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Notes de l'éditeur
- It’s not writing that makes up the bulk of the writing process—it’s editing and revision. Contrary to some beliefs, editing is more than just ‘prettying up’ a document. Generally, editing involves not only text, but style, format, graphics, and tone; labeling and terminology; referencing; information architecture…
- … navigation, pacing, method of development, media delivery, and human factors engineering, including audience profiling and task and environmental analysis.
- Proper editing cannot be achieved by working alone; you run the risk of overlooking something that’s obvious to anyone but you. Using appropriate reviewers, such as editorial, technical, marketing representatives and others, will help produce meaningful feedback. As for spell checkers and grammar checkers, these are aids to editing, not solutions. Depending on spell checkers to do all your proofreading can lead to errors. For example, homonyms and typographical errors can result in valid words slipping through.
- Coherence is the smooth flow of thought in written material: connective words and phrases provide signals for readers to interconnect individual facts in their minds. Without appropriate transitional words or phrases, such as ‘and’, ‘also’, ‘furthermore’, ‘however’, ‘in summary’, ‘therefore’, and others, your writing could be open to multiple interpretations by your reader. Transitional words and phrases provide smooth semantic links for thoughts in a passage, paving the way for descriptive and procedural information delivery. To reinforce coherent writing, use pronouns that are clearly linked to preceding sentences, and repeat key words or phrases when putting them into a particular context.
- Abstract words allow multiple images to be conjured up in your reader’s head—images that cannot be predicted with any accuracy. For example, the excerpt above is from an actual marketing data sheet. (To protect company rights, I renamed the company ‘ XYZ ’.): “XYZ company is a change mindset. A frame of mind that generates progress, a structure that opens new horizons, freed from assumptions and stereotyped answers. A zero-based thinking framework that enables organizational reconfiguration through integration, beyond reorganization or rationalization.”
- Short-term memory usually can store seven different items, plus or minus two; therefore, you’ll need to reread the following sentence (shown above): “Systems for digitizing and storing analog data, sorting and averaging multiple analog signals, and sequencing processing events are all examples of laboratory problems where ABC company has knowledge independent of scientific disciplines.” The problem lies not with sentence length, but with sentence structure. The subject of the sentence in question, ‘Systems’, appears at the beginning of the sentence, but the verb ‘are’ doesn’t appear until 16 words later. You had to keep these 16 words in short-term memory, overloading your memory capacity.
- The key to clear writing is to fulfill your reader’s expectations by doing the following: 1) putting the subject as close as possible to the beginning of the sentence, 2) putting the verb as close as possible to the subject. In an English-speaking environment, we expect a sentence to contain the subject at the beginning of the sentence, with the verb following the subject as closely as possible. For example, the improved sentence structure (shown above) reads as follows: “ABC company has systems which can digitize and store analog data, sort and average multiple analog signals, and sequence processing events. All these capabilities exemplify ABC’s knowledge, which is independent of scientific disciplines.”
- Writing can sometimes work in an involuntary, unthinking way, as when a clump of words, such as nonessential preliminaries (shown above), come tumbling onto the written page as a unit, rather than as carefully-thought-out single words that would express the same meaning more succinctly (as shown above).
- Using unnecessary ‘deadwood’ words detracts from a clear and concise message. For example, the following sentence (shown above) contains 37 words: “The programming office will perform an evaluation or system study, as discussed in previous paragraphs, on each requirement or recommendation to provide the headquarters’ staff directorate information to render managerial decisions on the validity of each requirement.”
- By removing ‘deadwood’ words, and shortening this sentence to 23 words (as shown above), the message becomes clearer and more concise: “The programming office will evaluate each requirement, as previously mentioned, to allow the headquarters’ staff directorate to make decisions regarding the requirement’s validity.”
- A solid chunk of technical matter repels readers (as shown above): “The IRWO is the smallest of the five systems. The typical configuration of this system has a KR10 central processor, 32 to 64K high-speed MT core memories, the TY026 disk system with up to two disk packs, the TD106 magnetic tape system with up to two drives, and low-speed peripheral equipment including a BR10F card reader, a PG12A line printer, and local DQ10 lines.” Density disrupts your reader’s natural reading pace, interrupts the natural flow of ideas, and inhibits a sense of movement and continuity. Readers resent that they have to struggle through it; you need to make their reading time short, easy, and to the point.
- By using a more structured approach to the previous sample sentence (as shown above), such as using lists, you can make it much more clear and direct. The solution to dense writing is to remember that there are alternative writing styles such as a structured writing technique. Generally, this technique uses lists, tables, and templates, making it easier for your reader to extract relevant information.
- The cover-to-cover reader should be able to tell what abbreviations mean the first time they read them. This is normally done by spelling the term out the first time it’s used, and following it with the appropriate abbreviations or acronyms, usually within parentheses. For the random access reader (especially for reference guides), the meaning of abbreviations or acronyms should be clear each time they are used. Do this by providing an index and a glossary to refer to. Which abbreviations and acronyms need to be defined depends on your audience, their background, and their knowledge level.
- Knowledge of grammar, usage, punctuation, composition, and diction is not easy to acquire. Continually use good grammar and composition reference books, because there are many rules and exceptions to know. Use your time wisely by working with grammar and punctuation problems after the document stabilizes, which is later in the draft cycle. Use care when editing: There are no foolproof products for checking grammar, usage, and punctuation errors. Although some products are good, much of the grammar and punctuation is ‘context sensitive’; generalized grammar and punctuation packages cannot effectively make the right corrections for specific contexts.
- Having a good knowledge of literacy; the so-called mechanics of writing—punctuation, usage, and grammar, for example, does not make you a good writer. Competency in technical and informative writing has to do with how well technical facts and information is passed along to your reader. Use small words and short sentences, making it easier for your reader to focus on the idea contained in the text. Readers want careful organization and concreteness in what they read to help them picture and apply ideas. They like variety; it maintains their interest. They prefer short but variable sentences, and not too many difficult words.
- The technical speaker is usually logical and straightforward; however, when sitting down to write, you can become stiff and formal, erecting a wall of techno-artificiality between you and your reader. Defining the audience profile to start with establishes a target for getting your point across. Getting your point across makes meaningful and useful information available to your reader—within your reader’s world. Remember to put ‘voice’ in your writing. Writers tend to forget their voice when writing. Competent writing has ‘voice’ in it: Read the text aloud to yourself to make sure your voice is in it. And finally, have the purpose and direction of the document clear in your mind before you begin to write.
- Help increase reader comprehension by developing a logical and systematic information flow—and adhere to it. Include an information abstract and front matter. Some readers are more interested in the overview than the contents. These tools help save these readers time and page flipping. Keep paragraphs short. Long paragraphs have an unfavorable psychological effect on your reader. Readers like white space—don’t you? Three or four paragraphs per page is realistic.
- Introduce realistic and meaningful examples frequently, especially where the material is difficult. Use linking words that complete the explanation, such as because , therefore , so , if/then , as a result , and others. These words call attention to a logical thought process by pointing out a cause, an effect, or a result. Use lists and tables throughout your document. They serve to introduce, to summarize, or to display a topic. Use graphics, such as screen shots, flow charts, and illustrations; they help increase your reader’s attention and retention.
- When used in informative writing, the passive voice makes text more difficult for your reader to understand and retain. This causes confusion, and can have serious consequences regarding business operations, business relationships, and health and safety issues. Using the passive verb form can weaken verb force in the sentence, making it inert, inactive, and dull. However, in the case where the ‘doer’ is unimportant, the passive voice has its place. Do not try to eliminate the passive voice altogether; strive rather to curb its overuse, which can contribute to an overall lack of emphasis, vitality, and motion.
- Much writing is unclear because writers choose verb-nominalizations instead of verbs. A verb-nominalization is an abstract noun derived from a verb, and it usually appears when using the passive voice. For example, operation , construction , and creation are verb-nominalizations derived from the verbs operate , construct , and create . When applicable, make sentences more meaningful by changing a verb-nominalization into an active verb. For example, CHANGE “The construction of the new tree house will be completed by Jim.” TO “Jim will construct a new tree house.”
- Fast pacing in writing relies on few words to convey much meaning. Fast-paced writing is terse, compressed, and compact. It also leaves much information unsaid. Fast-paced writing assumes a background of knowledge on the part of your reader. It can also refer to writing that packs a lot of technical data into a few words. Such writing often leaves your reader more baffled than informed, for example: “Feed the blank tape into the punch machine.” This example (shown above) does not tell your reader 1) how to start feeding the tape, or 2) how to verify that it has been fed correctly.
- The key to compiling a useful and meaningful index for your reader is that it is selective and within the scope of the document. Carefully select references to passages where the entry is discussed fully and contextually, or where a significant point is made about it. Cross-references (i.e., See and See Also ) guide your reader to other pertinent topics in the text. See references are used when an entry can be identified by several different terms, or where the entry is listed as a sub-entry. See also references indicate entries that include additional information on a topic. Do not attempt to compile an index until the document has been completed; terminology and page numbers may not be accurate before then.
- The company style guide is a reference tool for corporate communications style and usage. For easy reference, it should be an alphabetical list of entries that describes conventions for punctuation, spelling, fonts, formatting, and the principles of usage and grammar. Review each type of style reference book and pick one that’s appropriate for your organization. Keep in mind that the English language is forever evolving. Having said that, don’t get too caught up in being a purist; be aware of the impermanence of most style and usage forms. Always think of your reader (for print and online text), your viewer (for graphics and video), and your listener (for audio).
- Words are the basic building blocks of writing. How you pick and choose them determines your success in getting ideas from your head to your reader’s. Choose words your reader understands, thus building a vehicle to deliver clear ideas to your reader. Choosing jargon (when inappropriate), big words, and deadwood, however, builds a barrier between you and your reader that stops your ideas in their tracks. For technical communications, nothing can improve a passage whose words do not inform: not unity, not coherence, not the active voice.