The detail
Describe the detail you brought in thirty seconds — what it is, where it goes, and what could go wrong with it if nobody specified anything at all. That last part tells you what your notes have to cover.
What a portfolio spec has to do
Assessment criteria
| Criterion | What it means | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Enforceability | Correct modal throughout; every requirement binds someone | 30% |
| Structure | Right register per note; agentless where it should be; actor named where a duty is assigned | 25% |
| Authority | Every requirement cites something a reader can locate in one step | 25% |
| Coverage | The conditions actually on this site, not only the textbook case | 20% |
What is deliberately not assessed: elegance, variety, sentence length. Spec English is repetitive on purpose — reusing the identical phrase for the identical requirement is correct practice, not poor style. A reader who meets in accordance with six times reads faster, not slower.
Plan the note set, do not draft it
Before writing a single sentence, list on one sheet:
- Every component in the detail that could be got wrong
- For each: is it a performance requirement or a specific item?
- For each: what is the authority — code article, manufacturer document, or your own judgement?
- Any duty that has to be assigned to a named party (verification, notification, coordination)
- The site-specific condition that the textbook version would miss
The note set writes itself once this list is right. Skipping the list is what produces the silent gap.
Write the spec
Portfolio piece 6 of 10
Your detail, your project, written to go on the sheet
Produce the complete note set for the detail — the version you would actually issue.
- Six to ten notes. Fewer than six almost certainly means a gap; more than ten usually means you are specifying the contractor’s means and methods rather than your requirements.
- Run all five pre-flight checks before you call it done.
- Then read the whole set aloud. Notes that are hard to say aloud are usually notes that are doing two jobs at once.
Lesson 1, revisited
The three requirements you wrote before any of this was taught.
Put your Lesson 1 baseline next to what you have just written and answer:
- Which modal did you use in Lesson 1? Which do you use now?
- Did your Lesson 1 versions name a person as the subject? Do they need to?
- Would any of your Lesson 1 notes have survived the plan checker from Lesson 7?
Now rewrite all three Lesson 1 requirements properly. They take about ninety seconds each now. That difference is the unit.
A final check on the unit. Each sentence has one error.
1. All work will comply with the current edition of the California Electrical Code.
2. Equipment shall be installed according to the manufacturer instructions.
3. Conduit installation shall be complied with CEC Chapter 3.
4. The contractor should verify existing conditions on site.
5. Conductors may be sized per CEC Table 310.16.
Unit 6 complete
You can now: read specification language accurately, write it, and express obligation with enough precision that a plan checker, a contractor and a lawyer would all read your note the same way. That is the B2 can-do statement for this unit, and it is signed off.
You also found and corrected a real inconsistency in a set that was already stamped. That is the part worth remembering.
Next unit: code and compliance — setbacks, impervious surface, and proving to a planner with a table of numbers that your design is under the limit.
Homework before Unit 7. Bring the Silverwood Drive set — the one with the impervious surface tables. Find the existing total and the proposed total, and be ready to say both out loud.