Interuniversity Style Guide for Writing Institutional Texts in English / 2nd edition

9. Writing in English

  • Publicat per Serveis tècnics
  • Data de publicació 6 de setembre de 2017
  • Data d'actualització7 d'octubre de 2023

Writing well in English – or any other language for that matter – involves somewhat more than avoiding errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling. Good writing is not just correct; it responds to the interests or needs of the intended readers. It must be planned, structured and designed with a particular audience and a particular purpose in mind. For maximum effectiveness writers need to take decisions at a variety of levels, ranging from the overall structure of the document, through the organisation of sentences within paragraphs to the placing of certain words at certain points in sentences. They should be aware that the writing process is full of challenges. Unlike speech, writing cannot rely on intonation or gesture, or exploit immediate feedback to put communication back on track. Likewise, unlike speakers, writers have to make certain assumptions about their intended – and often anonymous – audience, and they have to understand that communication is primarily their responsibility: they know full well what they want to say, but their audience may not and it is up to them to bridge the gap.

This section aims to make you aware of the issues to be considered if you are to rise to these challenges, convey your message efficiently and produce readily understandable texts.

9.1 Structure

The main point of writing institutional texts is to convey information to readers. If texts are not well structured, readers will struggle to follow what you are trying to say. The first step towards an effective, coherent document, then, is proper structuring. Ensure that your texts have clearly defined sections preceded by short headings that typographically stand out from the surrounding text. Use a numbering system to highlight the hierarchy of sections (1) and subsections (1.1). Organise your texts in paragraphs that are not too long (readers welcome white space).

9.2 Sentences

There are three main types of sentence in English: simple, compound and complex.

Simple

Registration begins on 14 September.

Compound

Registration begins on 14 September but courses do not start until 1 October.

Complex

Although registration starts on 14 September, courses do not start until 1 October.

Well-written texts will contain sentences not only of all these three types but also of different lengths. Although short sentences are more understandable than long ones, avoid a telegraphic style by writing short, medium and (sometimes) long sentences. Aim for an average sentence length of between 15 and 20 words and beware of excessively long sentences with too many subordinations and parenthetical elements.

9.3 Subjects and characters

At its most basic level, a sentence is about people or things (characters) that do certain actions or have certain actions done to them. As such, the subject of a sentence should refer clearly to the character and the verb of the sentence should describe the important action. If possible, characters should be short and concrete. Often, however, you are obliged to use abstractions (unemployment, legislation, etc.) as characters of your texts. This is not a problem as long as your readers are familiar with the abstractions that are central to your text. Readers have difficulty in following a text when its subjects are unfamiliar abstractions that are not characters. For example, in a text entitled ‘First-year students and the registration process’, the following sentence uses an abstraction in subject position that is not a character.

Complaints by first-year students about the clarity of information on the website were frequent.

In this sentence, the subject is long (13 words), abstract and not a main character (the focus of the text is not the word complaints). The following sentence is an improvement.

First-year students frequently complained about the clarity of information on the website.

To sum up, then, readers will find your texts easier to follow if the subjects of your verbs are short and concrete (or familiar abstractions), and refer to the main characters.

9.4 Verbs and actions

After the subject, readers seek a verb that expresses the action. The sooner they find a strong verb (not a weak one like is or has), the more easily they will understand the sentence. Compare the verbs in bold in the two sentences below.

Full payment of all outstanding fees must be carried out before issuance of degree certificates to students.

All outstanding fees must be paid before degree certificates can be issued.

The only verb in the first sentence (carried out) is empty. It expresses no real action. On the other hand, the verbs in the second sentence (paid and issued) directly express the actions that are done. In the first sentence, the actions of paying and issuing are expressed in the form of the abstract nouns payment and issuance. The technical term for expressing actions in the form of nouns and not as verbs is nominalisation. When you nominalise your texts, they will often sound abstract and dense because you use weak verbs instead of strong ones, you place abstractions in subject position and you need more articles and prepositions.

Sometimes nominalisations are little more than minor inconveniences.

The Governing Council took the decision to reduce funding.

The Governing Council decided to reduce funding.

However, they can also lead to unwieldy and cumbersome text, and make understanding more difficult.

Despite her knowledge of the department’s need for more money, her veto of the decision to request a bigger budget aimed at giving encouragement to the department for an improvement in efficiency.

Although she knew that the department needed more money, she decided not to request a bigger budget to encourage the department to be more efficient.

We recommend that you use verbs that express actions. Do not conceal them in nominalisations.

9.5 Verbs

In general terms, English traditionally prefers placing the verb towards the beginning of the sentence. The sentence below uses an excessively long introductory phrase, includes unnecessary information, has a long subject and places information between the subject and the verb.

According to recent research carried out by members of the Communication and News research group from Oxford University, led by the well-known expert in the subject, Dr James White, many administrative workers from all sorts of public and private institutions, because they have never studied communication in any of its forms, have great difficulty in writing clear texts.

The sentence below shortens the introductory phrase and the subject, removes unnecessary information and keeps the subject and the verb together.

According to recent research from Oxford University, many administrative workers have great difficulty in writing clear texts because they have never studied communication in any of its forms.

9.6 Cohesion

Readers should be able to perceive that paragraphs are not just sets of individual sentences, but units in which ideas progress logically and flow from sentence to sentence. Writing that does this, that guides and assists readers in their interpretation, is said to be cohesive.

One way in which you can make your texts cohesive is to begin your sentences with information that is known – either because it is straightforward and familiar, or because it has just been mentioned – and end them with information that is new or surprising. Beginning sentences with familiar information provides a context that allows readers to focus on the important information at the end, which has not been mentioned previously in the text and which requires the readers’ attention (this is known as end-focus). In the example below, note that the new information presented at the end of the first sentence is immediately taken up and used as the contextual information at the beginning of the second.

Dr James Watson will give a seminar on the Human Genome Project. The project began in 1990 and is considered to be of such importance that funding has just been approved for the next 15 years.

Another way to make your paragraphs cohesive is to give them a clear focus by structuring them around a consistent topic string. That is to say, several of the sentences in the paragraph can have the same subject. Do not be afraid of repetition. It helps to reinforce the focus on particular ideas and concepts, and gives a passage greater unity.

The module of the Jean Monnet programme on European integration will be taught in February. Registration is now open to university members and professionals working in the field. The module will be taught in seminar room 3 and is organised by lecturers from the Department of Public Law. It analyses recent legislation and the transformation of European law over the last 15 years.

In the example above, three of the four sentences have the same subject, although in the first sentence the subject is used in its full form (the module of the Jean Monnet programme on European integration), in the second it is used in a reduced form (the module) and in the third it is used in its pronominal form (it).

One final way to make your writing cohesive is transitional metadiscourse, which guides readers through a passage and clarifies the relationships between ideas. Examples are moreover, on the other hand, however, first, second, finally and therefore.

9.7 Parallelism

Parallelism refers to giving each element in a list the same grammatical category (noun phrases, verb clauses, infinitives, etc.). The similarity of the grammatical form makes it easier for readers to perceive a similarity in content and function. The sentence below is not parallel.

The students’ objections were the injustice of the measures and that they were unconstitutional.

The first element of the list (the injustice of the measures) is a noun phrase while the second (they were unconstitutional) is a verb clause. The sentence would be more logical and readily understandable if it were rewritten. The sentence below contains a verb instead of the nominalisation objections and then has a verb clause that contains a list of two elements, both of which are adjectives.

The students objected that the measures were unjust and unconstitutional.

In any series of items, then, make sure that each element of the series is in exactly the same form as all of the others. In the example below, the list has three elements: the first two are noun phrases while the last one is a verb clause. Therefore, not

The master’s students will acquire the personality, the contacts and have the knowledge to succeed in almost any business venture.

but

The master’s students will acquire the personality, the contacts and the knowledge to succeed in almost any business venture.

This general guideline can affect even the smallest, and seemingly trivial, of words. Therefore, not

The Erasmus students will talk of their experiences in Paris, in Athens and Moscow.

but

The Erasmus students will talk of their experiences in Paris, Athens and Moscow.

The principle of parallelism should also be respected in vertical lists. Therefore, not

Students must

  • present the official application form,
  • their personal academic certificate,
  • and proof of payment.

but

Students must present

  • the official application form,
  • their personal academic certificate,
  • proof of payment.

Take particular care when you use such structures as not only … but also. Therefore, not

Master’s degrees not only prepare professionals but also researchers.

but

Master’s degrees prepare not only professionals but also researchers.

9.8 The unofficial style

In his book Revising Prose (Longman, 2006), Richard Lanham coined the term the official style to refer to the obscure, dense prose so characteristic of many textbooks, business reports, academic papers and institutional documents. According to Lanham, this style is characterised by nouncentred sentences cluttered up by long strings of prepositional phrases and typically linked by some form of the verb be, such as in the sentence below.

In the light of the constant lack of places on the courses provided by the Language Service, employing another teacher would be a big advantage for the students and lecturers of the university community.

This sentence could be more economically and clearly expressed in the following way:

The understaffed Language Service needs to employ another teacher.

The official style is often unclear because it consists of too many elements of the same grammatical type. Consider the following sentence.

The aim of the project is to encourage relations between different universities in Europe in an attempt to foster new approaches to administrative procedures to improve efficiency and cut the costs of the production of academic courses by the organisation of inter-university programmes to be taught at several institutions at any one time.

The sentence is long and complex. It has 53 words but only one weak verb (is). It is full of prepositional phrases (11) and infinitive clauses (4). Prepositional phrases are important because they provide necessary detail about time, manner and place but, in excess, they obstruct the reader’s progress by providing too much information. After the word procedures the sentence provides many diverse details. Likewise, the use of several infinitives of purpose clouds the issue. What is the real purpose of the project? The text could be improved by a shorter introductory sentence focusing on the purpose of the project (see below) and then clarification of how this purpose is to be achieved in subsequent sentences.

This European project aims to improve the efficiency of administrative procedures and cut the costs of academic courses. It plans to do this by organising inter-university courses that can be taught simultaneously at various universities.

So, if you want your texts to be clear and readily understandable, avoid the official style. Do not write long sentences full of nouns and strings of prepositional phrases linked only by the verb be. Be unofficial: write shorter, more dynamic, verb-centred sentences and do not use long strings of similar grammatical elements.

9.9 Concision

Texts are said to be concise if they communicate a message clearly using few words. Concise texts are generally effective because they make information easier to understand but they are by no means easy to write. In fact, they often take considerably longer to write because they require lots of revision. It is impossible to identify all the ways in which authors inflate their texts but below you will find some strategies for reducing the length of your texts without removing necessary information.

9.9.1 Reduce clauses

Reduce clauses to simpler, shorter constructions. Therefore, not

The URV, which was founded in 1994, is the university of southern Catalonia.

but

Founded in 1994, the URV is the university of southern Catalonia.

9.9.2 Delete superfluous words and phrases

Delete all phrases and words that add nothing to the meaning or provide excessive detail. Therefore, not

The effect of the application of the new economic measures can be seen in last month’s figures, and it goes without saying that the University is aware of the new policy on tax deduction and that it has every intention of complying with the regulations.

but

The effect of the new economic measures can be seen in last month’s figures, and the University intends to comply with the new regulations on tax deduction.

9.9.3 Avoid nominalisations

Use verbs to express actions, not clumsy nominalisations. Therefore, not

This report is dedicated to the discussion of the new economic measures.

but

This report discusses the new economic measures.

9.9.4 Avoid overuse of expletives

Expletives are expressions that combine it or there with the verb be. They can be effectively used for emphasis at times but overuse can create unnecessarily lengthy prose. Use them sparingly. Therefore, not

It is the rector who will have the last word on this issue.

but

The rector will have the last word on this issue.

9.9.5 Do not make vague attributions

Authors often try to justify their statements by suggesting they have acquired the information from an authoritative source. If you wish to refer to a source, however, do not do so vaguely as in the following example. A straightforward statement is preferable to a vague attribution. Therefore, not

Student registrations have been observed to be increasing in some subjects that were previously determined to be unfashionable.
It has been shown that visiting lecturers have been using this new resource.

but

Student registrations have been increasing in some previously unfashionable subjects.
Visiting lecturers have been using this new resource.

9.9.6 Make direct statements

Do not feel obliged to provide a brief introduction to every statement you make. Often, no introduction is necessary. Therefore, not

With regard to good students, their most important characteristic is the ability to work hard.

but

The most important characteristic of good students is the ability to work hard.

9.9.7 Do not hedge excessively

When you write, you are often not certain of the facts and are obliged to hedge (that is to say, introduce elements of doubt and uncertainty into your texts). If you need to hedge, though, do so just once. Therefore, not

It could be possible that economic factors and the decline in immigration may be affecting student numbers.

but

Economic factors and the decline in immigration may be affecting student numbers.

9.10 Summary

One of the main problems of writing clearly and effectively is that there will always be a gap between what you want to say and what your readers may understand. The principles outlined above will help you overcome this. Remember that they are only guidelines, not inflexible rules, but they will give you a general idea about how most university texts should be written. In a nutshell, the principles of clear writing are the following:

  1. Give your documents a clearly defined structure. The sections and subsections and their corresponding headings should guide readers towards meaning.
  2. Write sentences of different types and lengths. This will give your texts variety. But beware of excessively long sentences!
  3. Make the important characters of your text the subjects of your sentences.
  4. Express actions not as abstract nouns (nominalisations) but as verbs.
  5. Make sure that the main verb is towards the beginning of the sentence by avoiding long introductory phrases, keeping your subjects short and not putting any other information immediately after the subject.
  6. Begin sentences with information that you believe is familiar to readers and end sentences with what you believe is new or unfamiliar. Make sure that your most important characters occupy the subject position as often as possible.
  7. Ensure that all the elements of a list are expressed in the same grammatical form.
  8. Avoid long strings of prepositional phrases and sentences that only have weak verbs.
  9. Once you have completed your text, revise it for concision.

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