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Technical writing skills: How to write concise sentences and paragraphs transcript
Scientific Writing School · @ScientificWritingSchool
Published November 3, 20212:273.6K views
Transcript analysisComputed from the caption text
Words
361
Runtime
2:27
Speaking pace
147wpm
Reading time
2min
147 words per minute, below the 160 25th percentile of 349 measured videos. That distribution comes from the 349-video hook study.
Opening (first 30 seconds)
Hello, scientific writers! Today I would like to give you a few technical writing tips. We're going to talk about some problems with writing style that add unnecessary length, either to your sentences or to your paragraphs. Being concise is very hard for a lot of writers. How do you do it? These are some tips that will help you make your sentences and paragraphs more concise. The first one is more than one
74 words, the words spoken in the first 30 seconds at 147 words per minute.
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Sentence shape
| Measure | This transcript |
|---|---|
| Sentences | 37 |
| Average words per sentence | 9.8 |
| Longest sentence | 22 words |
| Questions asked | 7 |
| Sentences containing a number | 0 |
Most used terms
- sentences6
- writing5
- tell4
- find3
- irrelevant3
- passive3
- person3
- tips3
- unnecessary3
- voice3
- concise2
- directly2
Filler phrases
1 in total: like 1.
A literal whole-word count of the same phrase list the Prepublish browser extension uses, so a phrase inside another word is not counted and a phrase used in its ordinary sense still is. It is a count and not a judgement.
What this transcript is
Every word below is the caption track YouTube publishes for this video, pulled from the video itself and reproduced unchanged. It is not Prepublish's writing, not a summary, and not a re-transcription: it is the video's own published captions. English captions, published by the channel, in the video’s original language. Source: the video on YouTube. A channel that would rather this page did not exist can ask for its removal through the contact page, and it is removed.
No Script X-ray for this video: YouTube shows a Most replayed graph only once a video has enough views.
Transcript
Hello, scientific writers! Today I would like to give you a few technical writing tips. We're going to talk about some problems with writing style that add unnecessary length, either to your sentences or to your paragraphs. Being concise is very hard for a lot of writers. How do you do it? These are some tips that will help you make your sentences and paragraphs more concise. The first one is more than one idea per sentence.
This is going to make your sentences too long and not very readable. So when you find that you have more than one idea per sentence, break it up into two sentences. Secondly, wordiness. Can you say things more directly, or are you committing circumlocution; talking around the problem instead of going directly to it? Third, do you have words that are redundant or repetitive? Look for those, find them, and cut them. Fourth, statements of the obvious or unnecessary explanation.
Is this something that you're just putting in for filler? Do the readers already know this? Take it out. Fifth, metadiscourse and overview sentences. Telling the readers what you're going to tell them before you tell them, and then telling them what you told them. You don't need to do this. Just tell them. So metadiscourse is talking about what you're going to talk about. Unnecessary qualification. Are you using weasel words?
Are you going back and forth and saying, perhaps it might be this way? It's better to write with certainty. Passive verbs and passive voice make sentences longer and harder to read. So change it to active voice most of the time. Using third person instead of first person goes hand in hand with passive voice. It's okay to use first person in modern scientific writing. People that tell you it's not okay need to go and check the literature and see that it's done all the time.
And finally, including irrelevant material in your writing. Find that irrelevant material, stay on focus, stay on task. Take out that irrelevant stuff and make it shorter. Alright, I hope these tips were helpful. I'll see you next time, and happy writing! you
The words are the caption track's own and nothing is reworded or re-transcribed. Paragraph breaks are placed between sentences so the text reads as prose.
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