: Re: How can you write less to say more? Sometimes you can write a lot without saying anything, sometimes you can say a lot but get little through the reader. In technical writing the later is

@Shanna875

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The techniques are no different than for any type of writing, really. You write everything there is to know about the topic down in the first draft, then you go back and cut out what isn't needed. Once you have everything in front of you, it will be much easier to see what should be there and what shouldn't. Do they really need to know that there are twelve different kinds of widgets? That each has a different process for manufacturing? Do they need to know that here? Cut about half the words on the page (and I'm not kidding, 50% the words in your first draft are probably not carrying their own weight) and rearrange your text around so that the most urgent, important stuff is in the front and the nice-to-knows are closer to the back.

Now give it to someone who knows nothing about widgets and see if by the end they know something. While someone with no prior knowledge may not know how to build a widget by the end, if they understand what it is and that there are a dozen different kinds and that a sand widget is the most interesting of the bunch, you are on the right path.

One of the things to keep in mind is that your reader is probably pretty smart, maybe even smarter than you, just less knowledgeable about this subject. Don't worry about those that aren't. You are more likely to alienate both readers if you try to over-explain things to them. Readers don't want to be coddled, they want to be shown.

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