Expert: Dan Smith - 7/3/2007

Question
Greetings.  I am a technical writer at a test lab which evaluates the compliance of equipment to required and applicable standards.  In cases where the perameters of a standard does not apply to a certain type of piece of equipment, we use the phrase: "The EUT (Equipment Under Test) is not applicable to the requirements of this section."  One of our customers disagrees with the structure of this sentence, saying it should properly read: "The requirements of this section are not applicable to the EUT."  My opinion is that because the standard is unchanging, and the design/capability/performance/etc of the equipment to evaluated within the context of the standard, that our common phrase is indeed correct.  What do you think?  Would it make more sense if it read "...is not applicable with the requirements..."?

Thanks!

Answer
Your customer is correct, and it's not even a close call. The standard is being applied to the product, not the product to the standard. Whether either changes is neither here nor there.

I have a couple of observations as well. Your use of "which" is the first sentence is incorrect. It should be "that." Which is correctly reserved for nonrestrictive clauses (See Garner, "A Dictionary of Modern American Usage," for the details (page 647) and pay attention especially to paragraph 2 in the entry.

It is never correct to use a slash (/) instead of a conjunction in a sentence. Also, use of "etc." is always a weak construction. Your sentence should read, "...and such characteristics as design, capability, and performance are being evaluated...."

Hope this helps.