide 3/0 copper conductors” forecloses a legitimate cheaper solution the code would allow. “Conductors shall be sized per Table 310.16” lets the contractor size them correctly and puts the risk on them.
Pointing at authority
Four ways your own notes cite a standard. They are not identical.
Read the notes closely
All answers are in the text in Phase 02.
1. Why does the power note say the current edition of the California Electrical Code rather than naming a year?
2. The breaker note says the subpanel must be within sight of the sauna unit. In code language, this means:
3. What does listed and labeled require of the equipment?
4. Which sentence puts the risk of getting it wrong most clearly on the contractor?
Match each sentence opening to its register and job.
Explain your own sheet
Task card
Your teacher is a junior designer who has never written a spec note
Talk them through your electrical notes, explaining why each sentence is worded the way it is.
- For each sentence: which register, and why that one?
- Point out one place where the other register would have been a mistake, and say what the mistake would have cost.
- They will ask “why not just say it simply?” — have an answer ready.
The sentences you could not justify
Any sentence you could not explain is one you inherited rather than authored. That is normal and not a failing — but list them now. They are the ones to test hardest in Lesson 6.
Before the next lesson
Homework. Find one note anywhere in your sets that you think is weaker than it should be — one you suspect a contractor could argue their way around. Do not fix it yet. Bring it.