How to write more simply One of the major points noted by reviewers in academic papers is language which is unnecessarily obscure and obtuse. The reviewer or editor may feel that there is a good point in there somewhere, but it is not easy for the reader to see what it is. By contrast, good English is economical and spares redundant words. In his delightfully witty book, Lost for Words1 John Humphreys describes the qualities of good English as:
In these pages we provide some suggestions on how you can make your style clearer. We will do so under the following headings. Writing
a purpose statement What
makes a paragraph Use
the active rather than the passive voice Cut
the clutter We are grateful to Professor Gabriel Jacobs, Professor of European Business Management at University of Wales, Swansea, for permission to use extracts from an article 'Call Vocabulary Acquisition: the University Institute Experience'. Extracts from this article remain his copyright. 1Published by Hodder and Stoughton, 2004, £14.99 |