"Details on" or "Details about"? Use in technical writing
I'm writing a technical text about the information in a report, dealing with telecommunication procedures.
I want to highlight that the information field I'm referring to doesn't provide any information about some details, which more specifically are some type of errors. To do so I'm using a negative form.
I'm unsure if I should say:
- "It seems the field doesn’t provide details neither on "Operation Errors" nor on "Reject causes", the report lists in its output."
or
- "It seems the field doesn’t provide details neither about "Operation Errors" nor about "Reject causes", the report lists in its output."
Thank you in advance
Neither is decently punctuated; neither is syntactically correct. From the beginning;
"It seems the field doesn't provide details neither. . . " needs a comma;
- "It seems the field doesn't provide details, neither. . ."
""Reject Errors" nor on "Reject causes" needs definite articles (because these are the specific ones appearing on the report):
- "..,neither on the "Operation Errors" nor on the "Reject causes"
".."Reject causes", listed on the report" either needs the comma removed or a "which are" added:
- ""Reject causes" listed on the report"
Or
- ""Reject causes" that are listed on the report"
Or
- ""Reject causes", which are listed on the report"
So, putting it all together:
- "It seems the field doesn't provide details, neither on the "Operation Errors" nor on the "Reject causes" that are listed on the report"
Now, as to your question: "on" works, and so does "about". Also, you might try "for". Or "of". It doesn't really matter.
But what I think you are getting at, rather than "details", is that the report doesn't show any "expansion of" the errors. That is, it shows the short, cryptic error or code, but not the longer associated "explanations of" those errors/codes. Right?
Oh, by the way, "Reject Causes" may be a column heading or field name over which you have no control, but in normal English this would be called "rejection reason(s)", "reason(s) to reject" or a "cause(s) for rejection".
An alternative to avoid the double-negative:
"It seems the field provides no details regarding "Operation Errors" nor "Reject Causes" listed in the output of the report."