See Advanced Grammar Checking in Action!
« Making Your Points Positively | Home | Nominalizations And Their Misuse »
Business Documents: Reduce Cross-Referencing To A Minimum
When writing long business documents, especially ones filled with charts and tables, it’s very convenient to cross-reference information while you’re writing. Instead of detailing the facts of a situation again, many simply point the reader to a previous reference to it.
Takes this paragraph, for example:
The device comes with a built-in worldwide 3D map (for the details of the design, refer to the appendix at the end) complete with functionalities that come in accordance with technical standards as set forward in provision 11.4.
On the surface, cross-referencing may seem like an efficient technique, one that even an English writing software will probably let by. Why bother writing something multiple times when you can just point to it, right? In practice, however, especially for long documents, it’s painful to read.
I blame the school system. When I was going to high school, good term papers always used cross-referencing to pontificate facts. While making the writing seem formal, it was a bad habit that is wholly disastrous when excessively indulged in.
As a rule, cross referencing may be acceptable when you’re referring to items that cannot be described in a single sentence. Good examples include complex references, such as charts, tables and graphs. If the reader only needs to know a small segment of the information, though, such as a couple of statistics from the chart, it’s usually best to state it directly.
If retyping a couple of sentences will effectively convey what the cross-reference does, always choose to just do it. Keeping it to a bare minimum is a must if you want people to actually pay attention to what you’ve written.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.