The Four C’s

The Construction Specifications Institute recently announced the publication of the 3^rd edition of its Project Delivery Practice Guide. Its advent prompted me to again consider the reasons why the precepts espoused by CSI offer practical solutions to the problem of ensuring successful construction project outcomes. One such solution is its now classic “Four C’s” mnemonic, which is emblematic of CSI’s principled approach to effective construction communications. 

The Four C’s encourage specification writers to assemble Project Manuals so they are:

• Clear: Grammar is proper and uses simple sentence construction to avoid ambiguity.
• Concise: Unnecessary words are avoided, but not at the expense of clarity, correctness, or completeness.
• Correct: Information is accurate and precise, employing carefully selected words that convey exact meanings.
• Complete: All important, necessary information is present.

There are other C’s we could add to this list (“Consistent” and “Coordinated” immediately come to mind) but CSI’s choice of its four C’s provides a particularly useful set with broad applications in all forms of construction communications.

The escalating complexity of even relatively modest building projects presents serious challenges to everyone involved in the construction industry. Increasingly, it strains the ability of project teams to capably do their jobs. The four C’s help offset this complexity by cultivating writing skills that emphasize impact, effectiveness, and economy of means. A direct correlation between efficient communications and the mounting complexity of projects is necessary if we hope to keep up with the exponential pace of change we see around us.

Successful construction processes have always relied upon good communications among all participants in the project delivery process. What has changed over the years are the means of communication (now thoroughly dependent upon modes that facilitate sharing and manipulation of information across a variety of electronic platforms), the speed demanded of that communication, and the increase in the number of issues we must consider on every project.

CSI’s authoritative promotion of its now widely-accepted documentation standards—MasterFormat, Uniformat, OmniClass, and GreenFormat among them—has certainly proven invaluable by providing accepted frameworks within which to organize an explosion in construction-related information. That said, CSI’s steadfast upholding of four simple writing principles has also been instrumental in the development of an industry culture that values information management and the education of project teams to improve facility performance.

Unfortunately, studies suggest young people entering the workforce today demonstrate relatively weak literacy skills despite high levels of educational attainment. Technical writing proficiency —the ability to convey written information in a focused, easy-to-understand, audience-based manner free of errors—is increasingly a lost art. The shorthand of social media writing has not helped, nor has a corresponding decline in the application of rule-governed, ordered, and logical grammar.

Those new to the construction industry need to recognize how important the ability to write well can be to their future professional prospects. If so inclined, they will find specification writing and construction information management to be sectors poised for significant growth. Specifiers are and will continue to be the indispensable managers of a project’s DNA—the information essential to its successful realization. The importance of clear, concise, correct, and complete communications has never been more evident than it is today.