Improving Your Writing

Good writing is a journey, not a destination, and there are a number of side excursions worth the fare  

Good nontechnical, nonfiction writing can provide a model for exposition. Well-written history and biography (e.g., works by H. W. Brand, Martin Gilbert, Paul Johnson, and William Manchester) are useful for learning to handle time and sequence. Well-written popular science books and novels (e.g., by such authors as Isaac Asimov, Michael Crichton, Steven Levy, and James Gleick) are useful in learning that the presentation of factual information need not be dull. 

Much has been written about writing, and engaging the literature of writing 

In this chapter, we have considered why many engineers dislike writing and how to combat this difficulty by articulating a straightforward approach to the process and content of business-technical writing. 

The chapter has also considered certain patterns or devices in business-technical writing that simplify the writing task. The most important of these has been called BPR, or background-purpose-road map. At the beginning of every e-mail, letter, memo, and report we start with crucial background material to help the reader understand the context of the written piece. Thereafter, the rhetorical purpose informs the reader why the piece was written, and the road map builds a mental model of the remainder. Other devices such as lists and their amplification as well as the liberal use of headings and subheadings are 

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The Secrets of Taking Any Test, 2e Math Essentials, 2e Improve Your Writing For Work, 2e... 

While this example demonstrates how details improve your writing, there are instances when the right modifiers can get your message across in fewer, more accurate words. This is critical in a personal statement that is limited to two pages or 500 words. You don t want to sacrifice unique details, but sometimes one word will do the job better than three or four. For example, promptly can take the place of in a few days-, productive can take the place of much was accomplished. 

Wordiness and ambiguity often prevent ideas from coming across clearly. Edit your sentences to eliminate clutter and unnecessary repetition. Revise sentences that use overly informal or overused words, and exchange the passive voice for the active. Clarify ambiguous words and unclear pronoun references. Finally, improve your writing by using precise modifiers and adding variety to your sentence structure. 

Everyone has his or her own writing style, some better than others. It is imperative that you continually try to improve your writing skills. When your instructor reviews your write-up, he or she should include helpful writing tips in the grading. Read the works listed in the references at the end of this chapter for further instructions in scientific writing. 

Use the rubrics provided to assess your practice attempts. Recruit friends, family, teachers, or other good writers you know to help you evaluate and improve your writing. 

Improve your writing skills with FREE online instant essay scoring ... 

The word processor has facilitated writing because of the ease of revising text. Word processing is a transferable skill valuable beyond the immediate requirements of your chemistry course. Using a word processor should improve your writing skills and speed because you can create, check and change your text on the screen before printing it as hard copy on paper. Once entered and saved, multiple uses can be made of a piece of text with little effort. 

You need to take a long-term view if you wish to improve your writing skills. An essential preliminary is to invest in and make full use of a personal reference library (see Box 50.2). 

Box 50.2 Improve your writing ability by consulting a personal reference library... 

Reading and analyzing essays can improve your writing skills. 

Handbooks, textbooks, usage manuals, and any number of general works are filled with the problems common to technical writing. Improvement in these typical areas will immediately improve your writing overall. 

Improve Your Writing for Work, 2nd Edition. Elizabeth Chesla. Learning-Express, 2000. 

In this chapter, we offer a few basic tips to help you improve your writing style. If you need additional assistance with these ideas, consult your teacher or a librarian for other published works on the subject. 

Reading text out loud will help you find other ways to improve your writing. Examples of deficiencies that can be discovered are confusing syntax, excessively long sentences or too many sentences of the same length, passive structure, using technical terms that have not been defined, and the need of additional punctuation. 

P. Compare the original document to the revised version or revised portion of it. In terms of improving your writing ability as you move forward, comment on the value, if any, of this exercise. 

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