My writing rules:



Writing Guidelines for Scholarly and Professional Writing

Point of View:

Always write from third person point-of-view – (e.g., he, she, it, and they as well as their accusative, dative, and possessive forms). First and second person points-of-view (e.g., I, you, we) are not used in academic writing. Avoid substituting “one” for first or second person POV. Never use first person or second person point of view: revise to demonstrate objectivity in your work. This is not about you; it is about learning and expressing knowledge of the topics. DO NOT USE one, this writer, etc.

Avoid beginning sentences with confusing words: Do not begin sentences with the following words or phrases – therefore, although, however, consequently, thus, hence, there is, it is, this, by, as, being, if, in, when, while, with, though, because, and all words that end with –ing (gerund or participle)

Avoid vague and uncertain language; your point would be stronger with precise words that state more clearly what you mean. Also avoid vague quantifiers (some, many, always, more, better, immensely, more, several, great, seems to, etc.)

Loaded, inflammatory, emotional language is not used in scholarly writing. Write in an objective and unemotional tone – avoid biased and loaded (emotional) language. You are reporting evidence to support an argumentative point not writing an opinion paper. Avoid words like important, imperative, vital, essential, valuable, key, inevitable, paramount, significant, necessary, core, fundamental, priority, pivotal, evident, unique, or other synonyms for these words. These vague words clutter up the sentence/paragraph without adding any meaning to your content Writing should be concise and precise.

Avoid editorializing, including words like: unfortunately, virtually impossible, well worth, obviously, clearly, hopefully, fortunately, invaluable, undoubtedly, assuredly, literally, etc. Write in an objective style and do not insert your opinions into the essay. This is not an opinion paper.

Omit Wordiness and Cliches. Do not use the following: the fact that, at that point in time. in other words, play a role, due to, as a result of, as to why, whereas, thus, therefore, which is, the most common, one of, not only, but also, very, extremely, really, a lot, great, best, usually, greater, many, most, some, a little, a few, often, sometimes, oftentimes, can be established, such as, just as, of this, is that, the fact that, means that, for many reasons, all these, serve to, to name a few, in order to, when it comes to, as noted, on the part of, by means of, after all, this means that, the reason is, in general, again, once again, in addition,  etc.

Avoid complicated, pretentious words. Examples are prior to/before, utilize/use, demonstrate/show, commence/begin, modify/change, within/in. Other examples: plethora, elicit, ensue, illustrative, empowerment  and so forth. Use a formal, yet direct and to the point style for academic writing.

Omit announcements about what you, your paper, or a paragraph will do – this is indicative of high school writing not college writing: this paper will, in this paper I will, in the article, in the essay, etc. DO NOT USE one, this writer, etc.

 

 

Omit uncertainty in your writing: could, might, may, maybe, probably, seems to, etc. (these words are too uncertain and you are writing about factual information)

 

Omit all scenarios or anecdotes or other examples to illustrate points. This is a research paper, not a creative writing assignment.

DO write properly structured paragraphs with opening and closing sentences, body sentences, and proper transitions to the next paragraph. Paragraphs are 6-10 sentences including: an introductory sentence, body sentences (explanation plus evidence cited from learning resources), concluding/transition sentence. Evidence from source material is cited in the middle of the paragraph (never begin or end a paragraph with material from sources in academic writing. Paragraphs include 2-4 sentences of your own writing before and after the quote or paraphrase to provide evaluation, explanation, analysis, etc. of the relevance of your quote/paraphrase to the topic.

Pronouns

pronoun agreement



and

pronoun reference

Do not use THAT when referring to people. The pronoun WHO refers to people. Use THAT and WHICH correctly  

 

Subject/verb agreement: Check to make sure that your tenses don't shift from the present to the past tense. Be consistent. Also be sure that your subjects and verbs agree.



 

Spelling: Your computer has spell checker; use it! Even if you have a spell-checker, have another person read your essay for small errors. You might have entered an incorrect spelling in your spell checker!

Also, see commonly confused words

 

Commas: See commas for all the comma usage rules.



In a series of three or more nouns or noun phrases, insert a comma before the word "and" or "or"

 

Sentence structure: Read your work aloud to ensure proper sentence structure. Sentence Punctuation Patterns



Sentence Structure



Sentences: Fragments



Parallelism: Sentences that are not parallel can be confusing so that the meaning of your writing is not clear. See parallelism



Apostrophes: Proofread for singular and plural possessives. See using apostrophes to show possession



 

Dangling modifiers: these make your writing confusing. See modifiers



  

Verb tenses should be consistent throughout the paper: 

Verb tense



Tense consistency



 

Singular/plural nouns: use either singular or plural (the nurse or nurses; the patient or patients) consistently throughout the paper and never mix both in the same sentence.

 

PASSIVE VOICE: Do not use passive voice in your writing. Be concise and clear. Passive voice makes the sentence too wordy.

Use active voice, clear, precise, and concise sentences

 

PREPOSITION RULES

1. Do not begin sentences with propositions

2. A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun called the object of the preposition.

3. The subject of the sentence can never be part of a prepositional phrase.

4. A verb can never be a part of a prepositional phrase.

Conciseness (or how to avoid wordiness in your writing)

LEO: Strategies for Reducing Wordiness



Strategies for eliminating wordiness

Patterns of wordiness

Omit the following from beginning of sentences: "it is," "there is," "there are," and "this"

Change "which" or "that" constructions to an "-ing" word

Omit "which" or "that" altogether

Replace passive verbs with active verbs

Change "is" or "was" to a strong verb

Replace "is," "are," "was," "were," or "have + an -ing word" to a simple present or past tense verb

Replace "should," "would," or "could" with strong verbs

Substitute strong verbs for "-tion" and "-sion" words whenever possible

Combine two closely related short sentences by omitting part of one

DO NOT USE prepositional phrases to begin sentences



OWL: Methods of Eliminating Wordiness



Eliminate unnecessary determiners and modifiers

Change phrases into single words

Change unnecessary that, who, and which clauses into phrases

Avoid overusing expletives at the beginning of sentences: "it is," "there are," "there was," etc.

Use active rather than passive verbs

Avoid overusing noun forms of verbs

Reword unnecessary infinitive phrases

Replace circumlocutions with direct expressions

Omit words that explain the obvious or provide excessive detail

Omit repetitive wording

Blank, K.: Wordiness List



List of words and phrases that should NOT be used in your writing. Some of the words in this list are marked DELETE, which means you should never use the words. Other words have substitutions that are more concise.

CCC: Writing Concise Sentences



Redundant words to avoid

Reducing clauses to phrases, phrases to single words

Avoiding intensifiers

Avoiding expletive constructions

Phrases to omit (list)

Eliminating cliché's and euphemisms

 

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