By writing simply—focusing on ideas first and language only secondarily—authors at varying levels of skill can produce strong, clear, coherent papers. Simple writing can make the process of writing easier and improve the readability of the paper. To avoid possible confusion, choose one word or phrase for each of the key concepts of your paper and use that word each time, rather than cycling among synonyms. Writing "Increasing the efficiency of solar cells also known as photovoltaic cells is…" will clarify that you will be using "solar cells" throughout, but also presents the alternative term clearly to readers.
It also has the added benefit of keeping the alternative term in your paper for the purpose of text searches and web indexing.
A simple way to use some sophisticated language in your writing while also keeping your concepts and arguments easy to understand is to use more complex connectors and transition words appropriate to your field. The key to their effective use is balancing clarity with authority so that your specialist readers, with different levels of English proficiency, can still understand your message quickly and clearly.
Learning any language can be a daunting task. Even for native speakers, there is always more to learn. However, by writing simply—focusing on ideas first and language only secondarily—authors at varying levels of skill can produce strong, clear, coherent papers. At ThinkSCIENCE we strive to make research writing as clear as possible when we edit or translate your manuscript, without sacrificing your ideas or your authority as a specialist author. Because we know that some people enjoy explanations of the changes made during editing, we offer our EditingPLUS service.
With EditingPLUS, we explain the reasoning behind wording changes made, suggest ways you can improve your writing immediately, and give you the chance to ask specific questions about the editing. If you have any comments or questions about the writing strategies we mention above, please contact us in English or Japanese and our specialist editors will get back to you.
Our monthly newsletter offers valuable tips on writing and presenting your research most effectively, as well as advice on avoiding or resolving common problems that authors face. Ask questions and receive the answers in English or Japanese. Chad Musick, PhD Writing. We discuss 5 writing strategies below. We'll return with more strategies in later articles. Use simpler words and phrases 2. Minimize the number of negatives in a sentence 3.
Write shorter sentences, but avoid choppiness 4. Use important key terms consistently 5. Balance the use of simple and sophisticated language. Sign Up. We will never spam you or sell your information and you can unsubscribe any time Click to view privacy policy. There is a difference between backing up your arguments with facts and opinions.
Students will learn that facts are truths that can be proven, whereas opinions are only based on personal experiences, feelings, and beliefs that have not been tested. Writing an essay allows students to understand how they react to information. Do they agree or disagree with it? Does it make them surprised, excited, or confused?
And most importantly, why they react that way? Decision-making is a crucial part of critical thinking. It concerns how we make the most optimal choice between different alternatives. Every writer encounters problems, and the key to being successful is to have techniques to overcome those problems. A useful technique for students is to break down their problem into smaller parts. Writing an essay becomes easier to manage when they break it down to parts such as title, introduction, body, and ending paragraph.
Understanding how information is presented is essential for formulating arguments. Best assessment practice uses multiple measures. One piece of writing—even if it is generated under the most desirable conditions—can never serve as an indicator of overall writing ability, particularly for high-stakes decisions.
Ideally, writing ability must be assessed by more than one piece of writing, in more than one genre, written on different occasions, for different audiences, and responded to and evaluated by multiple readers as part of a substantial and sustained writing process.
Best assessment practice respects language variety and diversity and assesses writing on the basis of effectiveness for readers, acknowledging that as purposes vary, criteria will as well. Standardized tests that rely more on identifying grammatical and stylistic errors than authentic rhetorical choices disadvantage students whose home dialect is not the dominant dialect.
Assessing authentic acts of writing simultaneously raises performance standards and provides multiple avenues to success. Thus students are not arbitrarily punished for linguistic differences that in some contexts make them more, not less, effective communicators.
Furthermore, assessments that are keyed closely to an American cultural context may disadvantage second language writers.
Best assessment practice includes assessment by peers, instructors, and the student writer himself or herself. Valid assessment requires combining multiple perspectives on a performance and generating an overall assessment out of the combined descriptions of those multiple perspectives.
As a result, assessments should include formative and summative assessments from all these kinds of readers. Reflection by the writer on her or his own writing processes and performances holds particular promise as a way of generating knowledge about writing and increasing the ability to write successfully.
Perceptions of writing are shaped by the methods and criteria used to assess writing. The methods and criteria that readers use to assess writing should be locally developed, deriving from the particular context and purposes for the writing being assessed.
The individual writing program, institution, or consortium, should be recognized as a community of interpreters whose knowledge of context and purpose is integral to the assessment.
There is no test which can be used in all environments for all purposes, and the best assessment for any group of students must be locally determined and may well be locally designed. Best assessment practice clearly communicates what is valued and expected, and does not distort the nature of writing or writing practices. If ability to compose for various audiences is valued, then an assessment will assess this capability. For other contexts and purposes, other writing abilities might be valued, for instance, to develop a position on the basis of reading multiple sources or to compose a multi-media piece, using text and images.
Values and purposes should drive assessment, not the reverse. A corollary to this statement is that assessment practices and criteria should change as conceptions of texts and values change. Best assessment practice enables students to demonstrate what they do well in writing. Standardized tests tend to focus on readily accessed features of the language grammatical correctness, stylistic choices and on error rather than on the appropriateness of the rhetorical choices that have been made.
Consequently, the outcome of such assessments is negative: students are said to demonstrate what they do wrong with language rather than what they do well. Quality assessments will provide the opportunity for students to demonstrate the ways they can write, displaying the strategies or skills taught in the relevant environment.
Assessment programs should be solidly grounded in the latest research on learning, writing, and assessment. Best assessment practice results from careful consideration of the costs and benefits of the range of available approaches.
It may be tempting to choose an inexpensive, quick assessment, but decision-makers should consider the impact of assessment methods on students, faculty, and programs. The return on investment from the direct assessment of writing by instructor-evaluators includes student learning, professional development of faculty, and program development.
These benefits far outweigh the presumed benefits of cost, speed, and simplicity that machine scoring might seem to promise. Give multiple types of feedback early in the writing process.
For example, talking with students about ideas, write written responses on drafts, have students respond to their peers' drafts in process, etc.
These are all ways for students to receive feedback while they are still in the process of revising. Structure opportunities for feedback at various points in the writing process. Students should also have opportunities to receive feedback on their writing at various stages in the writing process. This does not mean that teachers need to respond to every draft of a writing project. Structuring time for peer response and group workshops can be a very effective way for students to receive feedback from other writers in the class and for them to begin to learn to revise and edit their own writing.
Be open with students about your expectations and the purposes of the assignments. Students respond better to writing projects when they understand why the project is important and what they can learn through the process of completing it. Be explicit about your goals for them as writers and why those goals are important to their learning.
Additionally, talk with students about methods of assessment. Some teachers have students help collaboratively design rubrics for the grading of writing. Whatever methods of assessment you choose, be sure to let students in on how they will be evaluated. Do not burden students with excessive feedback.
However, providing too much feedback can leave students feeling daunted and uncertain where to start in terms of revision. Try to choose one or two things to focus on when responding to a draft. Offer students concrete possibilities or strategies for revision.
Allow students to maintain control over their paper. Instead of acting as an editor, suggest options or open-ended alternatives the student can choose for their revision path.
Help students learn to assess their own writing and the advice they get about it. Purposes of Responding We provide different kinds of response at different moments.
But we might also fall into a kind of "default" mode, working to get through the papers without making a conscious choice about how and why we want to respond to a given assignment.
So it might be helpful to identify the two major kinds of response we provide:. We respond to many kinds of writing and at different stages in the process, from reading responses, to exercises, to generation or brainstorming, to drafts, to source critiques, to final drafts. It is also helpful to think of the various forms that response can take. Rubrics are tools teachers and students use to evaluate and classify writing, whether individual pieces or portfolios. They identify and articulate what is being evaluated in the writing, and offer "descriptors" to classify writing into certain categories , for instance, or A-F.
Narrative rubrics and chart rubrics are the two most common forms. Here is an example of each, using the same classification descriptors:. It shows strong audience awareness, engaging readers throughout. The form and structure are appropriate for the purpose s and audience s of the piece. The final product is virtually error-free.
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