English
Anatomy of a Technical Editing Process
Here is the anatomy of a technical editing process. This ORIGINAL SENTENCE is from a software user’s guide: “A prompt will occur prior to deletion that confirms the operator’s wish to delete the selected item and once confirmation occurs the deletion is made final.” Here is a BETTER version: “A warning message displays, prompting the…
Read MoreWhat is a Retronym?
Introduction Would you believe if I told you that you use one “retronym” after another whole day long? You probably wouldn’t because, as a life-time student of English, I also didn’t know for years what a “retronym” was. The reason I’m sharing this with you is my firm belief about the power of becoming fully…
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The Proper Way to Use "Only" in Your Technical Documents
In a technical document, the meaning of a sentence shifts considerably and sometimes dramatically depending on where the technical writer places the qualifier “only”. Use “only” right next to the word that it qualifies. EXAMPLE 1: 1) “The engineers only wanted to test the engine on a Saturday,” is different in meaning than 2) “The…
Read MoreHow To Use "Use" Versus "Utilize" Correctly?
“Use” and “utilize” are two verbs with distinct meanings. Don’t confuse them. “Use” is to employ objects for the purposes they were designed for. “Utilize,” on the other hand, is to employ objects for unintended purposes. Authoritative proof: The Oxford English Dictionary defines the verb use as “to make use of (some immaterial thing) as…
Read MoreNon-Parallel Construction
Even important publications like NYT or WSJ are not immune to generating weak prose, constructed with non-parallel clauses. Here is one from New York Times (June 7, 2008): “The hunger strike is meant to pressure federal officials, and comes as Congress is debating an expansion of the guest worker program…” There’s nothing “wrong” with this…
Read MoreHow to Prevent a Misplaced Modifier
Introduction Modifiers are words that modify or specify the meaning of another word. They usually come before the word they modify and can be adjectives, adverbs, or nouns. A misplaced modifier is one that causes confusion because it is placed too far away from the word it modifies. This problem occurs when a modifier is…
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Three Masters of Copy who are not “Copywriters”
Introduction Copywriting is the art and science of persuading people to take certain actions. The “copy” in copywriting simply means prose, and a good copy is any piece of text that communicates well. The copywriter’s job is to understand their audience and design a message that resonates with them. They use the right words, images,…
Read MoreWrite with Parallel Construction
Introduction Violation of parallel construction is the bane of commercial copy. Sentences, and sometimes whole paragraphs of copy, lose their direction and fail to communicate their core message if they are composed with unparallel components. Parallelism can be used to emphasize the contrast between different ideas, for example: I went to work and saw my…
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Use “Fewer” or “Less” Correctly
Introduction “Fewer” or “Less” is one of the most common questions that writers face. There are grammatical rules about which word to use in certain cases, but it’s easy to be confused when you have two words with similar meanings. It’s hard to know what is correct for each usage. People often use fewer where…
Read MoreTechnical Editing: 4 More Examples
Introduction Technical editing is half art and half science. In order to edit technical documents, it is important to know the type of language that is required for a given document. The target audience of a technical document may be engineers, executives or managers. The level of knowledge and expertise needed for editing a technical…
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