A-manual-for-writers-of-research-papers-theses-and-dissertations

Put key actions in verbs, not in nouns.Put information familiar to readers at the beginning of a sentence, new information at theend.Choose active or passive verbs to reflect the previous principles.Use first person pronouns appropriately.Those principles add up to this: readers want to get past a short, concrete, familiar subjectquickly and easily to a verb expressing a specific action. When you do that, the rest of yoursentence will usually take care of itself. To diagnose your own writing, look for thosecharacteristics in it. Skim the first seven or eight words of every sentence. Look closely atsentences that don't meet those criteria, then revise them as follows.11.1.1 Avoid Long Introductory Phrases and ClausesCompare these two sentences (introductory phrases are boldfaced; whole subjects italicized):3a. In view of claims by researchers on higher education indicating at least one change by mostundergraduate students of their major field of study, first-year students seem not well informed aboutchoosing a major field of study.3b. Researchers on higher education claim that most students change their major field of study at least onceduring their undergraduate careers. If that is so, then first-year students seem not well informed when theychoose a major.Most readers find (3a) harder to read than (3b), because it makes them work through a twentyfour-wordphrase before they reach its subject (first-year students). In the two sentences in(3b), readers immediately start with a subject, Researchers, or reach it after a very shortclause, If that is so.The principle is this: start most of your sentences directly with their subjects. Begin only afew sentences with introductory phrases or clauses longer than ten or so words. You canusually revise long introductory phrases and subordinate clauses into their own independentsentences as in (3b).11.1.2 Make Subjects Short and ConcreteReaders must grasp the subject of a sentence easily, but can't when the subject is long,complex, and abstract. Compare these two sentences (the whole subjects in each are italicized;the one-word simple subject is boldfaced):4a. A school system's successful adoption of a new reading curriculum for its elementary schools depends on thedemonstration in each school of the commitment of its principal and the cooperation of teachers in settingreasonable goals.4b. A school system will successfully adopt a new reading curriculum for elementary schools only when each