Effective Writing
Am I making myself clear?
A proposed set of rules and conventions for improving writing style for academic and professional reports.
Stylistic Rules
| RULE | Rule NOT applied | Rule applied |
| 1. Use definite, specific, concrete language. | Billy could not talk properly. | Billy’s speech sound system appears disordered, as evidenced by the persistence of syllable-initial velar fronting and syllable-final consonant deletion. |
| 2. Do not take short cuts at the expense of clarity. | The DEAP and ERB were done. | Two tests were administered: (1) the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology (DEAP), and (2) the Early Repetition Battery (ERB). |
| 3. A participle phrase at the beginning of a sentence should refer to the grammatical subject. | Analysing the statistics, the assessment suggests developmental delay. | Analysing the statistics, I consider that the assessment suggests developmental delay. |
| 4. Avoid florid, lavish words. | The child exhibited partial restriction of movements of the lingual muscles. A condition of insufficient frenulum development was noted. | A short frenulum appeared to restrict elevation of the tongue tip. |
| 5. Omit needless words and stock phrases – make each word count. | The questions as to whether…
Due to the fact that… |
Whether…
Because… |
| 6. Express co-ordinated ideas in a similar form. | The patient sat at 24 weeks. At 8/12, crawling began. | The child sat unsupported at six months and crawled at eight months. |
| 7. Do not be too casual. | The session got off with a bang, with the child yelling her head off. | Samantha cried when her mother left the room. |
| 8. Avoid the use of contractions. | I haven’t arranged to see Sarah again.
They should’ve reported it. |
I have not arranged to see Sarah again.
They should have reported it. |
| 9. Do not overstate – report accurately. | There is absolutely no vocal abuse. | Father reported no vocally abusive behaviours. |
| 10. Do not impute unverifiable psychological states. | Billy was happy today. | Billy was observed to smile when entering the room. |
| 11. Avoid the use of intensifiers whenever possible. | The child was very attentive. | The child was attentive. |
| 12. Wherever possible put statements positively. | She did not know her colours. | On testing, she could not name red or blue but she did match blocks of the same colour. |
| 13. Always label reported information. | He was an early walker. | Mother reported that he walked at six months of age. |
| 14. Avoid the use of ‘shudder quotes’ – be specific. | Lisa is a little ‘slow’. | Lisa presents with delayed general development. |
| 15. Use gender-neutral language. | Mankind has progressed…
The working man… |
Humanity has progressed…
Working people… |
| 16. Avoid sexual stereotyping of roles by not calling attention to irrelevancies. | The male nurse provided the medical report. | The nurse provided the medical report. |
| 17. Do not use he or she to refer to all people in a category. | As a child develops he learns to control his environment. | As a child develops it learns to control its environment.
As a child develops they learn to control their environment. |
| 18. Avoid patronising language. | Women of a certain age… | Women between the ages 50-65 years… |
…
Structural Conventions
| CONVENTION | Convention NOT followed | Convention followed |
| 1. Spell out any numbers between nought and nine within the text. | The child built a tower of 6 blocks. | The child built a tower of six blocks. |
| 2. Use digits for numbers from 10 and above within the text. | Daniel first babbled at thirty-three weeks. | Daniel first babbled at 33 weeks. |
| 3. Do not begin a sentence with a digit, always spell out the number. | 10 aims and objectives were set. | Ten aims and objectives were set. |
| 4. Use a semi-colon (;) to separate years and months when indicating ages. | David was 5.5 years old.
[This would mean five-and-a-half years old] |
David was 5;05 years old.
[This means that he is five years and five months old] |
| 5. Few reports will require more than four levels of heading. The first is the report title. This is followed by up to three sub-headings. | TITLE
Sub-heading 1 Sub-heading 2 Sub-heading 3 |
