Tips for Stronger Writing

Paul W. Frields stickster at gmail.com
Thu Oct 23 01:41:03 UTC 2008


On Wed, 2008-10-22 at 14:38 -0700, Karsten 'quaid' Wade wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-10-22 at 11:09 -0400, Elizabeth Ann West wrote:
> > Hello All,
> > 
> > As I am working on editing the install-guide, I had a great idea for a
> > series through the docs-list. If people are interested, I would be happy
> > to start condensing my editing techniques into small tidbits
> > documentation writers can learn from and apply to any writing pieces,
> > making them stronger. I can try to have a new Tips for Stronger Writing
> > each week, if you all find them helpful. Here is the first one titled
> > "Trim the That." Please let me know how you like it, if it is easy to
> > understand, and if you would like me to continue the series.
> 
> +10
> 
> Also, catch me on IRC and let's figure out a good place to put these on
> the wiki.  I'm thinking we want to mutate the style guide a bit, adding
> a new [[Category:Style guide]] so we can add content easily without
> worrying about structure too much.

Very nice.  Some other suggestions:

* use of "will" (i.e. future tense to indicate how software reacts to
user interaction)
* use of "simply"/"just" (to indicate ease)
* use of "which" vs. "that"

-- 
Paul W. Frields
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://paul.frields.org/   -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug
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