My kick-ass presentation explaining my UBER approach to writing that will be Understood, Believed, Enjoyed, and Remembered.

1. Technical Writing Understood
Believed
That’s UBER Fantastic Enjoyed
Remembered
10 Myths, 10 Rules
Paul F. Stregevsky
Technical Writer,
Corporate Communications Division
DHS Science and Technology
Directorate
paul.stregevsky@associates.dhs.gov

2. Myth 1: I was always taught…
“Never use the passive voice!”
“Never use pronouns!”
“Do not use contractions!”
But which passage is more effective?
This? Or this?
DO NOT LITTER. If you’re caught
littering, you’ll be
fined and jailed.
Nothing can break The new
the new multiband multiband radio
radio. Nothing can can’t be broken. It
hack it. Nothing can’t be hacked. It
can jam it. can’t be jammed.

3. Myth 2: Nothing is wrong with my style.
“We are all so inclined to
think that our own
writing is clear that if our
readers struggle to
understand it, the
problem must be not our
deep writing but their
lazy reading.”
Joseph M. Williams, Style

4. Myth 3: By writing densely,
I’ll impress everyone.
“We listen to cops, firemen, and—”
No, too plain. Accio Obfuscation!
There: “Our customer-centric focus…”
Much better!

5. Myth 4: If I write vividly and clearly,
I won’t be taken seriously.
“Deleting an ‘I’ or a ‘we’
doesn’t make a scientist’s
thinking more objective. We
know that behind those
impersonal sentence are
flesh-and-blood researchers
doing, thinking, and
writing.”
Joseph M. Williams, Style

6. Myth 5: My readers have to read
what I wrote.
“But it’s so
BORING! And
DENSE!”
“Shad-dup!”

7. Myth 6: Clear writing is fine and
good, but not for my audience.
We are too august
to be addressed
“What we write always in the common tongue!
seems clearer to us than it
does to our readers,
because we can read into it
what we want readers to
get out of it.”
Joseph M. Williams, Style

8. Myth 7: I’m writing about technology.
Fact: It’s not about tools…. It’s about people!

9. The Turbo Encabulator

10. Myth 8: It’s my report, to write as I see fit.
Tara says: “Don’t waste my time with gobbledygook.
Write everything clearly. No exceptions!”
Plain Language Act of 2009:
 Use common, everyday words.
 Use you and other pronouns.
 Use the active voice.

11. Myth 9: My chief goal is to inform.
Be clear.
Be compelling.
Be credible.
Because…
Your chief goal is to persuade!
“What really counts, after all,
is not what we understand as
we read, but how well we
remember it the next day. “
Joseph M. Williams, Style

12. Myth 10: My readers care only
about facts.
“Clear and graceful “Spare me your pronouns,
writers are so few, analogies, and metaphors, for
I am a DHS stakeholder, with
that when we find
no use for the human touch.”
them, we are
desperately grateful
for them. They do
not go unrewarded.”
Joseph M. Williams,
Style

13. Your technical writing can be
UBER Fantastic!
Understood Believed Enjoyed Remembered
Marc antony eulogizes
Julius caesar

14. UBER Rule 1: Keep it human.
Instead of this: Write this:
The cause of our schools’ failure at Teachers fail to teach basic skills
teaching basic skills is not understanding because they don’t “get” how
the influence of cultural background on cultural background affects how
learning. kids learn.
Personnel…personnel who need People…people who need
personnel…are the luckiest personnel… people…are the luckiest people…
We, the personnel of the United States… We, the people…
will assist the law enforcement community will help police officers (or cops;
our men and women in blue)
government of the stakeholders, by the government of the people, by the
stakeholders, for the stakeholders… people, for the people…

15. UBER Rule 2: Paint a mental picture.

16. UBER Rule 3: Don’t confuse.
“Write not so that you can be understood,
but so that you cannot be
misunderstood.” —Francis Bacon
“Whatever can be written can usually be
written more clearly, with just a bit more
effort.” —Joseph M. Williams, Style
Instead of this: Write this:
The camera records imagery. The camera captures a continuous
movie or 1 photo every 15 seconds.
ROW-B will enable PTT calls on broadband At the push of a button, a citizen
mobile devices to connect to Project 25 LMR can use her Blackberry, iPhone, or
systems, allowing LMR users and broad- Droid to talk with responders who
band users to be on the same group call. use radios.

17. UBER Make the doer your subject;
Rule 4: make action your verb.
Instead of this: Write this:
Dear National Management Dear NMA,
Association: This member no longer I quit.
wishes to maintain his membership.
Decisions in regard to administration of When a patient comes to a trauma
medication despite inability of an center and behaves so irrationally that
irrational patient appearing in a Trauma he can’t legally consent to treatment,
Center to provide legal consent rest only the attending physician can
with the attending physician. decide whether to medicate him.
An understanding of the causal factors If we understood why some students
involved in excessive drinking by drink too much, we could treat them
students could lead to more effective more effectively.
treatment.

18. UBER If your writing bores you,
Rule 5: it will bore your readers.

19. UBER Rule 6:
Favor the singular.
Instead of this: Write this:
Using LED Incapacitators, law Using the LED Incapacitator, a
enforcement officers can take police officer can take down a
down rioters without injuring them. rioter without injuring him.
TechSolutions: Where first TechSolutions: Where a first
responders with ideas can be responder with an idea can be
heard. heard.

20. UBER Lose the PR/
Rule 7: Management-speak.
Instead of this: Write this:
We are committed to engaging our To protect Americans better, we’re
stakeholders to enhance the Nation’s listening to firefighters, EMTs, cops,
security. bomb squadders, and hazmat crews.
S&T leadership has instructed Our Under Secretary, Dr. Tara O’Toole,
management to … has enjoined each division manager…
Our customer-focused portfolio has We’re finding affordable ways to help
effectively facilitated a plan to leverage you work, and talk, with your fellow
responders’ resources, fusing disparate heroes, from fellow agencies, districts,
systems at the National, state, regional, and states.
local, and Tribal levels.
It is a collaborative effort between DHS We’ve teamed up with people who write,
and the standards community. use, and rely on standards…

21. Explaining the benefits of S&T’s
airflow tests in the Boston subway
With PR-Speak Free of PR-Speak
(WCVB News) (WBZ News)

22. UBER Use “metadiscourse”
Rule 8: to provide guideposts.
Use more qualifiers like this:
As we shall see,
Ironically,
For the most part,
However,
To put these numbers in perspective,
In other words,
By comparison,

23. UBER Rule 9: Use pictures liberally.
’Nuff said.

24. UBER Rule 10: Heed the Golden Rule of Style.
“We write well when we would
willingly experience what our readers
do when they read what we’ve
written. That puts the burden on us to
imagine our readers and their
feelings.”
Joseph M. Williams, Style
•Write to others as you would have others write to you.
•If we don’t want others to impose carelessly complex writing
on us, then we ought not to impose it on others.

25. Recommended Reading: Style