Effective Writing Other titles from E & FN Spon Brain Train 2nd edition Richard Palmer Getting into Print A guide for scientists and technologists Peter Sprent Good Style for Scientific and Technical Writing John Kirkman Scientists Must Write A guide to better writing for scientists, engineers and students Robert Barrass Study! A guide to effective study, revision and examination techniques Robert Barrass Studying for Science A guide to information, communication and study techniques Brian White Write in Style A guide to good English Richard Palmer Writing Successfully in Science Maeve O’Connor For more information about these and other titles please contact: The Promotion Department, E & FN Spon, 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE. Tel.: 0171 583 9855. Effective Writing Improving scientific, technical and business communication SECOND EDITION Christopher Turk Senior Research Fellow University of Wales College of Cardiff John Kirkman Consultant on Scientific and Technical Communication E & FN SPON An Imprint of Routledge London and New York First published 1982 by E & FN Spon, an imprint of Chapman & Hall This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Second edition 1989 © 1982, 1989 Christopher Turk and John Kirkman All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-203-47310-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-78134-1 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-419-14660-1 (Print Edition) Contents Preface vii About the authors viii 1. Writing is communicating: revising basic assumptions 1 2. Thinking about aim and audience 18 3. Starting to write: a practical approach 31 4. Organization and layout of information 38 5. The use of headings and numbering 66 6. Algorithms for complex possibilities and procedures 70 7. Style for readability 77 8. Writing with a computer 103 9. Informative summaries 110 10. Choosing and using tables, illustrations and graphic 128 presentation techniques 11. Writing instructions 168 12. Writing descriptions and explanations 188 13. Writing letters and memoranda 196 14. Writing minutes and reports of proceedings 210 15. Writing in examinations 220 Appendix A: Readability formulae 234 Appendix B: Outline of rules for reported (or ‘indirect’) speech 236 Index 240 From the reviews of the First Edition ‘A book to be heartily recommended.’ Physics Bulletin ‘…excellent work of reference…should, I suggest, be “required reading” for anyone involved in dealing with communication.’ The Communicator of Scientific & Technical Information ‘…a manual for technical writers that belongs on any author’s bookshelf.’ The Midwest Book Review ‘Effective Writing is an intelligent book. Its theory is sound and its practicality is gratifying. It possesses, perhaps, more of the characteristics of a good technical writing textbook, including brevity, than I have encountered anywhere else.’ Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Preface Modern technology has changed the process of writing and the methods of producing text, but the electronic revolution has not yet found a way of removing the need for clear and careful thinking during drafting and revising. To be effective, writers must still reflect carefully on their aims, audiences, and contexts, and then make shrewd choices of what to say and how to say it. So most of the advice in this book remains unchanged. We have taken the opportunity to extend the range of topics covered, and to reinforce some sections of the text. We acknowledge with gratitude the comments sent to us by readers of the first edition. We should welcome feedback on the usefulness and practicality of this extended edition. Christopher Turk John Kirkman About the authors Christopher Turk is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Wales, College of Cardiff, UK. He has lectured widely on aspects of communication in the UK, Belgium and Sweden. He was a Visiting Faculty member at Yale University in 1983–84, and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Geneva in 1985. He was Paul Mellon Fellow at Yale in 1986. His other publications include several articles on computer-aided writing, Effective Speaking (E. & F.N.Spon, 1985), Machine Learning of Natural Language, (Springer-Verlag, 1989) and Humanities Research Using Computers (Chapman & Hall, 1991). He has a special research interest in the processing of natural language by computer, a branch of artificial intelligence. John Kirkman was formerly Director of the Communication Studies Unit at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology, Cardiff (now University of Wales, College of Cardiff), UK. Since 1983, he has worked full- time as a consultant on scientific and technical communication. He has consulted for more than 200 organizations in 16 countries. He has been a Visiting Lecturer in Technical Communication at the University of Michigan, USA, and a Visiting Fellow in Linguistics at Princeton University, USA. He has published more than 70 articles, and has written, edited or contributed to 10 books, including Good Style: writing for science and technology (E. & F.N. Spon, 1991), and Full Marks: advice on punctuation for scientific and technical writing (ISTC, 1991). The Society for Technical Communication (USA) gave him its Outstanding Article Award in 1974, and an Award for Distinguished Technical Communication (shared with Peter Hunt) in 1987. 1 Writing is communicating: revising basic assumptions Writing is a skill; like other skills, it can be learnt, and like most skills it is not inborn. For example, few people lack the basic equipment to learn to ride a bicycle (balance, strength, sight), but most become skilful cyclists only after much practice. Confidence is the main necessity, and having the courage to get on and try. The same is true of writing. Most people have the basic equipment (tact, experience, language), but like riding a bicycle, writing is a skill that must be learnt by doing it. No amount of reading, or absorbing rules and advice, can substitute for practice. So as we offer advice and give examples, our main aim is to reassure you that early ‘wobbly’ efforts at writing are quite normal. Don’t be discouraged by the writer’s equivalent of grazed knees. Practice will bring co- ordination and control that will change writing from an apparently hazardous exercise to an efficient means of getting somewhere. We start from the assumption that thinking about writing can improve it, and that everyone can learn to write well. Most people, in reality, are better at writing than they fear. They can write successful letters to friends and effective complaints about faulty goods. These writing tasks require the same basic skills as long reports, detailed instructions, or complex letters or memoranda. Judgement of what the audience needs to know, tact in assessing which way to present this information to them most usefully, and the resources of language to do the job exist in everyone. We all develop a basic storehouse of skills. It is drawn on to tell successful jokes at the bar, to shout at the other driver, to persuade a friend to do something with you. This book sets out to encourage a more conscious use of those skills. Writing as communication The first task is to encourage the right attitudes to writing. An instructor teaching timid old ladies to ride bicycles would soon find that getting them to take a positive and confident view was a major step towards success. Few professional scientists busy with research projects, rushing their results on to paper for impatient managers, would like to be compared with ‘timid old ladies’, but they might recognize in themselves some of the same fearful hesitation when they put 2 WRITING IS COMMUNICATING pen to paper. Writing is often felt to be a nuisance; frequently it is something which is secretly dreaded, rarely is it looked forward to as the climax of research. This hesitation is the first problem. Like mathematical techniques and specialized knowledge in the subject, writing skill is basic professional equipment. Professional scientists or engineers spend up to one third of their working time writing, reading and talking, and paper is one of the major products of all industrial and research organizations.1 Many engineers think that a sound education in writing is as important as education in technical subjects such as metallurgy or business management. By making the writing task easier, we hope to reduce the burden on the reader, and thereby make the communication of information more effective. We should start by emphasizing that writing is an essential professional skill in which we can take as much pride as we take in experimental technique. To improve this writing skill, we need first to consider our experience as readers. Everyone is aware of the huge amount of written material to be dealt with; much of it is verbose, far too long for the job it has to do, and—what is worse—confusingly organized. By thinking of our irritation as readers with the inadequacy of many writers, we can learn to be more professional writers ourselves. Read, for instance, this passage: The principal advantage that the soft contact lens offers over the conventional hard contact lens is increased comfort. The associated benefits of rapid patient accommodation and extended wear times with minimal overwear syndrome are also superior to hard lens experience.