Re: Need a little help in wording

Subject: Re: Need a little help in wording
From: Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:51:02 -0800

On 12/24/2011 5:24 PM, William Sherman wrote:

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

My family celebrated Christmas yesterday and I'm giving myself a reprieve from any other festivities for a bit. Thinky stuff relaxes me.

Diversified in this sentence:

The most diversified adaptation that plants have are their leaves which can do amazing things such as capture water, change colors, and act as the fingerprint of the plant.

This sentence seems like its capturing some complex details about plants, so it would seem that most changes to the sentence could risk changing the meaning. There is the assertion of "diversified adaptation" and the details of what leaves do. I favor simplifying the sentence by isolating the complexity. This can even become two sentences for lower grade readers by replacing "which," in my example, with a sentence break and "Plant leaves" to start the next sentence.

"A plant's most diversified adaptation is its leaves, which can do amazing things, such as capture water, change colors, and act as the fingerprint of the plant."

Herbivorous in this sentence:

Just like plants, animals have specialized adaptations to help them survive the ever-changing challenges of nature. Some examples of adaptations that animals have are - herbivorous animals like horses or cows have flat teeth to help them grind up grasses;

That second sentence lost a little bit of traction, didn't it?

The first sentence seems fine. I hope there are three or more examples for the second sentence. Since you are discussing the adaptions, each list item should begin with the adaptation, rather than the animal that has the adaptation.

"Examples of adaptations that animals have are: flat teeth for herbivorous animals like horses and cows to help them grind up grasses; ..."


Diversified in this sentence:

Lungs help animals to breath on land while other animals use gills to breath under water.

Finally, the most diversified physical characteristics of many animals are their feathers,

That one inspires a "huh?" moment.

The sentence really needs to focus on what is "diversified." Is it the "physical characteristics," the animals that possess diversification of physical characteristics, or feathers. And what is the role of "many animals"? Is it the case that many animals have a most diversified characteristic of feathers, while some animals do not? Do those animals have a least diversified characteristic of feathers?

Perhaps, this will help...

"Feathers are probably the most diversified physical characteristic found in animals..."

Lauren








^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications? Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions? Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives


References:
Need a little help in wording: From: William Sherman

Previous by Author: Re: WORD weirdness
Next by Author: Re: Need a little help in wording
Previous by Thread: RE: Need a little help in wording
Next by Thread: Re: Need a little help in wording


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads