Writing

Learning outcome: To understand how the language and writing style you use can affect your communication and must be tailored to the audience; and to gain skills for composing and editing your own writing.

Language

Good use of language is essential for effective public engagement as it determines your ability to be understood by a variety of audiences.  Whether writing or speaking it is worthwhile to consider the following:

• Be aware of who you are writing for [You will need to adjust your language depending on your audience.  Think about: their background and what they may know about your subject; their technical level if applicable; and what they will want to get out of it.  Also think about the publication you are writing for, as an article, book, journal or blog will each require a different approach, see the language exercise on different publications.]
• Respectyour audience [Don’t talk down to your audience – credit them with as much intelligence as you and give them enough background to understand your key points.  Consider the person with the least knowledge you could be writing for and write for them.]
• Brush up on grammar and punctuation [This is too detailed a topic to go into here, but be aware that poor grammar and punctuation can lead to ambiguity or misunderstanding.  See, for example, the book Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.]
• Beware of acronyms and initials [Acronyms and initials can mean different things to different people, thereby causing confusion.  Or they may mean nothing at all to others.  For example, the IMF could be the International Monetary Fund, the International Metalworkers Federation, the International Myeloma Foundation, the Interplanetary Magnetic Field and more. If you need to use acronyms or initials for concision make sure you define them.]
• Minimise jargon [Explain every word your audience may not know or find another way of expressing it.  Remember that some words that are very familiar to you may be used rarely, or even differently, outside your field of research.  Try not to use a technical term when a general one will do and think about using analogies to explain complex processes.]
• Avoid clichés and colloquialisms [Effective communication relies on your audience understanding what you are saying.  Clichés and colloquialisms can work against this.  Some expressions are difficult to understand and your message may be lost.  Take, for example, the following sentence.  “It goes without saying (and you may think I have a screw loose for even mentioning it) but to prevent your writing being run-of-the-mill, thinking outside the box is high on the agenda.”  Not only is this not concise, it is difficult to understand, especially for members of the audience for whom English is not their first language. It may be better to write something like, “of course, for more lively, original writing it is important to think creatively.”  To quote The Economist Style Guide, “overused words and off-the-shelf expressions make for stale prose.”  Try to avoid using them and instead look for the most appropriate word for the context.]

Composing

When composing, first think about the structure of your piece then try to relax and just pour ideas down on paper, maintaining the flow of your writing.  Edit your piece later.

• Set objectivesand write to achieve them [Think about who your audience is and what you are trying to achieve.] 
• Structure your piece [So you have thought about your audience and your objectives, now you must persuade them by making a clear argument and providing the necessary evidence.   Use this list for your preparation:

            1. establish a theme

            2. identify the key issues

            3. build up points under each issue

            4. determine the order for a logical argument

            5. decide on the supporting information, e.g. statistics and facts.

       Use the first paragraph to summarise the key issues and remember to state the relevance of your work to get the audience interested.]

• Use the ‘hammering’ technique [Take the core idea and go back and hit it again, examining it from different angles like turning a diamond in the light. However, this should be subtle, so reiterate where appropriate rather than endlessly repeat. ]
• Describe, describe, describe [Be evocative rather than just telling people things.  Give them an experience.  e.g. “the flaky, buttery croissant” rather than “the delicious croissant”. ]
• Think about stories [If appropriate use illustrations and stories as these can resonate with people and help to get your message across.]
• Keep sentences short [Try not to go into complicated sub-clauses or use lots of parentheses, which can confuse your message.]
• Beware ofambiguities [The audience may not necessarily receive the content as you intend.  It is the duty of the author to make things as clear as possible, but be aware that misunderstandings can still arise.  It is impossible to eliminate this entirely, but you should check for anything that could be ambiguous or misconstrued.  Perhaps ask a friend to read your work and point out anything that is unclear.]

Editing

Having poured your ideas onto paper, you’ll need to edit to improve the form and readability of your piece. Bear in mind the following when editing:

• Be more concise [Reduce the word count while still retaining the sense of your piece.  You’ll know you’re making progress when you start to “murder your darlings”, in other words kill off sentences you’re in love with for greater clarity and impact. It was Arthur Quiller-Couch, British journalist, critic and novelist who advised this in his lecture On Style, published in On the Art of Writing, where he warns against over-ornamenting your writing. This is also relevant to our later point Embellish but don’t overdress.]
• Use the active voice [The active voice is more direct and concise than the passive and will make for more lively writing.  Here are some examples of moving from the passive to the active voice (from Strunk & White, The Elements of Style):

There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground.   Dead leaves covered the ground.

At dawn the crowing of a rooster could be heard.  The cock’s crow came with dawn.

The reason he left college was that his health became impaired.    Failing health compelled him to leave college.]

• Be specificand choose the right word [Being specific is essential if you want to give readers an accurate picture. e.g. say “rain and fog” instead of “bad weather”; say “accident”, “robbery”, “flood” instead of “incident”.Words are powerful. Make sure the words you choose convey your meaning in exactly the way you want.]
• Embellishbut don’t overdress [Choose the right noun or verb, then use adjectives and adverbs to embellish, but only if it adds something. Beware of clichés and only say things if they are true.  For example, did the fire really ripthrough the building?  Beware of overdoing it with extravagant adjectives or obscure vocabulary.  ]
• Drop the clichés [See clichés and colloquialismsin the Language box.]
• Omit unnecessary words [For example, more to come later; they went outsideinto the garden; used for fuel purposes.]
• Don’t qualify absolutes [For example, “completely unique” or “most essential”.]
• Beware of repetition [Watch out for over-repetition of particular words, beginnings of sentences, sentence construction and sentence length.]
• Pay attention to spelling, grammar and punctuation

Helpful grammar and style guides: 

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr . and E.B. White

The Economist Style Guide

Thanks to contributions from Malcolm Love, Sunny Bains and Roger Mayhew.