Style Conventions

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Style Conventions

Active Voice vs. Passive Voice

At the heart of every good sentence is a precise subject and verb. Sentences in the passive voice lack both a strong subject and verb. Use the active voice when possible to increase the clarity of your writing and reduce wordiness.

Active vs.

passive voice

Active voice: Subject of sentence does the action.

- The candidate believes that Congress must place a ceiling on the budget.

- The dog bit the man.

Passive voice: Subject receives the action.

- It is believed by the candidate that a ceiling must be placed on the budget by Congress.

- The man was bitten by the dog.

Conciseness vs. Wordiness

Strong writing uses the least amount of words possible to convey meaning to the reader. While it may contain mature thoughts and word choice, concise writing is simple and easy to understand for the reader. Wordy writing confuses the reader and often obscures the author’s main idea(s)

Wordy Sentences:

- In a situation in which a class is overenrolled, you may request that the instructor add you.

- There is a need for more careful inspection of all welds.

Concise Sentences:

- When a class is overenrolled, you may ask the instructor to add you.

- You must inspect all welds more carefully.

Inspect all welds more carefully.

Reduce Wordy Verbs

Avoid the use of weak verbs like seem or appear in your writing.

Sentences with wordy verbs:

- Harper Lee appears to be creating a father figure for Jem and Scout .

- Shakespeare seems to suggest that Cassius is dangerous to Caesar early on in the play.

Revised sentences:

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- Harper Lee creates a father figure for Jem and Scout.

- Shakespeare suggests that Cassius is dangerous to Caesar.

Avoid Inflated Words

Inflated words are often substituted for simpler ones in an effort to make a paper sound better smarter. In actuality, these words often confuse the reader or are used inappropriately and should be avoided.

Inflated Words Simpler Replacements

- cognizant of - aware of, knows

- facilitate - help

- impact on - affect

- implement - start, create, carry out, begin

- subsequent to - after

- utilize - use

Examples:

- The viewers were cognizant of a breakdown in the movie projector and tried to facilitate it being fixed.

- The viewers knew of a breakdown in the movie projector and tried to help fix it.

Reduce Unnecessary Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional phrases are often unnecessary, especially when used to denote possession of an object. Try to avoid using too many prepositional phrases in a single sentence since they can obscure the main subject and action of a sentence.

Unncessary Prepositional Phrases Fixed Sentences - The opinion of the manager

mattered to all of the workers.

- The manager’s opinion mattered to all of the workers.

- It is a matter of the gravest possible importance to the health of anyone with a history of a problem with disease of the heart that he or she should avoid the sort of foods with a high percentage of saturated fats.

- Anyone with a history of heart

disease should avoid saturated fats.

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Transitional Words and Phrases

It is important to give readers a clear feeling of flow within an essay. Good authors use transitions both at the start of a paragraph and within a paragraph to indicate the flow of ideas.

Addition furthermore moreover too

also again

in addition even more next

further last, lastly

besides and, or, nor first, firstly second, secondly finally

Illustration to illustrate as an illustration

specifically for example

for instance

to demonstrate Comparison in the same way

in like manner

by the same token likewise

similarly in similar fashion Contrast yet

on the contrary but

and yet

in contrast

nevertheless notwithstanding though

nonetheless on the other hand

after all at the same time otherwise however

Cause because on account of

since for that reason Effect therefore

thus

consequently hence

accordingly as a result

Summary to summarize in short

in sum in summary

finally in brief

Examples:

- Furthermore, one must look at the hierarchic structure of a government in order to determine who holds the most power.

- By the same token, children should listen to their parents because they have a lot

of life experience.

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Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

Place modifiers near the words they describe. Also, be sure the modified words actually appear in the sentence.

Misplaced or Dangling Modifier Fixed Sentence - Many tourists visit Arlington

National Cemetery, where

veterans and military personnel are buried every day from 9:00 a.m.

until 5:00 p.m.

- Every day from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., many tourists visit Arlington National Cemetery, where veterans and military personnel are buried.

Classic Examples of Misplaced Modifiers:

.

- She handed out brownies to the children stored in tupperware.

- I smelled the oysters coming down the stairs for dinner.

- Holding a bag of groceries, the roach flew out of the cabinet.

Faulty Parallelism

Be sure you use grammatically equal sentence elements to express two or more matching ideas or items in a series.

Faulty Parallelism Fixed Sentences - The candidate's goals include

winning the election, a national health program, and the

educational system.

- The candidate's goals include winning the election, enacting a national health program, and improving the educational system.

- Some critics are not so much opposed to capital punishment as postponing it for so long.

- Some critics are not so much opposed to capital punishment as they are to postponing it for so long.

Unclear Pronoun Reference

All pronouns must clearly refer to the nouns they replace. Use it, they, this, that, these, those, and which carefully to prevent confusion.

Unclear Pronoun References Fixed Sentences - Einstein was a brilliant

mathematician. This is how he was able to explain the universe.

- Einstein, who was a brilliant mathematician, used his ability with numbers to explain the universe.