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Communicating in Style

June 30, 2009 by Roy Johnson

how to present text and data for publication

This is a style guide for writers who have produced the basic text but who need help laying it out effectively on the page – or on screen. It will be of particular interest to technical writers and those dealing with business documentation. Communicating in Style covers the basics of document design such as headings and subheadings; how to present dates, times, and email addresses; and how best to control spacing, indentation and margins to create effective pages.

There are lots of small but important details: acronyms first, followed by the full version; no full stops after contractions; headings closer to body text which follows than that which precedes. He also suggests that abbreviations should be explained anew in each chapter of a book – especially if they deal with different topics. Yateendra Joshi is good on the punctuation and spacing of lists; the kerning of small caps; (symbols have no plurals); and how to use the numeric keypad to produce special symbols and characters.

On tables there’s lots of good advice on alignment in columns and rows to simplify and clarify the presentation of data. Like Edward Tufte he believes in reducing any unnecessary lines, rules, and ‘chart junk’.

He deals with questions such as ‘Is the symbol for hour ‘h’ or ‘hr’?’ and ‘Are thousands separated by commas or with a space?’ plus lots of details on abbreviations, acronyms, contractions, and symbols.

There’s a section on OHP and PowerPoint presentations and how to lay out the display for maximum effectiveness; how to submit manuscripts to journals; and how to integrate charts, diagrams, maps, and photographs into documents; citing and referencing sources of information, including web pages and electronic documents.

The feature of the book I liked best was the use of quotations from other well-known style guides to illustrate the main points of his arguments. These are placed on almost every left-hand page, along with a picture of the jacket cover and bibliographic details of the book itself.

I can confirm his claim that the book has been extensively field-tested with earlier drafts. Many versions have been made available to the Information Design email discussion group in the past couple of years.

He finishes off with advice on spelling, fonts, and formats for postal addresses and telephone numbers. This is in fact very detailed and sophisticated advice on the presentation of information on screen and page. It encourages us all to be more attentive.

It’s good to see that this book has now found its way to Amazon.co.uk – but you might find it difficult to locate elsewhere. Be persistent however: it’s well worth the effort.

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Yateendra Joshi, Communicating in Style, New Delhi: The Energy and Resources Institute, 2003, pp.250, ISBN: 8179930165

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Communication for Engineering Students

June 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

writing and speaking skills for science and engineering

Are science and engineering students in special need of help with their writing skills? This seems to be a generally held belief, and John Davies takes it as the starting-point for this manual. His approach is to divide the writing task into discrete topics, each of which he treats in separate chapters. He covers Sentences, Grammar and Style, Technical Information, Laboratory Reports, Projects, and even Spoken Presentations, Job Applications, and Interview Techniques.

The general approach is to offer sound, sensible advice, and he points out that there are few absolute rules. The way to improve your writing, he suggests, is “to think about what you write”. This is good advice, in whichever branch of engineering [or science] it might be applied.

He offers brief exercises (with answers) in each chapter, and I would guess that a first or second-year engineering student would find his avuncular tone reassuring. However, some sections – those on word-processors and examinations for instance – skip over the issues rather rapidly.

In this sense the strength of a book which covers so many topics in such a short space could also be construed as its weakness. However, on balance I suspect that the students at whom it is aimed are likely to be overwhelmed by a more encyclopaedic approach. Davies’ light touch should encourage them to adopt good practices and pursue the finer details in further reading which is given at the end of each chapter.

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John W. Davies, Communication for Engineering Students, London: Longman, 1996, pp.167, ISBN: 0582256488

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Computers and Language

July 10, 2009 by Roy Johnson

essays on computers, teaching, and writing

What has been the impact of the PC in the classroom? Computers and Language is collection of essays presenting the results of studies monitoring research on the subject, and it offers one or two extended position papers and guides to software. John Pratt for instance explores the commonly observed phenomenon that students tend to be less inhibited in exploring writing programmes than their tutors – a point reinforced by other contributions. Maybe the next generation will have a different attitude to composition if they have grown up in front of a screen rather than a note book?

Chris Breeze argues in a letter to his headmaster that working on a PC encourages children to re-draft their work. Most teachers of writing would probably agree that this is something to be encouraged. It is interesting to observe however that one or two of the articles start out as a celebration of the PC as a liberating tool for students, but then gradually reveal the author’s wish to control production. Teachers rule – OK?

There are a couple of [obligatory?] chapters dealing with Hypertext as an adjunct to constructing narratives. Stephen Marcus inspects the use of Hypertext programmes [GUIDE, HYPERCARD] and makes what in the hands of school-age children might be rather ambitious claims for them. If the debates currently raging in the alt.hypertext newsgroup are anything to go by, this is still a contentious issue. There is as yet no fictional hypertext which has staked a claim for aesthetic distinction – but its defendants point out that no other medium produced a masterpiece at first outing.

The most engaging and informative contribution is from Noel Williams – a straightforward review of the software available to assist authors in the post-writing phase. He examines programmes such as GRAMMATIK (then still in version IV) WRITER’S WORKBENCH, and CORPORATE VOICE. In the end he comes down heavily in favour of Ruskin. Like most other commentators on this type of spell- and grammar-checking software, he suggests that people should not be intimidated by rule-governed programmes, encouraging us to “ignor[re] those parts of the system which do not match … writer’s needs”.

One of the main problems with articles and publications of this nature is that they are now rapidly superseded by software updates and discussion which takes place more immediately on the Internet. Nevertheless, there is probably good reason for a place for this collection in the departmental library.

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Moira Monteith (ed), Computers and Language, Oxford: Intellect, 1993, pp.159, ISBN: 1871516277

Conclusions in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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1. The conclusions of essays should draw together all the previous points of your argument into one general statement which is then directly related to the essay topic or the question you have been answering.

2. Do not end an essay abruptly. This creates the impression that you have suddenly run out of things to say, or that you are unable to produce a complete and reasoned argument.

3. The conclusion should not normally occupy more than five to ten per cent of the total length of the essay (rather like the introduction).

4. Try to avoid repeating any of the statements you have already made in your introduction. To do so creates the impression that you have not developed your argument or made any progress from the point at which you started.

5. Do not just re-state the original question, and if possible try to avoid using the same terms as those in which it is posed. This too creates the impression that you are not trying to produce an argument of your own.

6. Try to end the essay on a crisp note. This can sometimes be done with an appropriate phrase or a quotation. It should illustrate your argument and be directly related to the topic(s) in question. Many people save their most clinching quotation for last.

7. The following example illustrates the concluding paragraph of a second year undergraduate essay on George Orwell. You will notice that it is clearly ‘summing up’ its earlier arguments and offering a final judgement.

So in conclusion it seems reasonable to say of Orwell that he contradicted himself, that he did not recognise his own class bias, that he misunderstood political theory, and that he was not really aware of his own prejudices. Yet for all this, he was a courageous writer who made a serious attempt to understand a particularly difficult and confusing period of history.

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Copy Editing

May 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a handbook for editors, authors, and publishers

Judith Butcher’s Copy Editing is now firmly established as the UK classic reference guide for editors and others involved in preparing text for publication. It is written from the perspective of a professional copy-editor, and covers just about everything you would need to know in preparing any sort of text for publication. It deals with all the details of preparing a typescript for setting, house styles and consistency, reading and correcting proofs, and how to present indexes and bibliographies.

Every suggestion is scrupulously illustrated without being pedantic, and there is a very helpful degree of cross-referencing. I originally bought my own copy of this book to sort out the finer points of bibliographic referencing for academic writing – and I’ve been using it regularly ever since. The book itself is almost a tutorial on the very principles it illustrates, and it is a very handsomely produced and elegantly designed publication. You will learn a lot on the presentation of text just from turning the pages.

It contains explanations of every part of a book – from details such as preliminary matter, frontispiece, title page, and content, through to lists of tables and illustrations, acknowledgements, bibliographies, notes, and indexes. And it covers many types of printed book – from conventional prose, through books on mathematics, music, books with tables and illustrations, and books set in foreign languages.

The latest edition also deals with issues of copyright, the conventions of presenting text in specialist subjects, guidance on digital coding and publishing in other media such as e-books, and a chapter devoted to on-screen copy-editing.

It has also been updated to take account of modern typesetting and printing technology. This is a good investment for writers who are serious about preparing their work for publication, and an excellent source of reference when you get stuck with the minutiae of bibliographies and typographic presentation. It’s also now available in paperback.

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Judith Butcher, Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Authors and Publishers, 4th edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp.558, ISBN: 0521847133

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Creative Web Writing

June 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

guide to online possibilities for creative writers

Creative Web Writing is Jane Dorner’s latest book which examines the skills you need if you want to put your writing onto the Internet. Her emphasis is on creative writing. She is speaking to those people who have been creating poems and stories in their back rooms and getting nowhere. If you realise that the Internet presents lots of new possibilities, this is her explanation of how it works and what those possibilities are.

She covers collaborative story-telling, research online, interactivity and flexible text, as well as the nuts and bolts of styling for screen reading. Most importantly, she explains the range of new markets, new technologies, and how to apply them. Creative genres are covered, including autobiography, poetry, broadcasting, screen-writing and writing for children. There’s also a very useful survey of the various delivery methods and payments for eBooks.

This is one of the most popular methods for aspiring authors to reach new readers. This section will be required reading if you are thinking of venturing into this world.

She also describes how to look carefully at contracts, how to submit your writing to an electronic publisher, and how to deal with Print on demand (POD) outlets.

The central part of the book deals with new forms of writing using Web technologies. This is one field in which she has clearly done her homework. She shows examples of writing in the form of Blogs (Web-logs) email (epistolary) narratives, fictions illuminated by graphics, the weird world of MUDs and MOOs, Flash-animated writing, and phonetic poetry.

Then she confronts the central problem for all writers working in a hypertext environment – the conflict between traditional linear story-telling and the random, fragmented, interactive experiences which the Web makes possible. The answer is, there’s no easy answer.

Computer games she sees as a powerful paradigm for new story-telling, with additional possibilities offered by SMS messaging via mobile phones, and Big Brother type interactive radio and TV programmes.

She also provides some useful tips on writing style [Keep it short – Get to the point] some interesting notes on copyright in relation to hyperlinking; and there are plenty of useful listings. Software for self-publishing, story-generation, and storyboarding. Writing courses, experimental writers and writing groups, and most useful of all – details of eBook publishers and what they pay.

And by the way, if you’ve not had a lot of success with traditional publishers – don’t worry too much. She explains why the market works against new writers and anything experimental. Read what she has to say, and you might not become rich and famous – but you’ll realise that it is possible to put your work before the digital public.

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Jane Dorner, Creative Web Writing, London: A & C Black, 2002, pp.166, ISBN: 0713658541

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CVs and Job Applications

July 3, 2009 by Roy Johnson

presenting yourself successfully in writing

If you’re applying for a job, you need all the help you can get. This book is a guide to maximising your chances. CVs and Job Applications is a manual of practical advice and useful tips on how to design your CV and write successful job applications. It focuses on preparing your application and presenting yourself in the best possible light. To do this you will need to think carefully about your own skills, interests, and aptitudes – then match them carefully to companies who are looking for people like you.

The guidance notes Judith Leigh offers are completely up to date, with advice about locating companies’ web sites and email addresses, plus tips on investigating their policies and recruitment methods. Follow her advice, and it might help you land that job.

On writing your CV you should know that you have sixty seconds to make your pitch – because that’s how long you will have to impress your potential employer. The guidance notes help you to plan and write your CV carefully with no mistakes.

She covers tricky issues such as how to deal with gaps in your career (periods of unemployment for instance, or years raising children) as well as how to fit your entire career, personality, hobbies, and work history onto what might be as little as two pages.

There’s a chapter on writing covering letters and how to tailor their contents to maximise your chances, plus notes on how to fill in application forms.

Then what if your application succeeds? The next stage is an interview, and there are guidelines on how to prepare yourself and deliver your best performance on the day.

The book ends with some sample CVs, job applications, and covering letters, plus notes on the language of job adverts.

This is the latest title in a series of short beginner’s manuals on communication skills from Oxford University Press which have proved very popular. The emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. If you do need to apply for a job in writing, this book will help you to make a good impression.

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Judith Leigh, CVs and Job Applications, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp.144, ISBN: 0198606141

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Dates in essays

August 22, 2009 by Roy Johnson

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Dates are usually represented by a combination of numbered day, named month, and numbered year. Note that punctuation is not required when using this system.

the events of 17 October 1956 proved fateful

2. Note – there’s no need to add abbreviations such as th or rd:

12 October 1993 not 12th October 1993

23 January 1897 not 23rd January 1897

3. The following example contains four references to dates:

In January 1948 the New Statesman and Nation called for an end to this ‘Russia complex’; within the body of the party it had already effectively passed away. Indeed, by 1949 the distinction between British social democracy and communism, Soviet or British, was infinitely clearer than during the thirties. Clement Atlee made the point explicitly in The Times on 11 April 1949.

4. References to centuries are spelled out, not capitalised, and hyphenated only when they serve as adjectives:

during the eighteenth century

a study of seventeenth-century literature

5. Decades may be referred to by name or number, according to the context. Note that the numbered form is not followed by an apostrophe (because it is a plural):

The 1890s saw an enormous decrease…

during the thirties, political tensions increased

6. Dates represented purely by numbers (15.9.93) may be shown in two different ways. The convention in Britain and most of Europe is as follows:

DAY – MONTH – YEAR

15.9.93 = 15 September 1993

7. The American convention (often seen in their publications and computer software) is to use

MONTH – DAY – YEAR

9.24.93 = 24 September 1993

8. Take care! This system can lead to potential confusion when both the first numbers are below twelve. The date 7.9.93 can easily be mistaken for 7 September 1993, when in American notation it is in fact 9 July 1993.

9. Similarly, an American seeing 4.3.97 in an English publication might mistake the date for 3 April 1997, when in fact it represents 4 March 1997.

10. In references to pre- and post-Christian eras, the number of the
year(s) precedes BC, and follows AD:

Solomon’s temple was rebuilt in 515 BC, but then destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

11. You might also come across the politically correct system of referring to BCE and ACE – as in the following examples:

500 BCE = 500 Before the Common Era
ACE 500 = 500 After the Common Era

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Designing Instructional Text

June 26, 2009 by Roy Johnson

how to create effective documentation

This is a practical guide for designing instructional texts. It describes each stage in the process very thoroughly – from the selection of paper size and page layout, through composition of clear text, to the use of diagrams and illustrations. Although a number of these issues might seem straightforward, what makes James Hartley’s treatment of them interesting is the persuasive psychological reasons given for making one choice rather than another on vocabulary, line length, or paragraph spacing.

The third edition has been produced with the advances in word-processors in mind, and Web users might be particularly interested in the section dealing with electronic text and some of the tips for producing screen layouts which people will actually read. There is a comprehensive analysis of the visual presentation of information – with subtle distinctions noted between pie charts and bar charts.

A couple of chapters dealing with writing for the elderly and those with impaired sight reinforce the psychological importance of good layout and spatial coherence in writing. There are also some interesting details offered en passant – such as the fact that most readers ignore questions posed after instructions, the psychological advantage of the bulleted list, and the fallibility of Flesch Reading Ease scores.

On questionnaire design, it deals with the danger of ambiguity, citing the example of a job application with the question ‘Give previous experience with dates’ which was answered by ‘Moderately successful in the past, but I am now happily married.’ Each chapter has a full bibliography and suggestions for further reading, and on the whole it bears all the hallmarks of work which is now a standard text. No wonder it’s in its third edition.

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James Hartley, Designing Instructional Text, London: Kogan Page, (3rd edn) 1994, pp.183 ISBN: 074941037X

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Designing Web-Based Training

June 27, 2009 by Roy Johnson

web-based course construction – from start to finish

This is a well-illustrated guide to every phase of designing, setting-up, and managing a Web-based training site. It goes from graphics and content design, to finding students and assessing their needs; from hardware and software options, to usability testing. William Horton explains what Web Based Training (WBT) can do and how to get the best results from exploiting its technologies. And for ‘training’ you can also read ‘education’ – because as he argues, the distinction between the two is often negligible. His approach is practical and clear; the book is written in a no-nonsense manner; and he follows his own prescriptions by giving examples to illustrate every point he makes.

The design of the book itself more or less imitates Web pages: there are lots of headings, subheadings, quick paragraphs, tabled checklists, call-out boxes, horizontal rules, screenshots, and bulleted lists. He is essentially gung-ho for WBT as a novel learning technology – but he does look at a lot of research evidence, both pro and contra. He discusses the tricky issues of how to put a cost on course construction, how to devise navigational metaphors, and how to deal with potential plagiarism.

He offers several explanations of how to organise the sequence of learning events (or ‘objects’) in a course of learning. Then he even demonstrates the design of an entire course in outline, with templates of all the important pages and the structure in which they are arranged. This is valuable material for anyone who might be coming to the writing of online learning materials for the first time.

He covers an amazing variety of approaches to teaching – including the use of Webcasts, presentations, guided research, case studies, and learning games. There are some particularly good examples of virtual laboratories for teaching mechanical engineering and HTML coding. Most importantly perhaps, he shows which approaches are best used for which type of problem or task.

There’s a good section on tests and exercises, including advice on setting true/false and multiple-choice questions, and when it’s best to use matching pair and drag and drop questions. A section on teaching by email and discussion groups contains all the usual advice about Netiquette which many people still ignore.

The book is aimed at professional designers, trainers, and teachers – but it’s written in a way which will make it useful at any level. I bought my copy to solve some design problems for one group of students – which it has done in no time at all. Now my business partner has grabbed it to do the same for another group.

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William K. Horton, Designing Web-Based Training : How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime, John Wiley & Sons, 2000, pp.640, ISBN: 047135614X

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how to present text and data for publication

writing and speaking skills for science and engineering

essays on computers, teaching, and writing

sample from HTML program and PDF book

a handbook for editors, authors, and publishers

guide to online possibilities for creative writers

presenting yourself successfully in writing

sample from HTML program and PDF book

how to create effective documentation

web-based course construction – from start to finish

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