COMPUTER SYSTEMS RESEARCH
Elements of Technical Writing
2005-2006
Good technical writing is complete
- "Many people confuse conciseness with brevity, but the two are different. Being concise means telling the
whole story using the fewest possible words. Being brief means keeping it short, regardless of whether
this is achieved through careful writing or by deleting section of text at random."
- "When writers confuse conciseness with brevity, they often end of cheating the reader: They keep it short
by leaving out important stuff."
- "In a complex subject, there is a strong temptation to handle particularly difficult material simply by
skipping over it. This solution is not only lazy; it's inadequate."
- "Good technical writing is complete, ant that means you include everything the reader needs to know,
with nothing essential left out."
- "The document, charts, graphs, visuals should be clear and concise enough to be of interest to the least
technical reader, yet complete enough so that the technically sophisticated readers will find everything
they need."
- "Being complete does not mean you include everything, however. You must be selective as well as thorough.
A complete document tells your readers all they need to know about the topic, but not a word more."