Lecture 3&4

Objectives in Technical Writing

Objectives

• Clarity

• Conciseness

• Accuracy

• Organization

• Ethics

CLARITY

• Provide specific detail

• Answer the reporter’s questions

• Use easily understandable words

• Use verbs in the active voice

CLARITY

1) Provide Specific detail

Supply specific quantified information, avoid vague or abstract adverbs and adjectives e.g some or recently.

State exact meaning

CLARITY

2)Answer the Reporter’s questions

Who, what, when, where, why and how

3) Use Easily Understadable Words

i)Avoid Obscure Words:

Write to express not to impress

• Using Acronyms, Abbreviations, and jargon Acronym: single word created from the first

letters of multiple words -Scuba(self contained underwater breathing

apparatus) -radar(radio detecting and ranging) -NASA(National Aeronautics Space

Agency)

• Abbreviations:

-FBI(Federal Bureau of Investigations)

-IBM(International Buiness Machines)

-L.A(Los Angeles)

-U.E.T• Jargon:

heaters(for fast balls in Baseball)

• Guess the meaning of the following abbreviations and jargons:

• CIA????

• Spaghetti???

• FIFO???

• Solution:

-Parenthetial Definitions i.e CIA(Cash in advance)

-Glossary

Active Voice versus Passive Voice

CONCISENESS

• Provide thorough details in fewer words

-conciseness saves some time

-it aids in comprehension

How to achieve Conciseness

• 1)Limit Paragraph Length• 2)Limit word and Sentence Length• 3)Avoid Camouflaged Words• 4)Avoid the Expletive Pattern• it allows you some time to understand the

contents separately • it gives you a room to breathe

1)Limit Paragraph Length

• “Please Prepare to supply a readout of your findings and recommendations to the officer of the Southwest Group at the completion of your study period. As w discussed, the undertaking of this project implies no currently known incidences of impropriety in the Southwest Group, nor is it designed specifically to find any. Rather, it is to assure ourselves of sufficient caution, control, and impartiality when dealing with an area laden with such potential vulnerability. I am confident that we will be better served as a company as a result of this effort”.

Limit Paragraph Length

• No more than 4 to 6 typed lines

• No more than 50 words

• Short paragraphs are manageable

• Cut long paragraph at logical places

Improved version

Please Prepare to supply a readout of your findings and recommendations to the officer of the Southwest Group at the completion of your study period. As w discussed, the undertaking of this project implies no currently known incidences of impropriety in the Southwest Group, nor is it designed specifically to find any.

Rather, it is to assure ourselves of sufficient caution, control, and impartiality when dealing with an area laden with such potential vulnerability. I am confident that we will be better served as a company as a result of this effort.

2)Limit word and Sentence Length

• Excessively long words and sentences add haze to the writing.• Fog index should not be greater than 13

Robert Gunning’s Method for Fog Index

Take a full passage that is around 100 words (do not omit any sentences). • Find the average sentence length (divide the number of words by the number

of sentences). • Count words with three or more syllables (complex words), not including

proper nouns (for example, Djibouti), familiar jargon or compound words, or common suffixes such as -es, -ed, or -ing as a syllable.

• Add the average sentence length and the percentage of complex words • Multiply the result by 0.4 • Example:

Fog Index and Reading LevelFog Index By Grade

17 College Graduate

16 College Senior

15 College Junior

14 College

13 College

12 High School Senior

11 High School Junior

10 High School sophomore

9 High School Freshman

8 Eighth Grade

7 Seventh grade

6 Sixth grade

Interpretation of Fog Index

• 22% americans graduate

• Writing at college level means that you are ignoring 78% of the readers

Calculating Fog Index

• Passage from the Wikipedia article on "logorrhoea"– The word logorrhoea is often used pejoratively to

describe prose that is highly abstract and contains little concrete language. Since abstract writing is hard to visualize, it often seems as though it makes no sense and all the words are excessive. Writers in academic fields that concern themselves mostly with the abstract, such as philosophy and especially postmodernism, often fail to include extensive concrete examples of their ideas, and so a superficial examination of their work might lead one to believe that it is all nonsense.

Example

• Passage from the Wikipedia article on "logorrhoea"

• The following paragraph has a Gunning Fog Index of 16.6.– The word logorrhoea is often used pejoratively to

describe prose that is highly abstract and contains little concrete language. Since abstract writing is hard to visualize, it often seems as though it makes no sense and all the words are excessive. Writers in academic fields that concern themselves mostly with the abstract, such as philosophy and especially postmodernism, often fail to include extensive concrete examples of their ideas, and so a superficial examination of their work might lead one to believe that it is all nonsense.

• Analysis

• There are 86 words in three sentences.

• The 11 italic words are considered complex.

• 0.4 ((86 / 3) + 100 (11/86))

• 0.4 x ( 28.67 + 12.79)

• Fog index = 16.6

Assignment Question1

– As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the United Kingdom from the 18th century, and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world, and the most prominent language in international business and science. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as many international organisations.

Assignment Question2

• Passage from the Wikipedia article on "The English Language"

– As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the United Kingdom from the 18th century, and of the United States since the mid 20th century, it has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world, and the most prominent language in international business and science. It is used extensively as a second language and as an official language in the European Union and many Commonwealth countries, as well as many international organisations.

Ways to Lower High Fog Index

• Use the Meat Cleaver Method of Revision

• Avoid Shun Words

• Avoid Camouflaged Words

• Avoid the Expletive Pattern

• Omit Redundancies

• Avoid Wordy Phrases

Meat Cleaver Method

• Cut the sentence in half or thirds• Example:

To maintain proper stock balances of respirators and canister elements and to ensure the identification of physical limitations which may negate an individual’s previous fit-test, a GBC-16 Respirator Request and Issue Record will need to be submitted for each respirator requested for use.

Meat Cleaver Method….contd

Version2:

Please submit a GBC-16 Respirator Request and Issue Record for each requested respirator. We then can maintain proper respirator and canister elements stock balances. We also can identify physical limitations which may negate an individual’s previous fit-test.

Avoid Shun Words

Example:1) “to ensure the identification of physical

limitations”• Identify physical limitations2) “I want you to take into consideration the

following”Consider the following .Comprison: 66% reduced

Some Examples

Shun word Concise Version

Came to the conclusion Concluded or decided

With the exception of Except for

Make revisions Revise

Utilization of Use

Consider implementation

implement

Avoid Camouflaged words

• The keyword is burried in the middle of surrounding words(usually helper words or unneeded words)

e.g with the exception of----------except

Some camouflaged words

For the purpose of discussing

discuss

Arrive at an agreement agree

At a later moment later

Make an amendment to amend

Have a meeting meet

Avoid Expletive Pattern

• Avoid “there is” , “it is” pattern• Example: “There are three people who will work

for Acme” ……….9 wordsRevised Version: Three people will work for

Acme…………………...6 wordsOmitted 3 words or 33%Example 2: It has been decided that ten engineers

will be hired.Revised: Ten Engineers will be hired

Omit Redundancies

• During the year of 2000

• In the month of December

• Needless to say

• We collaborated together on the project

• This is a new innovation

Avoid Wordy Phrases

• Due to the fact that …………because

• Enclosed please find…………enclosed is

• In the near future……………..soon

Accuracy

• 1)Let someone else read it• 2)Use the gestation approach• 3)Read backwards• 4)Read one line at a time• 5)Read long words syllable by syllable• 6)Use Technology• 7)Check figures, scientific and technical equations, and

abbreviations• 8)Read it out Loud• 9)Try scattershot proofing• 10)Use a dictionary