Style Basics

Writing: Have Something to Say “No one can teach a clear style by rule, simple or not, especially to those who have nothing to say and no reason to say it, …” (Williams) Once you have something to say, work hard at saying it clearly, precisely, and concisely. Style will follow.

What is Style? Not grammar, not rules, … It’s about communicating well. It’s about reducing the effort required of readers.

Value of Style Some forms of presentation are  Difficult to understand  Boring (Style should rectify these problems.) “Lively writing suggests a lively mind with interesting ideas to discuss.” (Zobel) Poor usage  Distracts  Suggests disorganized thinking  Prejudices readers negatively

Aims of Scientific Writing Be clear. Be unambiguous. Be correct. Be interesting. Be direct.

Good Style Economy: “Text should be taut.” Tone  One idea per sentence  Simple, logical organization  Short words; short sentences with simple structure  Omit unnecessary material  …  Break these rules if there is good reason to do so. Examples: add clarification; worth a thousand words Motivation: definitions or theorems or lemmas without indicating why they are useful are a problem Balance: treat each topic with similar depth

Good Style … Voice  Avoid passive voice  Prefer “we” over “the authors”—can use “we” for “I”, can use “I”. The upper hand: don’t show off (example)example Obfuscation (making obscure)  Avoid vague statements (Prefer: “savings of 12%–33%” over “large savings”.)  Omit “very”—“very large savings” says nothing Analogies: be careful  the analogy must work Straw men (What are strawman arguments?)  “Described for the sole purpose of criticizing”  “Contrasting a new idea with an impossibly bad alternative”  “Comparison between new and ancient“

Good Style … Reference and citation  Should be relevant (don’t “drop names”)  Avoid perjorative (belittling, disparaging, derogatory) statements about the work of others.  Avoid “anonymous” references Not: “Other work [24] shows …” Instead: “Baker [24] shows …” ?: “[24] shows …” or “[Baker06] shows …” or “Baker shows … [Bak06].” Quotation: avoid [sic]; it’s not polite. Acknowledgements Grammar  Should be observed, “but not at the cost of clarity or meaning.”  “Sloppy grammar” annoys.  Don’t break rules to be cute.  Know the rules, even if you break them.  “Well-crafted text is a pleasure to read.”

Style Specifics Titles and headings  Often the only part of the paper that’s read  Concise, informative, accurate, specific rather than general Opening paragraphs  Usually affects reader’s attitude most  Intelligible to any likely reader  “What”, without “how”  Avoid saying that the topic is “popular” or “important” or “interesting”.  Instead, convince the reader that it is interesting

Style Specifics … Paragraphing  Single topic  Topic sentence first  Every sentence should be about the topic (don’t wander)  Put impact in the last sentence  Avoid long paragraphs  Use lists, but only for material that is “significant or needs enumeration.” Ambiguity (examples from pg. 35:)  No: “The compiler did not accept the program because it contained an error.”  No: “The next stage was the test of the complete system, but it failed.”  No: “In addition to skiplists we have tried trees. They are …”  No: “We collated the responses from the users, which were usually short, into the following tables.”

Style Specifics … Sentence structure  No more than a line or two  Zobel’s “cute” example on pg. 38” Tense  Present tense for almost everything—you’re stating “truths”— including reviewing work of others  Past tense for describing experimental results and summarizing Repetition and parallelism  Write complementary concepts in parallel.  No: “Access is fast, but at the expense of slow update.”  Yes: “Access is fast but update is slow.” Emphasis  “Don’t italicize words unnecessarily.”  “DON’T use capitals for emphasis.”

Style Specifics … Definitions: formally defined words require emphasis. Choice of words  Prefer short words, but use the most precise word.  Avoid contractions in formal writing.  Avoid repetitious wording, but do repeat technical words that must be understood.  Avoid excessive claims about your own work: not: “great idea”, “marvelous solution”, “remarkable” Qualifiers  Not: “perhaps impossible”, “may likely”  Omit “very”, “quite” Misused words (Strunk and White’s list is better  later) Spelling conventions  British/US spelling: e.g., “…ise” vs. “…ize”  Watch out: form/from, trail/trial, too/to, …

Style Specifics … Jargon  Essential for technical communication  More jargon: smaller audience  Introduce names sparingly and thoughtfully: there are already too many “intelligent” algorithms.  Don’t change terminology and notation without a really good reason. Foreign words  Yes: vice versa, ad hoc (in common usage – not italicized)  No: de rigueur, prima facie  Foreign names: “Børstëdt” not “Borstedt” Overuse of words  Annoying to read the same phrase twice  Avoid “tics” (excessive reuse of a common word or phrase): “so”, “note that”, “hence”, …

Style Specifics … Padding  Avoid wordy expressionswordy expressions  “note that” is not padding, but it must actually be possible for the reader to infer  “of course” can be insulting Plurals  Oops: “set of positive matches are …”  Prefer newer plurals: “formulas” not “formulae”, “indexes” not “indices” Abbreviations  “e.g.” and “i.e.” are OK?, but not “w.r.t.”  Avoid “etc.” unless the reader really can complete the list

Style Specifics … Acronyms  Don’t introduce unless used frequently  Changes over time: “WWW” is now simply “the web”  Be careful of surrounding words—not: “the DBMS system”, “local area LAN network” Sexism  Avoid! Not: “a user fails when he encounters …” Not even: “a user fails when they encounter …” Use a plural: “users fail when they encounter …” Often best to simply rewrite: “a user who encounters … fails.  Don’t use “he”—sexism; don’t use “she”—reverse sexism  Don’t use “he or she” or “he/she” or “she/he” or “s/he”