How to write clear, readable and enjoyable

text

Dr John LockleyDeputy Chair SOMW

© 2015 John Lockley

What’s academic writing about?

• To dazzle with wonderful prose…

• …or to communicate an idea?

Structure v style — is there a difference?

How to write well

• Structure/style

• Practical aspects.

Why write badly?

• It’s easy! (…anyone can do

it…)

Types of writing

• Research• Feature/summary article• News• Instructions• Book• Programme• Video• Website.

…and don’t forget

• Professional communications

• Referral letters

• Discharge summaries

• Out-patient letters

• Letters to patients.

The preliminary questions

• What’s the piece about?

• What’s the audience?

• How many words/ how long?

• Any editorial position?

• Deadline.

It’s all about communication…

Connect with your audience, whoever they are

Whether they are mildly interested…

… on your side…

… or hostile…

‘Get behind their eyes.’

Getting behind their eyes…

• Age

• Reading age

• IQ

• Level of knowledge/ specialist interest.

…and how does this change

The language?

The technical terms/ jargon?

The abbreviations?

The assumptions?

Designing/writing the piece

• Have something to say• Find an interesting/memorable way

to say it• Get the structure right• Tailor your language and style to

your audience• Watch for ambiguities• Polish it.

Structure

• Start with a ‘hook’

• Theme, driving principle, solution

• End with a ‘kicker’

• Make it logical – put it in order.

News stories

• The ‘pyramid’

• The hook.

Remember…

Lots of data Clarity

Personality types

• Myers-Briggs

• ‘Intuitive’ (‘N’) – ‘The big picture’

• ‘Sensor’ (‘S’) – details and lists

• Cater for both in your structure.

Is the structure right?

• Do you have an introduction and a conclusion?

• Are the chapters in the right order?

• Are the paragraphs in the right order?

• Are the sentences in the right order?

• Are the words in each sentence in the right order…

• …and as near as possible to what they are describing?

Word order

The doctor asked the patient to clean his hands with antiseptic gel in the clinic.

The clinic doctor suggested that the patient should clean his hands regularly with antiseptic gel.

Getting it right (cont.)

• Watch the punctuation (and hence the logic)

‘Charles I walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off.’

‘Charles I walked and talked. Half an hour after, his head was cut off.’

Clarity of reading

• Active or passive voice?

• Remove repeated words (unless there for effect, or unavoidable)

• Can it be simplified?

- complexity of sentences

- complexity of ideas

- length of words

• If it doesn’t ‘work’, is the structure wrong?

• (Polish, polish, polish…)

Style

• Write simply — don’t show off

• Less is more

• It often helps to write the piece 30% too long, then reduce it to size

• Or, if it feels too ‘thin’, add in another idea.

Complexity

• Multi-syllabic, multi-clause, eruditely incomprehensible, high Fog factor

… long words, complex sentences, difficult to understand and full of jargon

• KISS…… ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid.’

It’s easy to forget…

…what the reader doesn’t know technically

• New concepts (e.g. non-ST-elevated myocardial infarction)

• Specialised investigations

• New operations

• …especially when written as abbreviations and acronyms.

Doing the business

Techniques

• Good writing is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration

• Always write to the given word length

• Use Word’s ‘Outline’ view to help organise your structure

• Make sequential backups (‘Article A1’, ‘Article A2’, ‘Article B1’….)

• Never miss a deadline, especially for a paper or a journal

• Polish your text again, and again…• Put it away for a few days• …and then polish it some more • Always compare your final text with

what eventually gets printed.

Proof-read your article

• Factual accuracy (& libel)

• Spelling

• Grammar

• Punctuation

• Ambivalence.

Rhythm and internal logic

• ‘Feel’ the rhythm of the words in each sentence

• Use different length sentences to shock, or make a point

• Try to put a verb in each sentence, and also in each part of a sentence divided by a colon

• Don’t use exclamation marks to mean ‘this is a joke’.

Rules are for guidance only: communication is

everything.

And finally…

• Go over each piece obsessionally

• Then do it some more.

Questions?