2024年4月13日发(作者：)

Guidelines to Successful Technical Writing

1. Revising with efficient sentences

The main purpose of a technical document is to inform or persuade the reader through use

of efficient sentences, not to impress or entertain with fancy language displays. So,

technical documents transmit worthwhile information—even highly specialized

information—in the most straightforward way to their audience.

Readers of technical documents are busy and impatient. They do not wish to put more

into reading a document than they can get from it. They hate waste and expect efficiency.

Every sentence in a document should be revised to carry its own weight, in conveying the

writer’s meaning.

Observe the same rule in adopting sentence style as you would in choosing the

document’content: s make it long enough to be understood, yet short enough to be

tolerated. When writing a technical document, consult the guidelines below, which can

also serve as a checklist for your sentence style:

Revise sentences to be clear and avoid ambiguity.

A clear sentence communicates its precise meaning on first reading. It signals

relationships among its parts, and emphasizes the key thought. In technical

writing, a sentence should have only one meaning. Make sure the words, phrases,

and punctuation are absolutely clear.

Ambiguous I cannot recommend this candidate too highly.

Revised This candidate has my highest recommendation.

Ambiguous Many executives are skeptical about office automation as

well as managers.

Revised Many executives as well as managers are skeptical about

office automation.

Ambiguous Being well-known in the computer industry, our project

would benefit a lot from the Tsinghua team.

Revised Because the Tsinghua team is well-known in the computer

industry, our project would benefit a lot from its help.

—

Use active rather than passive voice most of the time.

Usually, the active voice (Joe tested the software.) is better than the passive

voice (The software is tested by Joe.), but in certain situations it can make sense

to use the less natural passive style. However, many writers routinely use the

passive style simply because they believe it is more “formal” and “acceptable”

It is not. Using the passive style is the most common reason for poorly

structured sentences and it always leads to longer sentences than are necessary.

Unless you have a very good reason for the change in emphasis, you should

always write in the active style.

The following examples show the improvement achieved by switching from

passive to active:

Faulty

Correct Peter wrote the report, and it was excellent.

The report was written by Peter, and was found to be excellent.

FaultyThe lid should be sealed with wax.

Correct Seal the lid with wax.

Bad

Good

The values were measured automatically by the control system.

The control system measured the values automatically.

Weak & Impersonal An offer will be made by us next week.

StrongerWe will make you an offer next week.

Avoid unnecessary words and repetition.

Many sentences contain unnecessary words that repeat an idea already

expressed in another word. This wastes space and blunts the message. Often

writers use several words for ideas that can be expressed in one. This leads to

unnecessarily complex sentences and redundancy.

Redundant The printer is located adjacent to the computer.

Revised The printer is adjacent to the computer.

RedundantThe user can visibly see the image moving.

RevisedThe user can see the image moving.

Redundant The product is not of a satisfactory nature.

Revised The product is unsatisfactory.

Make sentences fluent.

Fluent sentences are polished, graceful, and easy to read. Varied length and

word order make them free of choppiness and monotony. See the following

suggestions:

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