Beyond the grammar book and dictionary
A Main topics
for advanced writers and discussion
Discuss what tools and resources you use to
teach and research the following categories:
1 Grammar
Agreement
(subject verb)
Countable
/ uncountable nouns
Dangling
or misplaced modifiers
Parallelism
Possessive
apostrophe
Prepositions
Relative
clauses
Reported
speech
Run-on
sentences
Sentence
fragments
Structure
Subjunctive
Tenses
Word order
2 Mechanics
of style
Abbreviations
Capitalization
Numbers,
dates, time
Punctuation
Spelling
3 Lexical
problems
False friends
and confusing words
Examples
|
Confusing words
accept or except
advice or advise
affect or effect
among or between
assure, ensure or insure
complement vs compliment
dependent vs dependant
economic or economical
enquire or inquire
fewer or less
historic or historical
loose or lose
most or mostly
people or persons
personal or personnel
principal or principle
program or programme
regard or regards
stationary or stationery
which or that
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False friends
accept or agree
adequate or suitable
agenda or programme or calendar
assist or attend
benefit or profit
check or control
concerned – word order problem
deception or disappointment
experience or experiences
eventual or possible
hopefully or luckily
important or large
interesting or large / good
in case or if
join or reach
last or latest
planning or timetable
|
4 Style
1.
State a fact or an idea directly
2.
Use concrete words, not abstract
3.
Use short words and short sentences
4.
Use the active voice, not passive
5.
Avoid wordiness
6.
Be appropriate
7. Use verbs, not nouns
B Tools and
resources
1 Grammar
Grammar
and writing websites
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This index includes 427 references
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Purdue (University USA) Online Writing
Lab
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Bristol University – Improve your writing
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2
For mechanics of style topics
Editorial
Manual Online for United Nations writers
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Style guide with tips on
the mechanics of style for United Nations writers
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European Commission tools
and resources
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How to write clearly – European Commission booklet of tips for writing clearly
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European Commission Style Guide
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3 For lexical queries
3.1 Dictionaries
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Dictionary with links to
many sources:
Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary:
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3.2 Visual
thesaurus
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Visual thesaurus for synonyms and related words
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http://www.visualthesaurus.com/
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3.3 Words
commonly confused - websites
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Words commonly confused
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For a
discussion on which vs that, see
the following reference from the Chicago Manual online
who vs whom
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3.4 Web Concordancer
When do you use
this tool?
When you have a query about a word, phrase or
expression, or wonder what structure follows a verb, or what preposition to
use, and when the grammar book and dictionary haven’t got an answer, then this
tool can be handy.
How do you do it?
You put the word into the box and search for
instances or threads. Typical words to
test it out include:
·
recommended
(people often use infrequent structures following this verb)
·
suggested
(ditto)
·
important
(this word is often misused as it doesn’t refer to size in English)
What are these
sentence fragments that appear?
A concordancer is a database of language compiled to
create dictionaries etc. They are from a
range of sources – novels, newspapers, journals, radio broadcast transcripts –
and help you examine the behaviour of words or expressions in contexts used by
journalists and writers.
The concordancer pulls together all the examples in
the database in ‘threads’, lining up the grammar on either side
alphabetically. This enables the
searcher to research the language behaviour of words and expressions.
4 Style
4.1 Flesch’s
readability statistics
Microsoft
word has a feature that allows you to assess how readable your writing is. It is a tool that counts syllables, number of
words, passives, etc Newspapers and other media are edited for
readability and most show quite consistent scores if you test them out.
For
a general introduction and explanation of readability tools read this article:
How do you do it?
How
to display readability statistics in Microsoft Word:
On
the Tools menu, click the Spelling & Grammar tab.
· Select
Options.
· Select
the "Show readability statistics", check box, and then click OK.
· Carry
out the spell / grammar check, then a box will appear with readability
statistics.
The value is to assess the number of
words in a sentence (20 on average), incidence of passives (less than 15%), and
the readability statistics relating to the scale below.
The tool
calculates the total number of words counted.
Select the body of the text, not the contents nor references if
possible. Do not count any tables or
graphs.
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Category
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Recommended maximum
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Number of
sentences per paragraph
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Maximum 7
sentences, or 10 lines
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Number of
words per sentence
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Average 20
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Percentage of
passive sentences
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15%
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Flesch reading
ease
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Auto insurance = 10
New York Times = 39
Time magazine = 57
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What do the scores mean?
Here are examples of readability
statistics applied to some types of publications or known journals and
newspapers. These are depicted in the
table as Flesch Reading Ease. One would
expect general documents at the United Nations to be of a similar level of
difficulty to Time magazine or the New York Times. Thus, aiming for between 40- 50 is a good
mark. Many texts analyzed at the UN are
around 15. Of course, it is not the same
to write a document for a group of experts as for a press release or
webpage.
To increase your readability, follow
the advice given in writing guidelines or style guides.
|
Comics |
92 |
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Reader's Digest |
65 |
|
Time |
52 |
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Newsweek |
50 |
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Wall Street Journal |
43 |
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Harvard
Business Review |
43 |
|
New
York Times |
39 (British
examples : The Guardian ; the
Economist) |
|
Harvard Law Review |
32 |
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Standard auto insurance policy |
10 |
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Internal Revenue Code |
minus 6 |
What sort of improvement should I expect if I
apply some of the style guidelines?
Don’t expect a dramatic
improvement. It will take time to change
habits and your style. A small
improvement is already an achievement.
And bear in mind the intention of these statistics is just to give an
idea. But also remember that newspapers
use these extensively to ensure they meet their readership’s level.
Readability statistics applied[1]
Word can also help you check language,
grammar, style and readability:
Language
Set English (U.K.) as your default language.
Tools→Language→ Set language→English (U.K.) Select “Default”
Tools→Language→ Set language→English (U.K.) Select “Default”
Grammar
and style
Tools→Options→Spelling
and grammar→Writing style
Select “Grammar & style”
Check
“Readability statistics” box
How to get your score?
Do a spellcheck on your text (keep clicking on Ignore once until you come to the end). You
should now see the statistics on average number of words per sentence, percentage of "passive" sentences, and Flesch Reading Ease. Aim for a high score
in Reading Ease.
Analysing the press
Writing from the internet: Readability statistics
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Title
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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Number of words per sentence (ideal average 20)
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16.2
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20.7
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34.5
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27.3
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21.1
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Percentage of passive sentences (ideal max.
15%)
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18
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13
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9
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14
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15
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Reading ease (aim for 50)
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62.2
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76.4
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29.2
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37.7
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60.4
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Document
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Doc no.
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Source
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Title
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Website
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1
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Daily Mail
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Tragic British girl, eight, who died after
being shot in head on a family holiday to Jamaica
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2261599/Imani-Green-Tragedy-British-girl-8-holiday-Jamaica-dies-shooting-familys-grocery-store.html
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2
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Newsweek magazine
(US)
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A Real-Life ‘Downton Abbey’ Affair
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/13/a-real-life-downton-abbey-affair.html
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3
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United Nations
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UN envoy calls on
international community to engage more with Central African Republic
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4
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New York Times
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Obama plans to push congress on
immigration overhaul
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/us/politics/obama-plans-to-push-congress-on-immigration-overhaul.html?hp&_r=0
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5
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Guardian
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UK weather forecast
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4.2 Plain
Language / Plain English
British site
Free guides:
Humorous awards:
US site
This site is a rich resource with examples,
humour, links to good resources and many tips.
It is a US Government initiative which has been developed since Obama
brought in the Plain Writing Act of 2010.
Guidelines from the US Government:
