writing effectively 2
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Effective Writing II:A Question of Style
Tony Murfin BEng MSc MA
www.manchesterproof.co.uk
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Recap
The Writing Process
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Some advice on writing
Marry somebody you love and who thinks youbeing a writer's a good idea. .
Editing is everything. Cut until you can cut no
more. What is left often springs into life.
Put one word after another. Find the right word,put it down.
The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on thewall in front of my desk saying "Faire et setaire" (Flaubert), which I translate for myselfas "Shut up and get on with it."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one
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English
The English language is
rather like a monsteraccordion, stretchable at the
whim of the editor,
compressible ad lib.
Robert William Burchfield CNZM CBE, scholar, writer, and lexicographer.
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The monster accordion
English has never been jealously watched over
by a learned Academy, as French has been
since the seventeenth century; nor protectedagainst innovations by literary professionalism,
as with Italian, or, as with Spanish, by the
natural decorum of the greater part of those
who use it.Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Reader Over Your Shoulder
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Rules? What rules?
[It is] impossible at the present juncture to
teach English grammar in the schools for the
simple reason that no one knows exactlywhat it is.
Government report, 1921
English is a vernacular used between the
Norman French and their Anglo Saxon serfs descended also from Celts, Jutes, Danes,
Frisians etc.
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The language of education
was Latin
Schools were for the merchants and middle
classes Universal education in England only dates
from 1870
I would make them all learn English: and
then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as
an honour, and Greek as a treat."Winston Churchill, Roving Commission: My Early Life
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Vocabulary
was standardized relatively early (with the
introduction of the printing press) and the
process was all but completed by Dr.Johnson in 1775.
Still continues to evolve and add new words-
90,000 new words and new meanings of old
words recorded by the OED in the 20th
century.
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Quiz! 20th Century Words
Airliner
Bungee Jumper
Discotheque
Ecosystem
Ethnic cleansing
Postmodernism
Space age
Spin doctor
Trendy
Velociraptor
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People who knew grammar
based it on Latin grammar (!) Our language has so little inflection or variety of terminations, that
its construction neither requires nor admits many rules. - Johnson
Robert Lowth 1762 A Short Introduction to EnglishGrammar
Cobbetts Grammar of the English Language
He who writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in words can
proceed from nothing but confusedness in the thoughtswhich give rise to them.
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20th century dominant figures
The Kings English (HW & FG Fowler)
Modern English Usage (HW Fowler)
Completion of the OED
Harts Rules
BBC and RP: Nancy Mitford and U & Non-U
Usage and abusage
Myriad modern writers: David Crystal, Lynne Truss,Bill Bryson, Susie Dent Almost all to some extent both describing and resisting the
evolution of the language.
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WHY write well?
Suggested previously: for a better GRADE
More generally: individuals have their
hangups: A preposition should never, ever end a sentence.
Ever. On pain of death, but at least on pain of
angry stares and a good deal of sulking To me
its the verbal equivalent of two bits of polystyrenerubbing together: unbearable.
[Letter to John Humphreys quoted in Lost for Words]
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More polystyrene moments
people on the radio kept saying enormity
when they meant magnitude, and we really
hate that. When we hear the construction MrBlair was stood (instead of standing) we
suck our teeth with annoyance, and when
words such as phenomena, media or
cherubim are treated as singular* some ofus cannot suppress actual screams.
Lynn Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves
*or the American habit of describing oneself as an alumniof a school.
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Alright?
We all have our issues.
No matter what, do not use alright. Its all
right. Two words. Were aware that alrightis gaining currency and has its advocates;
thats why were letting you know our position
up front. Beth, our editor-in-chief, stops
reading instantly when she sees alright. You have been warned.
Guidelines, Shimmer Magazine www.shimmerzine.com
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As the BBC puts it
It is our job to communicate clearly and effectively,
to be understood without difficulty, and to offer
viewers and listeners an intelligent use of language
which they can enjoy. Good writing is not a luxury; itis an obligation.
Our use, or perceived misuse, of English produces a
greater response from our audiences than anything
else. It is in nobodys interest to confuse, annoy,dismay, alienate or exasperate them.
BBC News Styleguide (see Resources)
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In academic work
Some errors affect how the work and, by
extension, the author, is perceived-
To make a reader stop, go back and rereadto get the sense of a sentence of paragraph
can antagonise that reader-
Good style is easy reading
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The greatest errors a personal
view
The misplaced Apostrophe
Agreements, especially in complex sentences
Homophones, malapropisms andspellchecker errors
Clich
Unjustified Americanisms (e.g the verbingofnouns)
Unjustified repetition
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Knowing your onions (?)
The basis of writing well is reading well...
You will spend much of your time readingacademic literature ca. 30 referencesrequired for each paper written
Every generation of academic writers spendsmore time reading and referencing work that
is written slightly less well Feedback: academic writing is getting
WORSE.
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How to break the cycle?
Get YOU and other academic writers writing
well!
Eliminate the bad, the ill-considered and thelazy
Recognize whats not right and do something
about it!
Write with pride, write with style
We will come back to that!
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Conclusion:
Write with the reader (editor, marker,
audience) in mind.
Discover and be aware of your faults andweaknesses.
If you make an error once it may be forgiven.
If you make the same error on every page, it
may be very badly received!
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What is Style?
What is style?
Style magazines tell us how to dress and cut
our hair; we are aware of men and womenwith a sense of style; we are warned to be
wary of the style policebut if we escape
their attentions we are expected to have
developed, by a certain age, our own senseof style.
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Style is
A dead metaphora pointed object, of bone
or metal, for inscribing in wax.
In classical Latin, a way of writing, and thenan individuals manner of expression
1. A way of writing
2. A goodway of writing
F.L. Lucas, Style, 1955
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A way of writing
Style as expressed in style guides
Specific to an organization, publisher, journal
or even nation (e.g. Commonwealth ofAustralia Style Manual)
The set of rules that define a house style
however inconsistent
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For example
In the case of verbs ending in -ize or -ise and
their derivatives, the forms in -ize, -ization, etc.
(e.g. civilize, civilization) are preferred in MHRA
publications. This is also the preferred spelling ofmany otheracademic publishers. However, all
major British newspapers and most official and
commercial bodies prefer -ise, -isation. It is
important, within a given book or article, to beconsistent.
MHRA Style Guide (see Resources)
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If you are given a style guide
Follow it! In full.
If you are not given one, look to see if one
exists. Your work will be received much better if you
have taken the trouble to discover and follow
the basic usage and formatting requirements.
RTFM
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A good way of writing
If BAD English exists-and it does-there must
be such a thing as GOOD English.
What is it and how is it recognized? Mostly easier to recognize the bad than the
good!Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the
questing vole. Yes, said the managing editor, that
must be good style.
Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
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Writing well
To write English well, it is generally agreed, is
not to imitate, but to evolve a style peculiarly
suited to ones own temperament,
environment and purpose.Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Reader Over Your Shoulder
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Some guidelines
Kings English: Prefer the:
Familiar word to the far-fetched
Concrete word to theabstract
Single word to thecircumlocution
Short word to the long Saxon word to theRomance
Strunk & White
Avoid fancy words the
pretentious, the coy, and
the cute. Do not betempted by a twenty-
dollar word when there
is a ten-center handy,
ready and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier
tongue than Latin, so
use Anglo-Saxon words.
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Some recent examples
with premature chutzpah, Osborne claimedthat he had already rescued Britain'seconomy, and now it was time to move on to
recovery. The chutzpah was underlinedwhen, at the beginning of the Budget, heannounced that the Office for BudgetResponsibility had revised its growth forecast
downwards. Growth predictions were higherbefore Osborne had come to the rescue. Thechutzpah was outdone
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Examples cont.
researchers found that cannabis use
accelerates the onset of full-blown mental
illness almost three years earlier in people at
risk.
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Examples cont.
Football is the worlds only transcendental art
form. It may have emerged from a working-
class English milieu, but it has made a
conquest of all the nations and demographies
of the world It is a conquest that would turn
Caesar green with envy.
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Examples cont.
Boys are diagnosed most, but the NHS
website suggests theyre closing in on girls,
too
there would be around 36 less roles within
the new proposed structure
Workers need to be incentivised
The family praised on police in four
countries
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Examples cont.
Britons have been advised to considerleaving Tokyo as the crisis at Japansstricken nuclear plant appeared to worsen
more than half play computer games afterschool for more than an hour and up to 80per cent were browsing the internet withoutsupervision
Its other outlets include one on a riverboat inGermany, at bowling alleys and even at achurch.
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Examples cont.
a brace of professors opposing the
education and research now being forced onthem.
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The Presidents English
Now we live in a different world. Chinese from Hong Kong andSingapore speak with a British accent for good historicalreasons; but enormous numbers of them from Taiwan and ThePeoples Republic study mostly American patterns. Arabs from
the Middle East, Japanese, Russians, Central Asians of all sorts,and hosts of other people study much more often in Americancolleges than in British ones. When treaties are being negotiated,international statements issued, meetings translated, and filmsdubbed, the lingua franca is far more likely to be AmericanEnglish than UK standard. American television and movies have
alone spread American accents to the four corners of the globe.Paul Brians Common Errors in English Usage
?
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Whose English?
New Scientist 2008
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Other Englishes
Dialects and regional accents (Scots,Geordie)
U and non-U
PC and non-PC
Australian, New Zealand, Canadian English
World English:
Singlish, Chinglish, Hinglish Panglish / Globish
Where next?
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