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Subject:Re: Redundancy & obscurity patrol From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 15 Jan 1996 11:21:39 -0800
At 1:31 PM 1/12/96, Cathy Quinones wrote:
>I've been enjoying the thread about how much good tech writing is
>worth (i.e., how to estimate what to charge, how much should one be
>paid?). I particularly like the notion, mentioned by more than one
>person, that good tech writers are valuable because they know what
>words to throw away.
>With that in mind, would anyone be interested in sharing tricks that
>help keep one's writing streamlined, clean and honest?
I personally find any use of the words "wish" or "want" suspicious.
Also, the word "should" is suspect. And I've seldome found a legitimate
use for the phrase "in order to" -- "to" usually does it.
A former employee who remains a very good friend once admitted that
when she left my employ she created a macro that went through her
documents an deleted the words "if you want", then capitalized
the "t" in "to".
Sue Gallagher
Expersoft Corporation
San Diego, CA
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
