From the Book - Regular Print - Fourth edition.
Analyzing the audience, purpose, and occasion : Analyze who your audience is, why they are reading and what they know ; Analyze how much persuasion your document requires ; Account for the document's occasion: the form, formality, and politics
Balancing precision with clarity : Choose the right word ; Avoid needless complexity ; Balance precision and clarity in illustrations
Avoiding ambiguity : Avoid words with multiple interpretations ; Consider the ordering of words, especially the word only ; Be selective with it and avoid the standalone this ; Insert commas after introductory phrases and clauses
Sustaining energy : Select energetic verbs ; Rely on concrete nouns ; Be concise
Connecting your ideas : Begin each new sentence in a way that connects with the one before ; Integrate equations into paragraphs ; Connect illustrations with the text
Beginning with the familiar : Select a first sentence that not only orients, but also takes a significant step ; Map sections in which readers could become lost ; If you cannot avoid an unfamiliar term, then define it ; Anchor illustrations in the familiar
Organizing the content for the audience : A title specifies the scope of the work ; The introduction prepares readers for the middle ; The middle presents the work in a logical and persuasive fashion ; The conclusion summarizes the middle and provides a future perspective
Providing proper emphasis : Emphasize details with wording ; Emphasize details with repetition ; Emphasize details with placement ; Move larger blocks of secondary information into appendices
Adapting your style to emails, instructions, and proposals : An effective email is a balance between I and you ; Instructions rely on numbered lists ; A proposal is an argument for how to solve a problem
Using your writing time efficiently : Preparation puts you into a position to succeed ; For long documents, draft at least one page a day ; Revising allows writers who struggle to create documents that excel ; Finishing focuses on correcting, not on improving
