Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Additional memory can lead to faster response, but user surveys have
indicated that it is not required.
Faster response is possible with additional memory, but user surveys
have indicated that it is not required.
The first version, which has the stress on “additional memory”, incorrectly implies
that users had commented on memory rather than response. Since the sentence is
about “response”, that is where the stress should be.
Explicit stress can be provided with italics, but is almost never necessary. Don't
italicize words
unnecessarily
—let sentence structure provide the emphasis. Few
papers require explicit stress more than once or twice. DON'T use capitals for
emphasis. Some authors use the word “emphatic” to provide emphasis, as in “which
are emphatically not equivalent”. Other words used in this way are “certainly” and
“indeed”. The resulting wordiness weakens rather than strengthens; use of this form
of emphasis should be rare.
Italicized passages of any length are hard to read. Rather than italicize a whole
sentence, say, stress it in some other way: italicize one or two words only, or make
it the opening sentence of a paragraph.
When a key word is used for the first time, consider placing it in italics.
The data structure has two components, a
vocabulary
containing all of the
distinct words and, for each word, a
hit list
of references.
Definitions
Terminology, variables, abbreviations, and acronyms should be defined or explained
the first time they are used. Definitions should be specific and concrete. Don't create
questions by giving definitions that refer to concepts that are unknown or uncertain.
Use a consistent format for introducing new terminology. Implicit or explicit
emphasis on the first occurrence of a new word is often helpful, because it stresses
what is being introduced.
We use homogeneous sets to represent these events.
The reader has not been told that “homogeneous” is a new term that is about to be
defined, and may look back for an explanation.
We use
homogeneous
sets to represent these events.
To represent these events we use homogeneous sets, whose members are
all of the same type.
It can be helpful to give multiple explanations or illustrations of unfamiliar concepts.
Compaction, in contrast to compression, does not preserve information; that
is, compacted data cannot be exactly restored to the original form.
