WRITING SKILLS
Slide 1
Objective
• to survey the difference between good and bad writing,
with particular focus on brevity, clarity, and structure
Slide 2
Writing Skills
• What do you think makes bad writing?
• What frustrates you as a reader?
• Is there a particular kind of writing that you
find especially difficult?
Slide 3
Bad writing…
Thinks too much of itself.
– “Innovative solutions for wound
management.” (Dow Corning, a
bandage manufacturer)
– “Oil and gas transport and handling
solutions.” (Colfax Corporation,
pipeline and refinery)
– “Waste Management Solutions is a
waste brokerage company which
was conceived by a consortium of
waste experts of long standing in the
industry.” (garbage and recycling
collectors)
Slide 4
Bad writing…
• Is too clever for its own good.
– “The Governing Body are agreeing this budget as the financial
mechanism to support the education priorities of the school as
identified in the School Development Plan and will adhere to
the best value principles in spending its school funding
allocation.”
– “Roundwood Park's café is entering a new era now the much
appreciated amenity's immediate future has been secured
through a new tenancy agreement.”
Slide 5
Bad writing…
• Gets hyped up.
– “The Joint European Torus (JET) has
established a legacy of innovation and
will continue to advance the frontiers
of…”
– “Innovative Silicon: to revolutionize the
electronics industry by delivering the
next generation of memory
technologies.”
– “Siemens: Society faces some
profound challenges in the coming
years but Siemens is preparing to face
them head on - using revolutionary
technology for a better future for us
all.”
Slide 6
Bad writing…
• Needs to go on
a diet.
Slide 7
Toby Alter, Flickr
– “A designer knows he
has achieved
perfection not when
there is nothing left to
add, but when there
is nothing left to take
away.” – Antoine
Saint-Exupery
Bad writing…
• Tells lies and
misrepresents
opinions or
theories as
truths.
Slide 8
Bad writing…
Accidentally misleads, and forgets to fact-check or
proofread. Uses ambiguous phrasing.
Slide 9
Bad writing…
Goes in too many directions.
Slide 10
Bad writing…
• Ignores the reader.
– Microsoft: “This
software is licensed
under the agreement
below.”
– Google: “Please read
this carefully: it’s not the
usual yada-yada.”
Slide 11
Bad writing…
•
•
•
•
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Thinks too much of itself
Is too clever by half
Gets hyped up
Needs to go on a diet
Tells lies and misrepresents opinions or
theories as truths
• Is unintentionally imprecise, ambiguous or
misleading
• Has no direction
• Ignores the reader
Slide 12
Good writing is readable.
• All of the above tips are in pursuit
of READABILITY.
• Write to express, not impress.
• Every writer is a reader: what you
hate when you read is what you
should avoid when you write.
Slide 13
Your goal is an attentive readership.
Write so that a 15-year-old could
understand you.
Good writing is concise.
Why say “functionality”,
when you can say
“function”?
Some other serial offenders:
Utilise
Operationalise
Medication
Learnings
Slide 14
Simplify!
•A considerable amount
•A majority of
•A number of
•Are of the same opinion
•At this point in time
•Based on the fact that
•Despite the fact that
•In many cases
•In the event that
•On a daily basis
•Take into consideration
•Through the use of
Slide 15
Simplify!
•
•
•
•
•
•
He indicated…
I have been employed by…
I observed…
I proceeded to the vicinity of…
I approached the entrance…
I apprehended the
perpetrator…
• I observed the subject fleeing
on foot from the location…
Slide 16
Simplify!
Why use ten words when you can use four?
Examples from the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change’s 2009
Renewable Energy Strategy :
1. “To deliver this we will … [p]ut in place the mechanisms to
provide financial support for renewable electricity and heat.”
2. “We will…[e]nsure a strategic approach to planning…”
Slide 17
Concision Practice
Example: There are many farmers in the area who are planning to attend the meeting which is scheduled for
next Friday. Many local farmers plan to attend next Friday's meeting.
Example: Their car is fuelled up. It is ready for the long drive. The drive will take all night. Their car is fuelled
up for the all-night drive. (The sentence discussing the “long drive” is redundant – an all night drive is
clearly a long one.)
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1. Although Bradley Hall is regularly populated by businessmen, close study of the building as a
structure is seldom undertaken by them.
2. It is expected that the new schedule will be announced by the bus company within the next few days.
3. It is very unusual to find someone who has never told a deliberate lie on purpose.
4. A downtown rally was attended by more than a thousand protesters. Five protesters were arrested by
police for disorderly conduct, while several others are fined by civil administrators with organizing a
public meeting without being issued a permit to do so.
5. The subjects that are considered most important by elected officials are those that have been shown
to be useful to them in re-election campaigns.
6. In our company there are wide-open opportunities for professional growth with a company that enjoys
an enviable record for stability in the dynamic atmosphere of aerospace technology.
7. Some people believe in capital punishment, while other people are against it; there are many opinions
on this subject.
8. The cliff dropped to reefs seventy-five feet below. The reefs below the steep cliff were barely visible
through the fog.
9. Sometimes John went running with Sarah. She was a good athlete. She was on the track team at
school.
10. Government leaders like to mention the creation of new jobs. They claim that these new jobs
indicate a strong economy.
Slide 18
Be natural.
“The consultant demonstrated how aggregate
remuneration might be ameliorated by
modifications in our propensities to utilize
credit for compensating for services. She
also endeavoured to ascertain which of our
characteristics were analogous to those of
other entities for which she had fabricated
solutions. She recommended we commence
to initiate innumerable modifications in our
procedures to increase cash flow, which she
considers indispensable for facilitating
increased corporate health.”
Does anyone know what this means??!
Slide 19
“Official” style?
Readers have a difficult time understanding writing
that is unnecessarily complex.
If the reader has to work
hard to understand the
meaning, the writing is
ineffective, with
miscommunication and
wasted time as a result.
Slide 20
Bureaucratese: the art of saying little, at length.
1) She made a negative evaluation of his physical appearance.
2) Your maternal parent is engaged in the act of vocalizing so as to
compel a response on your part.
3) I turn my delighted gaze upon the denizens of the deep, whose
scintillatingly silent realm is lit by an eerie illumination, all the
way to its unplumbed depths. Rejoice, O fishes, in your supreme
serenity!
Slide 21
Why say this…
1) She made a negative evaluation of his physical appearance.
2) Your maternal parent is engaged in the act of vocalizing so as to
compel a response on your part.
3) I turn my delighted gaze upon the denizens of the deep, whose
scintillatingly silent realm is lit by an eerie illumination, all the way to
its unplumbed depths. Rejoice, O fishes, in your supreme serenity!
…when you can say this?
1) She thought he was ugly.
2) Your mother’s calling you.
3) I looked down into the softly-lit pool of fishes: its calmness echoed
the coolness of its inhabitants.
Slide 22
Avoid clichés.
Keep your language
FRESH:
If you’ve heard it before, if it sounds
familiar, it’s probably a cliché.
Clichés:
1.Bore your reader
2.Make your work seem derivative and unimportant
3.Make your writing seem dull and bovine
4.Make the writing process less creative and interesting to you
Slide 23
© Kris Anderson
Avoid clichés!!
Avoid negative formations if possible.
• Don’t say: “We did not anticipate not hearing from him.”
…if you can say, “We anticipated hearing from him.”
© Kris Anderson
• Don’t say: “We did not make any unplanned stops.”
…if you can say, “We made only planned stops.”
Slide 24
Be precise.
Especially in scientific or technical writing – or
in translating scientific writing for a general
audience – it’s CRUCIAL to know exactly what
terms mean before you use them. This is also
true for statistics.
© Kris Anderson
Precision also means avoiding redundancy:
Actual fact = fact
Close proximity = close
Consensus of opinion = consensus
New initiative = initiative
Reason why = reason
Slide 25
Use specific and concrete words
•
With a partner, re-write the paragraph below so that it uses specific
and concise language (and yes, you can make up the details).
Example first sentence: “Uchumi is lowering prices by between 3050% on its products.”
• “In an effort to stimulate sales, Uchumi is lowering prices
substantially on its line of consumer items. Sometime soon, it
will close most of its stores for several days to provide store
personnel time to change prices. Markdowns will range from
very little on its line of laundry equipment to a great deal on
certain sporting equipment. Uchumi plans to rely on
advertising to let people know of these price reductions. In
particular, it is considering using a popular television star to
publicize the new pricing strategy.”
Slide 26
Avoid flowery language
– Avoid unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, over-thetop language, and long descriptive passages,
especially in scientific/technical writing:
• He is not “monstrously obese”, he is “obese”
• He doesn’t go “extremely quickly”; he goes
“rapidly”
• She is not “incredibly, jaw-droppingly beautiful,
as beautiful a the sunset over Lake Victoria”,
she is “attractive”
• The bridge is not “a crumbling, cracked
menace to humanity”; it is “dangerously
dilapidated” or even just “needs urgent repair”.
Slide 27
© Kris Anderson
There’s a time and a place for decorative
ornamentation, but your professional writing
isn’t it.
Shah-i-zinda necropolis,
Samarqand, Uzbekistan
Clear, concise, effective prose
• All of the above tips will help your writing to be
convincing, accessible and authoritative.
• Above all, clarity and concision are most
important: if you’re struggling with the words on
the page, turn away from it and ask yourself
“what am I trying to say?” and then write
exactly that.
Slide 28
Ask the experts…

“Anything that makes a text hard to read and understand, such as
unnecessarily long words or complicated fonts, will lower readers'
evaluations of the text and its author… The continuing popularity…of
using big words…may be due to the fact that [writers] may not realise
these techniques could backfire… One thing seems certain: write as
simply and plainly as possible and it's more likely you'll be thought of as
intelligent."
-- Dr. Daniel M. Oppenheimer, Princeton
University Professor of Psychology
(“Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized
Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with
Using Long Words Needlessly”, Journal of
Applied Cognitive Psychology 2005, DOI:
10.1002/acp.1178 )
Slide 29
Main steps for effective writing
1. Research
2. Structuring and
planning
3. Further
reading/research
4. Writing
5. Reviewing
6. Re-writing
Slide 30
Brainstorm: Take ten minutes and
discuss in groups of threes or fours
what you think each of these steps
might mean.
Also, think about where (in which
step) some of the tips from previous
slides might be employed.
Review
• Key points from previous sections?
• Previous sections included:
– What makes bad writing bad?
– What makes good writing good and how can I improve
my own?
– What are the main steps to writing well?
Slide 31
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This presentation was originally written by Kris Anderson
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Slide 32