Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Styles of Communication
Many styles of written communication:
Letters. Scribbled notes to yourself. Email. SMS. CVs and job applications. Websites. Reports. Theses and dissertations. Academic papers. Posters. Exams
Do we write the same way for all of them? Why are there different styles? Be carefulthe style you use is part of what youre communicating!
Shortened words
Dear Sir, I would be delighted to accept your kind invitation to join you in the upstairs Bar of the Bay Hotel at 7pm. Yours sincerely, Dave.
7 4 8 5 9 6
You dont see SMS like this
Another Example
In view of the restrictions on the use of acetyl hydride derivatives as anti-bacterial agents imposed by recent secondary legislation, the attention of members of the estates maintenance staff is drawn to the need, subject to any overriding health and safety considerations, to avoid using proprietary anti-bacterial agents that do not display the relevant certification mark. [from instructions issued to cleaners]
and Another
i want more info about use of hash tabls pls send 2 me thx
[The entire text of an email sent to me about an assignment.]
No name (who is this person?) No punctuation; hard to read. Not very polite (demanding). Not clear (exactly what information do they need?) Text speak is not really appropriate in an email to a lecturer. I might be too old to understand it!
If their query is academic related, they also need to put on their college number. If we have to phone academic office to check their paper records, the college number is the first thing we are asked for.
An genuine email I got from a frustrated member of staff who heard Id be teaching this part of CS18010
Words are imprecise. We need to use words carefully if we are to communicate what we intended.
Document Structure
Words are gathered together to make documents (e.g. a thesis, SMS or post-it note). Formal documents have obvious structure, but even informal documents have some structure. Structure helps you, and the reader, mentally organise whatever you are communicating:
Document / Parts / Chapters / Sections / Subsections / Paragraphs / Sentences / Clauses / Phrases / Words.
Like in coding, structuring your writing properly helps you avoid errors/confusions.
Grammar
What is grammar?
Rules for a language. Different for each language. Describes the word order we expect to see.
Unfortunately, if you cant write your own language well, people will assume the latter.
A Predicate
action taken or received by subject is/contains verb usually follows subject, and may contain an object
The department chair (subject) submitted the statistical report. (predicate)
Sentence types
Simple - a single complete thought
Subject/predicate: The office was empty.
Compound two complete & related thoughts joined by and, or, but, : ;.
Subject/predicate; subject/predicate: The office was empty, and the computers were running.
Complex two related thoughts; one complete, one dependent; joined by which/that/who or ,
Subject/predicate/clause in any order: The office was empty, and the computers were running, which angered the energy management supervisor.
Punctuation
Short sentences are easy to understand. Longer sentences which have many parts and perhaps a parenthetic phrase or two and which go on and on for a long time need punctuation be be easy to understand this is an example. We can re-write the bullet point above
Punctuation
Longer sentences, which have many parts, and perhaps a parenthetic phrase or two, and which go on and on for a long time, need punctuation be be easy to understand; this is an example.
Sentence Punctuation
All sentences begin with a capital letter. However, not all capital letters indicate the beginning of a sentence. E.g., C++, Amy, Tuesday, March, Welsh. All sentences end with a full stop (I.e., a period if you learnt American English) or a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
The Comma ,
The comma breaks up the elements of a sentence and makes it easier to read. It was mainly commas that made my long sentence, a few slides back, more readable. They can be used to separate off parenthetic comments, like in the previous bullet point. Commas ^ also separate independent, conjoined clauses, adjectives and series.
The semicolon ;
Separates two closely-related main clauses
Im not good at telling jokes; I usually forget the punch line
Separates clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb (accordingly, anyway, besides, consequently, furthermore, however, indeed, likewise, moreover, otherwise, nevertheless, still, then, therefore)
She took several computer training classes; however, she still made spreadsheet mistakes.
The colon :
Introduces list preceded by complete statement:
Many students participate in campus activities: athletics, sports, recreation, clubs.
Other Punctuation
We dont have time to examine all punctuation: The Dash The Hyphen - The Ellipsis The Apostrophe __ Quotation Marks Brackets, [], ()
In my eyes is an idiom. here is unnecessary. parts is not precise enough to convey information. Why do I care what he finds important? Use of I means the focus is on him.
Further Reference
In the end, improving your use of English grammar is up to you. Youll improve bit-by-bit over the years, and never stop learning. An American site that is quite comprehensive: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/index.htm Franks document on document writing!