A recent Editors NSW workshop on grammar with presenter Elizabeth Manning Murphy DE was a reminder about the purpose of grammar. Grammar is the communication code we all share and it helps us communicate clearly in writing and in speech. It is just as important for new media such as emails and websites as the old media of printed letters. It improves understanding, ensures clarity and reduces confusion.

Formally teaching and learning grammar did go out of fashion for a time, so it is common for people to be unsure of the right uses of grammar or think something looks odd without being able to explain why.

Some grammar tips

• Understand grammar conventions before breaking them for effective writing.
• Be aware of the different parts of speech such as nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.
• Be aware of common mistakes and look out for them.
• Find a grammar reference book that is useful for you.
• Remember English is a living language and conventions change over time.

Elizabeth’s book Effective Writing: Plain English at Work is a great easy to read resource. It emphasises that grammar is the basis for plain English style which is recommended for government and business communication.

Effective writing: plain English at work by Elizabeth Manning Murphy

The Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers is a comprehensive resource on many aspects of writing and editing (see my blog here).

For editing queries, please contact me at rhdaniels@bigpond.com

This week I came across a journal with a very specific title: The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education. This title is very clear. It communicates what the journal is about, what content to expect and who the audience is, even without reading its blurb.

Just to confirm, the blurb at www.fyhejournal.com says the journal “focuses on research and practice about enhancing the experience of commencing students” and the journal’s audiences are “academic and professional staff involved in first year programs as well as senior managers with responsibility for first year policies and strategies”.

It is a good reminder to know your audience and write for them, which includes:

• getting the title right
• getting the content right
• getting the structure right
• getting the language right.

For more, see my blogs Write for your reader and audience and Are your headings helpful?

But wait. In August 2015, the journal was renamed to Student Success: A journal exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education to broaden the focus from First Year to a wider view of student engagement and success in tertiary education.

What do you think of the name change?

The top two mistakes in academic writing I see when editing theses and journal articles are writers trying too hard and not meeting the requirements.

Mistake 1 – Trying too hard

Trying too hard describes a style of writing that tries to impress with complexity, rather than clarity. Impress with simplicity. As much as possible, use the simplest form of a word, delete filler and unnecessary words, keep sentence and paragraph length easy to read, minimise the use of acronyms and jargon, and provide the appropriate level of detail at the right place. Make it easy for the reader. See my other blog tips on writing to impress through simplicity.

Mistake 2 – Not meeting the requirements

As with all writing, academic writing is written for a particular audience for a particular purpose. It is important to know and meet the requirements of the style of writing, the audience and the publisher. Some of the requirements for a thesis might include total word length, original contribution, critical analysis, the structure and the reference style. The requirements for a journal article might include relevance to the aims of the journal, word length, footnotes (or not), and the number of tables or figures allowed.

Improve your academic writing by avoiding the top two mistakes. Keep it clear and simple, and know and meet the requirements.

A hyphen (-) is a short dash. The Style manual for authors, editors and printers (6^th edition, 2002) notes there are few firm rules for the use of hyphens and no simple rights and wrongs. The main advice is to choose one dictionary, such as the Macquarie dictionary, and follow its recommendations. As always in editing, be consistent throughout the document.

Here are some helpful uses of hyphens:

• Clarify meaning such as re-sign (sign again) versus resign (leave a job).
• Clarify meaning in compound words such as owner-builder and disease-free.
• Prevent misreading of words starting with prefixes such as anti, ex and re followed by vowels such as re-enter.
• Use hyphens in compound adjectives with numbers such as three-part series.
• Avoid hanging or floating hyphens such as pre- and post-1788.

Hyphens may be used when a word is relatively new, but dropped over time as the word becomes more clearly known and accepted such as email. The use of hyphens also depends on the role of the word in a sentence: consider “in the long term” versus “long-term view”.

My preference is to use one combined word or two separate words, and only hyphenate where required to clarify the meaning.

Don’t confuse hyphens with the main types of (longer) dashes: the em rule and en rule. Hyphens and dashes have different uses. See the next blog for more on dashes.

As an editor, the title of this slim volume Edit is a Four-Letter Word by Glynis Scrivens caught my eye on the new book display in my local library. It is a guide for fiction writers on how to edit their own work, but still relevant to all writers.

Here are some messages I liked from the author and other writers in the book:

• Edit is a four-letter word which requires other four-letter words: hard work, task, slog, pain and time.
• Editing is all about creating a good first impression.
• Aim for maximum impact with minimum words.
• A badly edited piece of work will appear to be poorly written.
• Language is your tool – use it wisely.
• 90% of writing is rewriting.
• Editing will transform your first draft.

For fiction writers, “edit” is the only path to other four-letter words: book deal, sale, cash and fame.

Writers can and should edit their own work and a professional editor can add even more value. See my January 2015 blog on How to edit your own work.