Documentation is available

[JACEK1]

Hello everybody!

I am a little embarrassed to be asking such a childish question but It is better to make sure one gets the sentence right.

Here it is:

Documentation is available on request to the competent authorities. (= the competent authorities may gain access to the documentation on request).

What confuses me most is the order of the sentence.

It would be much easier to understand if it were written:

Documentation is available to the competent authorities on request.

What is your opinion?

 

[tedmc]

Why documentation and not documents?

 

[jutfrank]

I also prefer your word order.

Preference could possibly depend on context, though. Did you write this sentence yourself?

 

[JACEK1]

No, I didn't.

 

[GoesStation]

Documentation is available on request to the competent authorities. (= the competent authorities may gain access to the documentation on request).

You've misunderstood the sense of the sentence. It means you can get the documentation by contacting the authorities who are in charge of it.

This confusing locution was common many years ago. It has thankfully become rare.

 

[emsr2d2]

Changing the word order completely changes the meaning of the sentence.

 

[Tdol]

To get the meaning you want, you could say that documentation will be made available.

 

[jutfrank]

You've misunderstood the sense of the sentence. It means you can get the documentation by contacting the authorities who are in charge of it.

Ah, yes, I see. I misread the sentence too.

 

[JACEK1]

I looked "on request to" up on the Internet but there are no results. I don't think the structure is typically English.

Based on post #5, "on request to" means "on request directed to".

 

[GoesStation]

I looked "on request to" up on the Internet but there are no results. I don't think the structure is typically English.

The documents are available when requested from the appropriate authorities.

 

[GoesStation]

The documents are available when requested from the appropriate authorities.

That is, when a request is submitted to such authorities.

 

[tedmc]

The documents are available when requested from the appropriate authorities.

How about:

The documents are available upon request to the appropriate authorities

 

[GoesStation]

How about:

The documents are available upon request to the appropriate authorities

I wouldn't be shocked to see that, but I wouldn't be happy with it. It sounds like the documents could be available to those authorities. :-(

 

[tedmc]

I wouldn't be shocked to see that, but I wouldn't be happy with it. It sounds like the documents could be available to those authorities. :-(

The documents are available upon request made to the appropriate authorities.

Is this better?

 

[emsr2d2]

The documents are available from the appropriate authorities upon request.

 

[GoesStation]

The documents are available upon request made to the appropriate authorities.

Is this better?

Sorry, no.