Pre departure clearance issued to flight crew was misinterpreted and flight crew leveled off at 4;00...

Narrative:

Departing kdal 13L SWTSR3 rolls transition; we leveled at 4;000 feet. The clearance was written down by the PIC after being sent by pre departure clearance. Once I received our release; I copied the clearance he wrote on it.the pre departure clearance clearance was:SWTSR3 rolls J52 then as filed ATC instructionscleared SWTSR3 departure rolls trsn climb via SID exp 400 10 min aft dp; dpfrq see SID squawk: 2345The PIC stated after the event that he confused the exp for and accept and that to level at 4;000 [feet] initially.the departure controller asked us why we were level at 4;000 [feet] and I said that was our clearance. He told us to climb and said that we were to climb via the SID.I am not aware of any traffic conflicts. The flight continued normally.the pre departure clearance has contractions that; while standard; confused the PIC. Are the contractions absolutely necessary? Dal is a large airport and like most if not all has pre departure clearance capability. I should have backed up my PIC and reviewed the pre departure clearance to double check.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PDC issued to flight crew was misinterpreted and flight crew leveled off at 4;000 feet when they were cleared to climb via the SID.

Narrative: Departing KDAL 13L SWTSR3 ROLLS transition; we leveled at 4;000 feet. The clearance was written down by the PIC after being sent by PDC. Once I received our release; I copied the clearance he wrote on it.The PDC clearance was:SWTSR3 ROLLS J52 THEN AS FILED ATC INSTRUCTIONSCLEARED SWTSR3 DEPARTURE ROLLS TRSN CLIMB VIA SID EXP 400 10 MIN AFT DP; DPFRQ SEE SID SQUAWK: 2345The PIC stated after the event that he confused the EXP for and accept and that to level at 4;000 [feet] initially.The Departure Controller asked us why we were level at 4;000 [feet] and I said that was our clearance. He told us to climb and said that we were to climb via the SID.I am not aware of any traffic conflicts. The flight continued normally.The PDC has contractions that; while standard; confused the PIC. Are the contractions absolutely necessary? DAL is a large airport and like most if not all has PDC capability. I should have backed up my PIC and reviewed the PDC to double check.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1588286
Time
Date	201810
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	DAL.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Cessna Citation Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 135
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	SID SWTSR3
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance

Pre departure clearance issued to flight crew was misinterpreted and flight crew leveled off at 4;000 feet when they were cleared to climb via the SID.