Nasa technical writing handbook

If the proposed effort requires access to or may generate national security classified information, the submitter will be required to comply with applicable Government security regulations.

Proposals should not contain national security classified material. All unsolicited proposals will receive equitable handling and, if eligible, peer review. Several evaluation techniques are regularly used within NASA. Some proposals are reviewed entirely in-house, others are evaluated by a combination of in-house personnel and selected external reviewers, while still others are subject to a full external peer review either by mail or through assembled panels.

Due regard for conflict of interest and protection of proposal information is always part of the process. The decision to fund or not fund an unsolicited proposal is made by the selecting official based on the recommendation of NASA technical personnel and also programmatic factors. Even if a proposal is meritorious, relevant and the costs are reasonable, the selecting official may choose not to support the proposed work for other reasons, such as programmatic priorities, limited budget, or because the work is redundant with an existing award.

NASA may support an award as outlined in the proposal budget, or may offer to fund only selected tasks, or all tasks for a shorter duration e.

Awards may be made contingent on acceptable revised versions of budgets, statements of work, data management plans, or other elements in the NASA Guidebook for Proposers. Whether an unsolicited proposal is selected or declined, NASA will notify in writing the proposer of the decision in a timely manner.

Whenever practicable, the evaluations that formed the basis of the decision, or a summary of those evaluations, will be provided to the proposer in writing. The vast majority of unsolicited proposals to NASA are declined. The bulk of rejections of unsolicited proposals are either due to relevance or cost. A notification letter, citing the reason s for rejection, will be sent to the individual who made the submission.

Proposers should make inquiries with the NASA official who signed the notification letter. If a proposal is accepted, any budget negotiation and making the award will be handled by the Center Grant Officer. The unsolicited proposal will be used as the basis for negotiation with the original submitter. Additional information specific to the award process certifications, cost and pricing data, facilities information, etc. Thus, if a proposal submitted by a university has a Government Co-I, the funds will not pass through the university, so the university or other institution that receives a grant should not include overhead or any other pass through charges on those funds.

However, the proposer should assume that funds for Co-Is who do not work for the Government will pass through the grant recipient and those charges may be applied. Regardless of whether a Co-I will be funded through a subaward via the proposing institution or funded directly by NASA, the budget for the proposal must include all funding requested from NASA for the proposed investigation so as to facilitate the review of the budget by the grant officer upon which the award is contingent.

The example questions appear below. Note that the questions provided below are samples only; actual questions may differ and proposer should answer those questions they are presented with within NSPIRES. You must choose one. You are strongly encouraged to link your objectives to NASA's strategic plan. You may enter up to 4, characters.

Please note: Before submitting an unsolicited proposal you should determine whether your proposal is within the scope of a current NASA opportunity. Enter more information, if required, in the technical section of your proposal.

Indicate all information and data that are subject to provisions of U. Be sure to describe clearly or highlight information and data that contain export-controlled material so they can be redacted, if necessary, prior to proposal review.

Evaluation VI. Award VIII. Introduction NASA encourages the submission of unique and innovative proposals that will further the Agency's mission. Eligibility a Applicant Eligibility Any category of organization or institution may submit an unsolicited proposal. To be eligible as an unsolicited proposal, a submission must: 1. Proposals for commercial items that are usually sold to the general public.

IV Proposal Form and Content a Format Proposers must adhere to the standard format described in the NASA Guidebook for Proposers , or a format described in a recent solicitation from the directorate or office for which the proposal is intended.

As applicable, include separate cost estimates for the following: salaries, wages, and fringe benefits for each employee; equipment; expendable materials and supplies; services; domestic and foreign travel; IT expenses; publication or page charges; consultants; contracts with budget breakdowns; sub-awards with budget breakdowns; other miscellaneous identifiable direct costs; and indirect costs.

Evaluation All unsolicited proposals will receive equitable handling and, if eligible, peer review. There is a trend in modern writing, particularly journalism, to omit articles. Langley has traditionally preferred this "elliptical style" for symbol lists, figure 1. Single- Figure 1. Effect of leak area on pressures, heating word adjectives and unit modifiers precede the noun rates, and temperatures in [the] cove and at [the] and adjective phrases and clauses follow it.

Unfortunately we sometimes forget rule 6. Restraint The annular suspension and pointing system for should be exercised in forming unnecessary space experiments is described. Note: that an adjective that is hyphenated in Authors and editors often have difficulty deciding when the dictionary is hyphenated as a predicate ad- and how to hyphenate these modifiers.

Bernstein jective IRS : The method is well-known. Poor 15 ft altitude It is only necessary to apply Misplaced equations 6 to 12 to compute Correct altitude of 15 ft D.

Of course, there are many instances other than those It is necessary to apply only listed above when a unit modifier may be hyphenated. Correct equations 6 to 12 to compute See Skillin et al.

The above guidelines are based on the hyphenation rules 1. She attempted to eliminate the need for subjective decisions concerning An adverb "squints" when it is not clear whether it the clarity of unit modifiers. Unfortunately, her rules do modifies the preceding or the following words: not always ensure clarity. It seems that authors and Although the operator eventually editors must subjectively decide whether or not a unit replaced the thermocouple, during Squinting modifier is clear and readable without a hyphen.

Although during that test, the 1. Adjectives can modify only nouns and pronouns. Grammatical errors Although the operator eventually sometimes occur when an adjective tries to modify a replaced the thermocouple, the Or verb: temperature measurements were inconsistent during that test. The balance was mounted internal Wrong to the model. In particular, do not place Note the position of the adverb internally in the above an adverb before or after an infinitive if in that position example.

The natural place for a single-word adverb is the adverb might appear to modify a word other than within the verb phrase. Although adverbial words and phrases can be He agreed to immediately recali- moved easily within a sentence, they can be misplaced Split brate the surface pressure instru- when their modification is not clear. Squinting brate the surface pressure instru- mentation on the wing.

Misplaced the whole wing. Such split infinitives are usually awkward. Prepositional phrases can function as Shock tests were conducted in adjectives, adverbs, or nouns. Either nitrogen and in oxygen.

When prepositions are used redundantly or unneces- Shock tests were conducted in a sarily, they should be deleted for the sake of brevity see Or mixture of oxygen and nitrogen. Tests were conducted not only in Not parallel 1. Choosing the right preposition to use in a particular Test were conducted not only in Correct construction is a matter of idiomatic usage, not nitrogen but also in oxygen. Therefore, when Of course, prepositions and articles can be repeated questions arise concerning prepositional idioms, for emphasis.

Some examples of prepositional Conjunctions are classified as coordinating, joining idioms follow: sentence elements of equal grammatical rank, and as analogous to correlation with subordinating, joining elements of unequal rank. They thus 1.

If deleting a terminal preposition results in and, not only Coordinate conjunctions can join words, phrases, and This is an intuitively difficult clauses. The elements that they join must be equal Awkward hypothesis with which to dis- grammatically.

A coordinate conjunction cannot join a agree. Pressures at the bulkhead, at the Bernstein provides an excellent discussion of Correct seal, and in the cove are shown. They are discussed in three treatment of the ducts and the categories: Correct ability of the compressor to force Adverbial conjunctions, which join adverbial flow both ways through the clauses to independent clauses: for example, be- system.

The biggest problem with these conjunctions is The microporcessor both controls deciding whether the dependent clause is restrictive or Correct the radiometer and formats the not in order that the sentence can be properly punctu- data. Aerodynamic forces were This duct serves either as an studied on a two-dimensional eductor exiting air to the atmos- Correct wing section to determine Better phere or as an inductor sucking air whether similar trends would be into the system.

It is often used Conjunctive adverbs can be used to join independent incorrectly to replace that, when, or a relative pro- clauses only. In contrast to coordinate conjunctions, noun: conjunctive adverbs have more modifying character This formulation is equivalent to and less connective force.

Skillin et al. The test procedure was to combine the samples The computation is adequate in a large vat, stir the mixture, and then withdraw Correct provided it is converged with samples for analysis.

Better provided that it is converged with respect to collocation order. Wrong points and only small differences The display aided the pilot to cope were found, that the results shown Wrong with the increased work load. Although the meaning of these two sentences is the He concluded that because checks same, changing the verb changes the verbal required by were made with collocation idiom: Either points and only small differences were found, the results shown The display aided the pilot in were converged.

Correct coping with the increased work load. Because he made checks with collocation points and found only Consult a usage reference for example, Skillin et al. Or small differences, he concluded to check for these idioms; the dictionary also that the results shown were offers an indication of idiomatic usage. An infinitive, gerund, or participle dangles when the agent of the action that it expresses is not clear. Given a variable factor, the fluctuating flow com- ponents can be calculated from equations 31 to Some authorities IRS ; Tichy and Fourdrinier Other idiomatic absolute participles are To predict the thrust and power coefficients of the propeller, the aerodynamic coefficients must generally speaking concerning be provided.

Considering regarding Judging beginning Rowland considers such gerund phrases acceptable because "they are employed so frequently in Such constructions must be truly absolute, with no technical writing that they may be said to be idiomatic. In the following sentence, The same can be said of introductory infinitive phrases.

Note that the verbs in the above sentences are Dangling accuracy of the calculation in passive voice, so that an unknown agent can be participle depending on pressure fluctua- supplied for the verbals' actions. When the verb is in tions. However these participles can sometimes be nent. Sometimes a participle at the end of a sentence is not Although Rowland justifies introductory adverbial absolute, but actually modifies the subject in a nonre- gerund and infinitive phrases because they are idio- strictive way: matic and clearly adverbial, he does not extend this Increasing the leak area caused the argument to participles.

He condemns dangling Nonrestr. Are dangling participles slovenly English? Or, like the dangling gerund, are they becoming idiomatic? However, these partici- 1.

They have no antecedent and none is predicate decreased heat transferred to the intended; that is, they are indefinite, for example, cove interior. Nominative absolutes have their own subjects and Gerund of equation 15 allows the terms modify the whole sentence: subject for the fluctuating modes to be Maraging steels are promising for rewritten. Dangling cryogenic service, having hardness participle 1.

When a participle genuinely appears to modify the Maraging steels are promising for wrong noun, truly dangling and thus much more Nom. Using a nonaligning pitot probe, 1. These "adverbial participles" may appear after When a nonaligning pitot tube is the verb or at the beginning of the sentence: used, the swirl component Better The logarithmic derivative is precludes exact measurement of Adverb.

The shock is essentially normal Dangling The logarithmic derivative is near the body, producing subsonic Gerund participle obtained by using this least flow. Near the body is an essentially Neglecting the dependence of n on Better normal shock producing subsonic Adverb. Reynolds number, the results of flow. Dangling Encouraged by these results, a new By neglecting the dependence of n participle research effort was begun. Gerund on Reynolds number, the results of Encouraged by these results, we phrase Better figure 11 can be used to estimate n.

Substituting equation 34 instead 1. Gerund instead of equation 14 , the terms Although no writing authorities now claim that phrase for the fluctuating modes can be adverbial participles and nonidiomatic absolute rewritten. The participles in these sentences understood. Forbidding their use is perhaps like clearly modify the verbs; thus their meaning is clear. These participial con- But participles are, by definition, adjectives, so that structions are certainly not grammatical, but they adverbial participles are not grammatical.

Also there are rarely misunderstood. In the following sentences, stronger not appear to modify the wrong noun, it is accept- constructions replace the participial phrases: able, but not encouraged. The logarithmic derivative is Prep. With the dependence of n on Prep. Effective Revenue Writing 2 Linton suggests Effective writing involves far more than following rules that the real subject of a sentence can be found by of grammar.

There is a craft to creating phrases, identifying the real action in the sentence; the subject is sentences, and paragraphs that ensure communication. In the first sample sentence, identify the action. Two revisions come to mind when indicate becomes the main verb: 2. Researchers write reports. Reports are Langley's research product. Which sounds best? The second revision, with an active verb close to its subject, is certainly easier to In all three types of sentences, the subject and verb are read.

Out of context, it is preferable. Context affects the the most important elements. Since the subject and choice of subject. For good transition from one sen- verb are the most important elements in a sentence, tence to another, the subject of a sentence should relate improving their relationship, clarifying the subject, or to the previous sentence. Now consider the second sample sentence, containing the indirect construction. The expletive there forces the 2. Indirect It is obvious that a blackbody laser The subject of a sentence should be expressed with is feasible as a space power system.

However, this clearly expressed topic of the feasible as a space power system. Rowland Better Lift coefficients for the two states that "expletives serve only to mark time until the configurations are compared in true grammatical subject appears. Fourdrinier's opinion, as well as in Rowland's, Poor The agreement between calculated indirect constructions can be ambiguous. Such idioms and experimental heating rates as "it is known" or "it is believed" indicate general was within 30 percent.

In most technical writing, these constructions refer to Poor Asymmetric throat area reduction the author's belief or knowledge. Better Throat area decreased asymmetri- Note the change in the subordinate clause of this cally between the upper and lower sentence.

Demonstrative pronouns this, these, that, or throats during reverse thrust those used as nouns with "broad reference" Ebbitt operation. Hedges not only weaken the verb, as they are meant cove. This resulted in increased to, but also imply indecision on the part of the author. Better The increasing mass flow rate in 2. However, Please do not insert stock abstract words such as result, Tichy and Fourdrinier list five situations when effect, or apparatus after every demonstrative pronoun.

Invigorating verbs will make writing more concise and easier to read. In our passive voice Verbal With reduced drag, Tichy and Fourdrinier also discuss Verb-derived With reduction of drag,.

Thus noun editors should watch for sentences that could appropri- 2. Or Increasing Reynolds number reduced the dependence of n on 2. The subject and verb should be the most important Passive The reduction in discharge elements of a sentence.

Too many modifiers, particu- coefficient is probably caused by larly between the subject and verb, can over-power an increase in back pressure. If modifiers are more interesting and active than the sentence itself subject-verb-object , the Active An increase in back pressure action of at least some modifiers should be transferred probably causes the reduction in either to the main verb or to a new sentence or inde- discharge coefficient. These gases are burned in a high- Better For nonessential loads, designers pressure combustor, and the can take advantage of voltage combustion products are ex- regulation, but for essential loads, panded through an axisymmetric they cannot.

Linking verb The velocity and density sensitivi- ties are both dependent on Mach When placed between the subject and verb, too many number.

A reader may not be able to recall the subject by the time Active The velocity and density sensitivi- the verb comes along. Adverbial modifiers can often be ties both depend on Mach number. Infinitive phrase: methods to reduce Logic dictates the use of parallelism, or coordination. This sentence calls for subordination, not coordination: Inverting a sentence drastically changes emphasis and When the compressor operates in the compres- often sounds artificial.

However, discrete locations such as in the cavity just be- logically parallel ideas are often not written in gram- hind the seal, at the bulkhead, and at the base of matically parallel structure. We realize that it is ungrammatical to place a verb 2. Effective Effective Revenue Writing 2 Linton lists four Revenue Writing 2 Linton condones this types of connectives requiring parallelism coordinate infraction as long as modification is clear.

Coordinate conjunctions probably provide the most opportunities to use parallelism. As discussed in Changing adjectives to adverbs often changes meaning. Coordinate clauses joined by a coordinate conjunction should be logically equal. For example, the voice of the verb might be syntactic consideration. To quote Tichy and kept the same: Fourdrinier , Acceptable The mixing noise is the dominant A major device for sentence emphasis is parallel component of the spectrum, but construction.

Equal thoughts demand expression the background noise peaks at a in the same grammatical form. Repetition of high frequency. An understanding of par- Correlative conjunctions demand strict parallelism: allelism is therefore essential for emphasis and Both elements of the correlative must be followed by coherence. When should sentence elements be parallel and how do Independent clauses joined by conjunctive adverbs or we make them so?

When two or more ideas are simply by a semicolon should also be logically coordi- logically equal, they should be made parallel by writing nate; however, grammatical parallelism is an option to them in the same grammatical structure. Minimizing the number As mentioned earlier, repetition of structure is effective of words to achieve brevity does not necessarily result in making long sentences easy to read. Itemization is in conciseness and may destroy the emphasis, the pace, another important device for making a sentence and perhaps the meaning of a passage.

However, containing several long parallel elements easy, perhaps wordiness seems to be a common fault of technical possible, to read.

Itemization can also be used to writing, and editors should delete unnecessary or emphasize the individual parallel elements. Itemization is a special form of parallelism. The introductory phrase or clause leading into the list 2. We suggest that writers and editors occasionally strength of the composite material.

Tichy and Fourdrinier classify strength of the composite material. Degradation of the strength are found to be in agree- Use agree of the composite material ment analyses were made Use analyze Better Continuous exposure resulted in make adjustments to Use adjust 1. The literature search is complete for years through in this Third Edition. The Catalog Machine learning of fault characteristics from rocket engine simulation data. Transformation of data into knowledge through conceptual induction has been the focus of our research described in this paper.

MLS can provide to its users fault analysis, characteristics, and conceptual descriptions of faults, and the relationships of attributes and sensors. All the results are critically important in identifying faults. This book is, in essence, sixteen years in the making.

First attempted to compile a history of the Soviet space program in author put together a rough chronology of the main events. A decade later, while living on a couch in a college friend's apartment, he began writing what would be a short history of the Soviet lunar landing program.

The first draft was sixty-nine pages long. Late the following year, he decided to expand the topic to handle all early Soviet piloted exploration programs The Pioneer Venus Orbiter: 11 years of data. A laboratory for atmospheres seminar talk. The Pioneer Venus Orbiter has been in operation since orbit insertion on December 4, For the past 11 years, it has been acquiring data in the salient features of the planet, its atmosphere, ionosphere, and interaction with the solar wind.

A few of the results of this mission are summarized and their contribution to our general understanding of the planet Venus is discussed.

Although Earth and Venus are often called twin planets, they are only superficially similar. Possessing no obvious Outgassing data, derived from tests at K C for 24 hours in a vacuum as per ASTM E , have been compiled for numerous materials for spacecraft use.

The various materials are compiled by likely usage and alphabetically. This two volume publication presents the proceedings of the third through sixth history symposia of the International Academy of Astronautics. Categories 1 and 2 will be found in volume 1 and the remainder in Various topics related to closed ecological systems are discussed. Space habitats, vegetative growth, photosynthesis, recycling, culture techniques, waste utilization bioreactors and controlled atmospheres on space stations are among the topics covered.

The mariner r project- volume 2- supplementary documentation. Trajectory dependent parameters are provided in earth-fixed launch site, launch vehicle navigation, and geographic polar coordinate systems. The time history of the trajectory parameters for the launch The papers discuss current research in the general field of inverse, semi-inverse, and direct design and optimization in engineering sciences. The rapid growth of this relatively new field is due to the availability of faster and larger computing machines.

Supporting research and advanced development. The actual content of quantum theoretical kinematics and mechanics. First, exact definitions are supplied for the terms: position, velocity, energy, etc. Canonically conjugated variables are determined simultaneously only with a characteristic uncertainty. This uncertainty is the intrinsic reason for the occurrence of statistical relations in quantum mechanics. Mathematical formulation is made possible by the Dirac-Jordan theory.

Beginning from the basic principles thus Control and augmentation of passive porosity through transpiration control. A device for controlling pressure loading of a member caused by a fluid moving past the member or the member moving through a fluid is presented.

The device consists of a porous skin mounted over the solid surface of the member and separated from the solid surface by a plenum. Fluid from an area exerting high pressure on the member may enter the plenum through the porous surface and exit into an area exerting a lower pressure on the member, thus, controlling pressure loading of the member.

Chapter 1 on grammar presents grammatical problems related to each part of speech. Chapter 2 on sentence structure concerns syntax, that is, effective arrangement of words, with emphasis on methods of revision to improve writing effectiveness. Chapter 3 addresses punctuation marks, presenting their function, situations when they are required or incorrect, and situations when they are appropriate but optional. Chapter 4 presents capitalization, which is mostly a matter of editorial style and preference rather than a matter of generally accepted rules.