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Writing the Paper

Remember that if a paper fails to communicate well, then its research--no matter how well done--will have little impact. There is an old piece of advice that says, "write like you speak." This is terrible advice, at least for formal papers. Good written communication is somewhat different from good spoken communication.

1. Watch your sentence structure. Students and scholars too often seem to assume that long, complex sentences are symbolic of profundity. They are not; they are mostly just cumbersome. Simple, subject-verb-object sentences are best. They are powerful. Still, if you do not vary them occasionally, numerous short sentences do not "read" well. So, after several simple sentences, add a longer one. But do not go too far the other way. Consider "Rourke's Rule of 2s": "Sentences more than two lines long or with more than two commas are probably too long to be understood easily, especially if there have been two in a row."

2. Rely on active tense, action verbs. Avoid the passive tense (No: "Politicians are disliked by many people." Yes: "Many people dislike politicians."). Similarly, action verbs (made, jumped, went) are better than verbs of being (is, are, were). In general, active/action verbs generate more interest.

3. Use standard English. Colloquial English typically does not make a good impression unless you are writing fiction. Obscenities and other forms of gutter English are almost never acceptable.

4. Avoid starting too many sentences with adverbial or adjectival clauses or phrases. These are the short phrases (such as "In the morning, we went...") that are often followed by a comma. Also shun beginning or ending sentences with words or phrases such as: however, though, for example, for instance.

5. Watch your paragraph length. Paragraphs over one page in length are usually too long. They may contain redundant statements or more than one major idea. Rework such paragraphs to delete unnecessary text or to separate ideas into additional paragraphs. At the other extreme, one-sentence paragraphs are not acceptable. Remember that each paragraph should have a topic sentence and several others that explain or develop that topic.

6. Rely on transitions between paragraphs. Conventions like "On the other hand," "Still," "Also," "Nevertheless," "Thus," "However," or "As a result" help the reader get from one thought to another. They smooth the reading process.

7. Avoid clichés. "They fought like cats and dogs over which policy to adopt." Ugh!

8. Get to the point. Do not beat around the bush; save a tree; avoid word pollution.




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