Prof. Scott’s tips for formal writing
(in no
particular order)
-
English desperately needs good gender-neutral singular pronouns, but
it doesn’t (yet) have them. “They,”
“them,” and “their” seem to be the leading
candidates, but formal writing always lags behind spoken
convention. We are currently in a gray zone, with some
language authorities embracing a singular “they” and
others still searching for alternatives. I will accept
consistent use of a singular “they,” but only when
I’m convinced that you’re doing it on purpose, not out
of carelessness or accident.
In all cases, when writing about a specific individual, it is both
common courtesy and a sign of respect to use whatever pronouns that
individual identifies as correct.
-
Whatever your take on rule 1, avoid using masculine terms when referring
to unknown individuals or to people in general. In the
singular case (if you aren’t using “they”) you can
often rephrase to use “one,” or to avoid the pronoun
entirely. In some conetxts, you may see constructions like
“he / she” and “him / her,” but these are
increasingly recognized as inadequate non-solutions that reinforce
a culturally imposed gender binary.
-
Avoid the second person (“you”) in formal
writing. (This list isn’t formal :-)
Be cautious about the first person (“I” and
“me”;
“we” and “us”). “I” is ok
when you need to express a personal opinon. (References to
“the author” often come across as awkward or
stilted.) “We” is fine in essays with multiple
authors. In pedagogical material (e.g., textbooks),
“we” may also be used in the sense of “the author and
the reader together.” Please don’t refer to
yourself in the plural.
-
Make sure that the referents of pronouns (the things to which the
pronouns refer) are always crystal clear. In particular, be
wary of “naked” uses of the pronoun
“this”: is the reader likely to ask “this
what?” Consider:
The Rose Bowl Game takes place on New Year’s Day.
This is an American tradition.
What exactly is the tradition here?
The Rose Bowl Game?
New Year’s Day?
The timing of the Rose Bowl Game?
To be safe, write
“This game…,”
“This holiday…,”
or
“This timing….”
-
The word “Internet” has historically been capitalized,
but standard-setting publications (e.g., the New
York Times) have
recently switched to lower case. Whatever you pick be sure
your usage is consistent.
-
Avoid the passive voice. Write “Congress passed
a law” instead of “A law was passed by
Congress.”
-
In general, prefer infinitives over gerunds (“ing”
nouns), expecially when the gerund would be introduced by
“for.”
Instead of “Many people use TOR for surfing
privately,” write “Many people use TOR to surf
privately.”
Similar advice applies to “-ion” words: instead of
“Some people use PGP for encryption of messages,”
write “Some people use PGP to encrypt messages.”
-
Learn the distinction between descriptive and restrictive
clauses.
Descriptive clauses are generally set off with commas, and
introduced with “which.” They provide additional
but not essential information.
Restrictive clauses are generally run into the rest of the sentence,
and introduced with “that.”
They narrow the scope of what you’re talking about.
Compare:
Cars, which run on gas, are a major source of carbon
emissions [descriptive].
Cars that run on gas are a major source of carbon
emissions [restrictive].
The latter sentence doesn’t apply to electric cars.
A good rule of thumb for native speakers of English: if
“which” and “that” both sound ok to you, use
“that”—it’s almost certainly a restrictive
clause.
-
While it doesn’t really make good sense, it’s customary
to move commas and periods inside closing quote marks, except when
to do so would corrupt the meaning of the quoted material.
So: Restrictive clauses often start with “that.”
But: A Java loop begins with “
while
” or
“for
”. (If it began with
“for.
” it would be syntactically
incorrect.)
-
Superscript footnote marks and numbers go outside any
end-of-sentence punctuation.1
Bracketed footnote numbers go inside end-of-sentence
punctuation [2].
1 like this
[2] and this.
-
Make sure you understand the distinction between “its”
and “it’s.” The former is a possessive
pronoun (like “his” and “hers”); the latter
is a contraction (short for “it is”). Don’t
be fooled: “it’s” is not “it”
with a possessive apostrophe-s on the end.
-
Avoid ending a clause or sentence with a preposition.
Instead of
“Smartphones are easy to work with,”
write
“People find it easy to work with smartphones,”
or
“Smartphones are easy to use.”
-
Give a citation for every direct quotation, and for every fact that
isn't common knowledge.
-
Use the appropriate adjectives for countable and non-countable
(continuous) things: less milk, but fewer cookies.
-
Make sure that the elements of any comma-separated list have
parallel grammatical structure.