Writing Checklist
The actions below are easy to
do and can immensely improve the professional character of your report. Please check off each one and turn this form
in with any written material that you turn in to your professors. More information about these errors can be
found in the document following this checksheet.
1.
I have run the Spelling Checker on my document.
2.
I have run the Grammar Checker
on my document.
3.
I have used the equation editor (download MS Word file)
to format all equations.
4.
All of the references in the List of References
are explicitly cited in my report
5.
All of the figures and tables have references to them in
the text.
6.
All text references to figures and tables occur before the figure or table.
7.
The words “this,” “these,” and “those” never occur without
referencing a noun. (E.g., “This device is used to …” rather than “This is used
to …”
8.
All acronyms are spelled out completely only once, the
first time they are used. For example,
“A Magnetic Resonance Imager (MRI) is used for ….”
9.
All quoted material relates to points that are
subjective or a matter of opinion on the part of the quoted author.
10.
I have not used any of the following egregious words or phrases: a lot, kids, kinds, big, kind of, due to the
fact that, (or just “the fact that”), utilize, actually, obviously, rather (as
in “It is rather surprising”), very, quite, essentially.
11.
There are no sentence fragments or run-on sentences
in my text (the grammar checker should find these).
12.
There are no contractions in my text (do a global
search for the apostrophe and make sure it occurs only in possessives).
13.
The phrase “et al.” is correctly written, with no period after “et”
and a period after “al.”
14.
When the semicolon is used, it separates complete sentences,
not sentence fragments or clauses.
15. I have eliminated dangling participles. Wherever a present participle is used at the beginning of a sentence, the noun performing the action is the first thing after the comma.
16. I have used parallel constructions in related phrases.
Notes on Writing
Writing
errors can be grouped into 6 categories:
The undergraduate or graduate
student should have few errors related to 4, 5 and 6 above, but might still use
incorrect words, unnecessary words and overly complicated phrases. Furthermore, the student may not be familiar
with the conventions of technical writing, even after having taken a technical
writing course. Consequently, the
emphasis of this article is on conventions of technical writing and wordiness,
although common errors in the other four categories are included. To help the student interpret editing marks
on their work, a list of editing symbols has been
provided at the end of this article. In
addition, some illustrative examples are provided from
reports and other bodies of work that I have edited.
References to Figures and
Tables:
1.
Every figure or table must have a numbered
figure/table caption. An example figure
and caption for a Venn diagram is shown in Figure 1.
2.
Figures and tables
must be numbered in the sequence in which they appear. I.e. Figure 4 always appears after Figure 3.
3.
Figures and
tables are numbered by different sequences.
4.
Graphs, diagrams and
photographs are all categorized as figures. Do not make up new categories for them. That is, do not refer to a photograph as “Photograph
1” and then refer to a block diagram as “Schematic 1.”
5.
Every figure and
table must be referred to in the text.
Whereas popular magazines often have pictures that are not directly
discussed in the text of the article, this practice is not acceptable for
technical writing. Every figure is
included in your article for a specific reason, and it is to your advantage to
tell the reader directly the purpose of that figure. At the minimum you should have a sentence
that says something like: “Figure 1 is a sketch of the proposed design.” You should then follow this statement with a description
of what is shown in figure 1.
6.
Figures can be
referenced in the text in one of two ways, either “Figure 1 is a sketch of the
proposed device,” or “The proposed device has 5 main components (Figure
1).” The constructions, “(Figure 1) is a
sketch of the proposed device,” or “The proposed device has 5 main components
Figure 1” are not acceptable.
7.
The first reference to a figure or table must appear before
the figure or table.
8.
When you borrow a
figure from some other source, be sure to provide an acknowledgement of the
source in the figure caption.
9.
A legend key must
always be included. In some cases,
inclusion of the key may require extra effort.
For example, the key may be in the original legend, rather than on the
figure itself, whereas you need to write your own legend. Alternately, the plot may be in color or
there might be other circumstances that make it difficult to distinguish
between the patterns that represent different data. In this case, you must ensure that your reader understands the legend. You may need to reconstruct the graph
yourself in Excel or some other graphing package. Make sure that you then state that the figure
has been “adapted” from the stated source (e.g. “adapted from Minos et al., 2001”).
1.
Every reference
listed at the end of your proposal or article needs to be referenced in your
text. References are included in your
work to back up specific statements, not to provide further reading for the
reader or to let the reader know where you learned about the subject. If an article is not referenced directly in
the text it must not be listed in the “References” section.
2.
In citing
references, remember that “et al.” is
the correct abbreviation, not “et al” or et. al” or et. al.”
3.
Pay attention to
the format for citing references, and be consistent. You should use either: “Johnson et al. (2002)
developed the first viable artificial brain.”
or “An artificial brain will require 5 billion
electrical connections (Johnson et al., 2002).
In the second form, separate the author name from the date with a
comma. You can separate multiple
citations with a semicolon, as in (Johnson et al., 2002; Friedrich et al.,
2002). Never list more than one name in
the author list. In other words, do not
say, (Johnson, Robertson et al., 2002).
Also, do not say (Stan Johnson et al., 2002).
4.
It is also not
appropriate to spell out an author’s complete name. You should not say, “Dr. Stan Johnson
developed the first artificial brain (Johnson et al., 2002). It’s much better to just say, “Jonhson et al., (2002) developed the first artificial
brain.”
1.
The first time
you introduce an acronym you must spell it out completely. The style is: “Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis
(ALS) affects 30,000 Americans.” Do not
say: “ALS is Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, and it affects 30,000 Americans.”
2.
Use acronyms sparingly. You cannot expect your reader to remember
large numbers of acronyms, and you do not want to force the reader to flip back
continually to remember the definition of each acronym. A simple guideline is to use acronyms only if
you will refer to the item at least three times.
1.
Keep quotations
to a minimum. Quotations should
generally be used when presenting something that is an opinion. When expressing fact, it is better to
paraphrase.
Compare:
According to Johnson et al. (1999), meningitis is the most
painful of all neural disorders.
to:
Johnson et al. (1999) have said, “meningitis
is the most painful of all neural disorders.”
In this case, the quote is effective.
Compare:
Meningitis affects 50,000 Americans each year (Johnson et al.,
1999).
to:
According to Johnson et al. (1999), “Meningitis affects 50,000
Americans each year.”
In this case the version with the quote
sounds as if you are shedding some doubt on what Johnson et al. have said.
1.
You should not
use contractions. You should not say,
“The device can’t be used in cold weather.” Instead you should say, “The device
cannot be used in cold weather.”
Similarly, do not use haven’t, doesn’t, wouldn’t, don’t, we’re, they’ve,
or any similar term that you might otherwise use in common speech.
It
is typical for students to use phrases and constructions that are more
complicated than necessary. The best way
to learn to write clearly is to write a large number of pieces, to practice
revising your work, and to have others edit and critique it for you. However, there are some simple rules that can
be followed that will make your writing more succinct.
Avoid Adverbs
In
courses on journalism, the instructor will often tell the students to “take the
article they have written and cross out all of the adverbs.” The result is invariably better than the
original article. One adverb that is
often overused is “very.” While this
word is meant to be a qualitative intensifier, it can cause your work to sound
imprecise.
Compare
“The curve is very linear” to “The curve is linear.”
There
is no guideline to distinguish between “very linear” and “linear,” so the word
very serves no useful purpose in this context.
Ironically, the word “very” weakens the statement rather than strengthening
it.
Beware of Dangling Participles
The dangling participle is a
grammatical problem and is therefore described under the section on
grammar. Avoidance of this error will
improve the clarity of your writing.
Clauses that describe similar
items or ideas should have the same grammatical construction to clarify the
similarities. Adherence to this rule
allows the reader to focus on the ideas you are presenting rather than the grammatical
structure. For example, instead of “The
proposed device is practical, inexpensive, and it provides comfort to the
patient,” you should say, “The proposed device is practical, inexpensive, and
comfortable to the patient.”
Avoid Other
Unnecessary Words and Phrases
Some phrases
that are commonly used by students perform no useful purpose to the point of
the article. Others can be readily
shortened to a single world. Table 1 is
a short list of the more egregious of these.
Word Choice
Lack of clarity may be caused
by failure to choose the correct word.
In some case the chosen word may simply be wrong. In other cases it may be close to the desired
word but have a completely different meaning.
A given word may also be correct in meaning but may be inappropriate for
technical writing.
Common Errors in Word Choice
Pay attention to the
difference between “affect” and “effect.”
In general, you will use “affect” as a verb and “effect” as a noun. For example, in “temperature affects viscosity,”
affects is a verb. In “temperature has
an effect on viscosity,” effect is a noun.
Effect can be used as a verb, as in “the hammer effects
a knee-jerk reflex.” However, it’s
better in this case just to say, “The hammer causes a knee-jerk reflex.”
The word “It’s” is a
contraction of “it is.” It is not the possessive of “it.” Correct: “It’s
Inappropriate Words
1.
Some terms should
not be used in professional writing. A
few are listed in Table 2.
Instead
of Use a lot many big large kids children kinds types, varieties, models kind of somewhat (use sparingly) plug in to (i.e. plug in to an equation) use in utilize use etc. (complete the list, if possible) Table 2:
Words to avoid in technical writing.
Malapropisms
Mrs. Malaprop
was a character in the play “The Rivals” (R. B. Sheridan, 1775) who was fond of
her vocabulary and unwittingly misused words.
The malapropism is a common literary device in comedies. Modern examples can be found in Archie
Bunker’s use of English in the sit-com “All in the Family,” but earlier
examples can be found in many of Shakespear’s works.
Make sure that you know what
a word means when you use it. Otherwise,
it could have devastating consequences.
Consider this example from a research proposal:
“We will use sophistical analysis
software to accomplish these goals.”
The definition of sophistical,
“Seemingly correct, but erroneous,” was almost certainly not what the author
intended. The author may have intended
to use the word “statistical,” or may have mistyped “sophisticated.” A more interesting possibility is that the
original word may have been mistyped, and the spelling checker may have
suggested “sophistical” as a substitute, which the author blindly accepted. This possibility highlights the need to be
careful with spelling checkers.
Grammar and Grammar Checkers
As is the case for spelling
checkers, grammar checkers should also be used.
However, grammar checkers are
often incorrect. They may flag some
sentences that are perfectly acceptable and they may miss others that are
completely erroneous. A recent story on
CNN examined grammar checkers and noted some of the situations in which they
provided incorrect advice. Microsoft’s
response to the story was that language is highly complicated and that it is
unreasonable to expect that a given program could recognize correct and
incorrect grammatical structures in all cases.
Thus, a grammar checker is never a substitute for a human’s working
knowledge of language. Nonetheless,
grammar checkers can find a variety of errors in your writing that are easy to
correct. However,
You must carefully analyze any sentence that the
grammar checker highlights and be cautious in blindly accepting alternatives
that the grammar checker suggests.
Some of the more common
errors made by writers are highlighted below.
Complete Sentences
Subjunctive Tense
The –ing ending on a verb can
perform two separate functions. It can
turn the verb into a gerand (a noun), or it can turn it into a past
participle. Compare the following:
Eating is good.
I am eating.
I was eating.
In the first sentence,
“eating” is a verb that has been converted to a noun, and it has become the
subject of the sentence. In the second
and third sentences, “eating” is still a verb form, the participle. One of the unfortunate aspects of the English
language is that it does not distinguish between the gerand and the present (or
past) participle. (A few hundred years
ago there was a difference in the form of these two, but language is constantly
changing and it has evolved to eliminate the distinction. One need only pick up the plays of Shakespear
or a copy of “The Canterbury Tales” to see that dramatic changes in language
that can occur in only a few hundred years).
Not surprisingly, having a form that can perform more than one function
can cause confusion.
A construction that often
occurs is demonstrated by the sentence, “Eating the pretzel, I slipped on a
rock.” This sentence could be rephrased
as, “While I was eating the pretzel, I slipped on a rock.” This restatement highlights the past
participle nature of “eating,” and it also makes it clear who was eating the
pretzel. In the original sentence,
“Eating the pretzel, I slipped on a rock,” it is clear who was eating the
pretzel because the subject, “I” is the first noun that follows the comma. But what if we said,
“Eating the pretzel, the black cat crossed my path.” By strict rules of grammar, this statement
means, “While a black cat was eating the pretzel, the black cat crossed my
path.” It is likely that this meaning
was not intended by the writer. Because
it is now not clear what noun the participle belongs to, it is called a
“dangling participle.”
The rule is that when you use
a construction that starts with a participle, the first thing after the comma
needs to be the subject of the participle.
If not, you are breaking the laws of grammar, risking ridicule from
various readers and, more importantly, risking being misunderstood.
Example:
Correct: “Wielding the knife, I sliced
the carrot.”
Incorrect: “Wielding the knife, the carrot was
sliced.” (see Figure 2).
The second form implies that the carrot was wielding the knife, which is not likely, genetic engineering aside.
Some manuals on writing go so
far as to suggest that you avoid words that end in –ing altogether. This rule seems a tad restrictive to me. However, one should be careful when using
words with –ing. For example, consider
the sentences, “Eating the pretzel, I slipped on a rock,” (where “eating” is a
past participle) and “Eating the pretzel was straightforward,” (where “eating”
is a gerand). After “Eating the pretzel,” it is still not obvious to the reader
whether eating is a gerand or a participle.
This ambiguity makes your reader think harder than he/she normally would
have to. The extra thought is not
substantial in this case because the sentence is short, but if the sentence
gets more complicated, the reader can become more confused. Try these two sentences:
“Eating the pretzel with my
fingers, which were covered in honey, I became frustrated.”
“Eating the pretzel with my
fingers, which were covered in honey, was the most fun I ever had.”
As the –ing word becomes more
separated from the part of the sentence that indicates its part of speech, the
probability of the sentence being misunderstood increases.
In writing, the word “this”
is best used as a demonstrative adjective, not a pronoun. It always needs to modify something. Do not say, “This causes the patient severe
pain and discomfort.” Instead, say,
“This complication causes the patient severe pain and discomfort.” Similar comments apply to “that,” “these,”
and “those.” When this rule is followed,
it improves the clarity of your writing.
Orthography and
Spelling Checkers
Spell checkers are highly valuable and should be used
regularly, but they cannot a
correctly spelled word that is used in an incorrect context. In addition, some common words may not be
present in the spelling checker’s dictionary.
Pay attention to each word when you use the spell checker and have a
dictionary available to look up any words that seem suspicious. Here are a few of the spelling errors I have
seen in reports:
Context |
Correct Word |
When ascending, a felling
of some safety existed |
feeling |
I could only were
the device when I was extremely fatigued. |
wear |
Multimeters and sauntering irons will be used in the
laboratory. |
soldering |
… small
enough to put into a circuit with ought dramatically increasing its
original size. |
without |
In today’s fast paste
and competitive world… |
paced |
The synthetic fiber could
cost any wear from … |
anywhere |
Obstructive sleep apnea
affects the quality of life of many who suffer from this depilatory
disease. |
debilitating (unless obstructive sleep apnea causes hair loss). |
Our approach to the mapping
of the atria makes this device potable. |
portable (I do not think that the investigators intended to
drink the device). |
The
semicolon is used to separate two sentences that are
closely related. If you use a semicolon,
look at the expressions on each side. If
they are not both complete sentences, then the semicolon is not the correct
punctuation.
Students often submit work in
which they have paid little attention to the punctuation. An example that is surprisingly common is the
addition of a space between the end of the sentence and the period, or the
omission of the space between the period and the beginning of the next
sentence. The grammar checker will easily uncover such errors. It is imperative
that this tool be used before any written work is turned in.
I use the following symbols
for editing text:
Separate:
“incase” becomes “in case.”
Delete:
The device is very expensive” becomes “the device is expensive”
Close up:
“can not”
becomes “cannot”
insert: “I
ate sandwich” becomes “I ate the sandwich”
Interchange:
“dialysis costly is”
becomes “dialysis is costly”
Change to lower case: “The Meter was used.” becomes “The meter
was used.”
New paragraph:
Construction is not parallel:
Abbreviations
Used in Editing
The following abbreviations are used to indicate
specific problems:
red: The sentence or phrase is redundant, meaning that it
has already been stated elsewhere and is unnecessary.
ambig: The sentence or phrase is ambiguous, meaning that it
could be read in two or more ways that are not consistent with each other.
awk: The sentence or phrase is awkward. While it may be grammatically correct, it
could be written more clearly and succinctly.
frag: This is a sentence fragment, meaning that it is not a
complete sentence.
?: The sentence or phrase is so confusing
that the reader cannot guess what you are trying to say and consequently does
not know how to fix it.
Illustrative Examples
The examples below illustrate
ways to simplify various sentences. Revisons are in parentheses.
“The addition of more
components to the existing design must be designed as to not inhibit
sleep.” (The added components must not
inhibit sleep).
“The major problem that I
intend to address is that standard axillary crutch
users need a safer and easier way to ascend and descend stairs.” (Standard axillary
crutch users need a safer and easier way to ascend and descend stairs.)
“Stair climbing requires a
certain amount of strength and confidence.”
(Stair climbing requires strength and confidence.)
“The person can’t really feel
them.” (The person cannot feel them).
“The electrodes would have to
be cordless and be able to be detected by the sensors.” (The electrodes would have to be cordless and
detectable by the sensors.)
“Installing the driver would
cost a lot of money plus paying for the software and electrodes would be
expensive also.” (The software, the electrodes, the driver, and installation
would be expensive.)
“My group measured an EKG of
the heart.” (My group measured an EKG).
“The importance of an
effective drug delivery system lies in the population effected, which is
basically the whole of society.” (Nearly
everyone would benefit from a more effective drug delivery system.)
“Using a laser pointer, there
is a risk of eye injury because disabled people might use the pointer to point
to a person and by mistake they will point the laser to their eye.” (Laser pointers can cause eye injury if they
are pointed into a person’s eyes).
“The limiting factor in TDD
systems is goverened primarily by skin
permeability.” (TDD systems are limited
by skin permeability.)
“The flexibility of the
device will be ensured to fit on children from ages one to five.” (The device must fit on children from ages
one to five.)
“Research shows that kidney
transplantations are the optimum treatment.” (Kidney transplantations are the
optimum treatment.)
“An article attributes such
discrepancies to be not only genetic, but also due to access to health care for
certain minorities (Obrador et al., 2002). (Obrador et al.
(2002) attribute such discrepancies to both genetic disorders and lack of health
care access for certain minorities.)
“The device will be able to
be replaced by the user.” (The device will be replaceable by the user).
“There are two ways to go by
troubleshooting a medical device.”
(There are two ways to troubleshoot a medical device).
“The problem that will be
addressed upon completion of this project ….”
(The problem that will be addressed by this project...)
“In a recent study, it has
been found that ….” (A recent study
found that ….)
“This infection is one that
can go unnoticed.” (This infection can
go unnoticed).
“The need for an improved
surgical swab is apparent.” (An improved
surgical swab is needed.)
“However, we know that cotton
can leave lint.” (However, cotton can
leave lint).
“As you can see, each one of
the solutions to the problem is flawed.” (Each of the solutions to the problem
is flawed).
“We learn from Fluid
Mechanics that the greater the surface area touching the fluid, the faster the
absorption occurs.” (Absorption is
proportion to the surface area in contact with the fluid).
“Another way to evaluate if
the design is functioning as desired is ….” (Another way to evaluate the design
is ….)
Steven A. Jones