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Welcome to Econnect Communication’s July 2005 newsletter. The
theme of this edition is ‘Clear Writing’.
We provide tips on how to improve the clarity of your writing,
whether it is technical, popular or even fiction (where Lynne
has a head start on the rest of us)!
In this edition, we also welcome Mary O’Callaghan to the
Econnect team. Mary has writing, editing, publishing, and
project management skills, and has taken over from Terri in
editing, producing and distributing this ezine. Mary is
currently working two days a week with Econnect (Thursday and
Friday), but we’re hoping to entice her to spend even more time
with us.
We also welcome David Clarke, based at Hepburn Springs in
Victoria, who is doing some part-time work for Econnect with our
natural resources clients in southern Australia, but sometimes
up north as well. David has advanced skills in facilitation,
strategic planning, project coordination, general communication
and apple-picking!
And we hear that Terri is doing very well in London—she already
has a job with a similar company, Proof Communication,
specialising in science communication. Well done Terri (and
thanks to Fiona Barbagello for giving her the right contacts).
As usual, we welcome any feedback you have about the newsletter.
Regards,
Econnect Communication
Jenni Metcalfe, Michelle Riedlinger, Lynne Goodwin, David
Clarke, Mary O’Callaghan
In this issue: Clear writing
Ten top tips for clear technical writing
Edit, edit, edit…and then edit
Nominalisations: An editor’s pet hate
A
doctor in the house
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Ten top tips for clear technical writing
By Jenni Metcalfe
1.
Use the five box framework to organise your ideas: an
introduction, three key points, and then a conclusion
2.
Sketch out a rough plan before you start, so that you know where
you are going before you start
3.
Use a spell-checker or a dictionary to avoid those needless
mistakes
4.
Short sentences are better than long ones. Try sticking to a
maximum of 20 words in a sentence
5. Short
paragraphs are better than long ones. Try not to exceed 80 words
in a paragraph, unless you have good reason
6.
Use headings and sub-headings to separate the main sections of
your report
7.
Problems with apostrophes? (e.g. remember it’s CRCs not CRC’s)
Uncertain about grammar? Then check it out before finalising—good
grammar is professional, bad grammar just ain’t!
8.
Get a second opinion. Ask someone else to read over your work
and suggest improvements. (At Econnect, we try to ensure that at
least one other person in our team reads our work before sending
to clients)
9.
Say things in the simplest possible way. Read back through your
draft reports to cut out all unnecessary words and phrases
10.
Use dot points or numbers to make the individual items in a list
stand out clearly, but don’t overdo this, otherwise nothing will
stand out
Edit, edit, edit…and then edit
By Dr Michelle Riedlinger
No matter how many times we read through our own
writing, we are likely to miss many errors.
This isn’t because we are lazy or have a short attention span.
It’s a known fact that it is more difficult to edit our own work
than the work of others. We get so close to the writing that
even major errors seem to magically become invisible. Even
experienced editors develop a blind spot with their own writing.
So what techniques can we use to improve the quality of our
writing?
The easiest way is to get a professional editor to edit your
writing. A good editor will not only find the obvious
grammatical errors; they will also help you to adjust your style
to your audience, and use techniques to make your writing
‘lighter’ and more dynamic.
If your budget doesn’t allow for a professional editor, get a
colleague or friend to review your work. Another pair of eyes
will generally find errors that we havn’t spotted ourselves.
Here are some techniques you can use to check your own work:
1.
Take a break from the writing before starting to edit—even 5
minutes will help, but a few days or a week will make all the
difference.
2.
Read through your writing at a slower pace than you normally
read. If you read at normal speed your eyes won’t have time to
spot errors.
3.
Read aloud to check for missing words. Don’t let your eyes move
on until you have said each word.
4.
Cover the page with a blank sheet of paper so that you are only
reading line by line.
5.
Read each sentence backwards. This is time-consuming but, for a
professional publication that doesn’t have many words, it can be
warranted. It will help you spot where you have repeated a word
at the end of one line and the beginning of the next line.
6.
Take on the role of the reader. This will give you a fresh
perspective on the content. Is the overall meaning clear? Do you
have good transitions between paragraphs? Can you get rid of
certain words that don’t add any value (centre around, committed
to, in terms of, such as these)?
7.
Identify mistakes you regularly make and learn how to avoid
them. This is the hardest thing for many writers.
8.
Match the main verb to the subject in each sentence and make
sure they agree.
9.
Stop at each pronoun (it, this, they, their and them) and make
sure it represents the noun that it replaces. If in doubt, use
the noun again.
10.
Check your commas. If you have a complete sentence on each side
of a conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, so and yet), place a
comma before the conjunction. Use commas as cues for the reader,
indicating where they should pause. But beware of using too
many—your writing will look like raisin bread!
11.
Skim through your writing stopping at words ending in “s” to see
if they need apostrophes or not. Above all, get your its
and your it’s right. The first one is possessive. The
second one is a contraction of it is. Try to memorise a
phrase such as “it’s a nasty dog that bites its own master”.
Nominalisations: An editor’s pet hate
By
Mary O’Callaghan
Nominalisation—the word itself is enough to send you nodding
off. It’s long, it’s heavy, and, unless used sparingly, it can
seriously damage your writing.
So, what is a nominalisation? Think of words that end in –tion.
Here are a few to get you going:
·
Generation
·
Evaluation
·
Diversification
These little beasts make your writing stodgy and lifeless, and
difficult for your reader to understand. Sometimes they are
necessary, but not always. Learn to spot them, replace them, and
your words will magically come alive.
Consider these examples:
They considered the adoption of a new policy
They considered adopting a new policy
This contributes to the conservation of water
This helps to conserve water
The generation of
new ideas is critical
Generating
new ideas is critical
In each case, we’ve replaced three words with one and
lightened up the writing. Believe me, your reader will thank you
for that.
A doctor in the house
Congratulations
this month to Michelle Riedlinger. Michelle graduated
with a PhD last Friday amid tremendous cheers and
applause from her family, friends, and colleagues. After
the ceremony, the Dean of the Arts faculty at the
University of Queensland congratulated her in the foyer.
Shaking her hand, he said “Well, finally!". Michelle
couldn't have put it
 better
herself.
A PhD is test of one’s commitment and endurance, among other
things. At Econnect, we are all very proud of Michelle’s
achievement. |
