Wordiness in technical writing always makes for less effective writing, and so I’ve been posting about specific examples to illustrate that truth. For example, two months ago I posted about avoiding the wordiness inherent in phrases like on account of. The following week I stayed on that wordiness train by looking at where … at. This week that train makes another stop at the station of whether or not.
The words or not in whether or not serve no purpose. Whether already connotes a choice, so adding or not adds no meaning. Writers who use this expression dilute the power — and with it the effectiveness — of their writing. More effective writers will simply delete or not.
That means that the example sentence in the cropped graphic above is less effective. A more effective version would read
The words or not in whether or not serve no purpose. Whether already connotes a choice, so adding or not adds no meaning. Writers who use this expression dilute the power — and with it the effectiveness — of their writing. More effective writers will simply delete or not.
That means that the example sentence in the cropped graphic above is less effective. A more effective version would read
Regarding the question of whether corrosion was the root cause failure mode, our investigation suggests that fretting fatigue may play a more initial role.
Can you feel the difference between the example sentence in the cropped graphic and the sentence directly above? Avoiding unnecessary words produces stronger writing. So don’t be indecisive about whether or not. Tighter writing usually makes for more effective writing, and that will produce a more effective image of you and your brands.
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