Why write clearly

Affirmatives, instead, convey concise meaning that needs no interpretation. Sentences express and connect the meaning of your ideas. Follow these guidelines to write clear and concise sentences that your audience can comprehend quickly and easily. Use short sentences to emphasize a point; use longer sentences to connect ideas [1]:. This report provides operational information about the electrical equipment the Acme Corporation recently installed at their headquarters in Los Angeles long sentence.

In the active voice, the subject performs the action of the verb. The focus of an active sentence is the subject:. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb. The focus of a passive sentence is the action:. Each type of voice has its place in writing clearly and concisely. Use active voice by default; research shows readers comprehend it more quickly than passive voice [1]. But use passive voice when. Transitions are words and phrases that indicate connections between sentences.

You should use them at the beginning of sentences to connect ideas by [1]. They can weaken an active sentence and, in some instances, may indicate passive voice. Use active verbs instead whenever possible. Unnecessary use of prepositional phrases interferes with the clarity of a sentence [7]:.

While you may not use it for everything you write, the paramedic method, developed by Richard Lanham, a professor of English at the University of California, is a set of steps for revising sentences. When the situation is appropriate, use this popular method to make your writing clear and concise adapted from the Purdue Online Writing Lab [8]. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, Weber and N. Hurm, Eliminating words. Purdue Online Writing Lab. Kolln and L. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. Berry and A.

Improving sentence clarity. But a damaged reputation is not the only consequence for Coinbase. And talent is the most important asset of a tech company. Some people think credibility is all about grammar. Writing is about making sure the reader gets you—not to please your English teacher.

I used to be very unrestrained with my words and blurted out every single thing that came to mind. As a result, my writing was often ambiguous. His son? Or maybe the puppy? Ambiguity has many different causes. Sometimes it actually is a matter of grammar and punctuation. But it could also be the choice of your words.

The Key River Water Treatment Plant KRWTP is a state of the art facility that recycles most of the domestic waste water produced in the area and treats the remainder before it is pumped into the sea. Firstly, the primary solids are removed using dissolved air floatation, clarification and sedimentation. After these large solids are removed, the water undergoes primary filtration before second filtration using a median filter, and last of all it is disinfected using chlorine.

The plant processes 20, tonnes of domestic wastewater per year. Based on an average daily usage of L per person by the local population of 25,, this is more than more than 3. The extracted waste is disposed of at the local landfill. Based on an average daily usage of L per person by the local population of 25,, this is more than 3.

The treatment process has three steps. First, primary solids are removed using dissolved air floatation, clarification and sedimentation.

The water then undergoes two filtration stages, and finally chlorine disinfection. The extracted waste goes to the local landfill. On each screen you will see two versions of the same text. For each pair, select the version that is written more concisely. Try applying the techniques presented in this module to your own writing. Re-read a current or past assignment and highlight the sentences, words or phrases that could be changed or removed to make your writing more concise.

Be careful though not to remove phrases that contribute to meaning. In academic writing it is essential that your readers - and markers - understand exactly what you mean, so you need to make sure that what you write is accurate and unambiguous.

This is not as simple as it sounds; writing precisely requires considerable thought and careful editing. Chinese are Buddhist. They go to the temple five times a year, live simple lives, and give money to charity.

Many Chinese are Buddhists. Practising Buddhists go to the temple about five times a year, generally try to live simple lives, and give money to charity when they can. You can avoid over-generalising by using qualifying words to indicate the strength of your claims. The table below presents some of the most common qualifiers. High level vocabulary can be problematic as it is easy to confuse words which sound similar but have different meanings or spelling. The study found that an opposing rotation decreased vortex breakdown, while a complimentary rotation enhanced it.

Complimentary is used instead of complementary , which has a different meaning. If this were a one-off typing error, the marker would probably be lenient. However, if it occurred throughout the report, the writer could lose not just marks, but credibility. Sometimes a single letter can be the difference between a noun, verb, adjective or tense.

Words which often cause confusion include:. Some words sound similar enough to be confused and thus used in the wrong context. For example, the student who wrote:. Students often use a thesaurus to avoid repetition. However, the words listed will not all be an exact match for the word you look up. They may vary in intensity, formality, part of speech, or contextual application.

Among many other words, the thesaurus offers: direct, lead, manage, organise, operate, carry out, perform. When making a general claim, words such as few, some, or the majority, often suffice. Verbs such as can, have, get, or go can have more than one meaning or application. For example, get can mean achieve, obtain, receive, buy, become or understand. Using the most precise word is important in academic writing to avoid ambiguity or misunderstanding.

In first drafts we often write statements that are not quite logical. Consider the second sentence in this paragraph, from an essay on Jane Eyre :. As we see the novel through Jane's eyes, we only hear the story of Mr. Rochester and Bertha through what Mr. Rochester tells Jane, which Jane then narrates to the reader.

If we were to learn Bertha's version of the story instead of Mr. Rochester's it would probably be very different. Equally, the more clearly he has thought out his message before he starts to dictate, the more likely he is to get it right on paper the first time round. In other words, if he thinks well, he will write well. Hence we have a chicken-and-the-egg situation: writing and thinking go hand in hand; and when one is good, the other is likely to be good. More particularly, rewriting is the key to improved thinking.

It demands a real openmindedness and objectivity. It demands a willingness to cull verbiage so that ideas stand out clearly. And it demands a willingness to meet logical contradictions head on and trace them to the premises that have created them.

In short, it forces a writer to get up his courage and expose his thinking process to his own intelligence. Obviously, revising is hard work. It demands that you put yourself through the wringer, intellectually and emotionally, to squeeze out the best you can offer.

Is it worth the effort? Yes, it is—if you believe you have a responsibility to think and communicate effectively. You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Business communication. Here the author points […] by Marvin H. Obviously, such practice is contrary to company policy and will result in dismissal.

A version of this article appeared in the January issue of Harvard Business Review. Read more on Business communication or related topic Business writing.