Lesson 5
Plain, Exact Sentences
Say who did what, cut the hedge stack and replace vague words with the figure or the date.
Builds on
Ready for what?
Dan’s builder texts: “Kitchen’s basically finished.” Can the family cook in it tonight? Should Dan pay the final invoice? Book the tiler? The sentence is short and friendly, and it answers none of those questions, because “basically finished” isn’t a claim anyone can check.
Vague words leave the reader to guess the claim, and readers tend to guess in their own favour. Dan hears “finished”; the builder meant “finished apart from the worktop seal and the extractor fan”. Exact words take a little longer to write and save the argument later.