Principles of Effective Writing: Kristin Cobb, PHD
Principles of Effective Writing: Kristin Cobb, PHD
Principles of Effective Writing: Kristin Cobb, PHD
Introduction
Takes having
something to say
and clear
thinking.
Takes time,
revision, and a
good editor!
Inborn talent?
Years of English and humanities classes?
An artistic nature?
The influence of alcohol and drugs?
Divine inspiration?
Famous Example:
FDRs response:
Help!
Overview of principles
Todays lessons:
Words:
1. Reduce dead weight words and phrases
2. Cut, cut, cut; learn to part with your words
Sentences:
3. Follow: subject + verb + object (SVO)
4. Use strong verbs and avoid turning verbs into
nouns
5. Eliminate negatives; use positive
constructions instead
6. Use parallel Construction
Equivalent
the three
fewer
cause
always
can
near
to
Clunky phrase
Equivalent
A majority of
A number of
Are of the same opinion
At the present moment
Less frequently occurring
most
many
agree
now
rare
Use instead
except
because
for
Pointed
although
if
innovations
the same
four days
opinion
shorter/longer
Sentences
Form of to be
Responsible party!
OR just
Object-Verb
Subject
Active:
I will always remember my first visit to Boston.
From: Strunk and White
Active:
To study DNA repair mechanics, we carried out this study
on hamster cell DNA.
Active:
Both human and animal studies suggest that
diabetics have general immune dysfunction at the
leukocyte level.
estimate
has expanded
emphasizes methodology
Take an assessment of
assess
Formerly
spunky verbs
transformed
into boring
nouns
review
Offer confirmation of
confirm
Make a decision
decide
Shows a peak
peaks
confusing garbage
Not honest
Not important
Does not have
Did not remember
Did not pay attention to
Did not have much confidence
Did not succeed
dishonest
trifling
lacks
forgot
ignored
distrusted
failed
Vs.
Parallel:
Locusts denuded fields in Utah, torrents washed
away rural Iowa, and blazing heat shriveled
Arizonas cotton.
Some Exercises
positives.
In many instancesoften
Really long
Principles of Effective Writing
subject!
hedge word
Really long
subject!
Clunky phrase
to be is a
weak verb
Part II:
Writing a Scientific Manuscript
Experiment(s) done
3.
6.
Results found
4.
5.
1. Whats known
2. Whats unknown
Introduction
Whats
Whatsknown
known
Whats
Whatsunknown
unknown
The relations between excess body weight and mortality, not only from all
causes but also from cardiovascular disease, are well established.1,2,3,4,5,6
Although we have known for some time that excess weight is also an important
factor in death from cancer,7 our knowledge of the magnitude of the relation, both
for all cancers and for cancers at individual sites, and the public health effect of
excess weight in terms of total mortality from cancer is limited. Previous studies
have consistently shown associations between adiposity and increased risk of
cancers of the endometrium, kidney, gallbladder (in women), breast (in
postmenopausal women), and colon (particularly in men).8,9,10,11,12
Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus has been linked to obesity.11,13,14 Data on
cancers of the pancreas, prostate, liver, cervix, and ovary and on hematopoietic
cancers are scarce or inconsistent.7,8,9,10,11,15,16,17 The lack of consistency may be
attributable to the limited number of studies (especially those with prospective
cohorts), the limited range and variable categorization of overweight and obesity
among studies, bias introduced by reverse causality with respect to smokingrelated cancers, and possibly real differences between the effects of overweight
and obesity on the incidence of cancer and on the rates of death from some
cancers.18,19
We conducted a prospective investigation in a large cohort of U.S. men and
women to determine the relations between body-mass index (the weight in
kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters) and the risk of death
from cancer at specific sites. This cohort has been used previously to examine
the association of body-mass index and death from any cause.5
Gaps/limitations of
previous studies
Gaps in
previous
research
The
The lit.
review
Scientific
Manuscript
Whats
unknown/the
research
question
Whats
known
Exogenous estrogens prevent or substantially
retard the decrease in bone
Introduction
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Strong conclusion
[supporting details]
We found that
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
How your results fit into, contradict, or add to whats known or believed
3.
You may use jargon and the passive voice more liberally
in the M&M section
Writing methods:
verb tenses
Report methods in past tense (we measured),
But use present tense to describe how data are
presented in the paper (data are summarized as
means SD)
Writing methods:
passive voice and jargon
For sequencing, amplicons were purified with ExoSAP-Codes.
The partial nucleotide sequences of the polymerase gene were
aligned with published coronavirus sequences, using
CLUSTAL W for Unix (version 1.7).
BUT:
Figure 1 shows
Table 1 displays
The data suggest
Example:
Information was available for 7766 current cigarette smokers. Of these,
1216 (16%) were classified as hardcore smokers. Table 1 gives
characteristics of all the smokers. The most striking difference was that
hardcore smokers were about 10 years older on average and tended to be
more dependent on tobacco. Significantly more hardcore smokers had
manual occupations, lived in rented accommodation, and had completed
their full time education by the age of 16 years. There was no difference
by sex.
FROM:
Jarvis et al. Prevalence of hardcore smoking in England, and associated attitudes and
beliefs: cross sectional study BMJ 2003;326:1061 (17 May)
Three
horizontal
lines
1. Primary evidence
2. Graphs
Contains:
1. Brief title
2. Experimental details
line graphs
scatter plots
bar graphs
histograms
box plots
relative risks
survival curves
line graphs
bar graphs
scatter plots