Effective Writing (from Loughborough University)

This is what the authorities have to say. There is a measure of agreement that is unusual amongst authorities.

Bear in mind, though, that the advice that is offered here is often hard to square with the style of writing that you find in many academic journals. Editors do say that they want clearly written prose, but this is not entirely convincing.

On the other hand, there is another purpose in writing, and that is to express your ideas clearly for yourself. It is often only when you write something down that you can see whether it makes sense or not.

Try reading a couple of papers in the top journals in your field to get a sense of the prevailing style.

Get Notes for Contributors from one of these journals so that you will get the writing conventions correct.

· Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. dfs

· Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.

· Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.

· Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.

· Prefer the short word to the long.

· Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.

Fowler

The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb which carries the same meaning that is already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what - these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.

Zinsser

1. Place yourself in the background
2. Write in a way that comes naturally
3. Work from a suitable design
4. Write with nouns and verbs
5. Revise and rewrite
6. Do not overwrite
7. Do not overstate
8. Avoid the use of qualifiers
9. Do not affect a breezy manner
10. Use orthodox spelling
11. Do not explain too much
12. Do not construct awkward adverbs
13. Make sure the reader knows who is speaking
14. Avoid fancy words
15. Do not use dialect unless your ear is good
16. Be clear
17. Do not inject opinion
18. Use figures of speech sparingly
19. Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity
20. Avoid foreign languages
21. Prefer the standard to the offbeat

Strunk & White

You must give readers either the style or the content they want, preferably both.

Elbow

The golden rule is to pick those words that convey to the reader the meaning of the writer and to use them and them only. This golden rule applies to all prose, whatever its purpose, and indeed to poetry too.

Gowers

I think the following rules will cover most cases:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out
4. Never use the passive when you can use the active
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous

Orwell