Posts Tagged ‘English’
Do Your Verbs Agree with Your Subjects?
© 2009-2010 Ugur Akinci It’s a fundamental rule of English grammar: your VERB must agree with the SUBJECT of your sentence. Why I’m addressing this very basic rule? The reason is, when violated, it can have disastrous consequences in technical writing. First the RULE: The garage [Main SUBJECT] where he kept [auxiliary VERB] his antique…
Read MoreWhich Way Your Sentences Branch – Right or Left?
Ugur Akinci Try right-branching sentences in your technical documents for higher comprehension. Right-branching sentences start with the SUBJECT, follow it with PRIMARY VERB (or sometimes the other way around if the verb is in imperative/order mode), and then end with modifiers and other relevant information. What branches off to the right of the subject and…
Read MoreHow to Avoid "Gender Ambivalence" in Technical Writing
© 2009-2011 Ugur Akinci One of the hardest things in writing English is to avoid using the third person singular pronouns, unless you are writing for an exclusively male or female group. Every time I see a document with a sentence like “the operator must configure his or her machine according to…” I cringe. Some…
Read MoreHow to Write Creative Transition Sentences
Creative writers and journalists sometimes have a problem with transitioning smoothly from one paragraph to the other, especially when they are changing the subject. Learning transition sentences is not really that hard. When we hop from topic to topic w/o a transition sentence, we “jar” the reader. While sentence transitions may be the last line…
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How to Use "Which" and "That" Correctly
Introduction Which and that are relative pronouns. Their job is to introduce another clause that modifies the noun. Which and that can be confusing for English speakers because we use them without much thought and often misuse them completely – they’re actually quite tricky to use correctly! Sometimes we all would hesitate whether to use…
Read MoreHow to End a Sentence to Communicate the Right Subtext
How you end a sentence makes all the difference in the world in your commercial and technical copy. Or rather, it makes all the difference in the world the way you end a sentence. (See the difference already? In the first sentence the emphasis is on “copy”; in the second it’s on the “end of…
Read MoreEnglish – Eliminate SIMPLY from your Technical Documents and Copy
Eliminate SIMPLY from your sentences for more impact and greater clarity in your technical documents and commercial copy. ORIGINAL: Simply enter your User ID into this field. BETTER: Enter your User ID into this field. – – – – – ORIGINAL: I have to remind you that this simply is not going to work. BETTER:…
Read MoreFacts about Abbreviations & Acronyms
I just came across a great article on how to abbreviate titles and other things and what NOT to abbreviate. I think we all need a refresher like this from time to time, especially if English is your second language. Here is an excerpt from this useful article by M. J. Mardan: Titles before names: Mrs.,…
Read More3 Words in Technical Writing that Kill Objectivity
Objectivity in writing is a frail bird. It can get killed by a single word. “All,” “any” and “every” are the three words that kill objectivity in most (if not “all”) situations in technical and copy writing alike. A long time ago I learned to guard myself against using “very” in my writing. “Very” is…
Read MoreTechnical & Copy Writing – How to Use Causality Correctly
Organize your writing so that it becomes very clear what kind of cause-and-effect relationship exists between different elements of your argument. LINEAR Causality A is the reason why B happens; B is the reason why C happens; etc. CORRECT WAY of using it: A: A previously-public land is rezoned for upper-scale commercial development. B: Land…
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