Technical Writing — NASA’s list of “Weak Phrases”

When writing a technical document or specification, you should get rid of the following phrases whenever you can. They were found to be ineffective by NASA Software Assurance Technology Center:

• adequate
• as a minimum
• as applicable
• easy
• as appropriate
• be able to
• be capable
• but not limited to
• capability of
• capability to
• effective
• if practical
• normal
• provide for
• timely
• tbd