75: LESSONS in WRITING

Today, we will look at a few aspects of good writing.

Words like 'if','of', and 'and' mainly develop relationships between words. Yet, writers use expressions like 'in conjunction with', in place of 'and' and 'when it is the case that' in place of 'if'. Or, writers tend to use ' a major portion of' in place of 'most'. An expression like ' in conjunction with' or 'as well as' does more than 'and'. When additional meaning is not involved 'and' will do the work. Look at the following:

We hope that these data in conjunction with the other will explain the unusal diode properties. We hope that these data and the other will explain the unusal diode properties. The most important feature of this communication system was the quality and reliability realized from the voice and teletype circuits. The most important feature of this communication system was the quality and reliability of the voice and teletype circuits. These consoles can take the normal shock and vibration encountered in shipping. These consoles can take the normal shock and vibration of shipping.

We can some times replace an infinitive with "for'. See the following:

To achieve high gain and phase inversion, transformer couple each stage. For high gain and phase inversion, transformer couple each stage. To pemit more reliable operation, we selaled the other vans. For more reliable operation, we selaled the other vans. To ensure a secure fit use the smaller hole. For a secure fit use the smaller hole. You need only 128 words to perform addition. You need only 128 words for addition.

See some other examples in which 'for' can be used:

Evaluate more promising systems with respect to speaker identification. Evaluate more promising systems for speaker identification. This is true only in the case of high-temperature . This is true only for high-temperature. Pursuant to contract BC 93-650, our plant delivered a processor. For contract BC 93-650, our plant delivered a processor. We have now seen that we can trim certain expressions to make staements clearer and look better. If you find this kind of exercise useful in shaping your writing we will continue this lesson in the next post.