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Home > Guidelines > 1. Trim that Text! > 1h. Beware of cutting so far that you make the text ambiguous. > Challenges + Answers |
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ChallengesClarify (a) As core technology activities mature, they will be terminated, as one might expect, following carefully designed implementation schedules, by transfer to the applied projects area. Answer => (b) When the objects’ message handlers learn parameters, options, or arguments don’t match criteria, personnel receiving message turndowns revise or cancel original messages. Answer=>
(c) The mathematicians assumed values for the variables (specifically those for dollar amounts, unit prices, totals, and running totals) should not be specified, or had not been defined. Answer => (d) The engineers regularly maintained the software, which had been written years before using COBOL, was such spaghetti that no one could safely repair it. Answer => |
Answers
(a) When an activity in one of our core technologies becomes mature, we will transfer it to the applied projects area, following a carefully designed schedule.
(c) The mathematicians assumed that they should not specify values for variables such as dollar amounts, unit prices, totals, and running totals. So the team did not define these values. (d) The engineers who maintained the software said that the old COBOL code was such spaghetti that no one could safely repair it. |
Reflecting on Brevity
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Other ways to trim that
text 1a. Cut any paper-based text by 50%. 1c. Make some sentences short. 1d. Make most paragraphs short. 1f. Move vital but tangential or supplemental material. 1g. Convert repeating categories of information into tables.
Resources on brevity |
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