This is a re-post of a re-post of a blog that too many people seem to have missed or forgotten.
One of the tricks of technical writing is to avoid generalities and provide details – as concisely as possible.
Here are a few examples to learn this trick:
Example:
- “The target population of your proposed survey is relevant and appropriate.”
- ‘target population’ is a general term – be specific, provide the details:
Rewrite:
- Surveying CS undergraduate students and undergraduate instructors is relevant and appropriate.
Example:
- A quick summary of background and interests.
- ‘background’ and ‘interests’ are generalities – be specific, provide the details:
Rewrite:
- A summary of academic background: Earth Sciences/Geophysics and interests: swimming and volunteering with St, John’s Ambulance.
Example: Your proposal effectively illustrates a pressing concern and introduces a framework to directly address it.”
- “A pressing concern” is too general. Rewrite: Study rooms are over-crowed and lacking in resources
- “A framework” is too general. Rewrite: solutions for expanding the study spaces ..
Example: While the issue this inquiry plans to address is important …..
- What is ‘the issue’ ?
- Why is the issue important?
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