Table of Contents

Refactoring English teaches everything I’ve learned about applying effective writing techniques to the domain of software.

Preface

• Why Improve Your Writing?

Part One: Writing Techniques

1. Get to the Point
2. Make Your Writing Sound Natural
3. Help the Reader Reach Their Goal
4. Meet the Reader Where They Are
5. Respect the Reader’s Mental Bandwidth
6. Use Headings to Create Structure
7. Verbs Drive the Sentence
8. Apply Positive Phrasing
9. Passive Voice Considered Harmful
10. Delete Aggressively
11. Eliminate Ambiguity
12. Improve Your Writing with AI
13. Overcome Writer’s Block
14. Stay in Flow State
15. Improve Your Grammar Incrementally

Part Two: Document-Specific Guides

16. Write Emails with Less Noise and Better Results
17. Write Blog Posts that Developers Read
18. Find Customers Through Blogging
19. Write Effective Design Documents
20. Create Clear, Pleasant Software Tutorials
21. Write Useful Commit Messages
22. Write Compelling Software Release Announcements