EMPHASIS IN TECHNICAL WRITING

Principles:1. Pay attention to the

placement of important ideas.

2. Uphold the known-new contract.

3. Keep subjects and verbs together as much as possible.

4. Change negatives to positives where possible.

5. Simplify long, confusing sentences where possible.

Emphasis helps readers easily access information. It’s especially important in technical writing.

Principle 1: Pay attention to the placement of important ideas…

…in documents,

(e.g. dates in resume unimportant, so occupy unimportant position)

…in paragraphs…

…and in sentences.Place what you want to emphasize at the END of the sentence:

The team’s writing has been recognized as superb in most ways.

In most ways, the team’s writing has been recognized as superb.

★

Our college-age customers find the Olympic-size swimming pool to be the apartment complex’s most appealing features.

Our college-age customers find one of the apartment complex’s most appealing features to be the Olympic-size swimming pool.

The apartment complex’s Olympic-size swimming pool is one of the most appealing features for our college-age customers.

Use white space, typography, and bullet points to emphasize information.

EXAMPLE

Principle 2: Uphold the “known-new contract” to help readers easily absorb ideas.

Start with information that will already be familiar to the reader (aka the known).

THEN tell the reader something new.

Build sentence by sentence from there.

Rewrite this using the known-new contract:The newly knocked-off electrons gather at the lower portion of the cloud, giving it a negative charge. The rising moisture that has just lost an electron carries a positive charge to the top of the cloud. Beyond the collisions, freezing plays an important role. As the rising moisture encounters colder temperatures in the upper cloud regions and begins to freeze, the frozen portion becomes negatively charged and the unfrozen droplets become positively charged. At this point, rising air currents have the ability to remove the positively charged droplets from the ice and carry them to the top of the cloud. The remaining frozen portion would likely fall to the lower portion of the cloud or continue on to the ground. Combining the collisions with the freezing, we can begin to understand how a cloud may acquire the extreme charge separation that is required for a lightning strike.

Principle 3: Keep subjects and verbs as close together as possible.

Before* The former official, on the basis of anonymity and in exchange for my promise that I would not record our conversation nor take notes, agreed, although hesitantly and still cautiously, to speak to me about flaws that were found by her in the course of her employment at the institute in the controversial decision, but were nonetheless ignored by her former colleagues. After Although hesitant and cautious, the former official agreed to speak to me as long as I did not record our conversation nor reveal her identity. She discussed flaws in the controversial decision that she found while working at the institution. Her ex-colleagues ignored these flaws.

*Example taken from http://www.brusselslegal.com

FIX THIS SENTENCE (i.e., bring subject and verb closer together):

The notion that our company’s critical infrastructures are highly interconnected and mutually dependent in complex ways, both physically and through a host of information and communication technologies (so-called “cyber-based systems”), is more than an abstract, theoretical concept.

Principle 4: Change negatives to positives where possible.

Readers expect the positive, so seeing negative words is confusing and less concise.

Examples:

NegativePositive

The paperwork will not be ready till Monday. The paperwork will be ready Monday.You did not complete the form. You will need to complete the form.You are prohibited from entering. You must have clearance to enter.Stop sending letters to this address. The correct address to send letters to

is…

Change these from negative to positive:

A decision will not be made unless all information has been received.

The request cannot be approved without payment.

Applicants may be granted a permit to prospect for geothermal resources on any federal lands except lands in the National Park System, unless the applicant holds valid existing rights to the geothermal resources on the National Park System lands listed in the application.

Principle 5: Simplify long, confusing sentences where possible.

Individuals who maintain a diet of high fat content are exposed to an increased risk of developing atherosclerosis, which is a buildup of fat deposits on the inner walls of the arteries. This condition can reduce or cut off the flow of blood in the arteries serving the major organs of the body, leading to poor health.

Pay attention to what gets emphasis, in written text and otherwise.

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