Jargon: A cloud for readers, and how to clear it!
This is page 41 from Client-Pleasing Reports and Communications. Enjoy! Feel free to e-mail me at christabedwin at gmail.com if you have any questions.
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Scientific Style & Format: Free reference book from an excellent experienced academic editor
Matthew Stevens has done a masterful and amusing job of collecting together the many concerns of a scientific editor. I recommend this book highly! http://sabotin.ung.si/~sstanic/teaching/CIS/references/Stevens-Subtleties_of_Scientific_Style.pdf
Resources: readable fonts
Choosing a non-offensive font is important in technical writing. Your primary goal should be that the design you choose does not distract your reader. Here is a link to a good article about Serif and Sans Serif fonts, and design considerations for when and why you might choose each type: https://www.impactplus.com/blog/sans-serif-vs-serif-font-which-should-you-use-when SPECIAL MENTION Here is a link to the Dyslexie font, which is well regarded as an effective and worthwhile investment for anyone with dyslexia. https://www.dyslexiefont.com
Writing Pitfall: Assuming Your Audience Shares Your Common Experience
I was talking to my friend and colleague Sarah Anderson, who teaches technical communications at Carleton University, this week. In a lively class discussion, one of her students said that "everybody" his age would know what Twitch was, and offered to explain to her offline instead, since he was sure everyone in the class would be bored by the explanation. But was he right? I checked in with my 17-year-old son. Did he agree with the university student's idea that "everybody" would know? Or would he be leaving behind some people who were too shy to ask or admit they didn't already know? After discussing gamers and online communities and populations of young people, my son said "No, he should not assume everyone is in his knowledge bubble if he is trying to communicate to be understood." We discussed various peers who might not be hooked into Twitch. Not all teens are wild about video gaming. (I love that a "bubble" is a concept that...
Replacements for Wordy Phrases: Short and Simple Language for Clean Clear Writing
At universities and in high school English classes, there is sometimes a perception that whoever uses the longest or most words looks smartest. However, in industry, whoever makes the client happiest by having the easiest, clearest documents, looks best! Unfortunately, technical writing is not poetry. In fact, sometimes, when I'm editing the technical writing of Spanish or French first-language speakers, I find myself revising particularly beautiful, flowery phrases to something much more boring. But technical clients just want simplicity. Let your diagrams and your data speak for themselves. Here’s a nice logical if-then statement for you: If the document is easy for your client to digest Then they will think that you are brilliant. Achieve this by: using short words using fewer words Use Fewer Words There are some words that you can search in a document to discover wordy phrases. “Of” and “for...