The Ten Commandments for Technical Requirements: VI. Santa is Not The Only Clause

Scot Witt, Sunday, August 19, 2007 @ 1:43 pm

You know what a clause is? Yep, part of a sentence. There
are all sorts of clauses. Dependent clauses, independent clauses, noun clauses,
verb clauses, object clauses and on and on.

Trouble is, if you include a clause in a sentence, the
reader has to stop and decode it.

Let me digress a little here to explain the point. I love academics. They think they really know. Here's David Godfrey writing about Harold Innis' Communications Theory:

One sometimes wonders if the influence of books is inverse proportion to their clarity. Write simply and you may soon ber forgotten. But combine just the right mixture of ambiguity, obtuse allusion, complex theory and authoritarian tone and you create a work which successive generations of scholars can debate and reinterpret forever, thus ensuring the potnetial of influence if not influence itself.

Sort of the pot calling the kettle black, eh?

Remember reading Washington Irving or Fennimore Cooper the first time? Remember you didn't like it much? I suggest the reason was long sentences with a lot of clauses.

I was trained and have extensive experience as a broadcast news writer. The rules are simple:

1. Avoid every clause you can.
2. Split the sentence into two simpler sentences if you think you have to use a clause.
3. If you have to include a clause, put it at the beginning or end of the sentence.

As for Messrs. Irving and Cooper's sentence lengths? When you reach ten words, think about wrapping it up. If you go over 15 words, think about splitting up the sentence.

Obviously there are exceptions- so use your judgement. But I never got less than a B+ on a college paper. And very few ask me, 'What does this sentence mean?'

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Related posts:

1. The Ten Commandments for Technical Requirements: VII: Presentation: The Art of Gladness
2. Writing Technical Requirements: The Fifth Commandment
3. Writing Technical Requirements: The First Commandment
4. Commandment IV: Keep Business Rules Simple Unto All The Rules of Your Life
5. Writing Technical Requirements: The Second Commandment

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