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As children, we were taught to use longer words in progressively more complex sentences; this shouldn’t be so for a report writer. Short words in short sentences work greatly in a report. Today’s article focuses on tips to help you achieve clarity and simplicity in your writing. Doing the following is a sure-fire way of dignifying your writing: use plain expressions; avoid pointless words; avoid overwriting and padding; avoid redundant words; position modifiers carefully and correctly; use the positive over the negative; place emphasis at the end of a sentence; avoid loan words that may be unknown to your readers; and avoid sexist language. Let’s explore this one after the other.
Many writers prefer to use buzz words and highfaluting expressions to impress their readers. If you use simpler expressions instead, you won’t fail to impress because your words are more easily understandable. Always think of the acronym ‘KISS’: Keep It Short and Simple. This is a formula that works every time. Resist the urge to use a word you don’t use frequently during interactions. The overuse of uncommon words will make your report seem pompous, officious, and long-winded. Does this mean you should never use uncommon words? Not at all. The point is to always strike a balance. Always think about your reader and ascertain that they will be able to flow with your logic. There is no need to make things more difficult than they should be.
Using pointless words will amount to a waste of time, both for you and for your reader. Why? Because they don’t communicate anything. Examples of such words include ‘basically’, ‘actually’, ‘undoubtedly’, ‘each and every one’, and ‘during the course of the investigation’. What happens when you expunge such expressions from your writing? Your sentences come alive, succeed, and flourish without them. Their absence does not alter the meaning of your sentence.
Overwriting and padding happen when you use words that are needless. See these examples: ‘The president of the association is concerned with the follow-up of any of the issues discussed but not with that of the recent defection’ VS ‘The president follows up any of the issues discussed only.’ Can you spot how many words were deleted in the second sentence? The first has 24 words and the second has 10 – a whopping 14 words expunged! This illustrates the non-usefulness of padded words.
Use of redundant words leads to the error of tautology. When a word means the same as another, it is pointless to use both in a sentence. Take as an example, ‘Past history suggests that our future prospects are bright’ VS ‘History suggests that our prospects are bright’. In the first example, ‘past’ and ‘history’ are indicative of the same thing; so is the case with ‘future’ and ‘prospects.’ Not only do you cut out needless words, but you also refrain from using redundant expressions that add nothing to the meaning of your sentence.
The positioning of your modifiers matters greatly, if your writing is to be clearly understood. If modifiers are wrongly placed, they communicate the wrong meaning and could leave your reader confused! To illustrate: ‘The man boarded the car with a big body’. Here we do not know if the man or the car has a big body. We can have this rephrased as: ‘The man with a big body boarded the car’. Placing the modifier ‘with a big body’ close to what it modifies – man – makes it easier to tell. Another example: ‘The senate speaker was urged to take a strong line on absenteeism by the House of Representatives.’ The question here is who’s guilty of absenteeism. The impression in this example is that the House of Representatives is charged with absenteeism. However, the intent is to show that the House of Representatives urged the senate speaker to do something about absenteeism, perhaps of its members. We can rewrite this as ‘The senate speaker was urged by the House of Representatives to take a strong line on absenteeism.’ What’s the point? Always place the modifier close to what it modifies.
The next tip is to use the positive over the negative. This means that you should try to use positive statements wherever positive. This gives you less to work on and is more desirable in writing. To illustrate: ‘We do not believe the stored food is adequate for the lockdown’ VS ‘We believe the stored food is inadequate for the lockdown.’ Did you notice where we pushed the negative to? We changed the expression ‘adequate’ to ‘inadequate’ and with that we took out the negative ‘not’ in the main clause.
The strength of a sentence is at its end. It is, therefore, useful to place emphasis at the end, rather than at the beginning of a sentence. When a sentence ends and people can immediately recall its essence, then a lot has been achieved. To actualise that, place emphasis at the end. For example, ‘With a little clarification, the subcontractor would have solved the difficulties occasioned by the specification changes more readily’ VS ‘With a little clarification, the subcontractor would more readily have solved the difficulties occasioned by the specification changes.’ You would agree that the latter sentence stands out for easier understanding.
Also, watch out for the use of loan/foreign words and phrases such as ‘per se’, ‘sine die’, and ‘inter alia’. It isn’t necessarily bad to use them if your target audience understands what they mean. However, your audience could be confused if the words are strange to them. If it is possible, avoid them unless there are no good English equivalents.
Sexist language reflects a writer’s bias. Use alternate expressions that may contribute to neutrality. For example, rather than say ‘A report writer should know his readers’, it would be much better to say that ‘Report writers should know their readers’. By pluralising where possible and weeding out sexist language, a writer is neutral. There are other expressions such as ‘police officer’ instead of ‘policeman’; ‘fire fighter’ instead of ‘fire man’, and you can add to the list.
Following the outlined points could support your report writing and lead to clarity, concision, and simplicity.
