25.1: Readings by H Morrison

Concise, Specific Language

Being concise and specific is a key element of quality academic writing. Sometimes, we’re “wordy,” meaning we use too many words to convey our thoughts. The solution to that is to ensure that every word in your writing actually needs to be there, otherwise known as being concise. Other times, we’re not specific or clear enough in our choices of words and phrases. The items below outline common reasons why this occurs, and how to fix them.

Avoid absolutes: they are usually not correct.

Words like perfect, never, always, everyone, no one, good, bad, best, and worst are “absolutes.” In many ways, absolutes mirror and fuel bias and stereotypical thinking, which in turn feeds racism, ableism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia, and more. Absolutes force us to generalize and engage in black and white thinking.

The reality of life, as revealed through critical thinking and analysis, is that most everything is somewhere in between polar opposites. Absolutes are the poles.

Absolutism is not good thinking, and it does not make for good writing. Absolutes make your argument weak, as they are either impossible to prove or outright false. Avoid them, unless they are supported directly by data from an outside source, or obviously, if it is in a quote.

Examples:

• No--Vogel’s vivid description of her situation is the perfect response to people’s lack of interest in long Covid.
• No--People always assume that mental health is less important than physical health.
• Yes--According to the study, taking the medication Zanzineu in clinical trials never led to the described symptoms as side effects (Leckie 99). [this means 0% of participants had side effects]
• Yes--Ultimately, Dr. Keenan argues that “the best way to handle this epidemic is to gain social acceptance of preventative measures.”

Instead use more descriptive or less absolute terms such as:

• Many
• Most
• Several
• Few
• Some
• Often
• Rarely
• The majority
• The minority
• Well argued
• Convincing
• Effective

Idioms, Cliches, & Platitudes

Do not use them in academic writing. They are either imprecise, unclear (idioms in particular), or virtually meaningless (clichés and platitudes).

• Idioms—phrases in which the actual meaning is not obvious by standard definitions or grammar.
  • Ex. A piece of cake, getting out of hand, cutting corners.
• Cliché—a phrase that is overused and unoriginal; often vague and/or not meaningful. Sometimes idiomatic.
  • Ex. Think outside the box, in a nutshell, money makes the world go round.
• Platitude—very similar to a cliché, but invariably shallow and usually about a moral/ethical subject or life philosophy.
  • Ex. You win some, you lose some. Nobody’s perfect. Everything isn’t always what it seems.

Grammar and punctuation reminders

Proper grammar is necessary to write clear, easy to understand compositions for your audience.

Clauses and Punctuation

Clause: a phrase that has a subject (a noun or noun phrase) and a predicate (verb or verb phrase).

An independent clause can stand on its own and is a complete sentence.

Ex: The dog ran.

A dependent clause cannot stand on its own even though it has a subject and a predicate.

Ex: While the dog ran

What to do when you have two independent clauses in one sentence?

The independent clauses:

A. the dog ran around the park B. his owner enjoyed the pleasant weather

1. NO—comma splice! The dog ran around the park, his owner enjoyed the pleasant weather.

A comma splice occurs when you separate two independent clauses with a comma. You should instead use a semicolon, colon, period and/or a conjunction.

1. Yes—use a semicolon to separate the two independent clauses: The dog ran around the park; his owner enjoyed the pleasant weather.
2. Yes—use a conjunction to connect the two independent clauses and show the relationship between the clauses: The dog ran around the park while his owner enjoyed the pleasant weather.

Fragments

Fragments are dependent clauses that are all alone, or just phrases that do not have both a subject and a predicate.

Examples

• While Johnston argues that allocating funds to mental health education is a necessary first step in addressing mental health issues in boys and men.
• In J. Alabaster’s ultimately influential 1933 article on the merits of vaccination in early childhood.
• And redlining is more prevalent on the eastern half of the country, a fact that supports Wells’ assertions about the historical roots of black migration.

Conjunctions: a problem and a solution

Consider the following statement:

While it’s clear that the policies need to be reformed at both local and state levels, and that politicians are not doing their due diligence in investigating the root problems.

This is a fairly long sentence, but it is not a complete sentence. It’s a fragment that many grammar checkers will not identify. Why? In a word, “while.” If you were to simply remove “while” from the sentence above, it would be a complete sentence. However, it seems the author of the sentence below had another intention: they used while because they wanted to contrast two or more ideas.

Now, consider this statement:

While it’s clear that the policies need to be reformed at both local and state-levels, and that politicians are not doing their due diligence in investigating the root problems, the federal government has made many improvements.

What we have here is a sentence that shows some contrast. Conjunctions such as while, although, however and but are often used to show contrast. If you use them in a sentence as conjunction, make sure you have at least two clauses in your sentence and that those clauses contrast each other.

Conjunctions are particularly useful and important as you level up your writing game in college. Often, you will be asked to compose essays or other writings on very complicated topics.

[conjunction/conjunctive adverb] : a magical combo for complicated ideas

Consider the following sentences. Which seems preferable and grammatically correct?

1. In J. Alabaster’s influential 1933 article on the merits of vaccination in early childhood, he presents several case studies as evidence. He was dismissed in his time.
2. In J. Alabaster’s ultimately influential 1933 article on the merits of vaccination in early childhood, he presents several case studies as evidence, however he was dismissed in his time.
3. In J. Alabaster’s ultimately influential 1933 article on the merits of vaccination in early childhood, he presents several case studies as evidence; however, he was dismissed in his time.
4. In J. Alabaster’s ultimately influential 1933 article on the merits of vaccination in early childhood, he presents several case studies as evidence. However, he was dismissed in his time.

3 is both preferable and grammatically correct: In J. Alabaster’s ultimately influential 1933 article on the merits of vaccination in early childhood, he presents several case studies as evidence; however, he was dismissed in his time.

Here’s another example:

Eisen and Roberts report that fresh produce distribution and sales in urban areas have continued to decline since 2019; therefore, it can be inferred that communities in urban areas are likely consuming fewer fresh vegetables and fruit.

Punctuation Reminders

Colons (:)—the first phrase must be an independent clause; the clause after the colon can be anything. Colons can be a great way to introduce quotations or start a list.

Independent clause : dependent clause/no clause/independent clause/a single word (almost anything)

Examples

1. Reyes expands on the concept of intersectionality: “Intersectionality is not just a collection of identities…
2. These changes need to occur incrementally in the following areas: public education, media at large as well as media representation, policy making, and linguistics.

Semi-colons (;)--the phrases/words on each side of the colon must be independent clauses.

Independent clause ; independent clause

Commas (,)--Commas can be used in a variety of scenarios and you may use several in one sentence, but they cannot be used in this situation:

Independent clause, independent clause. This is a comma splice.