CLARITY

Last Modified 18 November 2004

Assignment:

  1. Read the introductory section on clarity below.
  2. Read Gopen and Swan (1990), and Sylvester and Costa (1993).
  3. Come to class with written answers to the questions below so you are prepared for discussion.
  4. Read the section on "it".

Grade:

1% attendance.  1% your written answers to the questions below to indicate you are prepared for dicussion.
 

Time Commitment:

1 h Seminar; 1 h reading assignment; 2 hours writing.
 
 

Introduction to Clarity

Clarity of expression is an important part of writing.  The purpose of an article in science is to communicate your idea or result to others so they can effectively use the information.  The clearer your writing is, the better you will look.  Clear writing often results in more jobs, more responsibility and better pay.  If your clients understand your writing clearly and easily they will want to hire you again.  A clear proposal may land you or your firm a job.  Gopen and Swan (1990), Sylvester and Costa (1993) have some comments about how to improve clarity.  Please read these two articles before seminar and come prepared to discuss them. Use the following questions to guide your reading.  You might record page numbers and ideas under the questions to help you discuss these papers in seminar.

Warning:  You must read the assigned papers before class or you will not be able to participate in the discussion and you score will suffer.  The papers are on electronic reserve and regular reserve

Questions:

Goppen and Swan (1990)
  1. What is the expected subject-verb separation.
  2. Where is the point of syntactic closure?
  3. What are three reader expectations? (p. 553)
  4. What is the role of topic position and how does it differ from the position of syntactic closure? 
  5. What does a reader expect with regard to logical gaps?
  6. How do verbs control the action in writing?
  7. Goppen and Swan identify seven reader-expectations which may improve writing clarity. What are they? Would you recommend any be dropped or any be added.
Sylvester and Costa (1993)
  1. Are you required to write an abstract for your paper? (NO).
  2. How does the advice of Sylvester and Costa apply to your paper?