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Style Check 2 |
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Instructions: In this readability style check, you will
analyze one paragraph from the Background Section of the proposal
that you just turned in. E-mail the
style check to me as a Microsoft Word 97 or higher document.
thompson@uidaho.edu
Required assignment:
Points: 1
Grade:  or 0
Due: See Content Area
To analyze that paragraph, follow these
steps:
- Sentence lengths:
- Cut and paste one paragraph from the body of
the Section of the Final Report to make a separate Word
document.
- Number each sentence.
- Count the number of words in each sentence
and list those numbers at the bottom of the page.
- Calculate the average sentence length.
NOTE (and remember) this information
about average sentence lengths.
14-17 words / sentence = writing for readers with a high
school education.
17-20 words / sentence = writing for readers with a college
education.
20-24 words / sentence = writing for readers who are
professionals, graduate students, or professors.
≤ 25 words /sentence = writing for readers who will read
anything they need to read
to get the information they need. This is not reader friendly.
Of course you don’t want to bore your reader with short sentences.
Nor do you want to belabor your reader with lots of long
sentences. So, the key here is variety. Use a mix of long
and short sentences:
- Use short sentences to emphasize ideas.
- Use long sentences to connect ideas.
- Use transition words to build long sentences
rather rely on words like “and.”
- Verbs:
- Highlight all the
BE VERBs
with RED.
| BE VERBS: |
| Am Is Are |
| Was Were |
| Been |
| Being |
| Be |
| Note: “Have” – “has”,
“had” – are not “Be verbs. |
Count the number of BE verbs in the
paragraph.
Check for
PASSIVE SENTENCES. Highlight the passive verbs with GREEN.
NOTE:
Avoiding Be verbs and Passive Sentences is possible but difficult.
Mostly it’s a matter of using vocabulary. Try to keep Be and
Passive sentences to around 30%.
Avoiding
Wordiness.
Transition Words:
- Highlight the
Transition Words with Blue.
Note: especially look for subordinators, words like:
- Although, because, since, where, when, if,
while, that, which, how, why….
- These words indicate you have complex
sentences.
- If you have short sentences, you need
to use subordinators to combine sentences.
- If you have long sentences, you need to use
subordinators to show how ideas in the sentences are related.
E-mail this information to me.
thompson@uidaho.edu
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