writing effectively 2

8/6/2019 Writing Effectively 2

1/39

Effective Writing II:A Question of Style

Tony Murfin BEng MSc MA

www.manchesterproof.co.uk

[email protected]


2/39

Recap

The Writing Process


3/39

Some advice on writing

Marry somebody you love and who thinks youbeing a writer's a good idea. .

Editing is everything. Cut until you can cut no

more. What is left often springs into life.

Put one word after another. Find the right word,put it down.

The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on thewall in front of my desk saying "Faire et setaire" (Flaubert), which I translate for myselfas "Shut up and get on with it."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one


4/39

English

The English language is

rather like a monsteraccordion, stretchable at the

whim of the editor,

compressible ad lib.

Robert William Burchfield CNZM CBE, scholar, writer, and lexicographer.


5/39

The monster accordion

English has never been jealously watched over

by a learned Academy, as French has been

since the seventeenth century; nor protectedagainst innovations by literary professionalism,

as with Italian, or, as with Spanish, by the

natural decorum of the greater part of those

who use it.Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Reader Over Your Shoulder


6/39

Rules? What rules?

[It is] impossible at the present juncture to

teach English grammar in the schools for the

simple reason that no one knows exactlywhat it is.

Government report, 1921

English is a vernacular used between the

Norman French and their Anglo Saxon serfs descended also from Celts, Jutes, Danes,

Frisians etc.


7/39

The language of education

was Latin

Schools were for the merchants and middle

classes Universal education in England only dates

from 1870

I would make them all learn English: and

then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as

an honour, and Greek as a treat."Winston Churchill, Roving Commission: My Early Life


8/39

Vocabulary

was standardized relatively early (with the

introduction of the printing press) and the

process was all but completed by Dr.Johnson in 1775.

Still continues to evolve and add new words-

90,000 new words and new meanings of old

words recorded by the OED in the 20th

century.


9/39

Quiz! 20th Century Words

Airliner

Bungee Jumper

Discotheque

Ecosystem

Ethnic cleansing

Postmodernism

Space age

Spin doctor

Trendy

Velociraptor


10/39

People who knew grammar

based it on Latin grammar (!) Our language has so little inflection or variety of terminations, that

its construction neither requires nor admits many rules. - Johnson

Robert Lowth 1762 A Short Introduction to EnglishGrammar

Cobbetts Grammar of the English Language

He who writes badly thinks badly. Confusedness in words can

proceed from nothing but confusedness in the thoughtswhich give rise to them.


11/39

20th century dominant figures

The Kings English (HW & FG Fowler)

Modern English Usage (HW Fowler)

Completion of the OED

Harts Rules

BBC and RP: Nancy Mitford and U & Non-U

Usage and abusage

Myriad modern writers: David Crystal, Lynne Truss,Bill Bryson, Susie Dent Almost all to some extent both describing and resisting the

evolution of the language.


12/39

WHY write well?

Suggested previously: for a better GRADE

More generally: individuals have their

hangups: A preposition should never, ever end a sentence.

Ever. On pain of death, but at least on pain of

angry stares and a good deal of sulking To me

its the verbal equivalent of two bits of polystyrenerubbing together: unbearable.

[Letter to John Humphreys quoted in Lost for Words]


13/39

More polystyrene moments

people on the radio kept saying enormity

when they meant magnitude, and we really

hate that. When we hear the construction MrBlair was stood (instead of standing) we

suck our teeth with annoyance, and when

words such as phenomena, media or

cherubim are treated as singular* some ofus cannot suppress actual screams.

Lynn Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

*or the American habit of describing oneself as an alumniof a school.


14/39

Alright?

We all have our issues.

No matter what, do not use alright. Its all

right. Two words. Were aware that alrightis gaining currency and has its advocates;

thats why were letting you know our position

up front. Beth, our editor-in-chief, stops

reading instantly when she sees alright. You have been warned.

Guidelines, Shimmer Magazine www.shimmerzine.com


15/39

As the BBC puts it

It is our job to communicate clearly and effectively,

to be understood without difficulty, and to offer

viewers and listeners an intelligent use of language

which they can enjoy. Good writing is not a luxury; itis an obligation.

Our use, or perceived misuse, of English produces a

greater response from our audiences than anything

else. It is in nobodys interest to confuse, annoy,dismay, alienate or exasperate them.

BBC News Styleguide (see Resources)


16/39

In academic work

Some errors affect how the work and, by

extension, the author, is perceived-

To make a reader stop, go back and rereadto get the sense of a sentence of paragraph

can antagonise that reader-

Good style is easy reading


17/39

The greatest errors a personal

view

The misplaced Apostrophe

Agreements, especially in complex sentences

Homophones, malapropisms andspellchecker errors

Clich

Unjustified Americanisms (e.g the verbingofnouns)

Unjustified repetition


18/39

Knowing your onions (?)

The basis of writing well is reading well...

You will spend much of your time readingacademic literature ca. 30 referencesrequired for each paper written

Every generation of academic writers spendsmore time reading and referencing work that

is written slightly less well Feedback: academic writing is getting

WORSE.


19/39

How to break the cycle?

Get YOU and other academic writers writing

well!

Eliminate the bad, the ill-considered and thelazy

Recognize whats not right and do something

about it!

Write with pride, write with style

We will come back to that!


20/39

Conclusion:

Write with the reader (editor, marker,

audience) in mind.

Discover and be aware of your faults andweaknesses.

If you make an error once it may be forgiven.

If you make the same error on every page, it

may be very badly received!


21/39

What is Style?

What is style?

Style magazines tell us how to dress and cut

our hair; we are aware of men and womenwith a sense of style; we are warned to be

wary of the style policebut if we escape

their attentions we are expected to have

developed, by a certain age, our own senseof style.


22/39

Style is

A dead metaphora pointed object, of bone

or metal, for inscribing in wax.

In classical Latin, a way of writing, and thenan individuals manner of expression

1. A way of writing

2. A goodway of writing

F.L. Lucas, Style, 1955


23/39

A way of writing

Style as expressed in style guides

Specific to an organization, publisher, journal

or even nation (e.g. Commonwealth ofAustralia Style Manual)

The set of rules that define a house style

however inconsistent


24/39

For example

In the case of verbs ending in -ize or -ise and

their derivatives, the forms in -ize, -ization, etc.

(e.g. civilize, civilization) are preferred in MHRA

publications. This is also the preferred spelling ofmany otheracademic publishers. However, all

major British newspapers and most official and

commercial bodies prefer -ise, -isation. It is

important, within a given book or article, to beconsistent.

MHRA Style Guide (see Resources)


25/39

If you are given a style guide

Follow it! In full.

If you are not given one, look to see if one

exists. Your work will be received much better if you

have taken the trouble to discover and follow

the basic usage and formatting requirements.

RTFM


26/39

A good way of writing

If BAD English exists-and it does-there must

be such a thing as GOOD English.

What is it and how is it recognized? Mostly easier to recognize the bad than the

good!Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the

questing vole. Yes, said the managing editor, that

must be good style.

Scoop, Evelyn Waugh


27/39

Writing well

To write English well, it is generally agreed, is

not to imitate, but to evolve a style peculiarly

suited to ones own temperament,

environment and purpose.Robert Graves & Alan Hodge, The Reader Over Your Shoulder


28/39


29/39

Some guidelines

Kings English: Prefer the:

Familiar word to the far-fetched

Concrete word to theabstract

Single word to thecircumlocution

Short word to the long Saxon word to theRomance

Strunk & White

Avoid fancy words the

pretentious, the coy, and

the cute. Do not betempted by a twenty-

dollar word when there

is a ten-center handy,

ready and able. Anglo-Saxon is a livelier

tongue than Latin, so

use Anglo-Saxon words.


30/39

Some recent examples

with premature chutzpah, Osborne claimedthat he had already rescued Britain'seconomy, and now it was time to move on to

recovery. The chutzpah was underlinedwhen, at the beginning of the Budget, heannounced that the Office for BudgetResponsibility had revised its growth forecast

downwards. Growth predictions were higherbefore Osborne had come to the rescue. Thechutzpah was outdone


31/39

Examples cont.

researchers found that cannabis use

accelerates the onset of full-blown mental

illness almost three years earlier in people at

risk.


32/39

Examples cont.

Football is the worlds only transcendental art

form. It may have emerged from a working-

class English milieu, but it has made a

conquest of all the nations and demographies

of the world It is a conquest that would turn

Caesar green with envy.


33/39

Examples cont.

Boys are diagnosed most, but the NHS

website suggests theyre closing in on girls,

too

there would be around 36 less roles within

the new proposed structure

Workers need to be incentivised

The family praised on police in four

countries


34/39

Examples cont.

Britons have been advised to considerleaving Tokyo as the crisis at Japansstricken nuclear plant appeared to worsen

more than half play computer games afterschool for more than an hour and up to 80per cent were browsing the internet withoutsupervision

Its other outlets include one on a riverboat inGermany, at bowling alleys and even at achurch.


35/39

Examples cont.

a brace of professors opposing the

education and research now being forced onthem.


36/39

The Presidents English

Now we live in a different world. Chinese from Hong Kong andSingapore speak with a British accent for good historicalreasons; but enormous numbers of them from Taiwan and ThePeoples Republic study mostly American patterns. Arabs from

the Middle East, Japanese, Russians, Central Asians of all sorts,and hosts of other people study much more often in Americancolleges than in British ones. When treaties are being negotiated,international statements issued, meetings translated, and filmsdubbed, the lingua franca is far more likely to be AmericanEnglish than UK standard. American television and movies have

alone spread American accents to the four corners of the globe.Paul Brians Common Errors in English Usage

?


37/39

Whose English?

New Scientist 2008


38/39

Other Englishes

Dialects and regional accents (Scots,Geordie)

U and non-U

PC and non-PC

Australian, New Zealand, Canadian English

World English:

Singlish, Chinglish, Hinglish Panglish / Globish

Where next?


39/39

writing effectively 2

Documents