Avoid run-on sentences.

Writing with good style

Effective writing requires a good knowledge of appropriate writing style, and a sound understanding of how to avoid poor writing style.

General principles

First, let’s consider some general principles that can guide your writing, whatever the discipline and whatever the purpose. The following seven points of style can be useful in the preparation of any piece of written work.

1. Be clear. In general, keep sentences short and convey a single point in each sentence.

2. Be concise. Where possible, use shorter words and phrases. Write succinctly, to the point and without unnecessary verbosity. Use the fewest number of words. Read your text over carefully and, for each sentence, ask, "Do I need every word?", "Are there redundant words or phrases?"

3. Enjoy precision. Familiarise yourself with the scientific terms and expressions in your field. Check that your written work communicates the meaning that you intend. Check that you mean what you are communicating in your written work. Check word usage. Effective writing is writing that says precisely what the writer means and means precisely what the writer intended. Consult a dictionary to check the meaning of any words about which you are unsure, and use a thesaurus cautiously, always checking the meaning of synonyms in a dictionary before using them in your written work. Be particularly careful with words that have a specific meaning in particular disciplines.

4. Be consistent. Use terms consistently throughout your essay or report (keeping in mind the importance of literary variation).

5. Be accurate. State measurements using the correct notations and symbols. Report your statistics correctly and using APA style. Make sure that your language conveys when a fact is a fact and when a possibility or hypothesis is being put forward.

6. Check disciplinary expectations. Different styles of writing are used in different disciplines. The differences are particularly pronounced in written work prepared for different purposes. So, for example, a piece of written work that is about a technical subject or a laboratory report in a scientific discipline is very different in style from a sociology or fine arts essay.

7. Be honest. Reference all sources of information.

Those seven points can be most helpful when you are writing an essay, a laboratory report, or some other written assignment.

Some specific issues

Beyond those general principles outlined above, however, there are many issues that, for the person who is keen to write well, are also important issues to bear in mind. The first of these are expressed as a recommendation for what you should aim to avoid.

Avoid excessively long compounds.

Often writers use a string of adjectives before a noun. Such strings reduce clarity.

For example, in the sentence A new type motor skills college performance test it is unclear whether there is a new motor skills test or college performance test.
Rewriting this sentence, in the following way A new kind of motor skills test used in colleges can help to clarify its meaning.

Avoid wordy phrases.

Very long phrases take the focus from the intended meaning.

So, for each of the phrases below, an alternative can be used that gives more focus (without altering the meaning).

	Wordy phrase	Preferable alternative
	a considerable amount	much
	a majority of	most
	a number of	many
	are of the same opinion	agree
	at this point in time	now
	based on the fact that	because
	despite the fact that	although
	in many cases	often
	in the event that	if
	on a daily basis	daily
	take into consideration	consider
	through the use of	by

Avoid oxymorons.

An oxymoron refers to the conjoining of contradictory or incongruous terms.

For example, in each of the phrases listed below, the words contradict or are inconsistent.

only choice
thoroughly inadequate
important trivia
pretty ugly
may certainly
strongly suggests

Avoid excessively long sentences.

Long sentences can be difficult to read. Of course, some brilliant writers deliberately use long sentences. A hallmark of Marcel Proust’s writing, for example, are his long and often very convoluted sentences. Few of us, however, can claim to write like Proust.

In general terms, shorter sentences are more effective. Readers typically read all the way to the full stop before pausing to absorb what they have read. For that reason, long sentences can strain their memories. So, many readers regard long sentences as hard work.

To shorten long sentences,

· s ort out the different ideas

· have only one or two ideas in each sentence

· locate the qualifications and modifications of ideas into separate sentences

· locate conditions attached to the main ideas into separate sentences

· locate explanations into separate sentences

For example,

Freud’s theory of personality development involves 5 stages, the oral period, the anal period, the phallic period, the latency period and the genital period, each of which the child must pass through in order to fully develop and if they do not pass through each stage successfully then they may become fixated, which can later be manifested as immature behaviour.

By shortening the sentence, and therefore writing separate sentences for each of the ideas, the above paragraph, rewritten below, reads more easily.

Freud’s theory of personality development involves 5 stages. These are the oral period, the anal period, the phallic period, the latency period and the genital period. The child must pass through each stage in order to fully develop. If they do not pass through each stage successfully then they may become fixated, which can later be manifested as immature behaviour.

Avoid changing the structure of ideas.

Adhering to a consistent structure helps to highlight the equivalence of ideas.

For example, in the sentence

Freud posited that there are many defense mechanisms, such as repression, the displacement of feelings, projection, and regressing back to childhood.

the change in the way that the last of the ideas is expressed (regressing back to childhood) distracts the reader’s attention from the point that is being made, which is the list of the defense mechanisms.

In contrast, if the sentence is reworded as

Freud posited that there are many defense mechanisms, such as repression, displacement, projection, and regression.

the sentence stresses for the reader that the writer is talking about the same type of things.

Avoid randomly ordering ideas.

It is much easier to follow what a writer is saying if the ideas are ordered logically or chronologically.

For example, the following sentence,

Before you start writing your answers, read the questions carefully.

is more difficult to follow than

Read the questions carefully before you start writing your answers.

In other words, because the readers are meant to read the questions before they start writing any answers, the instructions should reflect the order in which things are to be done.

Avoid non-specific referents.

Nonspecific referentspresent problems for clarity of writing.

For example, in the sentences,

Engineering students sometimes have difficulty writing essays. In particular, they dislike essays about historical topics. These require additional attention.

The word "these" constitutes a nonspecific referent. It is not clear to what it refers. You might assume that "these" refers to "essays about historical topics". While that is possible, it could also refer to "Engineering students". All sentences should be clear.

To increase the clarity in this example, "engineering students" should replace "these".

Avoid run-on sentences.

Run-on sentencesare sentences that should be divided, but which have been simply run-on, and are joined with a comma or a conjunction.

For example, the first of the following is a run-on sentence and is therefore incorrect. The second is correct

Learning to write effectively can take some time, it is a worthwhile endeavour and you should try it.

Learning to write effectively can take some time; it is a worthwhile endeavour. You should try it.

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