Non-canonical grammar in Best Paper award winners in engineering

• Non-canonical grammar appears on average once every 902 words in the Best Papers corpus.
• This non-canonical written grammar is also reportedly found in oral communication.
• The predominance of non-native speakers in engineering may be responsible for this phenomenon.

Non-canonical (NC) grammar from a corpus of 14 Best Paper award winners in software and hardware engineering research published since 2006 in IEEE Transactions is presented and analyzed. Two independent raters, using a standard comprehensive grammar of English as a benchmark, identified the NC usage. Most (co)-authors in the corpus report themselves to be non-native speakers of English (NNSEs), but three of the 14 papers have a self-described native speaker of English as a co-author. The majority of the NC usage falls into patterns which match those reported in spoken English communication among NNSEs. The appearance of simplified grammar (e.g. dropping of articles, lack of concord in number marking between subject and predicate) in published research that has attained Best Paper status in engineering’s most prestigious journals may indicate that the gate-keeper role in engineering now reflects the predominance of non-native speakers in the field. Emailed and personal exchanges with editors and reviewers, and data about the international nature of the engineering industry, are presented to throw light on this phenomenon. The paper closes with advice, based on the corpus analysis and findings, for engineering researchers concerning manuscript preparation, as well as advice on pedagogy for teachers of engineering communication.