<p> Writing Tips</p><p>SENTENCES</p><p>1. PREFER THE ACTIVE VOICE e.g., “The detritus was ingested by Capitella,” should be: “Capitella ingested the detritus.”</p><p>You should use the passive construction when the performer of the action is unknown or irrelevant or when the emphasis is (a) on the receiver of the action ; (b) on the verb ; or (c) on the modifier. e.g., if the person or thing doing the action is unknown or unimportant , use the passive. e.g., "Gracilaria detritus was eaten by macroconsumers.”</p><p>2. Don't make nouns out of good , strong "working verbs ". e.g. "Mineralization of detritus occurred after aging. " should be: "Detritus mineralized after aging."</p><p>"Smothered" verbs "-are formed by adding “-ment", "-ancy", "-im", -tion", "-ization". note that smothered verbs and passive constructions frequently go together. </p><p>3. Be concise. Cut out excess baggage. Keep your average sentence length under 20 words. </p><p>Redundancy - don't repeat words or ideas on necessarily. Don't give the positive and negative of an idea if one of them alone would suffice for understanding. </p><p>Wordiness - don't use more words than you need to express an idea. e.g., "It has been noted that..."</p><p>PARAGRAPHS</p><p>PARAGRAPH ORGANIZATION: ARRANGE MATERIAL LOGICALLY. BEGIN WITH SIMPLE TO MORE COMPLEX IDEAS, i.e., GENERAL TO SPECIFIC.</p><p>- Say one thing in each sentence. - If a stated idea must be qualified, do so in the very next sentence. - Put the most important idea in each sentence at the beginning. - A PARAGRAPH SHOULD CONTAIN ONE MAIN THOUGHT THAT IS SUMMARIZED IN THE FIRST SENTENCE.</p><p>Words with overlapping meetings:</p><p>Absolutely complete Complete Assembled together Assembled Each and every Use either one Exactly identical Identical Repeat again Repeat The reason is because Because</p><p>Roundabout prepositional phrases:</p><p>Along the lines of Like At the present time Now By means of With; by For the purpose of For In order to To In the case of If In the nature of Like In connection with Of, in , on In relation to Toward, to With the result that So that With regard to About (or leave out) With reference to About (or leave out) Owing to the fact that Because Subsequent to After On the basis of by</p><p>Use single words in stead of phrases. E.g. “Persons who are residents of Virginia”. Should be “Virginia residents.”</p><p>BE SPECIFIC. USE CONCRETE TERMS INSTEAD OF GENERALIZATIONS e.g. “My pet ran away this morning and a friend of mine found him in an unusual place on the other side of the city.” could instead be:</p><p>“My pet alligator Hubert ran away and my friend Alfonso found him sunning on a fire escape at the Singleton Towers Condominium on Beltsville road.”</p><p>KEEP RELATED SENTENCE ELEMENTS TOGETHER; KEEP UNRELATED ELEMENTS APART. PLACE MODIFIERS AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO THE WORDS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MODIFY.</p><p>Misplaced modifiers: e.g., “We almost lost our entire worm culture.” Should be: “We lost almost our entire worm culture.” e.g. “Policeman shoots thief with knife.” Should be: “Policeman shoots knife-bearing thief.”</p><p>“only” can be misplaced e.g., “Only John mourned the death of his brother.” Or: “John only mourned the death of his brother.” e.g., “He only spent a dollar,” should be: “He spent only a dollar.”</p><p>“not all” e.g., e.g. “All mouthwashes are not alike.” should be: “Not all mouthwashes are alike.”</p><p>Dangling modifiers – gerund phrases – ing used as a noun; participle phrases – ing used as an adjective; infinitive phrases – to --- e.g., a dangling gerund: “After climbing the mountain the view was beautiful.” Should be: “After climbing the mountain, we saw a beautiful view. e.g., a dangling participial phrase: “Moving to Arizona, his gout improved.” e.g., a dangling infinitive phrase: “To save money, the thermostat must be lowered.” Should be: “The thermostat must be lowered in order to save money.”</p><p>Squinting modifiers – when a modifier modifies two sentence elements. e.g. “Dr. Jones instructed his patient while in the hospital to watch his diet carefully.” Should be: “Dr. Jones instructed his patient to watch his diet, as long as the patient stays in the hospital.”</p><p>Faulty pronoun references – e.g., “John told Jim that he was fired.” “John told Jim that John had been fired.”</p><p>BE CONSISTENT: AVOID UNNECESSARY SHIFTS OF SUBJECT, NUMBER TENSE, VOICE, OR POINT OF VIEW e.g., “John was born in Savannah, but Atlanta was his home in later years.” Should be “John was born in Savannah but lived in Atlanta in later years.”</p><p>“When you look in the microscope, the cell divides in two.” Should be “When you look in the microscope, you can see the cell divided.” MAKE SENTENCE ELEMENTS THAT ARE PARALLEL, WHEN PARALLEL IN FORM. BUT DO NOT USE PARALLELISM TO EXPRESS THOUGHTS THAT ARE NOT PARALLEL. e.g. “The sample was filtered, washed and allowed to dry.” should be: “The sample was filtered, washed, and dried.” n.b. To make parallelism clear, repeat articles, prepositions, or pronouns, or helping verbs, or signs of the infinitive i.e. “to …”</p><p>Bad/badly </p><p>“Bad” and “poor” are adjectives; use them with linking verbs as “feel” and “look” e.g., I feel bad. Badly is an adverb. Use it to modify a verb, e.g., “The pump filters poorly.”</p><p>Can/may </p><p>Can refers to capability, e.g., “Can you help me?” May refers to possibility, usually involving permission, e.g., “May I help you?”</p><p>Comma </p><p>Use commas between all works in a series, including the last two, unless you are considering the two as inseparable, e.g., ham and eggs. </p><p>Use a comma before conjunctions when joining independent clauses …..but …..</p><p>Enclose parenthetical insertions with a pair of commas. (a) restrictive (no commas) e.g. The dog that barked all night was shot. (b) Non-restrictive (commas) e.g., The book, which was bound in leather, cost $3.00.</p><p>Which/that</p><p>Note (b) above: (a) with restrictive phrases use that (b) with non-restrictive phrases use which or who</p><p>Compare to/compare with Compare similar things with each other</p><p>Compose/comprise Comprise is “to include” e.g. “The whole comprises the parts.” Compose is “make up the whole” e.g. The parts compose the whole Criteria/criterion</p><p>Data/datum</p><p>Due to/Because of “Due to” means “caused by” and follows a linking verb. E.g. “His tiredness was due to overwork.” “Because of” is used with non-linking verbs.</p><p>Each other/one another Each other, when referring to a relationship between two persons. One another, when referring to more than two.</p><p>Hyphen Two or three work modifiers expressing a single thought should be hyphenated when they precede a verb. E.g., “The state-of-the-art technique”</p><p>Infinitives (to split) e.g. “to loudly talk” should be “to talk loudly” to “quickly run” should be “to run quickly”</p><p>Intensifiers An adverb that emphasizes e.g. quite, rather, such, too, very. LEAVE THEM OUT!</p><p>Media/medium</p><p>Noun clusters Groups of nouns piled end to end, e.g., “secondary sewage treatment aquaculture oyster outgrowth system.”</p><p>Preposition-ending Avoid ending a sentence with “This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put.”</p><p>Reduce/lessen Reduce is a decrease in bulk Lessen is a decrease in number</p><p>Since/because Since denotes passing of time</p><p>Transition Also, besides, furthermore, moreover, too, likewise, similarly. As an illustration, for example, for instance, specifically As a result, consequently, hence, therefore, firstly, secondly, thirdly </p>