Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I continue to work with graduate students on their writing. I am working with engineering, computer science, and IT students. They continue to teach me.

This week’s learning concerns the variety of nouns and verbs. In novels and other fiction, the writer uses a variety of nouns. It would be boring to use the same noun for the same thing over and over and over and over. In technical writing, however, boring is better. If the writer writes “subject site” for a particular website, the writer should always write “subject site” when referring to that site. The reader won’t confuse which website the writer is describing. It will always be the same noun for the same thing.

This advice also holds for verbs. The writer may write “transfer” to describe moving data to a disk drive. The writer should always write “transfer” when referring to moving data to a disk drive. If the writer uses “transfer” one time, “move” another time, “write” another time, “transcribe” another time, and so on, it is much easier for the reader to become confused.

Technical writing is difficult; reading technical material is also difficult. There isn’t much the reader can do to make his job easier. There are a few techniques the writer can use to help the reader. Using fewer nouns and verbs is one.