“Eats, shoots & leaves” shows how varying punctuation can change the meaning
of your writing. Does it refer to an animal eating shoots and leaves or.
Conventions Writing conventions make for consistency. Readers notice irregularities and react negatively to writing which flouts the basic conventions of grammar and spelling. Readers expect these conventions to be followed, because they make reading and comprehension easier for them. Assuming you are using Word as your word processor, grammar and spell checkers are switched on by default and will alert you to possible irregularities with green and red underlining respectively. This is very useful because you can see the problem as you are writing and change it, as required. The conventions covered in this section are punctuation, voice, spelling, and the use of abbreviations, acronyms and numbers.
Punctuation Punctuation is important. Text is difficult to read without punctuation but too much punctuation also makes reading difficult. Remember that varying punctuation can change the meaning of your writing. The main punctuation marks are: Apostrophe. An apostrophe is placed before or after an “s” at the end of a word to show possession of something. The apostrophe goes before the “s” for a singular word or name and after the “s” for a plural word, for example Brunel’s design for the Clifton suspension bridge won the judges’ support. Colon. The colon introduces a list. The common punctuation marks are: apostrophe, colon, comma, dash, full stop and semi-colon. Comma. These are used to break up sentences, so that the reader can understand them more readily. If you are using Word as your word processor, the grammar checker will always expect a subordinate clause starting with which to be preceded by a comma, as in the following sentence. The final year project dissertation, which was awarded the best marks, had excellent punctuation. Dash. The dash introduces an explanation or amplification of something that has been mentioned in the previous part of the sentence – it is best used sparingly. Full stop. A full stop indicates the end of a sentence, as do exclamation marks and question marks. Semi-colon. A semi-colon indicates a pause in a sentence, which is longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop.
“Eats, shoots & leaves” shows how varying punctuation can change the meaning of your writing. Does it refer to an animal eating shoots and leaves or somebody eating, shooting and leaving? It is the title of an excellent book on punctuation by Truss (2003). A few books focus on punctuation, but there are also many books on writing, which include a chapter on punctuation or perhaps a chapter on punctuation and sentences or spelling. These books usually contain plenty of helpful examples of how punctuation marks are used. Examples of such books are: Field 2003; Gowers 1987; Peck 1999; Turabian 1996; and Van Emden 1998.
Active and Passive Voices In the active voice, the subject does the action, whilst in the passive voice the subject suffers the action. Examples of the two voices are: Active voice Passive voice
The student wrote an essay. An essay was written by the student.
The passive past tense is conventional for reporting experiments in science and engineering, because it is supposed to distance the author from the subject material and give the writing greater objectivity. For other writing, however, the active voice is normally preferred to the passive voice because it is easier for the reader to understand. By using the passive past tense for reporting experiments, scientists and engineers avoid using the personal pronouns, I and we. These personal pronouns may be used in other academic writing but normally they should only be used sparingly, so that the writing does not appear too subjective. Writers outside science and engineering may occasionally use the personal pronoun, I, either to tell the reader how the text will be proceeding (I shall explain ...) or to distinguish the author's view from the opinions of others. Taylor (1989:144) discusses in further detail the circumstances in which social scientists may use personal pronouns.
Spelling A word processor’s spell checker is a very useful facility. It will identify spelling errors as you are writing and suggest alternatives. It is a fast, efficient way of checking spelling and it may help you learn the spellings of some words. The standard spell checker, however, is not infallible. It excludes specialised technical vocabulary, though you can add individual words and thereby increase its coverage. Also it does not detect a spelling mistake, if it happens to spell another word. So you should look out for problem words, which have the same or similar sounds but different spellings, for example: advice (noun) born (given birth to) breath (noun) complement (add to complete)
advise (verb) borne (carried) breathe (verb) compliment (praise)
counsel (advise) device (noun) effect (noun) its (possessive) led (past participle) licence (noun) lose (opposite of find) practice (noun) principal (head) stationary (not moving)
council (assembly) devise (verb) affect (verb) it's (contraction of it is) lead (metal) license (verb) loose (let go) practise (verb) principle (moral rule) stationery (writing materials)
There are some words where alternative spellings are acceptable. Examples include words ending in “ise” or “ize”, such as organise/ize and sterilise/ize, and some words, which can be used with or without a hyphen, such as email/email. With these words it is important to be consistent. If you use the spelling organise, then you should also use the spellings: characterise, hybridise, realise and prioritise. The University’s preferred ending for all such words is “ise” (Brunel University 2004:28). Many people react negatively to spelling mistakes and inconsistencies. They notice them quickly, think that they indicate carelessness, and then lose interest in the document. If you want your writing to be read and taken seriously, it is sensible to pay careful attention to spelling.
Abbreviations and Acronyms Abbreviations such as e.g., etc. and % should be avoided in the main body of text of a thesis, but they are acceptable in a bibliography, footnotes and table. In a dissertation or thesis, contractions should be written in full. For example, you should use “do not” instead of don't, “is not” instead of isn't, and “it is” instead of it's. Acronyms are fine, but unless it is very common, the full version should be given the first time to help the reader. Some examples are: International Standard Book Number (ISBN) World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) BBC, DNA, NATO
Numbers Numbers at the beginning of sentences, round numbers and numbers up to ten should be spelt in full. On the other hand, the following should be expressed as numbers: numbers greater than ten sequences decimals negative numbers
21 5, 17, 34, 56 2.3 -1
page, table and figure numbers years money
p.7 1900 £7.00
If you are comparing two numbers, one less than ten and the other greater than ten, both should be written as numbers.
