nas5w
First Page Feedback
Hey, I'm the guy that got confronted on Reddit for providing feedback lol. I wasn't able to get this written up sooner, but at least it's here and not just pretensious reddit comments. I intended on providing feedback and suggestions/corrections for the whole guide but there's no way I'll be able to with my current schedule. Here is some criticisms to get you started. The general theme of these should be applicable to the rest of the guide and serve as an indicator for possible things to look for. There were more grammar related things in later sections but I won't be able to get to them. I wish I was able to provide content related suggestions. Overall, these corrections cover the first page and are mostly word choice and redundancy related unfortunately.
I've organized information by sections.
In case it's hard to notice, I've used bolding to point out offending words.
Welcome to my interview guide!
Contractions: Your issue here, which will be a recurring theme, is the use or nonuse of contractions. There is no hard rule regarding contractions. For a formal publication, such as this article, it is commonly recommended to avoid using contractions. However, contractions add an informal and personal tone to the writing. Therefore, you may want to employ them since you are sharing your personal experiences and opinions.
I would suggest that you decide when to use contractions, when not to, and to stick to that rule. Throughout the article you mix contractions and noncontractions in the same sentence. This is okay, but it's apparent to the reader when you're trying to sound more official and when you don't care about the formality of your tone. Often, this actually leads to less readability and is jarring because it creates phrases that would not be spoken by someone in the informal. You get the reader used to the informal tone, and then you switch to the formal tone and full-length spelling in the middle of the sentence and then switch back.
Example: "My name is Nick and I'm a ... I have participated...".
This is an example of the opposite where you use formal>informal>formal. Again this is okay and a stylistic choice, but I feel that there is not a choice being made here and is therefore not a style, just poor use.
Wording: "...participated in around 100"
Possible correction: Use the word approximately instead, it's a better indicator that this is an approximation of a number. Around is less accurate than approximately and it generally sounds more professional. As an engineer you make approximations to be as precise as you can, not general guesses using words like around.
Wording: "This guide is my attempt to codify..."
I don't believe that the word codify is the right word here. You aren't reducing your opinion to a code or a set of rules to be followed. You're articulating it and sharing it in the form of an article, not making a policy or set of rules.
Possible replacements: articulate, state, share, classify, categorize, distribute, break down, highlight, enunciate, express, voice
Redundant Wording: In the green warning box, you say: "These are my own views" and "Everything in this guide represents my own views"
It is redundant to use the word own, in both the title and the body. It is obvious that someone's views are their own and it is not necessary to state that these are your own views.
Possible Correction: "These are my views" and "Everything in this guide represents my views"
Wording: In the green warning box, you say: "... and not the views of any of my current or past employers."
The use of the word 'any' is not necessary here. Any should only be used to make clear some uncertainty around unknown groups/members, but here there is none.
Wording: In the green warning box:
Consider the use of the words opinion and the word view.
The word view has multiple meanings, in this context it means how you see things about a subject.
The word opinion has one meaning, that is, what you believe to be true, formed in your mind from your experiences, about a particular matter.
Opinion is a stronger word, but you should choose which you prefer. Here is what I think about the difference; Lots of people have a view about software engineering, and I don't care about their "view". But you have an opinion on the matter that was formed from experience and that's something to care about. It's more valuable than a view. I think that opinion is a better word choice.
Here is two examples for complete rewrites for the green warning box:
These are my opinions The information in this guide represents my opinion and does not represent my current or former employers.
These are my opinions This guide represents my findings and does not in any form represent my current or former employers.
Wording: "This resource is, and will always be, free of charge."
The form you use is not wrong, it's just uncommon and typically used for another phrasing structure.
Possible correction: "This resource is, and always will be, free of charge."
This is the more common phrasing.
The more correct form would actually be: "This resource is, and will be always, free of charge."
For the verb be, always should proceed it. For a sentence containing two verbs, this forces the adverb 'always' to be after the second verb.
I would go with the common phrasing above. It reads nicer in my opinion. But your initial form also places greater emphasis but at the detriment of readablity.
Wording "..., there may be still be some beneficial sections of this guide; however, much of it may not be applicable."
Issue 1: Wording "may be still be" - It's obviously just a typo and needs corrected.
Issue 2: Wording "there may be still"
Correction: "there still may be" The adverb should come before the copula.
Issue 3: Redundancy and Wordiness Consider the following example to help reduce the length of this sentence yet maintain clairity.
"..., there may still be some benefit to this guide."
In your original, you say there may be beneficial sections and then add that much of it is probably not applicable. You don't need to state that. By stating there may be some benefit, it implies that the rest is not beneficial/applicable, therefore it's redundant to explicitly state and it adds unnecessary length.
Wording and Wordiness "There are a number of incredible existing resources that I believe tend to be too comprehensive to be directly actionable."
Possible corrections: "There exists many resources which I believe tend to be too comprehensive to lead to action."
"There exists too many resources that tend to be exhaustive."
"There exists too many exhaustive resources. I believe these detract from digestibility and actionability despite the author's intentions."
Also, since you've brought up the comprehensiveness or length of other resources, you should make a statement about your guide's style/length and potentially why it's more beneficial to the reader than those other resources. You currently just move on.
Wording and Tense "The niche I'm trying to fill is providing my specific, opinionated process for prepping for interviews."
Issue 1: Conjunction "...specific, opinionated"
This should use a regular conjunction (and) instead of a comma.
Correction: "...specific and opinionated process for...".
Issue 2: Tense Trying to fill implies the action is not done. Thus, if you intend to keep this tense, when you say provide, it should be worded as to provide.
I would argue though that you have done the action, since your guide exists, and that you should use the present tense or past tense.
Possible corrections: "By providing my specific and opinionated process for interview preparation, I'm filling the niche of personal interview experience and opinion."
"Instead, this guide fills the niche of personal interview preparation through my specific and opinionated process."
Wordiness "My way of doing things won't work for everyone,...".
Correction: "My methods won't work for everyone,...".
Wordiness "But if you like my process, I'm hoping this guide is very actionable."
Possible correction: "I hope that my methods may resonate with you and this guide can prove to be useful."
Example of all of the above implemented: "There exists too many exhuastive resources. I believe these tend to detract from digestibility and actionability despite the author's intentions. Instead of being exhaustive, this guide fills the niche of personal interview preparation through my specific and opinionated process. My methods won't work for everyone, and that's okay! Despite that, I hope that my methods may resonate with some and this guide can prove to be useful."
Wording
Overall this section just needs rewritten to more cohesively prove your point.
Issue 1: "This guide isn't too long, so my recommendation is to read it front-to-back at first."
By saying at first, it implies that other steps should follow. Then what should we do? You simply move onto a tangentially related point.
This shows what I mean that all of your points are here in this section but are ordered and related poorly.
Second, "so my recommendation is to" can be simply replace by "so I recommend".
Possible rewrite: There is stylistic choice here, as well as word selection. One of those being replacing front-to-back with fully or completely as well as changing the word order.
"This guide isn't too long, so I recommend to first read it completely." <- intro/length/first step
"This will expose you to my opinion and methods, which may not work for you." "Even if you find that this guide is not applicable, I believe it contains many concepts that will stick with you and that exposure to them is beneficial." "After your first read through, you should check back to relevant sections during your preparation."
I'm sure there's grammatical issues in my commit itself, please ignore those. I hope these can be helpful. Please take them as suggestions and not absolutes or rules.
Thank you again for your efforts and for creating an article to give back to the community.
EDIT: One other thing I wanted to include was that later in the sections, I found multiple instances of a whitespace followed by a period. You may want to search for that. Another option would be to literally copy the section's content into word and it can highlight all of these common mistakes. Take advantage of the employer's tools!
