COMPUTER SYSTEMS RESEARCH
Elements of Technical Writing
2005-2006

  • Delete words, sentences, and phrases that do not add to your meaning.
    1. Unnecessary words waste space and the reader's time, and they make strong writing weak. The fewer words you use, the better.
    2. After you have written a first draft, go through it with a pencil and strike our all the words, sentences, phrases, and pages that do not add to your meaning. 
       Wordy:  It is most useful to keep in mind that the term diabetes mellitus refers to a whole spectrum of disorders.

 Concise:  Diabetes mellitus refers to a whole spectrum of disorders

 Wordy: Anthropologists have long observed that the Jale people, who live and dwell in New Guinea, will exhibit cannibalism in that they eat the bodies of enemies they slay in the conflict of war.

 Concise: The Jale people of New Guinea eat the bodies of foes slain in war.
 
    3. Sometimes deleting whole paragraphs can improve a piece of writing.  
 
      Here's a lead paragraph from an article published in a leading trade journal:
 
        "It is both exciting and rewarding to discover that the scientific principles of one's profession 
  can have immediate and gratifying expression in daily life.  A case in point occurred recently, 
  and I think it is appropriate to relate."
 
      
 Beginning technical writers may feel the need to ease the reader into their writing with this 
 kind of lengthy "warmup" introduction. But this paragraph does not contain news, or important 
 facts, or items of interest.

      Here, it is better to delete the whole paragraph and plunge right into the story.