- Use the active voice so readers immediately connect the subject of the sentence with the action it is initiating. Not: "One of the best term papers on international trade policy was written by a student who has never traveled outside North Carolina." Instead (and active): "A student who has never traveled from North Carolina wrote the best paper on international trade"
- Use a thesaurus to find a word with the precise meaning you're looking for; not to find a synonym for a word you're using excessively (bad) or a synonym that sounds more erudite (worse).
- Use quotations at strategically important turns in making your most important points. Quote a recognized authority, but surprise your readers with an unexpected authority and phrasing that is eloquent. (Too often, quotes simply reinforce or rephrase an important point that's already been established.)
- In Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, the chapter covering "Elementary Principles Of Composition" has a section headed "Put statements in positive form." Examples given include "He was not very often on time" instead of "He usually came late"; and "He did not think that studying Latin was much use" rather than "He thought the study of Latin useless." Technical writing leads many writers into the trap of negating a concept or action that has a more recognizable label. (For example, the author of a research paper on weed management will be tempted to refer to other plants as "non-weeds" instead of calling them "vegetables." Shrunk and White say that writers who fall into such traps have failed to "Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language."
- If you've got a long listing (five or more entries) that's horizontal, with entries separated by commas or semicolons, convert it to a vertical list, with each entry on one line and introduced with a bullet or asterisk. Readers tend to skim listings instead of reading each entry closely, and a vertical listing makes it unmistakably clear that it's text that can be skimmed. Vertical listings are also helpful when key points are recapped or summarized. If need arises to refer back to an article for key points, the vertical listing makes them easier to locate.
- Colons and dashes are two punctuation marks that can break up a monotonous flow of text punctuated only with periods and commas. But because it's murky about which to use when, colons and dashes are often left on the keyboard. Mignon Fogarty, the author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips, advises that "the colon signals that what comes next is directly related to the previous sentence." Fogarty says that "a dash is a stronger and more informal mark that a colon, [that] interrupts the flow of the sentence and tells the reader to get ready for an important or dramatic statement."
- When you give your work a final proofing, see if you've got windy or word phrases that can be replaced with a single word. For example, replace "at the present time" with "now," and "in the majority of instances" with "usually."
Leave a comment