Three things to strive for in technical writing are clarity, brevity, and conciseness. Whether it’s an email, a blog post, or message, keeping these three qualities in mind can help ensure effective communication with the audience. The idiom “Keep it short and sweet” is a helpful reminder and a good start but what is meant by “sweet” in this context?
Technical writing is different from other forms of writing in that its purpose is to convey technical information, often from an expert author to an audience with lesser expertise. Its purpose may also be communicating ideas to a group of technical peers.
Clarity
Writing must be easy to understand or it won’t achieve its purpose. One thing that can lead to misunderstanding is ambiguity. Take for example, the following sentence:
I saw a man on a hill with a telescope.
Who had the telescope? Me, the man, or the hill? Who was on the hill? Me or the man? One technique I use is to read my writings from the perspective of a novice. Pick someone you know who doesn’t have have much knowledge in the area and re-read your piece from their perspective. Where will they be confused? Where can you add clarity?
Brevity
How much of a time commitment are you asking the reader to make? Does your article really need to be that long? How many topics are you covering? Are you going off on tangents? Are you providing unnecessary detail?
Some topics do require more length than others and there is no hard guideline for how long the writing should be. But always keep length in mind and be respectful of the reader.
Conciseness
Conciseness is a measure of the efficiency of your writing – your ability to convey information in as few words as possible. My approach is to not worry about conciseness in my first draft but focus on this during revisions. Often I can cut a significant amount of fat from the piece without losing any valuable content. Be sure you don’t ramble on, go off on unnecessary tangents, or get too wordy.
Keep it Short and Sweet
So what does “sweet” mean in this context? Sweetness in technical writing is a combination of clarity and conciseness. Keeping your technical writing short (brief) and sweet (clear and concise) will help make your readers happy and keep them coming back for more.