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Subject:RE: Teaching a practical business writing class From:"Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com> To:"Technical Writing Plus" <doc-x -at- earthlink -dot- net>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:53:21 -0500
Time for my favorite (OK, only :) Robert Southey quote:
"If thou wouldst be pungent, be brief -- for it is with words as it is
with sunbeams: The more they are condensed, the more they burn."
Jim
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+jim -dot- pinkham=voith -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Technical Writing Plus
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 11:46 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Teaching a practical business writing class
Those two things are both true. Writing, and editing (I guess that I am
more of an editor), both involve balancing. You can choose to make
something elegantly (nay, cryptically?) short or wordingly long.
I've edited things imperfectly - by which I mean: if I had my druthers I
would have made the English as succinct and to the point as possible,
but owing to time commitments and client budget constraints, I could not
go and re-do everything.
Reminds me of another aphorism: If you cannot say it in just a few
words, then perhaps it is not worth saying.
Jim Jones mandarinspeak.posterous.com
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:17 AM
Reminds me of something attributed to George Bernard Shaw: "I'm sorry
this letter is so long, I didn't have time to make it shorter."
"If the same idea can be expressed in a simple way or in a complex way,
the simple way is better--and, paradoxically, it will typically lead
readers to conclude that the writer is smarter." Bryan Garner, Garner's
Modern American Usage (2003)
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual authors
and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write once, publish
to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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