Taking the Splatter out of Your Technical Writing

Three major ills of engineering writing are use of cliches, round-about expressions, and long, unfamiliar words. Articles containing such words and phrases are lengthy and tiresome to read, and often have their basic meaning obscured. Cliches, round-about expressions, and long words may be likened to solder splatter in a hand-wired chassis. Splatter gives the job an unprofessional appearance and may interfere with circuit operation. This article identifies many of the more common splatter-expressions that creep into engineering writing. It is based on a six-month study during which words and phrases deleted from articles published in Electronics magazine were accumulated and tabulated.