Scientific & Technical Writing Pitfalls - ELP 407 PDF

ELP 407 Scientific & Technical Writing Pitfalls Dr. Norah Almusharraf 9/16/24 Pitfalls in sci. & tech. writing Low readability Hedging Waffling Super-compression 9/16/24 Pitfalls in sci. &...

ELP 407 Scientific & Technical Writing Pitfalls Dr. Norah Almusharraf 9/16/24 Pitfalls in sci. & tech. writing Low readability Hedging Waffling Super-compression 9/16/24 Pitfalls in sci. & tech. writing Over-citation Over-long sentences Noun stacks Ambiguity 9/16/24 (1) Low Readability Readability: the measure of the complexity of text. In a text: the longer the words/sentences à the less readable it is. 9/16/24 (1) Low Readability Techniques to avoid low readability: 1. Use more verbs than nouns. 2. Use shorter words/sentences/paragraphs. 3. Use graphics. 9/16/24 (1) Low Readability Techniques to avoid low readability: In their analysis of scientific articles, Hartley, Sotto, and Pennebaker (2002), found that good readability scores were also more influential within audiences they’re aimed at. 9/16/24 (2) HEDGING Hedging: Some writers are so uncertain of what they are saying that encrust their argument with reservations, qualifications, and disclaimers. à they appear less convincing. 9/16/24 (3) Waffling Waffling: Padding out text with meaningless or unnecessary words i.e. “extra-fat” to meet a word count/ to explain. à a writer should focus on quality, not quantity. 9/16/24 (4) Super-compression Super-compression: Opposite of waffling i.e. “too much info”, here a writer does not give enough information which leads to a breakdown in communication/understanding. 9/16/24 (4) Super-compression 9/16/24 (4) Super-compression Techniques to avoid super-compression: 1. Don’t presume that certain things are “obvious” to all. 2. Don’t dumb things down to elementary level. 3. Create a multi-level/multi-section document (with glossaries, footnotes, hypertext, graphics). 9/16/24 (5) Ambiguity Ambiguity: Resulting from sentences with ambiguous or confusing grammatical structures. 9/16/24 (5) Ambiguity 9/16/24 BROWSE ONLINE Browse the literature of a sci. & tech. field of your choice (e.g. linguistics), and find one example of: 1. Hedging 2. Waffling 3. Ambiguity 4. Super-compression (6) Over-citation Over-citation: Using too many references and citation. à may highlight the writer’s lack of understanding of the subject area. à standing on the shoulders of others. 9/16/24 (7) Over-long sentences Over-long sentences: Stringing sequences of subordinate phrases together with prepositions that make the meaning of a sentence unclear. à Highlights writer’s poor grasp of grammar and style. 9/16/24 (7) Over-long sentences 9/16/24 (8) Noun stacks Noun stacks: Stringing nouns together to create unnecessarily complex concepts in sentences that cause ambiguity and create jargon i.e. ”stacking”. Happens when: nouns are used as modifiers (usually adjectives) 9/16/24 (8) Noun stacks 9/16/24 (8) Noun stacks Herring (1995) suggests these guidelines when using noun strings: à add hyphens in order to group words into grammatical units that best describe the technology à re-order the noun string by adding one or more prepositions, thereby emphasizing unstated relationships à use acronyms to replace strings. 9/16/24