by Dennis Buirge
Various English subjects such as grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and syntax have always been my worst topics of study with little to no interest over decades. More learning regarding proper English usage has occurred during specification writing than any previous attempt. Of particular interest to preferred specification writing techniques is the sentence mood. Depending on which internet sites are reviewed, 4 major moods seem to be identified, (imperative, indicative, interrogative, and subjunctive) along with several minor moods (infinitive, declarative, exclamative, optative, and that one seeming to be so pervasive today … cursing).
The four major moods in alphabetical order are defined as follows:
- Imperative - to express a request or command, such as ‘paint the walls a white color’
- Indicative - to make a factual statement, such as ‘the architect designs the building’
- Interrogative - a question, generally initiating with the W words of who, what, where, when, why, and how, such as ‘who builds the building?’
- Subjunctive - to show a wish, doubt, or anything else contrary to fact or action that has not yet occurred, such as ‘the Owner requested the Contractor submit his payment application before the end of the month’.
According to the Project Resource Manual (PRM), only the indicative and imperative moods are referenced regarding proper specification writing. So what is the major difference and what does The Construction Specification Institute (CSI) recommend as the preferred specification writing mood(s)?
The older method, and one used by those who have not been trained via CSI philosophies, is the indicative mood. This method generally starts with a noun and then identifies the action, causing a longer sentence than the imperative mood. An example of the indicative mood would be, ‘The general contractor shall secure drywall with metal screws.’ This type sentence structure can cause unnecessary wordiness, repetitiveness, and monotony. The imperative mood on the other hand generally starts with a verb and then identifies the action. An example of the previous sentence in the imperative mood would be, ‘Secure drywall with metal screws.’ This type of sentence structure is concise, is readily understandable, and is the recommended mood by the PRM.
On occasion however, use of the indicative mood becomes mandatory and must be used in a project manual to clearly identify work scope responsibility, such as when identifying either a scope to the Owner or Contractor and during projects involving multiple prime contracts. The imperative mood cannot be used in those cases to clearly delineate accountability. This condition of using the indicative mood occurs primarily in Division 00 Documents and Division 01 Sections. One example is where some Owner’s may provide their own or certain temporary utilities and controls or require the Contractor to do so.
In another example, even using the indicative mood is not sufficient where using “Contractor shall” when more than one Contractor is under contract will lead to work scope ambiguity. If the scope is to be performed by a particular Contractor, then proper language could be “General Contractor shall”, which identifies the specific Contractor responsible for the action. In the case of temporary heating where multiple Contractors could be responsible at different times during construction, the specification should identify who and when, such as the “General Contractor” shall provide temporary heating until the building is fully enclosed, at which point scope responsibility transfers to the “Heating Contractor”. The indicative mood in these examples gives clear, complete, concise, and correct communication and is better than the imperative mood. In Divisions 02 through 49, use of the imperative mood is preferred, since particular work scopes and Contractors are generally defined via Division 01 specification Sections.
In summary, use the imperative mood as the standard method and the indicative mood when identifying scope by either the Owner or Contractor and with multiple prime contracts to clearly define scope responsibility for each Contractor.
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