Trimming

One of the things I've noticed lately is how much I've been trimming out extra words. Sometimes these extra words show up as little intros to sentences; for example, in some topics a large percentage of sentences include a phrase like "you need to…" and then go on to give an instruction. In most cases those sentences are better starting just with the instruction:

Wordy:

To start the application, you need to double-click the .exe file.

Better:

To start the application, double-click the .exe file.

Sometimes the introduction to the topic starts off unfocused, and doesn't really get underway until two or three sentences in. It's as if the writer wants to warm up the reader with some background information, or other information that might have some interest, before getting to the point of the topic. Since what we do is mostly reference, the extra tidbits just tend to obscure the useful information, or just make it harder to use because of the extra cognitive burden of weeding out the unnecessary words. I think it's better to do the weeding for the reader.