Style Basics PROFESSIONAL TECHNICAL AND SCIENTIFIC STYLE BASICS

Choose a Style Manual Style Manuals are discipline specific! APA American Psychological Association SME Society of Mining Engineers Chicago Manual of Style ACS American Chemical Society MLA Modern Languages Association AAA American Anthropological Association … and many more!

Style It is not just about citation… It is also a guide to style!

Style Some are quirky! Like: APA style requires authors to use the past tense or present perfect tense when using signal phrases to describe earlier research. E.g., Jones (1998) found or Jones (1998) has found...”

Style Since v. Because Bad: Data was incomplete since he was distracted. Good: Data was incomplete because he was distracted. (after that) Good: Data has been incomplete since (time)

Style But, many are more general and are useful for all professional, technical and scientific writers!

Style Transitions within and between sections become critical in showing not just logical relationships between data but also connections between sections of the project as a whole.

Style Good Transition: While this study reveals much that earlier efforts did not, it is unique in that it raises a new issue in the debate engineers long though was settled. This transition connects back to a previous Paragraph/Study and sets the stage for a new Paragraph/Study.

Style Transitions indicate very specific relationships! Time: then, next, after Cause-Effect: as a result, consequently Addition: moreover, similarly, also Contrast: however, but, although

Style Every section of a technical or scientific paper should be able to stand alone as a piece of writing: INTRO BODY CLOSE

Style USE AN ACADEMIC TONE and LANGUAGE Good: Conclusive studies remain elusive. Bad: We just don’t know much.

Style Avoid Slang: bummed, hanging out Contractions: Can’t, won’t, It’s Colloquial Expressions: Write up v. Report

Style Define Jargon AMA (American Medical Association) Remember your reader is a general academic audience!

Style Be concise! Based on the fact that ->because Monetary deprivation ->poverty For the purpose of ->for Summarize briefly ->summarize Very few -> few

Style Be precise! The difference between the right word and the almost right word is like the difference between light and the lightening bug. -Mark Twain

Style Precision! At risk? Borderline? Gender (culture) v. Sex (biology) Single v. living alone Males v. 30 year old white men with red hair The demented v. dementia group

Style Precision! Manic cases v. patients or persons with mania Orientals v. Korean and Vietnamese Subjects v. participants Homosexuals v. gay men and lesbian adolescents

Style Use Gender Neutral Language Mothering v. Parenting Chairman v. Chair Man the polls v. Staff the polls Woman doctor v. Doctor His/Her v. Their

Style Don’t Anthropomorphize! Tables and Figures can show or indicate, but not compare. Experiments can not demonstrate, control, or interpret.

Visuals Format Consistently! Have titles and labels! Use white space wisely! Be clean and clear! Don’t overcomplicate!

Visuals Explain visuals in text BUT visuals should be “readable” alone.

Visuals As the bar graph in Figure 1 shows, my writing is improving. Figure 1. My Writing Improvement Make sure texts and visuals are close to each other!

Extra Help? The Writing Center M-F 10-2 Sun-Wed 6-9