Seven golden
rules of writing
There are seven ‘golden’ rules that will help you to
write more simply and clearly:
Rule 1: Use familiar words - favour Anglo
Saxon rather than other derivatives, such as French. e.g., ‘send’ rather than
‘transmit’, ‘carry out’ rather than ‘implement’ (or at least as an alternative
to ‘implement’, which is one of those words that crop up in reports and business writing time and
time again).
Rule 2: Avoid words of three or more
syllables as far as possible unless they are in common usage. They tire the
reader.
Rule 3: Avoid clichés - they are often too
loose as expressions and can be misunderstood.
Rule 4: Avoid professional jargon - your
reader may not be an expert in your field. If you need to use a professional
word which is standard for you but may be obscure for others, explain it.
Rule 5: Keep your average sentence length
to between 15 and 20 words. This does not mean that every sentence must be 15
to 20 words long – that would be boring. People need variety and short
sentences can provide real impact when required. If the average is
substantially higher than 20 words, the readability of the document drops
alarmingly.
Rule 6: Sentences should contain one thought
or idea. Paragraphs should contain sentences about related thoughts or ideas. Start
a new paragraph with a new idea or concept, or one that leads on from the last
idea. Sometimes long paragraphs are inevitable because of the density of
closely related ideas. But try to keep paragraphs short, with an average of
four or five sentences.
Rule 7: Be consistent. There are many different house styles –
look at spelling styles: organise or organize, focus or focuss, benefiting or
benefitting; be careful when presenting numbers: three and 13, or 3 and 13?; make
sure you use headings and sub-headings consistently. Inconsistency throws the
reader and can make a text hard to understand.
