--- title: Information density description: What to cut from a passage, what never to cut, and how to keep a compressed sentence unambiguous --- # Information density Read this when a passage is dense and still reads long, or when cutting it keeps breaking the sentences. Density is claims per sentence rather than words per sentence, so a short passage carrying one claim four times is the failure this reference addresses. ## What to cut - A sentence restating the one above it at a different altitude. Machine prose states the specific claim, then the general version of it, then the reason it matters. - A setup clause that names what the next clause already names. `In terms of performance, the query is slow` carries one claim and two subjects. - A qualifier that changes no truth condition. `Generally`, `in most cases`, and `typically` earn their place where an exception exists and gets named, and nowhere else. - An example that demonstrates the same thing as the example above it. Two examples differ in what they teach or one of them goes. - A transition that names the relationship the sentences already carry. `Additionally` before an addition adds nothing. ## What never to cut - The verb. A compressed clause with the verb removed is a fragment, and the fragment is the failure the rhythm rules exist against. - A qualifier that bounds a claim. `Every tracked markdown file` and `most files` are different claims, and dropping the bound is a fabrication rather than a compression. - The named source of a claim, and the date or ref a measurement was taken at. A number with no stamp cannot be re-measured, so it stops being evidence. - The actor of a sentence that has one. Compressing to the passive removes the fact rather than the words. ## Keeping a compressed sentence unambiguous Compression is what creates ambiguity, so each pass over a tightened sentence checks the same four things: - Resolve every pronoun and demonstrative to a noun when more than one antecedent is in reach. `This breaks the build` after two clauses names neither. - Attach every modifier to the word it modifies. A clause that moved during a rewrite lands next to the wrong noun and reads as a claim about it. - Quantify an amount rather than naming it. `Large`, `often`, and `slow` each ask the reader to supply the number. - Split a sentence carrying two claims joined by `and` when either claim can be false on its own. One sentence per truth condition is what makes a passage checkable. ## Measuring a paragraph Count the claims a paragraph makes and the sentences it uses. More sentences than claims means the paragraph is padded, and the cut targets the restatements above. Fewer sentences than claims means the paragraph is compressed past the point a reader can check it, and the split targets the joined sentences. A paragraph carrying no claim at all is a transition, and a transition earns one sentence at most.