Better Technical Writing

Definition

Compact, precise, literal writing is desirable in most disciplines, but it’s essential in technical fields. Wordy, imprecise, or metaphoric text doesn’t just read poorly — it actively dilutes and confuses a technical reader trying to extract a specific meaning. “Enough words, no more” isn’t a style preference here; it’s the actual editing standard.

Learning Outcome

After using this technique, you should be able to take a wordy draft and cut it down to its essential meaning, and structure any technical document so a reader who’s intelligent but unfamiliar with the topic can follow it without extra help.

Core Structure

A four-step concise-writing checklist, applied by scanning your own draft:

1. Eliminate small words. Look for clusters of small words in a sentence — often the whole thing can be reworded without them.
2. Cut gratuitous adjectives and adverbs. Remove any that only vaguely help the reader — “very,” “really,” “significantly” rarely earn their place.
3. Remove redundant sentences. Every sentence in a paragraph should be essential — if deleting it wouldn’t break the paragraph’s meaning, it wasn’t needed.
4. Remove redundant paragraphs. Apply the same test one level up.

A structural discipline for the document as a whole:

• Assume your reader is intelligent but unfamiliar with the topic — write a real introduction, and keep the piece accessible to non-experts.
• Structure the piece as: say what you’ll say, say it, then say what you said (and a bit more) — a conclusion should synthesize, not just repeat.
• Define every term and acronym the first time it’s used.
• Use plain language — no jargon, no contractions, no informal phrasing, concise sentences throughout.
• Use terms and notation consistently across the whole document.
• Cite the literature you’re building on.
• Use pictures, charts, and diagrams — each with a substantive caption of two to three sentences (see Captions That Work), not just a label.
• Use concrete, genuinely relevant examples to explain complex ideas.
• Use headings and lists to give the reader structure, not just prose.
• For longer documents, provide an abstract and lists of figures/tables as navigational aids.

Worked Example

Applying the four-step checklist to one sentence:

Before: “It is important to note that, in a very real sense, the algorithm that we have developed can be considered to be extremely efficient in most typical cases.”

After: “The algorithm is efficient in most cases.”

Every cut sentence went through the checklist: “it is important to note that” and “in a very real sense” are small-word clusters that add nothing (step 1); “extremely,” “very,” and “typical” are vague qualifiers doing no real work (step 2); “can be considered to be” is a hedge that adds length without adding meaning. What’s left says exactly the same thing in a fifth of the words.

Common Pitfalls

• Hedging phrases (“it is important to note,” “in a sense”) that pad a sentence without changing its meaning.
• Vague intensifiers (“very,” “really,” “significantly”) standing in for a number or a specific claim — the same failure mode covered under Titles and Abstracts That Work’s results section.
• A sentence or paragraph that could be deleted without changing the reader’s understanding — which means it wasn’t earning its place.
• Introducing an acronym or term without ever defining it, assuming the reader already knows.

Rubric / Checklist

• No sentence contains an unnecessary cluster of small words
• No adjective or adverb is doing vague, unearned work
• Every sentence is essential to its paragraph; every paragraph is essential to the piece
• Every term and acronym is defined at first use
• Terms and notation are used consistently throughout
• Claims are backed by cited sources
• Figures and tables have substantive, multi-sentence captions
• Complex ideas are illustrated with genuinely relevant examples
• Headings and lists are used to give the document real structure
• Longer documents include an abstract and lists of figures/tables