Microsoft word - seven cs of writing 5.doc

Seven Cs of Writing ~ Issue 5
For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath for the fifth edition of our ezine, apologies for the delay. As promised, this edition is on Clarity in writing which, of all the 7 Cs, is frequently ignored and When I broach the topic of Clarity with my students, I usually uncover a huge misconception which is that we do not write to IMPRESS, but to INFORM. Some think that pages of dense, undecipherable, longwinded prose are the norm and what clients, business partners, bosses etc. expect. “After all, they are paying us to do this” one particular student once pointed out to me! Nothing could be further from the truth. Your average business reader is very busy and wants to be able to grasp the message at first glance. In addition, if you are prone to producing overly complex sentences, you are more likely to make
grammatical mistakes. So here are a few tips:
Short paragraphs
 Paragraphs of more than six lines put the reader off
 Break down longer paragraphs to keep the reader’s attention
 Link your ideas between paragraphs

Short sentences
Don’t use over-long sentences. In most documents, any sentence of more than 20 words may be
 Follow the KISS principle – Keep It Short & Simple. A reader should never have to re read a
sentence if he/she did not get the meaning the first time  Check your use of and. You need to use connectors (e.g. however, moreover etc.) to show the relationship between ideas – but if the relationship is simply additive, wouldn’t a separate
Punctuation - Correct punctuation aids clarity; it is not a luxury!
Have you joined more than one sentence with commas instead of full stops? Rules surrounding the use of the comma, apostrophe and capital letters differ in English
The comma (,) is used:
 Like a brief pause in speech, to make the sentence easier to read  To separate items in a list (except for the last two items where we use ‘and’)  After most linking words that come at the beginning, or in the middle, of a sentence (e.g.  Before and after a non-defining relative clause (a clause which adds non-essential information e.g. Everest, which is the highest mountain in the world, is in Nepal.

NB: In English, we do not use a comma before a defining clause (a clause which adds
essential information e.g. He criticised the system which had been introduced the year
before).

Capital letters (also called ‘upper case’ letters) are used:
 For names of people, places, events and organisations  For nationalities and languages  For calendar information such as days, months etc.
The apostrophe (‘) is used:
 To indicate possession e.g. IBM’s policy
 To replace missing letters in contractions (shortened forms) e.g. don’t, I’ve etc.
NB: In English, the apostrophe is NOT used to form the plural
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Voor meer informatie: ga naar www.branch-out.eu of bel Peter G. Peek op telefoonnummer 06-20345409 Correct sentence structure
NB: The time can also go at the beginning of the sentence
 Have the subject as close as possible to the beginning of the sentence.  Have any key information near the beginning of the sentence.  Do not separate the verb and object when possible.
 Do not separate a modal verb (e.g. will, should, could etc.) from its dependent verb(s) whenever

So your mantras this month are SVOMPT and KISS! The next ezine will be on Conciseness and will
include nifty tips on how to keep those sentences under 20 words. Until then, have a very happy
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Voor meer informatie: ga naar www.branch-out.eu of bel Peter G. Peek op telefoonnummer 06-20345409

Source: http://www.branch-out.eu/documents/Seven%20Cs%20of%20Writing%205.pdf