Omit all words and syllables that are nothing but empty calories.
Every word and character saved is a step toward more clarity. The only exception to this rule is: Don’t be concise at the expense of clarity. If you need more words to be more specific or to avoid ambiguity, go ahead and include them (see Add syntactic cues, Be clear about what you’re referring to, and Feel free to repeat a word).
The key to avoiding empty calories in your documents is to be aware why you may be tempted to add them:
▪When you aren’t sure about the facts that you describe, you might be tempted to conceal your uncertainty by adding something vague. ▪You might be tempted to impress your readers with your sophisticated language skills or with your profound domain knowledge. ▪You might be tempted to impress your boss with the number of pages that you’ve produced. ▪You might be tempted to impress customers with the number of pages because you think that a big manual makes your product look like it’s worth the money. ▪You just don’t care and write down something quickly because you don’t like writing manuals and want to complete this task as soon as possible. Resist these temptations.
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