In this lecture you will learn:
•Abstract and General Language
•Vague Language
•Ornate Language
•Technical Terms
•Biased Language
–Sexist Language
–Ageist Language
–Language Biased against People with Disabilities
–Ethnically and Racially Biased Language
Punctuation:
•Periods
•Commas
–Introductory Elements
–Coordinating Conjunctions Joining Independent Clauses
–Elements in a Series
–Coordinate Modifiers
–Nonrestrictive Modifiers
–Parenthetic Elements
–Elliptical Constructions
–Specialized Uses of Commas
–Superfluous Commas
–Placement of Commas with Other Punctuation
Abstract and General Language:
••Clear writing consists of specific, carefully chosen
words, not abstract and general
language.
•Prose cluttered with language that is overly abstract,
ornate, or vague
becomes
unreadable, either too
dense
or too vague to be understandable.
Vague Language:
••Although the
amount of detail
in your writing will depend on your
audience,
use specific
facts whenever possible.
•These facts make the difference between vague assertions
and accurate scientific
reporting.
Ornate Language:
•Use the
simplest,
most direct words possible.
•Used for their own sake, ornate words simply distract the
reader from your main point.
Technical terms:
•Technical terms are an essential part of all technical and
scientific writing.
•Each field and specialty typically uses a vocabulary that
relays a variety of specialized
concepts by means of technical language.
•These special terms convey concentrated meanings that have
been built up over significant
periods of study of a field.
•Match terminology to the ability of the
audience.
•You may use a term with great accuracy and still not reach
your audience.
•It is important that you be aware of your
audience's level of
understanding.
•If they are not
experts
in your field, you will need to substitute
more general terms for your
specialized terms.
•That means that you may not be able to write with great
accuracy about your topic.
Biased Language:
••Avoid language that could be interpreted as biased on the
basis of sex, age,
physical
ability, or
ethnic or racial identity.
• Instead, use language that is inclusive and avoids
unintended stereotypes, and refer to
people and groups using labels they prefer.
Ageist Language
Language Biased against People with Disabilities
Ethnically or Racially Biased Language
Punctuation:
•Punctuate your prose in order to help clarify how words,
clauses,
and sentences fit
together.
•Many scientific and technical organizations have detailed
style guides outlining appropriate
and inappropriate uses of punctuation for technical
documents in their respective disciplines.
•Follow the appropriate style in your particular field.
•Detailed information on punctuation marks is given in the
following entries:
– Periods
.
– Commas
,
– Colons
:
– Semicolons
;
– Question
marks ?
– Exclamation
points !
– Apostrophes
'
– Quotation
marks " "
– Hyphens
–
– Dashes
–
– Parentheses
( )
– Brackets
[ ]
Introductory Elements:
•Use
commas to set off transitional words
and phrases, introductory clauses, or introductory
phrases to signal where the introductory element finishes
and the main part
starts.
•Transitional
Words and Phrases
–Place a comma after a
transitional word or phrase
that begins a sentence.
Introductory Clauses:
•Place a comma after an introductory
dependent clause.
Coordinating Conjunctions Joining Independent Clauses
•Place a
comma
before a coordinating conjunction that joins
two independent clauses.
•However, if the clauses are very short and closely related,
you may omit the comma.
•Lets consider the following example.
Elements in a Series:
•Use a
comma
to separate items in a series.
•Although placing a final comma before the
coordinating conjunction
is often considered
optional, omitting it can sometimes cause confusion.
•Consequently, most scientific and technical writing
routinely uses a final comma in a series
to prevent possible ambiguities.
Coordinate Modifiers:
•Use a comma between coordinate modifiers.
• Modifiers
are coordinate if they modify the
same word.
•You can test to see if the modifiers are coordinate by
inserting and
between them.
• If the description still makes sense, then the modifiers
are coordinate.
Nonrestrictive Modifiers:
••Use commas to set off
nonrestrictive modifiers.
•A nonrestrictive modifier is usually introduced by
which
and contains information that is not
essential to establishing the meaning of what it modifies.
Parenthetic Elements:
•Use
commas to set off parenthetic
elements.
Elliptical Constructions:
•Use a
comma
to indicate the omission of a word or words
readily understood from the
context.
Specialized Uses of Commas
•In
numbers with five or more digits,
Anglo-American usage dictates that there be
commas
before groups of three digits, counting from the right,
except for a group of three digits at the
beginning of the number.
•Example
–Customers reported a total of
212,413
hardware malfunctions.
–In 1994, 212
cases had been diagnosed.
Superfluous Commas
••Except after an
introductory dependent
clause, do not use a
comma
to separate a
dependent clause from a
main clause
unless the dependent clause provides
nonessential
information.
•Consider the following example
Placement of Commas with Other Punctuation:
•Place commas
inside
quotation marks
but outside
parentheses.
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