The Passive in Technical and Scientific Writing

Almost every discussion of technical or scientific style mentions the passive voice, usually as a stylistic evil to avoid. While I doubt that many of us would endorse such extreme prescriptions as 'Always use the active voice,' or 'A writer will almost automatically improve his style when he shifts from passive to active constructions,' we may be more ready to accept Freedman's position in 'The Seven Sins of Technical Writing.' His Sin 6 is 'the Deadly Passive, or, better, deadening passive; it takes the life out of writing, making everything impersonal, eternal, remote and dead, but he adds that 'frequently, of course, the passive is not a sin and not deadly, for there simply is no active agent and the material must be put impersonally.'

Rodman, Lilita. Cambridge Language Consultants (2001). Articles>Writing>Grammar

The Passive Voice and Social Values in Science    

This article claims that two social values in science--falsifiability of science and cooperation among scientists--determine use of passives in scientific communication. Scientists do not always develop valid theories, so scientific experiments must be amenable to being repeated and found invalid. This requires that the experiments must not be discrete events. Science is also a cooperative enterprise. As an integral part of science, scientific writing employs more passives than actives to focus on materials, methods, figures, processes, tables, concepts, etc. Use of passives to focus on the physical world helps de-emphasize discreteness of scientific experiments. Besides, it also helps remove personal qualifications of observing experimental results. Finally, it enhances cooperation among working scientists by providing a common knowledge base of scientific work--things and objects. Looked at in this way, the passive voice in scientific writing represents professional practices of science instead of personal stylistic choices of individual scientists.

Ding, Daniel D. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Scientific Communication>Grammar>Minimalism

Passive Voice Is Redeemed For Web Headings

Active voice is best for most Web content, but using passive voice can let you front-load important keywords in headings, blurbs, and lead sentences. This enhances scannability and thus SEO effectiveness.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Grammar

Period As a Stop Sign

Place strong words at the beginning of sentences and paragraphs, and at the end. The period acts as a stop sign. Any word next to the period says, 'Look at me.'

Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Rhetoric

Punctuation by Languages

Not too long ago, I was managing a translation project in Access (English to Greek) when I discovered that the translator hadn't used question marks similar to those used in the English source. Instead of question marks, he was using semicolons. I was sure that this was a mistake and that the computer was acting strange again. But it wasn't a mistake. In the Greek language, the question mark is like a semicolon, and the semicolon is instead a raised period. I've started to check on other projects as well, and I've learned quite a few interesting things about punctuation and their separators.

Bratu, Felicia. WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Language>Localization>Grammar

Punctuation, Punctuation, Punctuation

A light touch with punctuation has always made sense, whether you're scratching out a sonnet on velum with a quill pen, or texting a mate on your mobile. It's meant to enhance communication, not hinder it.

Caborn, Anne. Creative Latitude (2005). Articles>Writing>Grammar

Reconsidering Some Prescriptive Rules of Grammar and Composition    

Technical writers and editors are beset with rules. As authoritative as they are, published style guides such as The Chicago manual of style, MLA, APA, and Gregg do not address reading theory but hang their prescriptions on the flimsy mantle of tradition. This article challenges some putative rules of grammar and mechanics in an effort to improve technical texts for the people who read them.

Connatser, Bradford R. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Style Guides>Grammar

Review: Rhetorical Grammar, 5th Edition    

Throughout the book, Kolln works to build the readers' confidence and encourage them to think of grammar as a tool. Rhetorical Grammar is a textbook for undergraduate students, and Kolln keeps this target audience in mind by making the 322- page book user-friendly.

Tutt, Bryan. Business Communication Quarterly (2007). Articles>Reviews>Grammar>Rhetoric

Semi-Definite Rules for the Indefinite Article

Technical writing–perhaps more than any other sort of writing–gets read and used by people from every corner of the Anglophonic world. And people don’t get less sensitive to perceived slights or the appearance of cultural insensitivity because it’s a manual or help page. If anything, they’re more sensitive in such a circumstance.

Forte, Brian. Red Hat Magazine (2007). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Grammar

Sentence Diagramming: Making Sense of Sentences  

Sentence diagramming is an important tool for technical communicators to use in analyzing their own writing and editing. Sentence diagramming is also a neutral basis from which to discuss and evaluate technical documentation with colleagues and with other co- workers, such as subject-matter experts, who are not professional communicators. Through visual examples, this paper illustrates how to diagram three types of sentences (simple, compound, and complex), how sentence diagramming shows an objective view of three common syntactical errors (misplaced modifier, lack of parallel structure, and dangling modifier), and how the revised sentences make sense as sentences and as diagrams.

Ball, Valerie M. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Editing>Grammar

Sentence Types and Sentence Structures Revisited

Before we discuss sentence types and structures, let us regard writing as a donut. When talking of sentence types, we will consider four building blocks of the donut.

Gururaj, B.S. and N.R. Prabhat. Indus (2005). Articles>Writing>Grammar

Some Thoughts on Teaching Grammar to Improve Writing    

The conviction that writing can be improved with a knowledge of grammar has prevailed for quite a long time. But research has shown no correlation between grammatical knowledge and writing ability.

Baum, Bernard. CCC (1967). Articles>Education>Writing>Grammar

Squiggles

Thomas Mann described the writer as somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. Nowhere is this truer than for comma use: while most folks float along blithely putting commas in or leaving them out at whim, we agonize over every squiggle. Why? Because we understand that the presence or absence of a comma can change the meaning of a sentence. In our line of work, unclear sentences can have dire consequences for our readers. So we worry.

Wenger, Andrea. Carolina Communique (2005). Articles>Writing>Grammar

Stressing What is Important in a Sentence

In addition to expunging the usual collection of wordy phrases from documents, editors commonly attempt to tighten up writing to make it more direct, clear, and concise. For example, when editing business and technical material, I frequently change sentences containing 'it is,' 'there is,' and 'there are.' Writers often ask me 'what was wrong with that sentence?' I reply that although the sentence wasn't wrong grammatically, such phrases distract the reader from the important part of the message.

Hollis Weber, Jean. Technical Editors Eyrie (2002). Articles>Writing>Grammar

Style, Grammar, and Usage

Information on style, grammar, and usage.

Technical Communicators Resource Site. Reference>Style Guides>Grammar

Tackling Typical Grammar Problems

This training podcast provides examples as well as explanations and tips for dealing with a few grammar or usage problems that occur for many engineering and technical professionals who have to communicate in a hurry, via, for example, email. Listen for ways to know when to use can or may, affect or effect, it's or its, and also me, myself, or I.

Still, Brian. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Podcasts

Teaching a Workshop on Sentence Diagramming  

Demonstrates how sentence diagramming can be an effective writing tool and offers tips on how it should be taught.

Jennings, Ann S. Intercom (2002). Articles>Education>Editing>Grammar

Ten Grammar Mistakes That Make You Look Stupid    

These days, we tend to communicate via the keyboard as much as we do verbally. In general, we can slip up in a verbal conversation and get away with it. A colleague may be thinking, Did she just say 'irregardless'?, but the words flow on, and our worst transgressions are carried away and, with luck, forgotten. That's not the case with written communications. When we commit a grammatical crime in e-mails, discussion posts, reports, memos, and other professional documents, there's no going back. Catching typos is easy (although not everyone does it). It's the other stuff -- correctly spelled but incorrectly wielded -- that sneaks through and makes us look stupid. Here's a quick review of some of the big ones.

TechRepublic (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Grammar

Ten More Errors in Technical Writing

So, well, here are 10 more errors. This time we will focus on grammar and punctuation. Most of these are simplistic and obvious. But then they are too common. As usual, I have slipped in some content for the advanced writers too. (This article is a follow-up to 'One Hundred Simple Tech Writing Errors .)

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Editing>Grammar>Technical Writing

To Err is Human, But Can It Be Forgiven?: Effects and Economics of Typos  

Technical communicators dread typos. A piece of work that contains one or more typos is seen as shoddy, not something to be proud of. Finding and correcting these errors, however, takes time and costs money. Might there be a better way to spend resources?- ways that might produce more usable information.? Effects of errors, value added by correcting them, and the economics of error detection will be discussed.

Grice, Roger A., Lenore S. Ridgway Richard K. Ridgway and Edward J. See. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Editing>Grammar

"Unattached" Clauses in Technical Writing    

The views concerning "dangling participles" of grammarians, usage experts and authors of books on technical writing are reviewed and compared. Although many unattached clauses are clearly unacceptable, some are less objectionable and still others are acceptable practice. Absolute constructions and other clause-relational participial, infinitival and verbless clauses need no attachment to a proximate noun or noun phrase, and logical clauses that are not attached to a noun are shown as normal, acceptable use. Even clearly adjectival clauses are often unattached when followed by the passive voice, intransitives and several other grammatical structures; clauses between the subject and verb and at the end of the sentence are also often not attached to the immediately preceding noun. Cultural (perhaps also gender) differences between humanistic teachers and task-oriented engineers are noted as possible causes of different viewpoints regarding the use of unattached participles, and greater acceptance of the many acceptable forms of unattached clauses is argued. <em>Suggested Reading Approach</em> The first three sections (on principles, authoritative views and theoretical background) could be skimmed if you are already familiar with the background.

Jordan, Michael P. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Technical Writing

The Use of Capitals

The question to the list-subscribers was I am looking for studies dealing with the difference between small letters and capitals. Are small letters easier to read? In France, road signs are written in capitals but it is not the case in the US or Canada.

Gaviero-Villatte, Elisa. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Style Guides>Grammar