’

GENERALIZATION

Achieving clarity and conciseness in technical writing is an important job that a technical writer
should consider. He or she should plan and write carefully to avoid any miscommunication through
the language style.

A vague and a wordy technical writing is expensive. Imagine how unclear instructions on how
to operate machinery would damage the product itself and the image of the company. Please
remember that clear understanding is an important factor in technical writing. When you write
something that your reader misunderstands, you fail as a writer.

A clear writing is the result of clear thinking. As future technical writers, you should never
forget that your aim in technical writing is to write an easy-to-read informative material. You should
concern yourselves more about that.

How do we establish effective and clear communication at home?

Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity.

-Nat Turner
 GENERALIZATION

The essence of good writing is to be concise — shaving everything down to its bare essentials.
Conciseness is not the opposite of long; it is the opposite of wordy. If information does not add value,
leave it out. Often, the less you say, the more impact it has.

For us to succeed in delivering our technical message, we need to keep our readers’ attention
to read through the sentences and paragraphs. They should effortlessly read them because they may
lose interest and patience if your writing is too difficult to follow. Avoiding lengthy sentences and
wordy expressions/phrases is one of the ways to achieve that.

How can doing simple things create a

big impact to ourselves and to others?
Plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English – it is the
modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

-Mark Twain, Letter to D.W. Bowser, March 1880

WEEK 3 Generalization

GENERALIZATION

Nominalizations and expletives weaken the readability of your document. They cast shadows
and hide the direct meaning of the technical message. If you want to make sure that your readers
have understood the information you presented, then you should avoid using nominalizations and
expletives. Remember, technical writing is about clear communication.

Your writing is ink and paper only, until someone picks it up and reads it. Then, it becomes only
meaningful if they used or applied your information. So, you cannot afford being fancy in your writing
just to appear impressive.

How can a clear communication help in solving problems?

A better and proper way of saying things leads to good communication.

Successful technical writing should help the reader understand the text,
not present challenges to understanding.