Re: extra words: unnecessary or educational?

["Chuck Martin" <cm -at- writeforyou -dot- com>]

To answer the question: it depends. Among other things, it depends on both
the complexity of the message and the capability of the audience.

That said, even though it wasn't asked, I think the sentence can be made
clearer by being made even shorter, something along the lines of:

D
You can transfer files between your workstation and the system that runs the
transmission program.

Chuck Martin


<pdenchfield -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote in message news:210772 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 

> If deleting words from a sentence doesn't change meaning, is there ever a
> reason to keep them? I say yes. "Extra words" can facilitate quick
> learning.
>
> For example, I would choose paragraph A below for ease of learning--the
> lengthy chunk of information is set off as a parenthetical element that
> the reader can skip.
>
> A
> When you access the transmission program from a connected workstation, you
> can transfer files from the system's hard disk to the workstation or in
> the reverse direction (from workstation to hard disk).
>
> B
> When you access the transmission program from a connected workstation, you
> can transfer files from the system's hard disk to the workstation or in
> the reverse direction.
>
> C
> When you access the transmission program from a connected workstation, you
> can transfer files from the system's hard disk to the workstation or from
> the workstation to the hard disk.