Question

“How to Prevent Onions from Making You Cry”

1. Chill the onions in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before peeling or chopping them. Sulfuric vapors move slower in the cold: think about how garbage smells worse during hot weather.

2. Leave the onion root intact until the last possible minute to prevent irritants from escaping into the air. The root contains the largest concentration of sulfuric compounds in an onion.

3. Chop or cut the onion with a sharp knife. Fast, clean slicing puts less pressure on the onion tissue and minimizes the release of sulfuric compounds. A sharp knife also allows you to expedite your slicing and reduces your exposure to the onion fumes.

4. Open a window or light a scented candle close to your chopping station. The hot flame of a candle attracts tear-causing vapor and reduces the amount of vapor circulating in the air.



Imagine that these instructions are intended to be included as a sidebar to a recipe using onions. What can be done to make these instructions more concise?

Answer 1

While some of the descriptive details included in the instructions are interesting, they are not really useful in the context of a cookbook, especially as a sidebar. Deleting the extra information and leaving only the first sentence of each step would make it easier to read and understand quickly.

Answer 2

The answer is Deleting the information that is not necessary

Explanation:

A sidebar refers to the information placed on one side of an article, book or any other printed or web publication, usually use to add extra information related to the main content in a concise way, this can include quotes, lists, instructions, among others. In this case, the sidebar is used to give instruction to the readers on how to prevent onions from making them cry, considering instructions are lists of steps to carry out a process and should be clear and concise and besides the sidebar should only include information in a concise way, only key information should be included. In this way, the explanation of why each of the points in the sidebar work is not necessary but only the instruction itself it means the first sentence of each point. For example, the first point should be 1. Chill the onions in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before peeling or chopping them, as the rest is only extra information not required to follow the instructions. Thus, a way to make these instructions more concise is to delete the information that is not necessary, which is mainly the explanation of why each tip works.