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How to avoid jargon

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how to recognise and avoid using jargon terms

What is jargon?

Jargon is defined as ‘the specialized language or the technical vocabulary of a profession or group’.

Jargon terms act as a sort of shorthand between one person and another in their group. Special terms eliminate the need for lengthy explanations – because both parties to the communication understand what the terms mean

For instance a solicitor might use a term such as probate, The word ‘probate’ means ‘the legal process of administering the estate of a deceased person by resolving all claims and distributing the deceased person’s property under a valid will’.

Most people probably wouldn’t know what the term probate means, but two solicitors can use one word instead of twenty-five in their dealings with each other.

Jargon exists in all groups and occupations – from carpenters to brain surgeons, and from printers to astronauts. The most important thing is that jargon terms should only be used when communicating with people in the same group.

The problem of jargon

Jargon becomes a problem when it is used by specialists communicating with non-specialists – such as the general public. This is how the term jargon has come to acquire such a negative sense.

Here is an example, taken from a letter sent from the government Revenue (the tax office) to an ordinary member of the public.

The basis of assessment for Schedule D Case I and II, other than commencement and cessation, is what is termed a previous year basis.

There is no way an ordinary person could know what Schedule D Case I and II actually means, and at the end of the ‘explanation’ the term previous year basis is still completely obscure.

The person writing this letter has used specialist terms (jargon) which most ordinary people will not understand. That is bad manners and poor communication. It also illustrates another negative feature of jargon, which is that some people use it in order to maintain positions of influence or power. They exclude other people from the group to which they belong by using language which will not be understood.

Teenagers do the same thing when they invent their own slang and jargon terms in order to exclude parents and teachers.

Acceptable uses of jargon

It is perfectly reasonable to use jargon when discussing the technical aspect of a subject with a fellow specialist. The following are all examples of specialist, technical language

Law probate, conveyance, intestate
Computing download, Megabyte, serial port
Engineering sprocket, crankshaft, centrifuge
Gardening mulch, perennial, phlox

There is nothing wrong when jargon is used amongst members of the same group. It often acts as a sort of shorthand, which eliminates the need for lengthy explanations. For instance, the foreman in a garage does not need to write on a mechanic’s worksheet:

Please regulate the device which provides a constant supply of petrol to the inlet manifold of the engine.

He uses jargon and simply writes ‘Adjust the carburettor’ – or even ‘Fix the carb’. Both the foreman and the mechanic know what a ‘carburettor’ – and that ‘carb’ is a shortened form of the word.

How jargon abuse happens

Jargon becomes abusive when it is used by people to inflate the importance of what they are doing or when trying to appear impressive for dubious reasons.

For instances if a town council advertises for Environmental recycling engineers when the job is actually emptying dustbins, they are creating a form of bureaucratic jargon – at the same time as trying to glamourise a fairly humble job.

Sometimes a technical term might pass into common use – such as the salary paid for a particular job. Jargon abuse occurs again when the finance or the human resources department refers to this as a personal remuneration package.

It is abusive for two reasons. First, three unnecessarily complex words are used where one short and simple word will do. And second, the three words actually obscure the thing being described – which is how much the applicant will get paid for doing the job.

How to avoid jargon

The simplest way to avoid using jargon is to keep two things in mind whilst speaking or writing:

  • your audience – the people with whom you are communicating
  • your vocabulary – the terms you use to convey your message

If your audience is the general public, you should avoid using any specialised or technical terms. All the terms you use should be plain and simple which most people will be able to understand. The following example shows the difference between a statement made in technical and non-technical form:

Technical — Chlorophyll makes food by photosynthesis.

Non-technical — Green leaves build up food with the aid of light.

Both of these statements are valid. Using them in the appropriate context is the main issue.

Only use the specialised terms of your subject if you are quite sure of their meaning. Never use jargon to show off or impress your reader. It is likely to create the opposite effect.

Do not use a jargon term where perfectly ordinary terms will be just as effective. There is not much virtue in using terms such as aerated beverages instead of fizzy drinks. These simply cause disruptions in tone and create a weak style.

Jargon abuse is a form of bad manners in writing, and it often goes along with bureaucratic over-complications. For this reason, another good way to avoid jargon is to write in short, clear sentences. If you put a limit of (say) twenty words on the length of a sentence, it will help you to express your ideas clearly.

Acronyms

An acronym is an abbreviation created from the initial letters of a phrase or title – such as BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation.

Some are very well known, such as NATO, IBM, and AGM – but they become jargon when the original expression or name is not well known. A general reader cannot be expected to know that CASM means Community Action Selection Meeting.

The golden rule with acronyms is that names and titles should be spelled out in full the first time they are used – like this:

The committee elected four new members to the Corporate Affairs Steering Group (CASG) who will report immediately before the annual general meeting (AGM) at the end of July.

Use acronyms as little as possible, and only if they are convenient for your readers. You should use full words – Vice President, not VP – and use a shortened word form – each camera, not each CCTV unit.

Red button More on acronyms

Jargon buster

Jargon circulates so widely that certain terms actually become fashionable. They are then classed as buzzwords and are used almost as a substitute for clear thinking and expression.

This practice seem to be particularly widespread in local government, business management, advertising, marketing, political parties, and the military.

Here are some examples. You will notice that these terms overlap with the realms of cliché, inflation, pretentiousness, and sheer gobbledygook.

JARGON What it actually means
as it were completely meaningless filler
at this point in time now
blue sky thinking inventive, imaginative
due diligence research
economically marginalized unemployed
focussed around centred on
friendly fire killing your own troops
going forwards ongoing, in future
granularity detail
joined-up thinking logical, coherent
negative economic growth recession
outside the box imaginative
paradigm shift radical change
proactive active
re-focussing the company’s skill set firing staff
so to speak completely meaningless filler

© Roy Johnson 2012

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How to avoid plagiarism

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how to understand plagiarism – and avoid it

Plagiarism – definition

1. Plagiarism is defined as “Passing off someone else’s work as your own”.

2. It happens if you copy somebody else’s work instead of doing your own.

3. It also happens in those cases where people actually buy essays instead of doing the work themselves.

4. Schools, colleges, and universities regard this as a serious offence – and they often have stiff penalties for anyone found guilty.

5. Most people at school level call this ‘cheating’ or ‘copying’ – and they know it is wrong.

6. The problem is that at college or university, you are expected to use and write about other people’s work – so the issue of plagiarism becomes more complex.

7. There are also different types and different degrees of plagiarism – and it is often difficult to know whether you are breaking the rules or not.

8. Let’s start off by making it clear that all the following can be counted as plagiarism.

  • Copying directly from a text, word-for-word
  • Using text downloaded from the Internet
  • Paraphrasing the words of a text very closely
  • Borrowing statistics from another source or person
  • Copying from the essays or the notes of another student
  • Downloading or copying pictures, photographs, or diagrams without acknowledging your sources
  • Using an attractive phrase or sentence you have found somewhere
Why is this so complex?

9. The answer is – because in your work at college or university level you are supposed to discuss other people’s ideas. These will be expressed in the articles and books they have written. But you have to follow certain conventions.

10. Plus – at the same time – you will be asked to express your own arguments and opinions. You therefore have two tasks – and it is sometimes hard to combine them in a way which does not break the rules. Many people are not sure how much of somebody else’s work they can use.

11. Sometimes plagiarism can happen by accident, because you use an extract from someone else’s work – but you forget to show that you are quoting.

12. This is the first thing you should learn about plagiarism – and how to avoid it. Always show that you are quoting somebody else’s work by enclosing the extract in [single] quotation marks.

In 1848 there was an outbreak of revolutionary risings throughout Europe, which Marx described as ‘the first stirrings of proletarian defiance‘ in a letter to his collaborator, Frederick Engels.

13. This also sometimes happens if you are stuck for ideas, and you quote a passage from a textbook. You might think the author expresses the idea so well, that you can’t improve on it.

14. This is plagiarism – unless you say and show that you are quoting someone else’s work. Here’s how to do it:

This painting is generally considered one of his finest achievements. As John Richardson suggests: ‘In Guernica, Picasso lifts the concept of art as political propaganda to its highest level in the twentieth century‘.

Academic conventions

15. Why do colleges and universities make such a big fuss about this issue? The answer to this is that they are trying to keep up important conventions in academic writing.

16. The conventions involve two things at the same time. They are the same as your two tasks:

  • You are developing your own ideas and arguments and learning to express them.
  • You are showing that you have learned about and can use other people’s work.

17. These conventions allow you to use other people’s work to illustrate and support your own arguments – but you must be honest about it. You must show which parts are your own work, and which parts belong to somebody else.

18. You also need to show where the information comes from. This is done by using a system of footnotes or endnotes where you list details of the source of your information.

19. The conventions of referencing and citation can become very complex. If you need guidance on this issue, have a look at our detailed guidance notes on the subject. What follows is the bare bones.

20. In an essay on a novel by D.H. Lawrence for example, you might argue that his work was influenced by Thomas Hardy. You could support this claim by quoting a literary critic:

Lawrence’s characters have a close relationship with their physical environment – showing possibly the influence of Hardy, who Walter Allen points out was ‘his fundamental precursor in the English tradition‘ (1)

21. Notice that you place a number in brackets immediately after the quotation. The source of this quotation is given as a footnote at the bottom of the page, or as an endnote on a separate sheet at the end of your essay.

22. The note gives full details of the source – as follows:

Notes

1. Walter Allen, The English Novel, London: Chatto and Windus, 1964, p.243

A bad case of plagiarism

This video clip features the case of Ann Coulter. She is a best-selling American writer and social critic who has extremely right-wing views.

The film raises several plagiarism issues:

  • failure to acknowledge sources
  • failure to quote accurately
  • changing the nature of a quotation
  • misleading references (citations)
  • definitions of plagiarism
  • plagiarism detection software
  • legitimate quotation

Do’s and Don’ts

23. You should avoid composing an essay by stringing together accounts of other people’s work. This occurs when an essay is written in this form:

Critic X says that this idea is ‘ … long quotation …‘, whereas Commentator Y’s opinion is that this idea is ‘ … long quotation …‘, and Critic Z disagrees completely, saying that the idea is ‘ … long quotation …‘.

24. This is very close to plagiarism, because even though you are naming the critics and showing that you are quoting them – there is nothing of your own argument being offered here.

25. If you are stuck for ideas, don’t be tempted to copy long passages from other people’s work. The reason is – it’s really easy to spot. Your tutor will notice the difference in style straight away.

Copyright and plagiarism

26. Copyright can be quite a complex issue – but basically it means the ‘right to copy’ a piece of work. This right belongs to the author of the work – the person who writes it – or a publisher.

27. When a piece of writing is published in a book or on the Web, you can read it as much as you wish – but the right to copy it belongs to the author or the author’s publisher.

28. Nobody will worry if you quote a few words, or a few lines. This is regarded as what is called ‘fair use’. People in the world of education realise that because quotation is so much a part of academic writing, it would be ridiculous to insist that you should seek permission to quote every few words.

29. In fact there is an unwritten convention that you can quote up to 5% of a work without seeking permission. If this was from a very long work however, you would still be wise to seek permission.

30. This permission is only for your own personal study purposes – as part of your course work or an assignment. If you wished to use the materials for any other purpose, you would need to seek permission.

31. Copyright also extends beyond writing to include diagrams, maps, drawings, photographs, and other forms of graphic presentation. In some cases it can even include the layout of a document.

The Johann Hari case

A recent case which has drawn attention to subtle forms of plagiarism is that of British journalist Johann Hari. He writes articles and conducts interviews for The Independent newspaper. It was revealed that in many articles (and particularly his interviews) he had inserted quotations from the previous writings of the interviewee, or from interviews written by other journalists. In both cases the quotations were unacknowledged. .

He was criticised in particular for creating the impression that the words had been used in his own face-to-face interviews by sewing together the quotations with apparently on-the-spot dramatic context – as in “puffing nervously on a cigarette, she admitted to me that …” and that sort of thing.

When it was revealed that his prime quotations were lifted from written sources up to five years old, Hari was forced to issue an apology. He claimed that interviewees were sometimes less articulate in speech writing than in writing, and that he merely wanted to present their arguments in the best light.

This feeble ‘explanation’ ignores three of the principal issues in plagiarism. He did not produce his own paraphrases of the interviewee’s ideas, but used their words from other sources. He went out of his way to conceal his sources and create the entirely bogus impression of a first-hand interview. (Some people have wondered if his interviews actually took place.) And he used the work of other journalist, from work they had published previously, without acknowledgement.

So how exactly was Hari guilty of plagiarism?

  • He quoted other people’s words as if they were his own.
  • He didn’t acknowledge his sources.
  • He concealed the cut and paste origins of his composition.

A number of his essays and interviews have been analysed, and he has been shown to be guilty of systematic plagiarism. The majority of Internet comments point to the fact that he acted unprofessionally. All his previous work was scrutinised, and it has been suggested that he return the 2008 George Orwell Prize that he was awarded for distinguished reporting.

He began to edit his personal Wikipedia entry, inserting flattering comments on his own work and abilities. But to make matters doubly worse, he then resorted to something even more underhand. Using a false identity (‘David Rose’) he began making pejorative edits to the Wikipedia entries of anybody who had criticised him. When challenged, he denied all this, but was eventually forced to admit the truth and apologise.

Guido Fawkes on the Hari issue and here

Detailed analysis of Hari’s plagiarism

Plagiarism and the Web

32. The World Wide Web has made millions and millions of pages of information available to anybody with access to the Internet. But even though this appears to be ‘free’ – copyright restrictions still apply. If someone writes and publishes a Web page, the copyright belongs to that person.

33. If you wish to use material you have located on the Web, you should acknowledge your sources in the same way that you would material quoted from a printed book.

34. Keep in mind too that information on a Web page might have been put there by someone who does not hold copyright to it.

What follows is the rather strictly-worded code on plagiarism from a typical university handbook.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the theft or appropriation of someone else’s work without proper acknowledgement, presenting the materials as if they were one’s own. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and the consequences are severe.

a) Course work, dissertations, and essays submitted for assessment must be the student’s own work, unless in the case of group projects a joint effort is expected and indicated as such.

b) Unacknowledged direct copying from the work of another person, or the unacknowledged close paraphrasing of somebody else’s work, is called plagiarism and is a serious offence, equated with cheating in examinations. This applies to copying both from other student’s work and from published sources such as books, reports or journal articles.

c) Use of quotations or data from the work of others is entirely acceptable, and is often very valuable provided that the source of the quotation or data is given. Failure to provide a source or put quotation marks around material that is taken from elsewhere gives the appearance that the comments are ostensibly one’s own. When quoting word-for-word from the work of another person quotation marks or indenting (setting the quotation in from the margin) must be used and the source of the quoted material must be acknowledged.

d) Paraphrasing when the original statement is still identifiable and has no acknowledgement, is plagiarism. A close paraphrase of another person’s work must have an acknowledgement to the source. It is not acceptable to put together unacknowledged passages from the same or from different sources link these together with a few words or sentences of your own and changing a few words from the original text: this is regarded as over-dependence on other sources, which is a form of plagiarism.

e) Direct quotation from an earlier piece of the student’s own work, if unattributed, suggests that the work is original, when in fact it is not. The direct copying of one’s own writings qualifies as plagiarism if the fact that the work has been or is to be presented elsewhere is not acknowledged.

f) Sources of quotations used should be listed in full in a bibliography at the end of the piece of work and in a style required by the student’s department.

g) Plagiarism is a serious offence and will always result in imposition of a penalty. In deciding upon the penalty the University will take into account factors such as the year of study, the extent and proportion of the work that has been plagiarised and the apparent intent of the student. the penalties that can be imposed range from a minimum of zero mark for the work (without allowing resubmission) through to downgrading of degree class, the award of a lesser qualification (eg a Pass degree rather than Honours, a certificate rather than a diploma) to disciplinary measures such as suspension or expulsion.

Quoted with the permission of Manchester University

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to buy books for a penny

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conrad_nostromo_2find bargains at online bookshops

I’ve bought several books for a penny each in the last couple of weeks at Amazon. Yes – that’s one penny. And they were not tatty old paperbacks, but hardback reference works of 400 pages plus, in tip top condition, plus a couple of classic novels.

There are several factors that create this state of affairs:

  • new books drive down the value of old books
  • book sales are dropping in global terms
  • more people are buying eBooks
  • eCommerce is changing business practices
What type of books for a penny?

There are lots of junk books for a penny available – as you would expect. But there are just as many that have real intrinsic value in the hands of the right person:

  • dictionaries
  • reference books
  • classic novels
  • out of date text books
  • software and IT manuals

A copy of the classic reference book Whitaker’s Almanack for instance contains lots of valuable information, even if it’s a few years out of date.

You can bet that the capital city, the geography, and the principal imports and exports of Tasmania have not changed much in the last two or three years.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice hasn’t changed at all since it was first published nearly two hundred years ago. So you can safely buy a copy that happens to be fifty years old – especially if it’s a nice hardback edition, printed on good paper.

Say you were a student of mathematics. A textbook explaining algebra, geometry, or calculus can’t really be ‘out of date’ – because the rules and equations in maths are fixed as part of their very nature.

In the world of computer technology, developments are so rapid that both software and hardware are updated every few weeks. A guidance manual to a digital camera, an operating system, or a laptop computer has almost zero value after about twelve months. But it might be useful to you if it matches the age of your equipment.

Why do books for a penny exist?

Theese bargain books are available for two good reasons:

Reason one
The bookseller wants to get rid of books that aren’t selling and are taking up valuable storage space.

This makes room for books that are more popular and will make more money in terms of sales.

Reason two

The bookseller is getting valuable information in return for the sale – your name, postal address, email address, and your reading preferences.

The bookseller can make use of this information in any future marketing campaigns.

Hardback Vs paperback

Check the book descriptions carefully. You might find a hardback edition available for the same price as a paperback. Old paperbacks tend to disintegrate, and a hardback edition will be more durable, even if it is much older

A hardback might also have additional features – such as illustrations, photographs, and maps.

How to interpret descriptions

Here is a typical description from a bookseller’s advert – and on some sites you might get a photograph of the book as well.

Ex-Library Book. Has usual library markings and stamps inside. Has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.

  • Ex-Library book – That’s OK: libraries often laminate their books, to make them more durable. The book might have tickets and coloured stamp markings inside.
  • Pages and cover inteact – Good. That means it’s in reasonable external condition.
  • Spine wear – That is perfectly normal on an old book.
  • Despatched within one day – Good! Order it in the morning: you might receive it next day.
  • Charity donation – You are helping a charity, and saving a book which would otherwise be pulped.
  • Money-back guarrantee – You can trust them to honour their promise – for reasons discussed below.

If you want to go into further detail, have a look at our guidance notes on bookseller jargon.

Can you trust the seller?

Almost all bookseller want to gain reputations for good service and prompt delivery. Amazon and AbeBooks have ratings systems in place. Customers can award good (or bad) marks to the online bookseller.

Believe me – these booksellers are very, very keen to keep their ratings as high as possible. They know that if they send you shoddy goods that are badly wrapped, they will lose credibility,

Postage

Of course, you’ve got to pay the postage for these books to be delivered to your front door. But with an average charge of £2.50 (or $4.00 – €3.00) ask yourself if it would cost you that much to travel to your nearest big bookshop.

You might have to wait two or three days (in the UK) for the book to arrive – but in some cases if you order early in the morning, it’s possible that the book could arrive next day.

However, some online booksellers have free delivery options.

Examples of books for a penny

I ran a test and came up with the following examples. All were available for one penny.

These are the original book reviews on this site. Click through to Amazon, When you get there, be prepared to do a bit of clicking around.

books for a penny Roget’s Thesaurus [Reference – hardback]

books for a penny Portrait of a Marriage [Biography – hardback]

books for a penny Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable [Reference – hardback]

books for a penny iPhone UK The Missing Manual [Guidance manual – paperback]

books for a penny Style: ten lessons in clarity and grace [Style guide – paperback]

© Roy Johnson 2013

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How to choose a dictionary

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from pocket-size to the world’s largest reference

Dictionaries can be something of a personal matter. People become very attached to their favourite amongst the most-used of all reference books. However, a few guidelines on how to choose a dictionary can easily be established. The first thing to understand is that they are not all the same. They have their own characters and peculiarities, and they are created for different users.

How to choose a dictionary - Oxford MinidictionaryLet’s start with the question of size. The smallest dictionaries, which you really can fit into your pocket, are only suitable for a quick check of spelling and meaning in most commonly used words. These are mini-books the size of cigarette packets, which often end up in your desk drawer. The Oxford English Minidictionary manages to pack 40,000 entries and 50,000 definitions into a miraculously small space – and throws in a few extra pages which offer solutions to common problems. Keep this in your briefcase, or take it along to the pub quiz, but for serious work you’ll need something bigger.

 

How to choose a dictionary - The Little Oxford Dictionary The Little Oxford Dictionary is the next size up. This is a more serious attempt to be useful, with 51,000 entries and supplementary information on each word, including how it should be pronounced. It also includes occasional panels of advice on grammar and good usage, plus a supplement of words which have come into the language during the 1990s. This is one for the desktop or your briefcase, and probably the smallest you can go if you are going to consult a dictionary regularly.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Pocket DictionaryCollins offer an alternative to the Oxford domination of the dictionary market. Their books are popular because they generally make clear page layout a priority. The Collins Pocket Dictionary contains 44,500 definitions, plus advice on grammar and common problems. It claims to be ‘in colour’ – but all this turns out to mean is that headwords and their variants are printed in red – which makes the pages look as if they’ve got measles.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Heineman DictionaryAmongst the ‘portables’, the Heinemann English Dictionary is specially designed for use in schools. Not only is each entry very clearly presented, but parts of speech are spelt out in full, not abbreviated as is usual in dictionaries. Pronunciation is explained, and there are pull-out boxes with gems of etymology on certain words. It has been created with the UK National Curriculum in mind – and has proved to be popular as a reference for the classroom.

 

How to choose a dictionary - New Oxford DictionaryThe New Oxford Dictionary focuses on English as it is really used in the late 20th century. Compiled after in-depth analysis of computerized databases of current English, this dictionary is the first to base its coverage on the evidence of real English. A rapid-reference page design separates out parts of speech, word histories, and phrases. The most modern meaning of each word, as used by the majority of people, is placed first within each entry. Contemporary rules are given on question of usage, providing relevant advice on problems old and new. Word history notes explain the linguistic roots of words and tell the story of how a word’s meaning and form have changed over time. Modern pronunciations are also given, using the internationally recognized system.

If you are buying a dictionary for serious use, paperbacks can be a false economy. Very often, hardback editions only cost slightly more – and they will last you a lifetime. Treat yourself!

How to choose a dictionary - Chambers DictionaryIt’s official! The word techie – a devotee of technology – has made it into the Chambers Dictionary. And there are a slew of other net-specific words too, including netiquette, browsing, applet, spam, cybersex and cybercafé. It just goes to show how the world of computing and electronic communications has advanced and changed our world. Of course, there are also those other little things that have become part of our lives: Prozac, sound bite, cellulite…

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Millenium DictionaryCollins dictionaries have always scored well on contemporary relevance and accessibility. The latest ‘Millennium’ edition of the Collins English Dictionary has increased the previous content by twenty percent, and there are useful guiding headers at the top of the pages, and the headword entries are printed in a no-nonsense non-serif font which I find unexpectedly easy to read. Besides answering the questions usual to dictionaries there are many encyclopedic entries which make this a valuable work of general reference. It also carries notes on language use which might be studied by those who think they speak English correctly.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Dictionary and ThesaurusCollins also have on offer a ‘two-books-in-one’ Dictionary and Thesaurus. This carries 71,000 entries, plus a quarter of a million synonyms. Normal dictionary entries appear in the top half of each page, whilst the bottom half presents lists of synonyms and antonyms. This is a simple but very effective device which encourages browsing and learning about language. A useful choice if you need to combine two sources of reference in one.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Concise Oxford DictionaryThe most popular of the one-volume desktop dictionaries is the Concise Oxford Dictionary. This contains explanations, pronunciation, and the etymology of over 40,000 headwords. It also adds notes on any disputed or controversial terms, and includes American spellings. This is a great favourite with writers and students, and a basic minimum for a civilized library. If you can only afford one dictionary – make it this one.

 

How to choose a dictionary - EncartaIf you want an illustrated dictionary, Encarta has recently been released as one volume – to some acclaim. It represents both the diversity of English as a language spoken around the world, and an attempt to capture up-to-date usage. If you want a picture of an aardvark and details of zygotes – Encarta has them. It offers variant spellings, meanings, and pronunciations in more than 100,000 entries comprising some 3.5 million words. If, for example, your Asian correspondent asks you for your biodata, you can quickly and painlessly learn that she needs your curriculum vitae. There are more than 3,000 black-and-white illustrations and 10,000 biographical and geographical entries. This is Microsoft making good use of its linguistic database.

 

How to choose a dictionary - New Shorter Oxford DictionaryMoving towards the heavier, more serious resources for writers, students, and teachers who want the sort of books in their homes which are normally only available in libraries, the New Shorter Oxford is a firm favourite. It’s big, comprehensive, and scholarly, and is based on the monumental Oxford English Dictionary. All entries have been re-written to reflect contemporary usage. This is one which should be considered as a minimum for serious writers and researchers. It comes in two handsomely-produced volumes, which are a sound investment. Its also just been re-issued in a Oxford’s new easy-to-read format.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Compact Oxford English DictionaryThe Compact OED [an accurate but amazingly misleading title] is just about as far as you would need to go without being a library acquisitions officer or a professional lexicographer. It’s a two-volume version of the complete OED – but photo-reduced, so that the text is laid out in a font size of about six points. The volumes are issued as a cased set with a magnifying glass – and you’ll need it. But here’s the good news. It works. So you save on storage space, yet have access to the contents of the twenty volume version. I picked one up second hand, and use it all the time.

 

How to choose a dictionary - The Oxford English Dictionary CompleteOf course when we get to the biggest and best dictionary of the English Language, and a towering monument of bibliographic scholarship – then it’s the complete Oxford English Dictionary. This is now twenty printed volumes and had become rather expensive to produce. There are the two options available. You can have the convenience, speed, and reliability of the whole database on a single disk. Keep it in your D: drive and the world’s biggest lexical resource can be summoned with a mouse-click. The alternative is to subscribe to the online version, which will be permanently updated. It’s worth noting that the OED editors have decided to adopt an all-inclusive policy. New English, slang, jargon, and even obscenities are all listed.

© Roy Johnson 2009

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How to cite electronic sources

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academic conventions for the digital age

Referencing

1. More and more data is now stored electronically in a variety of forms.

2. When quoting, your sources may be in some digital form.

3. The information might be stored in different types of location.

4. Many of these locations are known as Internet ‘sites’ or ‘addresses’.

5. The sources you are most likely to encounter are as follows:

  • FTP site
  • Web site
  • Newsgroup
  • CD-ROM
  • E-mail

Accuracy

1. Details of addresses should be recorded with complete accuracy.

2. All use of capital and lower case letters must be respected.

3. All punctuation must be recorded exactly as given.

4. No punctuation should be added.

5. For instance, don’t put a full stop at the end of an address:

https://mantex.co.uk – not – https://mantex.co.uk.

6. Typographic symbols (#,@,!,~) should be incorporated accurately.

7. You should also include a record of the date the site was visited.

8. Electronic documents may easily be updated at any time.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Sites

1. When giving reference to sources located via FTP, you should provide the following information. The electronic ‘address’ of the document is enclosed in angle brackets (which are optional).

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the date of publication (if available)
  • the abbreviation ftp
  • the address of the ftp site, with no closing punctuation
  • the full path to the paper, with no closing punctuation
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Bruckman, Amy. “Approaches to Managing Deviant Behavior in Virtual
Communities.”

<ftp://ftp.media.mit.edu/pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi-94>
(4 Dec. 1994).

World Wide Web (WWW) Sites

1. To cite files available for viewing or downloading via the World Wide Web by means of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or other Web browsers, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the title of the complete work if applicable in italics
  • the date of publication or last revision (if available)
  • the full http address (URL) enclosed within angle brackets
  • the date of visit in parentheses

[ HTTP = HyperText Transfer Protocol ]
[ URL = Uniform Resource Locator ]

Example:

Burka, Lauren P. “A Hypertext History of Multi-User Dimensions.”
MUD History. 1993.
<http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/1pb/mud-history.html>
(5 Dec. 1994).

Newsgroup (USENET) messages

1. When citing information posted by participants in newgroup discussions, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the author’s e-mail address, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the subject line from the posting in quotation marks
  • the date of publication
  • the name of the newsgroup, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Slade, Robert. <res@maths.bath.ac.uk> “UNIX Made Easy.”
26 Mar. 1996. <alt.books.reviews> (31 Mar. 1996).

E-mail messages

1. When citing electronic mail correspondence, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name
  • the author’s e-mail address, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the subject line from the posting in quotation marks
  • the date of publication
  • the kind of communication
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Franke, Norman. <franke1@llnl.gov> “SoundApp 2.0.2.” 29 Apr. 1996. Personal e-mail. (3 May 1996).

CD-ROM disk

1. When citing information located on a CD-ROM disk, the source is treated as if it were a normal (print) publication, and you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the full title of the CD-ROM
  • the publisher
  • the date of publication (if available)

Example:

Norman Higginbottam, “The Sounds of Muzak”, Beethoven Revisited,
Digital Resources, 1996.

Details gratefully quoted and adapted with permission from Andrew Harnack and Gene Kleppinger, online! a reference guide to using internet sources, St Martin’s Press, 1997.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to create a bibliography

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the basic conventions for academic writing

1. bibliographyAt the end of any scholarly writing (an essay, report, or dissertation) you should offer a list of any works you have consulted or from which you have quoted. This list is called a bibliography – literally, a list of books or sources.

2. The traditional way of showing this information is to use the following sequence:

Author – Title – Publisher – Date

Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

3. In some cases, you might be expected to present this information with the author’s surname listed first – as follows:

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.

4. If you are using the Harvard system of notation, the date follows the author’s name – thus:

Eagleton, T. (1983), Literary Theory, Oxford: Blackwell

5. Notice that book titles are shown in italics.

6. If you are using a ‘standard’ text, give the editor’s name first, as in the following examples:

Mark Amory (ed), The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980.

Frank Kermode (ed), The Tempest, Methuen, 1954.

7. List the items of a bibliography in alphabetical order according to author’s or the editor’s surname.

8. Don’t list works you have not consulted or from which you have not quoted. Doing this creates the impression that you are trying to claim credit for work you have not actually done.

9. You might find that your bibliography repeats much of the information given in your endnotes or footnotes. Don’t worry about this: these two separate lists have different functions. In addition, your bibliography may contain works from which you have not directly quoted.

10. Here’s an extract from the bibliography of a second year undergraduate essay on the sociology of domestic labour:

Bibliography

Beeton, I., Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press, 1991.

Best, G., Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana, 1979.

Branca, P., Silent Sisterhood, Croom Helm, 1975.

Burman, S. (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm, 1979.

Burnett, J., Useful Toil, Allen Lane, 1974.

Darwin, E., ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28, August 1890.

Davidoff, L., The Best Circles, Croom Helm, 1973.

Davidoff, L., ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Economic and Social History, Vol.7, 1974.

The Harvard System

11. Some subjects adopt the Author-Date method of referencing – which is also known as the Harvard System. Full details of the texts you have quoted are placed in the bibliography in the following order:

Author – Date – Title – Place – Publisher

Smith, John. (1988) The Weavers’ Revolt, Chicago, Blackbarrow Press.

12. The list of texts which appears at the end of your essay should be arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s surname. The list differs from a traditional bibliography in that the date of publication follows the author’s name.

So – the same bibliography shown above would appear as follows in Harvard style:

Bibliography

Beeton, I. 1991 Beeton’s Book of Household Management, Chancellor Press.

Best, G. 1979 Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana.

Burman, S. 1979 (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm.

Darwin, E. 1890 ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28, August.

Davidoff, L. 1973 The Best Circles, Croom Helm.

Davidoff, L. 1974 ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian and Edwardian England’, Journal of Social History, Vol.7.

Davidoff, L. 1987 and Hall, C., Family Fortunes, Hutchinson.

[…and so on]

bibliography Full details of Harvard style referencing.

© Roy Johnson 2009

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How to create good page layout

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basic principles of effective page design

Good Page LayoutGood page layout
More and more people today are using computers for essay and project writing. The advantages for improved presentation are dramatic. Once most people have started to enjoy the facilities computers offer for editing, rewriting, and presentation, they often wonder how they ever managed without them. Typewriters become a thing of the past.

Editing
The main advantage of the computer is that you can rewrite and edit what you produce. You might start out with just a sketchy outline, but you can add extra examples, delete mistakes, and move paragraphs around. You can build up to the finished product in as many stages as you wish.

First drafts
At first you might want to carry on producing the first draft of your work in hand-written form. You type it into the computer’s memory or onto disk. Then you can edit what you have produced, either on screen or by printing out your document. This is quite common for beginners. Most people abandon the handwriting stage in a gradual manner.

On-screen editing
At first, you will probably want to see what you have written printed out as soon as possible. As you gain experience however, you will probably edit on screen and only print out the finished version of your work. WYSIWYG word-processors (What You See Is What You Get) allow you to see on screen what the finished document will look like.

Presentation
The most important element of presentation is the layout of the page. No matter what the content of your work, it will look better if is given plenty of space in which to ‘breathe’. You should leave plenty of blank space around what you write. Do not attempt to cram the maximum amount of text onto each page. If you are using any sort of pictures, tables or visually quoted material, let it stand well clear of the text.

Margins
Learn how to set generously wide margins. One inch minimum at the top and bottom of the page is normal. One inch or more at each side. If your work is going to be presented in a folder or binder, you should also allow at least 0.25″ ‘binding offset’ (also called a ‘gutter’).

Columns
If your piece of work is anything like a newsletter, a magazine, or a popular report, you might wish to use multi-column layout. On A4-sized paper, two columns will probably be appropriate, but you might choose three if you reduce the size of the left and right margins. If you find working in columns difficult, prepare your text separately first. Your final task will then simply be one of laying out the page.

Line spacing
The computer and printer will produce your work very neatly, but will probably do so by using single line spacing. Even though you are likely to be pleased by the neatness, learn how to set for one-and-a-half or double line spacing. This will give you more opportunity to create good layout.

Fonts
For the main text of your work, choose a font with serifs such as Times New Roman or Garamond. Avoid the use of sans-serif fonts such as Arial or Helvetica. These make continuous reading difficult. Unless your work is connected with fine arts, advertising, or graphic design, avoid using fancy display fonts (such as Poster or ShowTime) altogether: these are designed for advertising and shopfront display.

Display fonts

Fontsize
In general, the size of your chosen font should be eleven or twelve points. This will make your work easy to read, and the font will appear proportionate to its use when printed out on A4 paper. You might wish to use large font sizes of fourteen-point size for subheadings, and sixteen or eighteen point for main headings. Long quotations (where necessary) are normally set in eleven or ten-point size.

Font variety
Although you may have a wide range of fonts at your disposal, you should keep the number you use to a minimum. Two or at the very most three different fonts will be enough for most pieces of work. On this issue, graphic designers have an expression – “More is less” – which means that the greater the number of different fonts used on a document, so the less effective they become.

Justification
Most word-processors will produce your work with the text ‘fully justified’ – that is, with both left and right hand edges aligned. This will produce a neat overall impression. However, it can cause ‘rivers’ of white space to appear in the text, caused by irregular spaces between the words. You may wish to choose left-justification (like this paragraph). This will leave the right-hand edge ragged, but the spaces between the words will be regular. If in doubt, full justification usually offers more overall neatness on the page.

Indentation
If your work contains items such as numbered lists, columns of figures, or anything else which is set off from the left hand margin, always use the TAB key or the INDENT command to position the item. Never use the spacebar: this will not help you to achieve precise alignment. ‘The word-processor is not a typewriter’. Take full advantage of any facilities for indenting to regularise your presentation of quotations. Double indentation is for those longer quotations that would otherwise occupy more than two or three lines of the text in your work. Try to be consistent throughout.

Quotations
Long quotations (where necessary) should normally be set in the same font as the body of your essay. The size however may be reduced by one or two points. This draws attention to the fact that it is a quotation from a secondary source. Alternatively (and in addition) it may be set in a slightly different font – but don’t use too many different fonts.

Paragraphs
If you use double spaces between each paragraph, you do not need to indent the first line. [This is only necessary when there are no spaces between the paragraphs.] One good reason for having the double spaces, apart from its looking more attractive, is that it will help you to ‘see’ each paragraph as a separate part of your argument or discussion.

Page numbering
Learn how to switch on automatic page numbering for all your essays and projects. The numbers should normally be placed at the bottom of the page, either in the middle or in the right-hand corner. You may also place page numbers in page ‘footers’ – that is a piece of text which occurs at the bottom of every page.

Spelling
If your word-processor has a spell-checking facility, then use it before you print out your document. But remember that it is unlikely to recognise specialist terms and unusual names such as Schumacher, Derrida, or Nabokov. These will not be in the processor’s memory. You will have to check the correct spelling of these yourself, as you will any other unusual words. Remember too that a spell-checker will not make any distinction between They washed their own clothes and They washed there own clothes, because the word there is spelt correctly even though it is being used ungrammatically.

Grammar-checkers
If your word-processor has a grammar checker, use it before you finalise your document. These devices are very useful for spotting over-long sentences, awkward syntax, missing verbs, and all sorts of grammatical errors. You might find them annoying to use at first, but the best of them will offer you advice and potted lessons as well as corrections of any errors. Persist, but be careful: even machines can sometimes be wrong.

Book titles
Use the italics or the bold commands of a word processor to indicate the titles of books – but remember to be consistent throughout your document. A.J.P. Taylor’s The Origins of the Second World War is just as acceptable as Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa though the former is more usual and preferable.

Footnoting
Advanced users may well be tempted to take advantage of automatic footnoting facilities. Word-processors can certainly remove all the headaches from this procedure. However, do not clutter your text with them just for the sake of showing off your command of the technology. Numbered endnotes are much easier to use and to control.

Hyphenation
If your word-processor automatically hyphenates words at the end of a line, take care to read through the work before you make your final print-out. Eliminate any howlers such as ‘the-rapist’ and ‘thin-king’. This needs to be done with extra care if you are using newspaper columns.

Widows and orphans
In laying out your pages, avoid creating paragraphs which start on the last line of a page or which finish on the first of the next. These are called, in the jargon of word-processing, ‘Widows and Orphans’. The solution to this problem is to control the number of lines on a page so as to push the text forward. An extra-large gap at the bottom of a page looks better than an isolated single (or even double) line of text.

Titles
Titles, main headings, or essay questions may be presented in either a slightly larger font size than the body of the text. They may also be given emphasis by the use of bold. You should not use continuous capital letters in a title, heading, or question. This looks typographically ugly. Do not underline headings: this makes them more difficult to read.

Emphasis
Although many people think it is good idea, there should be no need to underline something to give it emphasis. If you have a title, heading or a question at the head of a piece of work, then a larger font, and the use of bold and double spacing will be enough to give it emphasis and importance. Underlining any text makes it harder to read.

Italics
Italics are normally used to show emphasis – when something is very important. They are also used to indicate a word of foreign origin, such as ouvrier (French – workman) or nihil (Latin – nothing). Book titles should be shown in italics – such as War and Peace. Smaller pieces of work such as stories, articles, and poems are shown by putting the title in single quotation marks. For instance, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’.

Print-preview
Use the print-preview facility to help you lay out the contents of a page before you print it. Get used to the practice of switching between draft mode and print-preview. In draft mode, you view the text in detail and you can make fine adjustments to what you have written. In print-preview, you have a one-page overview of your text. Make sure that your text is properly aligned and laid out on the page. Check the spacing of paragraphs and the appearance of your text. Ensure that your titles, subtitles, and any section headings are set at the correct fontsize and weight.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to deal with .exe files

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procedures for dealing with executable files (programs)

.exe files

.exe files These notes will help you to understand .exe files.

.exe files They tell you how to dowload them and save them.

.exe files You can print out these notes for reference.

.exe files Soon, you won’t need them any more!

1. These .exe files are information which has been compressed to take up less space.

2. They can also be downloaded and extracted without the unzipping process.

3. The really good news is – they unzip themselves!

4. You download them in the same way as any other file.

5. See downloading instructions for details.

6. Go to the Internet site and download your .exe file.

7. A dialogue box will ask you if you wish to save the .exe file into a directory.

7. Don’t worry about this process. You can remove or delete anything later if you change your mind.

8. For instance, you might be asked to download file filename.exe into the suggested directory [or folder]:

C:FOLDERfilename.exe

9. If a dialogue box pops up and asks – ‘Create directory C:FOLDER ?’ – you should say ‘Yes’.

10. This puts the file filename.exe which you want to download into a directory called FOLDER.

11. This directory is created automatically on your hard disk.

12. You can give it another name if you wish:

C:MYSTUFFfilename.exe

13. Remember – you can delete it all later if you wish.

14. Now you can log off the Internet if you are on a dialup connection.

15. Go to your Windows file manager. This is ‘Windows Explorer’ in Win95 and later. [Not to be confused with Internet Explorer.]

16. Locate the directory FOLDER which has been created.

17. The file filename.exe will be in the directory.

18. Double-click on the file. This activates it.

19. Another dialogue box comes up, asking where you wish to place the file.

20. You could type C:MYSTUFF or C:TEMP

22. Choose your directory, say OK, and the file will be unzipped into the place you choose.

23. Voila! It all happens automatically – and very quickly.

24. You can now open the file which has extracted itself.

25. Do this by double-clicking on it.

25. These files will be automatically opened by the following programs:

.txt files – Windows Notepad

.doc files – Microsoft Word

.htm files – Firefox or Internet Explorer

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to download files

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what to do when you are asked to download a file

Download files

Stage one

1. Click on the item you wish to download.

2. If you choose an .htm file, you will read it immediately in your web browser.

3. You can save the file – or print it.

4. Choose FILE/PRINT or FILE/SAVE AS in your browser menu.

5. If it’s a .zip or an .exe file, your browser will open a dialogue box when you click the file.

6. This gives you the option to save the file into a directory or folder.

7. This can be saved onto your hard disk or a floppy disk.

8. For example you could choose –

C:MANTEXfilename.exe
A:MY-STUFFfilename.zip

9. Files with a .zip extension are compressed.

10. You need to unzip these files before they can be read.

11. See ‘How to zip & unzip files’ for details.

12. Files with an .exe extension are ‘self-extracting’.

13. These activate themselves automatically.

14. See ‘What to do with .exe files’ for instructions.

Stage two – EXTRACTING FILES

1. When you have finished downloading the file…

2. …log off the Web and go to your file manager.

3. Locate the file on your hard disk or floppy disk.

4. If it’s a .zip file you need to unzip it.

5. It’s safer to copy big .zip files onto your hard disk.

6. If it’s an .exe file, double-click on the file.

7. A dialogue box will appear on screen.

8. In the dialogue box, choose EXTRACT.

9. Say “Yes” to ‘Create C:SOMENAME directory?’

10. This will extract all files into a folder called SOMENAME.

11. You can change this name if you wish.

Stage three – VIEWING IN A BROWSER

1. Our software programs can be viewed in a browser.

2. Open your resident Web browser [Netscape or Explorer].

3. Choose FILEOPEN PAGE [or type in the address box].

4. Select C:SOMENAMEfilename.htm

5. The programs are opened with the first file in the list

homepage.htm starts WRITING ESSAYS

aa-start.htm starts ENGLISH LANGUAGE

aa-start.htm starts STUDY SKILLS

6. View the first few sample pages of the program

7. Three sample essays are also included in WRITING ESSAYS:

‘Bibliographic Studies’

‘Classical Civilization’

‘Current Affairs’

8. Exercises are included in ENGLISH LANGUAGE

9. Four whole sections are viewable in STUDY SKILLS

  • Computers
  • Examinations
  • Layout
  • Questions

10. Hyperlinks are shown, but the pages may not be available

11. [Choose a sans-serif font at 12 points in your browser]

NB! USERS ON A NETWORK

1. Your computer may be on a network.

2. This is very common in education and businesses.

3. You might not be able to download to hard disk.

4. In this case, download onto a floppy disk.

5. Remember that floppies only hold up to 1.4 MB.

6. Both .exe and .zip files will expand when extracted.

7. That is, an .exe file of 800K might become 2.5MB of data when it is expanded.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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How to fail at web design

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classic guidelines which mean you can’t go wrong

Web design fail- guarantee disaster

Web design failure is fairly easy. Just follow any of the following guidelines. And if possible, try to combine at least two or three.

1. Have your whole site in one page, then you won’t have to bother with navigation buttons.

2. Put a huge graphic on the entry page, before the content of your site. It’s not your fault if visitors have a slow connection.

3. Nobody minds the odd broken link.

4. Use animated GIFs liberally. These are very amusing.   web design fail

5. Have the site in at least three frames.

6. Web sites without background wallpaper are dull.

7. Use lots of different fonts. Everyone has the same fonts installed these days.

8. Red text on a coloured background looks really good – as you can see.

9. Use plenty of underlining. This will draw people’s attention to the important parts of your message.

10. Better still, show people you mean business by highlighting lots of your text. This can be done at random, but it’s best used on special offers. It also looks really COOL!!!!!

11. Combine these features wherever possible, centre your text, add colour, and make sure your punters customers get the message. Get Ready For More Backlinks,

More Traffic And Higher Search Engine Rankings Almost Instantly!

12. Decorate pages with page counters, clip art, and and plenty of horizontal rules.

13. This is the Internet, so you don’t have to worry about speling and punctuatio

14. If some pages are unfinished, just paste in an “Under Construction” sign.

15. HAVE ALL YOUR TEXT IN CAPITALS – AS IT MAKES IT MUCH EASIER TO READ. JUST LOOK AT THIS REALLY GOOD EXAMPLE.

16. Once you’ve got your site, make sure that you publicise it as widely as possible. If you are not certain which groups to post to, you should post to as many as possible.

17. Ensure your message gets through by posting it at least three times. Repeat these postings on a daily basis.

18. If in any doubt, copy other people’s great ideas.

© Roy Johnson 2004

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