Writing for understanding

Avoid noun strings

The bulk of government and technical writing uses too many noun strings, or groups of nouns “sandwiched” together. Readability suffers when three words that are ordinarily separate nouns appear one after the other. Once you get past three, the string becomes unbearable.

Technically, clustering nouns turns all but the last noun into adjectives. Yet, many users will think they’ve found the noun when they’re still reading adjectives, and will become confused.

Bring these constructions under control:

• Cut descriptive words that aren’t essential.
• If you can’t do that, use more prepositions and articles to clarify the relationships among the words.

Check your prepositions

Watch out for “of,” “to,” “on,” and other prepositions. They often mark phases you can reduce to one or two words.

Decrease abbreviations

Abbreviations were once intended to serve the audience by shortening long phrases. However, they constantly demand the reader to look back at earlier pages or consult an appendix to understand what they mean.

Use nicknames

The best solution is to find a simplified name for the entity you want to abbreviate. This gives readers meaningful content that helps them remember what you’re talking about. It may be longer, but the gain in clarity and ease of reading is worth it.

In most cases, you don’t need to define this nickname the first time you use it, unless you’re using lots of different nicknames. When you’re using a nickname for the main topic you’re writing about, don’t insult your users and waste their time. 

If everyone knows an abbreviation, use it without explanation

There’s a short list of abbreviations that have entered common usage. When you use them, don’t define them. You’re taking up space and annoying your user. Make sure the abbreviation you’re using is on the list. Examples include IBM, ATM, BMW, PhD, CIA, and FBI.

A closely related guideline is, “don’t define something that’s obvious to the user.” For example, when responding to a customer inquiry, most federal agencies define their agency name, as in, “Thank you for writing to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about your concerns.” The letterhead says the name of the agency. The person wrote to the agency, and now the agency is writing back. The user is not going to be confused about what FAA means!

If you must abbreviate

There are some situations in which you can’t avoid an abbreviation. Always define an abbreviation the first time you use it. For example, say “The American Journal of Plain Language Studies (AJPLA).”

Limit the number of abbreviations you use in one document to no more than three, preferably two. Spell out everything else. Once you use two or three common abbreviations, it’s unlikely that the other items occur so frequently you can’t spell them out every time.

When you’re considering whether to use an abbreviation, or how many you can use, remember that they should make it easier for your users. If they make it harder, you’ve failed to write for your audience.

Transition words

A topic sentence may provide a transition from one paragraph to another. A transition word or phrase clearly tells the audience whether the paragraph expands on the paragraph before, contrasts with it, or takes a completely different direction. It is usually in the topic sentence.

Types of transitions

Bryan Garner (2001) divides transition words into three types:

• Pointing words
• Echo links
• Explicit connectives

Pointing words

Pointing words refer directly to something already mentioned. They point to an antecedent and commonly include this, that, these, those, and the. 

• If your preceding paragraph describes the process of strip mining, and your next paragraph begins with “this process causes…,” the word “this” makes a clear connection between paragraphs.

Echo links

Echo links are words or phrases that echo an idea mentioned before. They often work together with pointing words.

• You’ve written a paragraph about how strip mining removes the top surface of the land to get at the coal under it. If you then begin the next paragraph with “this scarring of the earth,” the words “scarring of the earth” repeats the mining process described in the previous paragraph.

Explicit connectives

Explicit connectives supply transitions. Common examples are further, also, however, and therefore.

Explicit connectives between sentences and paragraphs can be overdone. More often, we simply overlook using them. As writers familiar with our own material, we think they aren’t needed. However, readers find them helpful in following our train of thought.

Use examples

Examples help you clarify complex concepts, even in regulations. They are an ideal way to help your readers. In spoken English, when you ask for clarification, people often respond by giving you an example. Good examples can substitute for long explanations. The more complex the concept you are writing about, the more you should consider using an example. If you give your audience an example that’s relevant to their situation, you help them relate to your writing.

Avoid using the Latin abbreviations for “for example” (e.g.) and “that is” (i.e.). Few people know what they mean, and they often confuse the two. Write out the lead-in to your example: “for example” or “such as.”

Use positive language

Avoid double negatives

We’re accustomed to thinking and speaking positively. When we write negatively, we make it more difficult for readers to understand us. When you’re going to meet a friend at the airport, do you say: 

Many ordinary words have a negative meaning, such as: 

• Unless
• Fail to
• Notwithstanding
• Except
• Other than

Watch out for them when they appear after not. Find a positive word to express your meaning.

Avoid exceptions to exceptions

An exception that contains an exception is another form of a double negative. That makes it even harder for the user to puzzle out. Rewrite the sentence to emphasize the positive.

Avoid slashes

Apart from fractions, the slash has almost no good uses. “And/or” is a classic example. In most cases, writers mean either “or” or “and.” But they don’t want to take the time to decide which they mean, so they push the job off on the audience. That makes their writing ambiguous.

As an author, you should decide what you mean. In the few cases where you truly mean both, write out “either X, or Y, or both.”

Often when writers use slashes, a hyphen is more appropriate to join equal or like terms. One example is “faculty-student ratio.”