Writing with Focus, Clarity, and Precision

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Authors

Joanna Wolfe

Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.

Juliann Reineke

Juliann E. Reineke is Senior Director of Proposal Development at Case Western Reserve University where she works with faculty, staff, and students to elevate grant writing across the university. Additionally, she utilizes research-based technical writing principles to collaboratively write large federal research proposals and medical manuscripts with multidisciplinary groups of subject-matter experts and their industry and community partners. Her research interests include writing centers and scientific and professional communication. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication and Re/Writing the Center: Approaches to Supporting Graduate Students in the Writing Center.

Preface

Chapter 1: Writing for Busy Readers

Case Study: The Writing for Real People project

For Discussion: What does writing for real people look like?

Workplace writing helps readers take actions

For Discussion: From school to workplace

Let’s get realistic: Readers often just want to be done

So how do you write for readers who just want to get the work done?

Put important information in places readers will see it
Minimize confusion and misinterpretation
Maintain a positive relationship with your readers

Make your writing accessible for a range of readers

Summary

For Discussion: From babble-speak to writing for real people

Chapter 2: Emphasizing the Bottom Line

What do we mean by “the bottom line?”

Why do so many writers fail to start off with the bottom line?

Put your bottom line in the title or subject heading

Exercise 2.1: Put the bottom line in subject headings

Begin paragraphs with your bottom line

Exercise 2.2: Begin paragraphs with the bottom line

Emphasize the bottom line with content-rich headings

When should you NOT put the bottom line up front?

For Discussion: Using AI to write denied requests

What if I don’t yet know my bottom line?

Summary

Exercise 2.3: Revise for the bottom line
For Discussion: Advantages and disadvantages of AI-generation texts

Chapter 3: Designing for the

For Discussion: Identify and analyze document design
Callout: Finding model texts

Break content into small chunks

Chunk text into small paragraphs

Use bulleted and ordered lists

Exercise 3.1: Chunk paragraphs into lists to make them easier to read

Use textual tables when appropriate

Avoid page breaks that orphan information belonging together
Exercise 3.2: Use if-then textual tables

Use heading styles to create an accessible outline of your structure

Exercise 3.3: Chunk lists with headings and subheadings

Use both vertical and horizontal whitespace to show relationships

Judiciously use font style, size, and color to reinforce relationships

Use research-based strategies to improve readability

Avoid large blocks of text with ALL-CAPS or italics font styles
Use left-aligned text and headings; avoid blocks of centered text

Avoid full justification

Using single spacing for most professional documents

Use conventional fonts that are familiar to your readers

Make your document design accessible: writing for all readers

Use visually simple fonts

Include ample whitespace

Use styles to mark major sections of documents

Create alt text for images and tables

Make links recognizable and descriptive

Use accessibility checkers

Exercise 3.3: Create accessible documents

Summary

Exercise 3.4: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 4: Writing Clear and Concise Sentences

Strategy 1: Put agent and action together near the beginning of sentences

Callout: Using first-person
For Discussion: Revise the following sentences to place agent and action closer together

Strategy 2: Reduce stacked prepositions

For Discussion: Reduce prepositions for clarity

Strategy 3: Avoid turning verbs and adjectives into nouns

For Discussion: Reduce nominalizations

Strategy 4: Reduce “to be” verbs

For Discussion: Use more impactful and precise verbs

Summary

For Discussion: Determine an appropriate revision strategy
Exercise 4.1: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 5: Clarifying Connections with Transitions and the Known-New Contract

The known-new contract: Begin with the familiar and end with the new

Begin sentences (and paragraphs) with known information

Callout: Good versus bad repetition
For Discussion: Analyze the known-new contract

Use echo links to connect to known information

Callout: Passive voice and the known-new contract

Avoid faking known information with vague pronouns (such as this and it)

Exercise 5.1: Use known-new contract to explicitly connect different ideas

Clarify connections with transitions

Exercise 5.2: Choose transitions to clarify logical connections

Use known-new and transitions to build connections across paragraphs

Callout: Will clarifying connections make my writing too easy to understand?

Summary

Exercise 5.3: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 6: Communicating with Precision

Strategy 1: How many? How much? Specify exact quantities

For Discussion: Identify imprecise language

Strategy 2: Specify what you are comparing to

For Discussion: Improve faulty comparisons

Strategy 3: Convey a precise level of certainty

Exercise 6.1: Identifying and modifying hedges

Avoid inappropriate intensifying language

Avoid inappropriate hedging language

Exercise 6.2: Analyze hedges and intensifiers

Strategy 4: Correctly position modifying information

Exercise 6.3: Shift location of modifiers
Exercise 6.4: Analyze and revise modifiers

Strategy 5: Use consistent (parallel) structure

For Discussion: Ensure headings and subheadings are parallel

Exercise 6.5: Maintain parallel structure

Summary

Exercise 6.6: Make sentences more precise
Exercise 6.7: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 7: Tone and the Impression You Make

Tone is uniquely challenging

Maintain a polite tone when making requests

Acknowledge choice with softening phrases
Express gratitude for the reader’s time

Provide context and justification

A revised request

For Discussion: Analyze tone
Example 7.1: Use a less demanding tone

Establish the right level of formality

Determine when to use an informal versus formal tone

For Discussion: Compare and assess tone
Exercise 7.2: Analyze level of formality

Project a positive (vs. a negative) tone

Focus on the future you would like to see

Eliminate negative words and replace them with positive ones

Use a dependent clause to de-emphasize the negative
When a negative tone is appropriate
Exercise 7.3: Use a positive tone

Avoid an egotistical or self-absorbed tone

Replace evaluative language with specific detail

Depersonalize and broaden the scope

For Discussion: Utilize depersonalized language
Callout: Experiment with different tones

Demonstrate cultural sensitivity

Use gender-neutral terms when possible

Emphasize individuals rather than disabilities or divergences

Listen to and use the terms individuals prefer when describing their own identity groups

Summary

Exercise 7.4: Analyze tone in your own writing

Chapter 8: The Right Stress: Ordering Sentences to Stress the Right Information

Use the ends of sentences to direct readers’ focus

Put information you want to stress at the end of sentences

Exercise 8.1: Rearrange to adjust emphasis
Exercise 8.2: Place new information in the stress position

Introduce complex technical information at the end of sentences

Callout: Reduce distance between agents and actions
For Discussion: End sentences with technical information

Introduce one technical term per sentence

Use concessive clauses to de-emphasize information

Exercise 8.3: Revise to alter emphasis

Use passive voice to de-emphasize people

For Discussion: Evaluation shifts in voice

Ethically present bad news

Summary

Exercise 8.4: Analyze and revise your writing

Chapter 9: Treating Punctuation as Information Management

Distinguish primary and secondary information

Four basic guidelines for commas as information management

1: Use commas to signal where the primary (essential) content begins

2: Use commas to separate secondary (nonessential) content from the primary sentence

3: Use commas to signal a change in direction

4: Use commas to separate two complete statements connected by a coordinating conjunction

Comma guidelines are not rules: their usage is not always clear-cut right or wrong

Exercise 9.1: Determine effective comma placement

Advanced information management: dashes, colons, and semicolons

Em dashes (—) function as high-visibility commas
Colons (:) signal elaboration
Semicolons (;) replace periods or separate complex items in a list
Exercise 9.2: Revise to eliminate punctuation mistakes

Bulleted and numbered lists as punctuation

Maintain consistent grammatical structure

Maintain consistent punctuation and capitalization

Use numbered lists when the order is important

Summary

Exercise 9.3: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 10: Proofreading and Editing Strategies

Edit for clarity

Use known-new to identify missing links and logical gaps
Search for “it” and “this”
Edit for stacked prepositions
Ask an AI program such as ChatGPT for suggestions

Proofread for language errors: Select strategies that work for you

Use grammar, spelling, and style checkers
Change your reading pattern: Read aloud or backward
Use AI to find the right word or phrase

Proofread for design errors

Check tables and figures
Check for parallelism and consistency
Check for page layout issues

Use an accessibility checker

Seek feedback

Summary

Exercise 10.1: Analyze your own writing

Product Updates

Authors

Joanna Wolfe

Joanna Wolfe (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is Director of the Global Communication Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where she develops new methods for improving communication instruction across the university. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles on teamwork, gender studies, collaborative learning technology , technical writing, and rhetoric Her research on collaborative writing in technical communication classes won the 2006 NCTE award for best article reporting qualitative or quantitative research in technical and scientific communication.

Juliann Reineke

Juliann E. Reineke is Senior Director of Proposal Development at Case Western Reserve University where she works with faculty, staff, and students to elevate grant writing across the university. Additionally, she utilizes research-based technical writing principles to collaboratively write large federal research proposals and medical manuscripts with multidisciplinary groups of subject-matter experts and their industry and community partners. Her research interests include writing centers and scientific and professional communication. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication and Re/Writing the Center: Approaches to Supporting Graduate Students in the Writing Center.

Preface

Chapter 1: Writing for Busy Readers

Case Study: The Writing for Real People project

For Discussion: What does writing for real people look like?

Workplace writing helps readers take actions

For Discussion: From school to workplace

Let’s get realistic: Readers often just want to be done

So how do you write for readers who just want to get the work done?

Put important information in places readers will see it
Minimize confusion and misinterpretation
Maintain a positive relationship with your readers

Make your writing accessible for a range of readers

Summary

For Discussion: From babble-speak to writing for real people

Chapter 2: Emphasizing the Bottom Line

What do we mean by “the bottom line?”

Why do so many writers fail to start off with the bottom line?

Put your bottom line in the title or subject heading

Exercise 2.1: Put the bottom line in subject headings

Begin paragraphs with your bottom line

Exercise 2.2: Begin paragraphs with the bottom line

Emphasize the bottom line with content-rich headings

When should you NOT put the bottom line up front?

For Discussion: Using AI to write denied requests

What if I don’t yet know my bottom line?

Summary

Exercise 2.3: Revise for the bottom line
For Discussion: Advantages and disadvantages of AI-generation texts

Chapter 3: Designing for the

For Discussion: Identify and analyze document design
Callout: Finding model texts

Break content into small chunks

Chunk text into small paragraphs

Use bulleted and ordered lists

Exercise 3.1: Chunk paragraphs into lists to make them easier to read

Use textual tables when appropriate

Avoid page breaks that orphan information belonging together
Exercise 3.2: Use if-then textual tables

Use heading styles to create an accessible outline of your structure

Exercise 3.3: Chunk lists with headings and subheadings

Use both vertical and horizontal whitespace to show relationships

Judiciously use font style, size, and color to reinforce relationships

Use research-based strategies to improve readability

Avoid large blocks of text with ALL-CAPS or italics font styles
Use left-aligned text and headings; avoid blocks of centered text

Avoid full justification

Using single spacing for most professional documents

Use conventional fonts that are familiar to your readers

Make your document design accessible: writing for all readers

Use visually simple fonts

Include ample whitespace

Use styles to mark major sections of documents

Create alt text for images and tables

Make links recognizable and descriptive

Use accessibility checkers

Exercise 3.3: Create accessible documents

Summary

Exercise 3.4: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 4: Writing Clear and Concise Sentences

Strategy 1: Put agent and action together near the beginning of sentences

Callout: Using first-person
For Discussion: Revise the following sentences to place agent and action closer together

Strategy 2: Reduce stacked prepositions

For Discussion: Reduce prepositions for clarity

Strategy 3: Avoid turning verbs and adjectives into nouns

For Discussion: Reduce nominalizations

Strategy 4: Reduce “to be” verbs

For Discussion: Use more impactful and precise verbs

Summary

For Discussion: Determine an appropriate revision strategy
Exercise 4.1: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 5: Clarifying Connections with Transitions and the Known-New Contract

The known-new contract: Begin with the familiar and end with the new

Begin sentences (and paragraphs) with known information

Callout: Good versus bad repetition
For Discussion: Analyze the known-new contract

Use echo links to connect to known information

Callout: Passive voice and the known-new contract

Avoid faking known information with vague pronouns (such as this and it)

Exercise 5.1: Use known-new contract to explicitly connect different ideas

Clarify connections with transitions

Exercise 5.2: Choose transitions to clarify logical connections

Use known-new and transitions to build connections across paragraphs

Callout: Will clarifying connections make my writing too easy to understand?

Summary

Exercise 5.3: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 6: Communicating with Precision

Strategy 1: How many? How much? Specify exact quantities

For Discussion: Identify imprecise language

Strategy 2: Specify what you are comparing to

For Discussion: Improve faulty comparisons

Strategy 3: Convey a precise level of certainty

Exercise 6.1: Identifying and modifying hedges

Avoid inappropriate intensifying language

Avoid inappropriate hedging language

Exercise 6.2: Analyze hedges and intensifiers

Strategy 4: Correctly position modifying information

Exercise 6.3: Shift location of modifiers
Exercise 6.4: Analyze and revise modifiers

Strategy 5: Use consistent (parallel) structure

For Discussion: Ensure headings and subheadings are parallel

Exercise 6.5: Maintain parallel structure

Summary

Exercise 6.6: Make sentences more precise
Exercise 6.7: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 7: Tone and the Impression You Make

Tone is uniquely challenging

Maintain a polite tone when making requests

Acknowledge choice with softening phrases
Express gratitude for the reader’s time

Provide context and justification

A revised request

For Discussion: Analyze tone
Example 7.1: Use a less demanding tone

Establish the right level of formality

Determine when to use an informal versus formal tone

For Discussion: Compare and assess tone
Exercise 7.2: Analyze level of formality

Project a positive (vs. a negative) tone

Focus on the future you would like to see

Eliminate negative words and replace them with positive ones

Use a dependent clause to de-emphasize the negative
When a negative tone is appropriate
Exercise 7.3: Use a positive tone

Avoid an egotistical or self-absorbed tone

Replace evaluative language with specific detail

Depersonalize and broaden the scope

For Discussion: Utilize depersonalized language
Callout: Experiment with different tones

Demonstrate cultural sensitivity

Use gender-neutral terms when possible

Emphasize individuals rather than disabilities or divergences

Listen to and use the terms individuals prefer when describing their own identity groups

Summary

Exercise 7.4: Analyze tone in your own writing

Chapter 8: The Right Stress: Ordering Sentences to Stress the Right Information

Use the ends of sentences to direct readers’ focus

Put information you want to stress at the end of sentences

Exercise 8.1: Rearrange to adjust emphasis
Exercise 8.2: Place new information in the stress position

Introduce complex technical information at the end of sentences

Callout: Reduce distance between agents and actions
For Discussion: End sentences with technical information

Introduce one technical term per sentence

Use concessive clauses to de-emphasize information

Exercise 8.3: Revise to alter emphasis

Use passive voice to de-emphasize people

For Discussion: Evaluation shifts in voice

Ethically present bad news

Summary

Exercise 8.4: Analyze and revise your writing

Chapter 9: Treating Punctuation as Information Management

Distinguish primary and secondary information

Four basic guidelines for commas as information management

1: Use commas to signal where the primary (essential) content begins

2: Use commas to separate secondary (nonessential) content from the primary sentence

3: Use commas to signal a change in direction

4: Use commas to separate two complete statements connected by a coordinating conjunction

Comma guidelines are not rules: their usage is not always clear-cut right or wrong

Exercise 9.1: Determine effective comma placement

Advanced information management: dashes, colons, and semicolons

Em dashes (—) function as high-visibility commas
Colons (:) signal elaboration
Semicolons (;) replace periods or separate complex items in a list
Exercise 9.2: Revise to eliminate punctuation mistakes

Bulleted and numbered lists as punctuation

Maintain consistent grammatical structure

Maintain consistent punctuation and capitalization

Use numbered lists when the order is important

Summary

Exercise 9.3: Analyze your own writing

Chapter 10: Proofreading and Editing Strategies

Edit for clarity

Use known-new to identify missing links and logical gaps
Search for “it” and “this”
Edit for stacked prepositions
Ask an AI program such as ChatGPT for suggestions

Proofread for language errors: Select strategies that work for you

Use grammar, spelling, and style checkers
Change your reading pattern: Read aloud or backward
Use AI to find the right word or phrase

Proofread for design errors

Check tables and figures
Check for parallelism and consistency
Check for page layout issues

Use an accessibility checker

Seek feedback

Summary

Exercise 10.1: Analyze your own writing

Product Updates

A style guide for business and technical writing

A brief guide to style-related topics for professional and technical writers, from choosing the right tone and emphasizing the bottom line to using punctuation. This flexible volume can be read cover to cover or used as a reference during any stage of the writing process.

Writing with Focus, Clarity, and Precision is a volume in The Bedford Series for Technical and Professional Communication, a set of flexible, affordable texts that provide research-driven coverage and real-world case studies and examples to help readers hone their writing and communication skills for a variety of technical and professional contexts. Other volumes in the series include:

Writing Proposals
Writing about Data
Team Writing, 2e
Equity and Communication

Related Titles

Team Writing

Joanna Wolfe; Chris Lam

The Bedford Bookshelf (1-Term Online)

Bedford/St. Martin's

Writing Proposals

Joanna Wolfe; Emily Barrow DeJeu

Writing about Data

Joanna Wolfe

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