Its better to ask a question and be a fool for 5 minutes than not to ask and be a fool for life

Nieman
Probably you are right.
Dieter

Has anyone else noticed the similarity in invective / lack of command of the English language between Charlie / Joseph from the Phillipines and the new Dave Anderson from the Vatican?

Ashraf

Going back to your original post, and ignoring the furore in between.

In simple construction terms, under English law a contract is an offer to do work, and an acceptance of the offer and agreement to pay an agreed sum for that work. The agreement should be made without duress on either part.

Generally the amount of work is described on a drawing (or series of drawings), the required quality is described in a specification (or series of specifications) and the amount of payment is set out in a Bill of Quantities.

The precedence of contract documents is usually set out in the contract itself. However the default precedence is I believe first the drawings, second the specification and third the BoQ.

A variation or varied works (I make no differentiation between them, although I have seen arguments elsewhere that these are different) is a change to the work shown on the drawings or to the quality specified. This may be an addition or omission of either quantity or quality and will require an instruction by the client and a change in the amount of payment such change to be valued in accordance with the rules set out in the contract.

Trust this sheds some light on your problem.

Hi Dave

thank you for advice. In some items you are simply wrong:
This is an international forum with people form different countries, with different cultures, mother tongues, and religions discussing areas of a common issue: Planning.
As project-oriented people we all experienced that a certain minimum of tolerance and politeness is required to take a project to a succesful end. This we continue here. No need to beat the other, but to exchange opinions, knowledge and experience.
English: This is an international forum where we use English as a commonly understood vehicle.
Basic questions: Since there is no examination to allow admittance we’ll have the complete scope of questions. This for me is much more helpful than a university discussion - it’s more practice.
Don’t discourage young people to ask their questions here!

Salvete
Dieter

Hi Dieter,

I completely agree with you; if people can’t ask for advice or seek answers to questions on this forum, what is the point of its existence? Quite often someone asking what appears, at first, to be a very basic question can trigger completely new trains of thought for people who believed themselves to be knowledgeable and experienced.

Hi Ashraf,

There is nothing much wrong with your English; you have always made yourself quite clear when you have asked for or given information. As we use the forum all of us will become better at what we do, simply because of the wealth of knowledge and experience available here. In the same way members who don’t have English as their first language will find their familiarity and expertise improving as they use both the language and the forum. I don’t know whether Dave was having a bad day, or whether he was making a subtle and rather obscure joke, as the post he made criticising yours is full of inaccuracies and poor English.

Hi Dave,

I don’t really think your criticism of Ashraf’s English is justified, considering the standard of your own. I have reproduced what you posted below:

Ashraf Alawady

Following things were noted down in your postings.

a)Your English spelling is very poor in all your postings which seems that you never bother about your English writings that what you have written. Please apply spell check before postings.

b)If you are in Contract Section, such mistakes are never acceptable in this Section. How do you work in such conditions in Contract and Claim Section, it is really questionable?

c) Last thing your questions are very preliminary on Contract.

What is Contract? What are variations?

This seems that you are learning here. Although it is not School for such basic questions so please try to avoid such basic question on the forum and find out solutions yourself rather than posting here and:

Better to do a contract management course.

I won’t bother telling you things like poor sentence construction, ending sentences with a preposition, instead I’ll rewrite it correctly.

Ashraf Alawady,

I have noted the following things in your postings.

a)     Your English spelling is very poor, which gives an appearance of carelessness in the things you have written. Perhaps you should apply a spell check to your writing before making a post;

b)     If you work in a Contracts Section, you should already understand that such mistakes are not acceptable. I seems questionable to me that you can work in such conditions;

c)     Finally, your questions on contracts, “What are Contracts?” and “What are variations?” are very basic.

This appears that you are using the forum to learn, even though it is not a school to supply answers to such elementary questions. Please try to avoid raising such basic questions on the forum; find the solutions yourself rather raising such posts here, or better still, do a contract management course.

Having rewritten it correctly, I’ll just say that I disagree with it completely, the forum is for the exchange of information, there is nothing saying that it has to be at any particular level.

Finally since you are based in the Vatican, I’ll leave you with a couple of Biblical quotes;

For the purpose of the forum:
Proverbs 9:9
Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning

For your comments on the use of English
Luke 6:41
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

Regards

Chris Oggham

Peace !!

Hi Ashraf,

This site will clarify all your doubts:

http://www.lawteacher.net/contract.htm

or u can join SCL - UAE (http://www.scl-uae.org)

President is Mr. Shanab, who was dean in Shams university of Cairo


Cheers,

Raviraj