Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Refer immediately and clearly to all the main items involved, ones perhaps your key words.
When referring to previously mentioned items with this / these / such, offer more than just the
pronoun:
Ambiguous Specific
This This disease
These becomes These two drugs
It Such a program
You can often save words by adding data:This extremely effective model / program.
English loves signposts, or connectives, because they tell readers how to receive new information.
Use not only First second third . . . , but other types of signposts:
Use the shortest sentences for the strongest statements: Every mouse died.
Note: All
X exists. are Active
There is / are X. X occurs. Voice, p. 44
X appears.
X arises.
X emerges.
Avoid repeating FACTS. Planned repetition of WORDS helps linkage. Confusion results
from synonym-use. Make yourself clear by choosing one term. Do not indulge in overuse of a
synonym dictionary (thesaurus). For instance, Method / methodology / procedure /
system must never mean the same thing. We will assume that they mean four different things.
One paper described a group of infants with these six labels: neonates / newborns / infants /
babies / patients / subjects. We would view these as six groups. Instead, choose two terms such
as neonates or infants and then use They / These and other pointing words to refer to them.
Avoid ending sentences with passive verbs. For good writing, this is the kiss of death.
Replace them with active voice. In Methods, passives can go in the middle of the sentence:
The citation shows who (Aho) found X. Journals tire of these useless found phrases.
Avoid for your own findings even the active-voice We found that X produced Y.
Simply writeX produced Y.That past tense shows that this is your finding. Present tense
is for others generalizations: X produces Y (16). (See the tense section.)
Use MAGICthe inanimate agent, a non-human / non-living thing performing an action.
Table 3 shows . . . .
Figure 5 illustrates . . . . Note: All
in Active
Our results indicate . . . . Voice
Our hypothesis predicts X.
Opinions among us vary.
Upgrade most rough-draft common verbs to become more precise verbs (see verb pages):
For elegance and formality, specify meanings of get (receive? become? understand?).
Change colloquial (puhekieli) expressions to more formal ones (see verb pages):
Colloquial Formal
In writing, not is always a weak word. Murder the word not in three ways:
Substitute negatives OR