NOT.4:4.1 - Choose the operation and the observations to preserve

Identify the expression, its interpretation and the next operation that should become easier. The aim may be to see a shared construction, carry out an inference, change one definition, or recover a particular step in a sequence. A shorter expression is useful only insofar as it helps such work.

State what must remain obtainable. A numeric value, a sequence of actions, the identity of a shared component and an explanation of intermediate steps are different demands. Retain the distinctions used by the actual question. If users need both a compact result and the derivation, keep the derivation available rather than assuming the result reconstructs it.

For a computation or action description, include the effects that matter: repeating a measurement twice can produce different inputs from reading one measurement twice. CMP.12 develops the corresponding execution-preservation question. A purely mathematical reading may require only equality of values under its stated interpretation.