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Fundamentals of Effective Writing |
Writing requires a facility with the language. Sentences must make sense. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation must satisfy rules and conventions. On a broader level, remarks must follow each other in an orderly fashion. The trip from opening to closing must be as bump free as possible. Done poorly, the path we create leads down rabbit trails and dead ends. The discussion contradicts itself, offers no evidence or proof for its assertions, or simply roams around without focusing on a single issue—and our message is lost.
—Daniel J. Kurland (2000), Author, critical reading.com
What you will learn in this chapter:
• The importance of clarity, brevity, and objectivity
• How to document your work
• A review of the fundamentals of grammar essentials
This chapter, and indeed this entire book, is about writing for professionals in criminal justice contexts. As we have learned throughout this book, those of us who choose to make careers in the justice professions will encounter the need to document our work just about every day. This kind of writing, obviously, is entirely different from writing papers for college courses or emailing friends. For the justice professional, one’s immediate audience is usually a series of superiors going up the chain of command, from our immediate supervisor to the supervisor’s supervisor, and so on. Ultimately, everything we write for our professional work (with no exceptions!) is subject to be reviewed by people in higher authority over us, most notably by public officials and judges.
The good news is that those people who read what we write seek only the facts in brief and objective language. This means that professional writing in criminal justice is all about precision and brevity. The goal is to make what you write precisely no longer (yet exactly no shorter) than it needs to be. The bad news is, because professional writing is about brevity and precision, every word counts, and so improper word choice, or chronic mechanical errors in the writing, serves to undermine the credibility of both the message and the messenger. With this in mind, let us move into the fundamentals of 204writing in the justice system. As you read through this chapter, we suggest that you use Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors for more details and examples.
Sentences
The basic unit of communication in writing begins with the word, but in fact, words mean very little unless enlivened by the context the sentence creates. We write in sentences because words need each other to make sense. Writing in sentence fragments is unacceptable. A sentence can be described as a complete thought. A sentence fragment lacks an essential quality of what makes a sentence a complete thought, and so, a fragment is by definition, incomplete. Every sentence in the English language must contain a subject and a verb.
Subjects are nouns, and nouns can be specific people referred to by name, or as a pronoun, such as he, she, it. Nouns are also places or things. The subject of a sentence is a noun.
Consult Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors for when to capitalize nouns and use an article (“a” or “the”) with nouns.
All subjects must take verbs, which are action words, like to go, to eat, to drive, to write, to talk, to run, and so on. Verbs tell us what the subject does or what the subject is. Verbs are said to be in the infinitive form when they are preceded by the word to, but when used in a sentence we conjugate verbs so that the subject takes the action. For example, the infinitive form of the verb go is to go. The writer conjugates the verb depending on the sentence. For example, the inmate goes to segregation after the fight in the mess hall. Most of this happens without much thought for native English speakers. In English, most verbs follow a conjugation pattern: I eat, you eat, she eats, we eat, you all eat, they eat. Note that in English we add an s to the verb only for the third-person singular case: he eats, she eats, it eats.
Unfortunately, the English language contains almost as many exceptions to rules as it does rules to follow. Some verbs have evolved with unusual conjugation patterns. For example, “to be” and “to have” have irregular conjugation patterns. If we followed the rule that eat follows, we would say “I be” but we do not conjugate “to be” that way. Rather, in English we write “I am.” Instead of “she haves” we write “she has.” See Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors for an extensive discussion of conjugating regular and irregular verbs. Subject–verb agreement is critical in writing clear and complete sentences.
Sentences may also include an object, that is, a word that indicates who or what receives the action of the verb. This is called the objective side of the sentence. The object must be a noun, as in a person, place, or thing. For example, consider the following sentence: “I go to work.” In it, the “I” is the subject, “go” is the verb and “to work” is the object of the verb because work “takes” the action of the verb. Objects are useful but not essential for sentences. Objects can be singular or plural. The basic ingredients of the English language sentence are: subject, verb, and sometimes object. But human expression sometimes calls 205for more detailed and elaborate communication. Following are discussions of additional language elements of speech and writing.
Nouns and Pronouns
Pronouns are words that substitute for names, places, or things. When necessary, we can replace “Mary,” a proper noun, because it is someone's name, with “she,” a pronoun that represents Mary. The same noun or pronoun may appear as a subject or as an object. For example, in the sentences “My professor gave me an A,” and “I am fond of my professor”—in both cases, the word “professor” functions as the noun. But if you use a pronoun, such as he, his, her, or she, the objective side of the sentence becomes more complicated because the pronouns (she, or I, or he, or they) are the sentence’s subject, and the object is another pronoun, either her, or me, or him. For example, “She gave me an A” and “I am fond of her.”
Consult Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors for more information about pronouns and proper usage.
In English, words that describe or modify nouns we call adjectives. Adjectives modify or provide specific information about nouns by describing some characteristic of the noun, for example, “The pie (noun) was (verb) hot (adjective).” Adverbs also modify, but they modify or explain verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. For example, “My dark green shirt goes well with a checkered tie” contains two adjectives—green and checkered, because these words modify the nouns shirt and tie. There is one adverb, dark. Dark in this case is an adverb because it modifies the adjective green.
In professional writing, we recommend that you use adjectives and adverbs sparingly because they usually convey imprecise personal judgments rather than objective facts. Describing a shirt as green shirt may be clear to most people because almost all of us can discern green (though some cannot, and some people are color blind, and sometimes the context of a situation makes discerning the shade of a color difficult at best), and so though green may at first appear like an objective observation and nonjudgmental (because it does not convey a message), adding the adverb dark to the adjective green can suggest a wide variety of shades of green to different people.
Consider another example: the adjective “nervous” in the following sentence represents imprecise language. “The nervous witness reported the accident.” In this case “nervous” is imprecise and says more about the writer’s judgment than the witness’s state of mind. Another observer may not perceive the witness as nervous, or may perceive the behavior as something other than nerves. Be wary of judgmental language—if you find your writing is full of adverbs and adjectives, work on stripping down your sentences to the most basic, objective information as possible so that you can become aware and take control of the language you use.
Another example of imprecise language is the use of the adverb “very,” which is completely subjective because the notion of “very” varies from person to person and is ultimately subjective and judgmental. For example, the sentence “the very nervous 206witness reported the accident” implies that the writer has already drawn conclusions about the witness’s state of mind. Instead, to avoid judgmental language and the over use of adverbs and adjectives, if the witness appeared nervous the writer should work to describe the witness’s behavior rather than relying on subjective characterization: “The witness bit her nails, wrung her hands, and spoke quickly and often incoherently.”
Conjunctions are words that connect phrases or groups of words to each other: and, or, but, however, because. In professional writing we use conjunctions to elaborate on information, not to unnecessarily extend sentences.
Compound and Complex Sentences
So far we have been discussing the components of simple, declarative sentences that make one point at a time. Often, professional writing requires more information or complexity in a single sentence. Compound and complex sentences provide more information but require more careful handling.
Compound sentences are two complete sentences combined into a single sentence in order to link two points that the writer believes are closely connected. We do this in only two ways: first, you may use the semicolon (;) between the two complete sentences, or, second, you may insert a comma after the first sentence, followed by a conjunction (such as but, however, or and) before the second sentence. Example: “Professional writing is important; it requires considerable skill” or “Professional writing is important, but it requires considerable skill.”
The misuse of commas is one of the most common surface errors novice writers make. Comma usage is straightforward and the rules can be learned quickly with some attention. See Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors for a more complete discussion of comma usage. But for this discussion it would suffice to say here that commas may not be used as a link between two complete sentences. This is incorrect: “Professional writing is important, it requires considerable skill.” This is correct: “Professional writing is important because it requires considerable skill.” This is also correct: “Professional writing is important. It requires considerable skill.”
Complex sentences consist of one complete sentence and one incomplete sentence (or sentence fragment). For example: Professional writing is important, requiring considerable skill. The semicolon may not divide a complete sentence and a sentence fragment because semicolons require complete sentences before and after, which is why this is incorrect: “Professional writing is important; requiring considerable skill.”
Sometimes a complex sentence begins with an introductory word or phrase. When this occurs, insert a comma between the sentence fragment and full sentence. For example: “Although professional writing requires considerable skill, it is important.” Note the comma comes after the introductory phrase, not the conjunction, “although.”
So far, we have been discussing simple declarative sentences. We have the option of three additional sentence types: imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences. This sounds worse than it really is. Imperative sentences concern giving orders, like “Eat your vegetables.” Interrogative sentences refer to questions, for example, “Why didn’t you finish your vegetables?” Exclamatory sentences show emphasis and include an exclamation point as in the following: “I insist that you eat your vegetables!” We avoid 207these three sentence forms in most professional writing unless a part of a witness statement or some other justification.
Beware of writing with incomplete sentences. Incomplete sentences are those that are missing either a subject or a verb. There may be a subject without a verb or a verb without a subject. Both are writing errors and should be avoided because they are grammatically incorrect, but more importantly, because they fail to communicate crucial, necessary information.
Finished prose should never include run-on sentences. Run-on sentences are two complete sentences separated by a comma rather than a semicolon or a period. In professional writing, brief declarative sentences are the best way to avoid both incomplete and run-on sentences.
The Takeaway: Sentence Structure
• In professional writing, we most frequently use simple declarative sentences.
• Compound and complex sentences are acceptable, but use caution and be careful when writing them.
• Avoid imperative, interrogatory, and exclamatory sentences in most professional writing unless they are a necessary part of the record.
• Incomplete sentences are missing either a subject or a verb and so are missing information.
• Run-on sentences make one sentence out of what should be several—they contain too much information and are not clearly connected to the sentence’s main focus.
• Commas must not link two complete sentences.
Correct and Incorrect Word Usage
We have covered the components and structure of sentences in professional writing. Now we move on to word placement, consistency, and phraseology.
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers. You should place adjectives and adverbs as close as possible to the words they modify. In the sentence “I only had two alternatives,” “only” mistakenly modifies “had” instead of “two.” In comparison, in the sentence “I had only two alternatives,” “only” correctly modifies “two.” Sometimes, writers add the modifier at the end of the sentence, as in “I had two alternatives only,” an example of a dangling modifier. The same problem results from placing a modifier very far from the noun, verb, adjective, or adverb it is designed to explain.
Some sentences mention more than one person, place, or thing. Verbs and modifiers should clearly connect to the noun they enhance. For example, “Marcia and Francine came to visit, asking many questions about my new job.” Were both women asking questions? Just one? As a rule, use “both” or indicate which one was so curious. Second, as with modifiers, descriptions should come as close as possible to the nouns they describe.
208Verb tense should be consistent and logical throughout your document. This means that a singular noun should take singular verb and a singular modifier. Plural nouns should take plural verbs and plural modifiers. Similarly, if you are describing an episode that occurred in the past, the verbs should be consistently past tense. Narratives should not shift in tense; once you begin in the present, past, or future, use a consistent verb tense unless your report requires you to refer to the present or future.
Active and passive voices are grammatically correct, but we use the active voice in professional writing unless there is a compelling reason for the passive voice. In the active voice sentence, the subject is explicit and precedes the verb: “Most people file their income tax forms on time.” In the passive voice, the subject is missing or comes after the verb: “Most income tax forms are filed on time” or “Income tax forms are filed late by procrastinators.”
In the first example, “Most people file their income tax forms on time,” the subject is clear (“most people”) and precedes the verb (“file”); “tax forms” is the objective side of the sentence, receiving the action of “file.” “On time” modifies the full phrase of “file their income tax forms.”
In the second example, the passive voice is used: “Most income tax forms are filed on time.” In this example, the verb “file” has no subject and so it remains unclear who does the filing of the taxes. The sentence states the taxes “are filed” but who files? In the third example passive voice is used again, but this time the subject, “procrastinators,” comes after the verb, “file.” Only the first example is the active voice, preferred in professional writing.
Can we ever use the passive voice? Yes, but judiciously. Sometimes the action is more important than who did it: “Many arrests were made.” We know the police made the arrests, but the arrests themselves are more important. Other times we are not sure who took the action: “Several demonstrators were hurt in the riot” but it remains unclear who hurt the demonstrators.
The passive voice links the “to be” verb with a second verb, as in the example, “the taxes are filed.” The active voice removes the “to be” verb, activates the second verb, which becomes “active,” while also requiring more precise information regarding who filed the taxes. The complete, correct, active voice looks like this: “The accountant filed the taxes.” Active voice is usually more precise, specific, and says more with only one verb rather than two.
We strongly recommend that you avoid writing in the passive voice whenever possible.
On Writing With Clarity and Brevity
Effective writers rely on a few stock ideas that you should add to your repertoire of writing moves.
• To avoid wordy digressions or repetitions, have a clearly articulated main point and stick to it. Avoid repetition and redundancy. And repetition.
209• Avoid unnecessary words in your sentence, like adverbs and adjectives. Keep it clear, keep it simple, get it right, get it done.
• Remember who you are writing to—keep your audience in mind so that you say, explain, and inform according to your audience’s need.
• Avoid the passive voice—it says less with more words. Your job is to say more with fewer words.
• Develop your editing skills. If you cannot make sense of your writing, surely no one else can.
• Look for models and emulate them in order to grow your skill and confidence.
Abbreviations
As a general rule, we avoid abbreviations in professional writing unless the abbreviation is widely accepted or if it has been approved by your employment agency. An exception to this rule is when writing out the time: 9:00 a.m., for example, or 2:00 p.m. Write out numbers one through ten, but numbers above ten , as in 12 or 99, should be indicated by numerals.
Latin abbreviations (i.e., e.g., etc., et al.) are acceptable and do not get capitalized unless they begin a sentence, which is a very rare occurrence and is to be avoided. On the other hand, titles or honorifics before or after people’s names do get capitalized, for example “Dr.,” “Ms.,” “Rev.,” or “Esq.” When there are two titles, we only use the highest status.
Check out Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors for an extensive discussion of abbreviations.
The Writer’s Judgment
Be vigilant when describing events to avoid interjecting your opinion or subtle judgment. Sometimes this can be hard to detect in our own writing and asking a colleague for feedback may be a good idea at first. The words we choose indicate the value system of the writer’s mind. Each word we use has alternatives, and your selection of one over the others requires deliberateness even as it reveals how you think, how you see the world, how you see others, and how you see yourself. Avoiding judgmental, opinionated commentary does not mean that you should exclude your own professional expertise, based as it is on your training and experience, and, ideally, recognized by your superiors. When your professionally informed judgment leads you to an objective assessment of a person or situation, report this in your writing so long as you explicitly cite the evidence for your judgment. In such cases, be prepared to explain yourself using reason and evidence.
We recommend avoiding adjectives and adverbs because using them makes writing wordier and more prone to opinion. Use adjectives and adverbs sparingly, and only when you can document your word choice as measurable and accurate, and that other observers of the same event would characterize the event much the same way.
210The Takeaway: On Word Usage
• Avoid using modifiers, such as adjectives and adverbs, but if you do, they should be placed as close as possible to the nouns or other words they modify
• Avoid writing in the passive voice
• Avoid abbreviations and jargon
• Avoid words that express judgment or opinion
Punctuation
Place the period at the end of a sentence to indicate a complete thought. The semicolon connects two complete sentences that are closely linked in content and idea. Also, use semicolons to separate items in a long list where using commas might confuse the content. For example, “the landlord made a list of demands that set off the tenants. He told them to clean the yard; empty the shed; drain the pond; get rid of the engine block.”
The colon comes before something important in order to set it off or emphasize it, which could take the form of a word, a list, a phrase, a complete sentence or a quotation.
The comma helps establish clarity in several ways:
• The coma serves as a pause and a link between an independent clause and a subordinate clause in a complete sentence. Always use a comma in this case with the seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet.
• Use a comma before and after a clause embedded inside a sentence that is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.
• Set a comma between words, to show who or what is acting or being acted on. For example, “Let’s eat, Grandma” is very different than “Let’s eat Grandma.”
• Commas should come before and after most Latin abbreviations and usually before quotes that begin inside sentences, et al.
• Set a comma between two adjectives that modify the same noun, for example, “the long, hot, summer.”
• Use commas to separate three or more words in a series, as in the following: “My favorite summertime fruits include strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and fig.”
• Use a comma between the main discussion and a direct quotation, for example: The neighbor said, “That dog is possessed.”
As with the semicolon, writers misuse apostrophes more often than not. Correct uses of the apostrophe include:
• To indicate possession, before the “s” if the noun is singular, after the “s” if the noun is plural, with some exceptions (see Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors). For example, “Joni’s car was crushed while trying to park at the marina.” Or, “the boys’ and girls’ fund raising was very successful.”
211• When using a contraction like “can’t” or “won’t”; we generally recommend avoiding contractions in professional writing.
• Exception to the apostrophe rule: A possessive case without an apostrophe: “Its his bike.” Only use an apostrophe to indicate the contraction of It is, as in: “It’s a good day.”
Dashes and Hyphens; Parentheses and Brackets
In general, hyphens connect two words so that the combined term is different from its two component words, like “pre-tax” income or “self-cleaning” oven. Hyphens are also used when spelling out two-digit numbers, such as thirty-two. Also use a hyphen when a noun comes before two equally important modifiers, like my 1- and 4-year-old children.
Dashes are two hyphens put together. Use the dash to add emphasis when setting off words or phrases. Dashes can often take the place of commas, but beware. Overuse can lead to confusion and a lack of clarity.
Parentheses can be used to set aside some words from the rest of the sentence, sometimes to show a specific example or an aside that elaborates the point. Parentheses can also indicate textual documentation as in (Harrison 249). If a full sentence is written inside a pair of parentheses, a period may go inside the closing parenthesis mark; otherwise the period goes outside the second, or closing, parenthesis mark.
In British Commonwealth countries, periods go after the close quotation marks, but in the United States, the period is placed inside the close quotation mark: My supervisor said, “Your report was well written.” If a comma follows a quote, it goes inside the close-quote mark: My supervisor said “Your report was well written,” and then sent it the judge.
Quotation Marks
When you use direct quotations from witnesses or experts, you must use quotation marks before and after the quoted words. If you paraphrase a person, explicitly indicate that you are reporting his or her statements in summary form. You should always document sources other than yourself when quoting or summarizing someone else’s information or opinion. Every discipline or subject area has its own documentation rules, including parentheses, commas, and periods.
Using punctuation marks effectively can at first seem like a tricky business, but with practice and awareness, you will develop a fundamental set of skills that will become second nature to you. Meanwhile, please review Chapter 11: Glossary of Writing and Writing Errors and check with reference sources if you have questions about the proper use of punctuation.
212Avoid Clichés
Clichés are common phrases or sentences that communicate an idea in a kind of shorthand, like “it takes two to tango,” or, “when it rains, it pours,” or, “between a rock and hard place,” and “like finding a needle in a haystack.” In a sense, clichés are public domain expressions written by some anonymous writer and are now used by others because the writer or speaker did not take the time to find an original way to describe or discuss their topic. Clichés tend to diminish the credibility of the writer and so we strongly suggest that you avoid using clichés in your professional writing.
Stereotyping
Using stereotypes to describe people is like combining clichés with judgmental language. Avoid using stereotypes in your writing. In professional reporting, describe others as people first, and their status or condition second. Defining people by labels tends to dehumanize them. For example, the following is incorrect: “My alcoholic client.” Correct: “My client who has alcoholism.”
A Word on Plagiarism
When you use words or ideas from sources other than yourself, professional honesty and integrity require the writer to give credit to those sources. If a writer uses another person’s words and presents them as his or her own, it represents a serious breach of conduct and is a type of piracy. Plagiarism is unethical according to all professional work standards. Avoid it no matter how tempted because plagiarism can be grounds for job dismissal and can destroy a reputation and a career. Because what you write remains a part of the system indefinitely, plagiarizers are often detected years after the fact.
The good news is that plagiarism is unnecessary. You can easily give credit by using quotation marks when citing someone else’s exact language of at least three or more consecutive words. Be sure to cite the source for your direct quotation, whether it is a person or a document or a website. Intellectual and professional integrity are correlative. The English language provides multiple ways for us to express ourselves; repeating others’ words or ideas without citation is avoidable.
Resources
oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hyphen?region=us
oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dash?region=us
www.englishforums.com/English/UsageParenthesesBrackets/jldz/post.htm
Reference
Kurland, D. J. (2000). How the language really works: The fundamentals of critical reading and effective writing: The need to improve your writing. Retrieved from http://www.criticalreading.com/improve_writing.htm