When a draft is tightened, cautious words are often the first to go. “We expect the vendor may be able to deliver by the 15th” becomes “The vendor will deliver by the 15th.” It reads better — and it now promises something nobody has promised.
Three kinds of statement, kept apart
- Confirmed: someone accountable has said it in writing. State it plainly and, where useful, say who confirmed it.
- Estimated: a judgement based on current information. Say it is an estimate and what it is based on.
- Assumed or unknown: mark it as such — “to be confirmed by …” — rather than smoothing it into the sentence.
The migration will be completed by Friday with no downtime.
The vendor has confirmed the migration window (Friday, 10 PM–2 AM). They estimate no downtime; this has not been tested on our data yet — a test run is scheduled for Wednesday.
Clear does not mean confident
Uncertainty can be written clearly. “We don’t know yet; we will know by Wednesday” is a short, clear sentence. What makes writing unclear is not uncertainty itself but vagueness about which parts are uncertain.
A rule for editors and reviewers
An edit should never increase the certainty of the original information. If you are improving someone else’s draft and a cautious word looks unnecessary, ask the author before removing it. This is one of the rules every review at Clarify with Sapna follows.
Examples in this guide are fictional and written for teaching — not client material or measured results.
