Writing Guide

呂不韋乃使其客人人著所聞，集論以為八覽、六論、十二紀，二十餘萬言,以為備天地萬物古今之事，號曰呂氏春秋。布咸陽市門，懸千金其上，延諸侯游士賔客有能增損一字者予千金。– 史記 呂不韋列傳第二十五

Lü Buwei ordered … to write a book called Lü’s Annals, recording anything that has taken place under the heaven and since the creation. (After it was finished) The book was exhibited in the market. Anyone that can delete or add one word into it was rewarded with thousands of gold, which was hanged above it. – The Records of the Grand Historian, Sima Qian

The ultimate standard for tutorial like this is to make it informative, succinct, easy to read, and enjoyable to read, ranking in the descending order of importance.

To put it rhetorically, the removal of any one word will hamper the passage, while the inclusion of another will make it redundant.

The goal is not, however, either to make this writing a piece of grand style literature of Shakespeare or Walter Scott, or to make it like an encyclopedia with only boring facts.

informative

A passage is informative if it provides good informations. Delete every sentence that does not to acheive this.

Succinct

A succint passage is an informative passage that is short. The goal is to express the same information in fewest words without losing any quality or making the writing awkward.

Here is a non-succint passage:

The common standard for a piece of succinct writings is that it can express a lot of information in relatively small number of words, while at the same time expressing the same idea without losing any details or make the writing bad in expression.

In general I believe all writing shall be succinct, particularly technical writings.