Recently, our trusty University Relations writer Kathleen shared an article by Helen Sword called Zombie Nouns. The article is about how often we "forget how ordinary people speak," and how nominalizations (nouns formed from other parts of speech) have begun to overpopulate all types of writing. Academians are notorious abusers. It got me thinking about how we learn to write, how we accidentally pick up bad habits along the way, and how we can keep our writing grounded and accessible to all types of readers.
Then I remembered an embarrassing a damaging story that I will now share with you despite my better judgment...
I loved my freshman English class, and I was excited to see how I would do on my first-ever college writing assignment. When I got my paper back, it had a huge red 53 on it. Out of 100! My professor said: Make your point, don't write around it.
That year, the professor made me ask and answer hard questions about my writing:
- Are these words critical to my point, or are they filler?
- Have I left this phrase here just because I like the sound of it?
- Does this sentence support my argument; is it necessary at all?
- Is the piece effective and useful as a whole?
- Am I running the risk of boring my reader to tears?
My professor's case (and Sword's) is made even more critical when we talk about writing for the web.
As I mentioned in our first Web Style 101 post, users scan websites looking for a particular piece of information. It's unusual that a user would read every word on the page. So it's our job as content providers to make finding information as easy as possible.
In addition to using headings and bullet points to visually break up blocks of text, we must write clearly and succinctly throughout every piece.
Sword's final statement is spot-on:
A paragraph heavily populated by nominalizations will send your readers straight to sleep. Wake them up with vigorous, verb-driven sentences that are concrete, clearly structured and blissfully zombie-free.
Take a look at Sword's article, and think about what type of nominalizations, jargon and complex sentence structures you might be subconsciously injecting into your own writing. Is your audience interested? Will they understand? How can you streamline your language to make it easier for students, faculty and staff to find what they are looking for?
- Choose simple words (e.g., "use" instead of "utilize")
- Write straight-forward sentence structures
- Use clear subjects and active voice whenever possible
And ask those hard questions! When we spend hours working on a project, it can be hard to step back and look at it objectively. If you aren't sure, have a friend or colleague look it over and provide feedback from an outsider's perspective.
Happy writing,
Emily