Writing clearly and concisely is a real skill
Even the greengrocer and the carpet salespeople utilize punctuation that alters the understanding of phrases in our day and age. People, especially in academics, have a penchant for using multiple words when a single one will do.
As a nursing student, get your writing back on track with the assistance of the nursingprowriters‘ guide to the craft of nursing writing.
This is a style of writing in where you use short, straightforward sentences to make your point plain to the reader.
For this reason, we’ve taken a lot of cues from the Plain English campaign and tried to make this book as simple as possible to understand and comprehend for the average person. You can do this in your writing by using simple terminology, short phrase patterns, and plain intent.
Why is it important?
When it comes to communication, you might think that the substance of your message is more essential than the way you are conveying it. Your ability to articulate an idea clearly and concisely is demonstrated to your professors when you write a dissertation, thesis, or paper. Those who can’t clearly communicate their ideas risk alienating both their readers and, more significantly, their teachers.
Reading a lot is the best approach to grow comfortable with the craft of writing properly. Be sure to not only peruse reputable nursing periodicals, as well as well-written national publications like magazine and newspaper articles. Don’t just read passively, but pay attention to how sentences and ideas are structured and reflect about just what you consider easy or difficult to read.
Keep it short
Phrases, paragraphs, words, and pages should all be kept to the bare minimum in order to convey your message clearly and concisely It’s best to leave out anything that may be removed without altering the message. If you want to convey two ideas in a single paragraph or sentence use subheadings.
Let’s get started with the fundamentals, starting with the basic blocks. Let’s start with what you have to say. If you’re writing about health care, you’ll have to use a lot of long, perhaps Latin-sounding medical jargon. Therefore, don’t add to the difficulty of reading by making the glue holding those words together even thicker. Make them short and simple to read. Consider the words you are using as weights your readers must bear, like a sludge you must wade through. Whenever the reader is forced to walk through far too much compacted earth, they will find it difficult to walk – or read – on because their boots will be glued to the ground. In order to be certain that your reader approaches the finish of almost any piece of writing – their goal – you must take every step you could to simplify the process for them. You don’t want to burden them with a lot of words and make such words long. Rather than “cost-effective” or “cheaper,” use “buy” or “purchase” in place of the singular “per annum.” In case one way of describing something has more syllables than the other, go with the shorter option. Always. It will constantly improve the clarity of your writing.
As well as limiting the length of your sentences. You should keep your sentences to a minimum. Quite a bit of time. Right you are. Most of the time, a point can be made in just two words. Everything you learned in school about sentences including verbs is, in some sense, true. However, for significance, a very brief sentence is all that is required. So that’s it. It demonstrates the point clearly.. However, in the vast majority of circumstances, aim for phrases of no more than 15 to 20 words. There’s no need to stick to a strict word count when writing. In case all of your sentences are the same length, your work will have an odd rhythm. As soon as you start writing, you’ll be able to tell when a paragraph is too long.
Your paragraphs should also be trimmed down to express just one idea
It’s best if they’re between two and three sentences long, but you can use more or less if you choose. You should also start a new paragraph if you want to make another point. There should be an introduction of a topic or “thought” at the beginning of a paragraph and then an explanation of it, followed by a conclusion.
Always go back over your writing once you’ve finished it to check if there are any unused words or sentences that may be trimmed. If you can, you’ll always find a method to better your writing.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, the hilarious and informative punctuation guide by Lynn Truss, is a must-have for grammar nerds everywhere. I think it’s a fantastic product and definitely suggest it.
Good luck and happy writing.