Precise Language in Technical Documents
Published: 28 August 2013
Last week, I listened to a radio program about distracted driving. One of the experts on the show said that in a recent poll, the majority of respondents said they no longer consider drunk driving “a serious threat.” Her point was that public awareness of the dangers of drunk driving seems to be waning, but I found myself thinking, “how did the respondents interpret the word ‘threat’ and how did that affect their answers?”
For example, did some people think of ‘threat’ as personal physical danger? Did other people think of a threat as a statistically relevant problem for society as a whole? Did the survey define “threat” so that all respondents had the same understanding?
Considering these questions got me thinking about how important it is to use precise language in technical writing. Technical documents communicate information that readers must understand exactly:
Imprecise language confuses readers and weakens the message. For example, I recently edited a report that included this sentence: “Set the protective string straight after the liner.”
The phrase “straight after” is imprecise because it is has several common meanings. Readers could have any of the following interpretations:
Revising the sentence to use the clearest language possible helps ensure that all readers understand your exact meaning. In this example, the intended meaning was “Set the protective string immediately after setting the liner.”
With documents, you don’t get a chance to clarify your meaning by answering questions. You have to communicate everything with the words you use. Writing what you mean, as precisely as possible, is vital to writing technical documents that people can actually use.
Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN). “Avoid legal, foreign, and technical jargon.” Accessed August 28, 2013. http://www.plainlanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/FederalPLGuidelines/writeNoJargon.cfm