Academic Writing in English Instructor: Prof.

Lawrence Lan

Handout (No. 6)

Handout (N0. 6): Writing Style

Effective technical writing style possesses seven basic principles: correctness, economy, emphasis, clarity, concreteness, unity and coherence, and variety. Three rules of correctness 1. Correct punctuation 2. Correct capitalization 3. Correct spelling Ten rules of economy Economy means simplicity. Eliminate the deadwood--all words that can be removed without loss of meaning to the sentence, paragraph, or report. 1. Combined related sentences (combine sentences that have the same noun, pronoun or verb. Combining sentences cuts useless repetition by shrinking clauses to phrases and phrases to words. Precautions: avoid combining sentences with and. If the sentence cannot be combined other ways, let them remain short. Do not cut necessary information. Combine sentences two at a time. Do not wrestle with three or more.) 2. Cut irrelevant detail 3. Cut repeated words 4. Cut repeated ideas 5. Cut phrases already implied 6. Cut who, which, that, and there (where possible, cut the relative pronounswho, which, and that.) 7. Cut unnecessary prepositions (a preposition is a part of speech that tells how a noun is related to the other parts of the sentence. For instance, of, in, to, by, for, before, behind, beneath, over, under, around, after, through, and beside. A preposition plus a noun is called a prepositional phrase. For instance, in the room, on the floor, and behind the door. A prepositional idiom is a prepositional phrase that usually begins and ends with a preposition. Reduce a prepositional idiom to a single preposition. For instance, with the purpose of (=to), for the purpose of (=so), in the interest of (=for), on top of (=on or above), with regard to (=regarding), in the region of(=around), not far from(=near), in the midst of (=amid or among), over and above (=beyond), next to(=by). 8. Cut unnecessary adverbs (an adverb is a part of speech that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Be especially cautious of using such adverbs as very,
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Academic Writing in English Instructor: Prof. Lawrence Lan

Handout (No. 6)

quite, fairly, absolutely, and completelythey are called intensifiers, a signal to careless thinking, a fault no technical writer can afford.) 9. Cut unnecessary nouns (an empty noun is a form of redundancy, usually following a linking verb (is, was, where), that unnecessarily classifies the subject. It is usually restricted by an adjective and introduced by an articles (a, an, or the). 10. Cut empty verbs or verb phrases (where possible, cut to be verbs (is, was, where, am, are, and been). Also watch out for verb forms that end in ed or ing. Replace verb phrases introduced by general verbs (do, make, made, get, and got) with a strong verb. For instance, do away completely with=abolish, placed under water=submerged, kept the water out=resisted water, went very slowly=crawled or snailed or slugged or bellied.) Three rules of emphasis 1. Subordinate (subordination makes one idea dependent upon another. Without subordination, writing is tedious and lone. You may subordinate by combining sentences and by reducing a clause to a phrase or a phrase to a word (i.e., economy). Another way to subordinate is by reducing an independent clause to a dependent or subordinate clause. An independent clause is a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence. A dependent clause or subordinate clause does not express a complete thought. It cannot stand alone, since it is a sentence fragment. To reduce an independent clause to a dependent clause, you may use relative pronounswho, which, or thator subordinate conjunctionsas, if, when, since, because, although.) 2. Place important ideas at the end (while combining sentences rearrange sentence elements into their most emphatic order. The end of a sentence generally receives more emphasis than the beginning; the beginning receives more emphasis than the middle. Manipulate your word order so that the key word, phrase, or clause falls at the end.) 3. Select proper voice (Three rules: use the active voice when both the performer of the action and the action itself is important; use the active voice when economy, clarity, or emphasis demand it; use the passive voice to eliminate the doer of the action and put the emphasis exclusively on the action itself. The active voice is generally more economical than the passive. When the doer of the action is important, the active voice is more emphatic. Even if the doer of the action is unimportant, you may sometimes reduce the number of words by changing the verb from passive to active voice using the three methods: (1) force the natural subject to perform some action. (2) strike out passive expressions such as it was concluded that, the recommendation was that.(3) change a sentence from a
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Academic Writing in English Instructor: Prof. Lawrence Lan

Handout (No. 6)

statement to a command. Frequently, letters, memos, personal report, and informal reports can be written in active voice using the first person pronouns, I, we, you, he, it, she, they. Use personal pronouns whenever possible. They help to bring your writing closer to normal speech patterns that the often stilted passive voice. But do not become an active-voice fanatic. The active voice is not always more desirable in technical writing. You should use the passive voice when you want to eliminate the doer of the action and put emphasis exclusively on the action itself.) Three rules of clarity 1. Avoid ambiguity (words or sentences that have more than one interpretation are ambiguous. Most words have more than one meaning. General words and abstract words are ambiguous. Following the rules of concreteness can help to eliminate such ambiguity. There must always be a clear connection between the pronoun and the noun to which the pronoun refers. If there is any doubt about the pronoun referent, repeat the noun. Juggling word order can create problems such as modifiers that are misplaced, dangling, or squinting.) Avoid jargon (The first kind of jargon is the special language used in particular groups, trades, or professions. The second kind of jargon is only a gobbledygook, or unintelligible, meaningless language. Here are five ways to avoid jargon: select the familiar word over the unfamiliar, the short word over the long; avoid elegant variation; use acronyms wisely; avoid pedantry; break up long sentences.) Avoid grammatical errors (common grammatical mistakes: subject-verb disagreement; sentence fragment; comma splice; fused sentence; wrong word; negative; faulty comparisons; broken parallelism.)

2.

3.

Four rules of concreteness 1. Replace vague generalizations with more specific words. 2. Support important generalizations with specific detail. 3. Make the unfamiliar familiar. 4. Support important abstract terms with concrete detail. Most nouns (e.g., a person, place, thing, or idea) can be classified as concrete or abstract. z Concrete words (nouns, verbs, or adjectives) create images that can be detected by one or more of the five sensessight, sound, taste, touch, or smell. Level of generality: (S70->Volvo->Car->Vehicle->Thing) from level
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Academic Writing in English Instructor: Prof. Lawrence Lan

Handout (No. 6)

one to level five. Level of specificity is in the opposite direction. The higher the level of generality the more ambiguous the word is. The rule of writing is to select the level of specificity that best suits your purpose or your readers needs. Abstract words are terms that refer not to objects that can be determined by the five senses, but to ideas, feeling, and opinions. For instance, good, bad, excellent, adequate, democracy, socialism, freedom. Abstract words have no levels of specificity; if anything, abstract words would be measured by their level of intensity: good, fine, excellent, wonderful, splendid, superb, extraordinary.

Here are seven ways to make the unfamiliar familiar, the general specific, and the abstract concrete. Use: 1. Detail and Description 2. Examples 3. Analogy 4. Figures 5. Classification and Division 6. Comparison and Contrast 7. Definition Ten rules of Unity 1. Write a purpose statement for each report and each major division of the report. 2. Write a topic sentence for each paragraph. 3. Restrict each paragraph to a single idea. 4. Restrict the scope to the purpose, the length, the available resources, and the ambition of the project. 5. Though the purpose statement may appear at the beginning, middle, or end, as a rule, place it at the beginning. 6. Though the purpose statement can be a question, as a rule, state it in declarative form. 7. Eliminate all information that does not relate to the central idea. 8. Present all divisions in the same order introduced in the purpose statement. 9. Place all information in logical order. Avoid getting ahead of your reader: introduce, define, describe, explain, and clarify before you discuss. 10. Include a summarizing statement at the end of each long paragraph and at the end of each report.

Academic Writing in English Instructor: Prof. Lawrence Lan

Handout (No. 6)

Four rules of coherence 1. Use subordinating conjunctions (e.g., although, if, since, because, after, though, until, wherever, whenever, while) 2. Use transitions (e.g., at this time, therefore, first, second, third, fourth, furthermore, on the other hand, for example, in summary, in addition to, nevertheless, later, finally, however) 3. Use pronouns (personal pronouns: it, they, them; relative pronouns: which, that) 4. Use parallelism (use parallel structure) 5. Use repetition (sometimes, repetition will clarify your message) Importance of variety Writing that lacks variety is boring and soon become irritating. Even good techniques will bore a reader if overused. The following are danger signs that suggest that your work lacks variety, prose with: 1. Too many short sentences 2. Too many very long sentences 3. Too many sentences of the same length 4. Too many loose sentences 5. Too many coordinating conjunctions 6. Too many short paragraphs 7. Too many very long paragraphs 8. Too many paragraphs of the same length 9. Overuse of inductive order is boring.