MODULE 4
Language Skills C
Style and Vocabulary
Style and Vocabulary | Objectives
By the end of this chapter, I aim to:
Introduction
Your writing should express your thoughts and intentions as clearly to you as to your reader. The golden rule is to keep your writing simple. You want to achieve maximum understanding and minimal interpretation breakdowns.
How to improve my vocabulary
Vocabulary is an indispensable tool that can make your writing more powerful and more effective.
Use New Words
Every day, try to slip a new word into the conversation, an assignment or an email.
Read Every Day
Try to read a well-written and edited essay, magazine article, book chapter or news article every day.
Use a Thesaurus
Keep a thesaurus turned on in your tools bar. Explore using new synonyms for everyday words.
Look up Words You Don’t Know
Take the time to look them up words you do not know
Personal vocabulary book
It is very helpful to make your own personal vocabulary book. Make sure it is alphabeticised, like a dictionary. When you learn new words, copy them into the right place in your vocabulary book. Make sure to write down their meanings, and to include an example of a sentence in which the word is used.
You could also have a number of key words printed out and stuck on a surface close to your computer in order to remind you to use them in your day-to-day communication. Download and use the template below.
So if you discover a new word in a magazine or a book you are reading, or if you hear a new word while someone is talking to you, try to keep a note of it. Write it in a notebook or record it on your phone.
If you do not know what the word you have read or heard means, you can then look it up later in a dictionary and record it in your vocabulary book.
Identify Empty Words
Look for empty words in your writing that do not offer any substance to your reader and replace them with something more appropriate. It is better communicating in one sentence filled with carefully chosen words.
Do Word Puzzles
Word puzzles in the newspaper or a magazine are perfect for boosting your working vocabulary.
Try Word Games
There are apps on the market designed to improve vocabulary and language skills such as: words with friends; New York Times crossword; word fix word game; word search pro
Avoiding Clichés
Learn this golden rule:
When an adjective’s opposite makes no sense in the same context, the adjective is empty and superfluous.
Consider this example:
As part of our executive succession plan we are now recruiting an experienced and competent CEO with a strong drive to lead the company.
Of these adjectives, which are genuine and which are clichés: experienced, competent, strong?
- Experienced: This is genuine, indicating that they will not consider anyone without prior experience as a CEO.
- Competent: This is a cliché. No one will be looking for an incompetent CEO.
- Strong: Cliché. Who is looking for a CEO with weak drive?
Adapted from – Bech, Hans Peter, 2015. “How we can avoid clichés and empty phrases in our communication”.
Can you find their lengthy equivalent from the options 1 to 12?
a) following
b) participate
c) expenditure
d) permit
e) approximately
f) utilise
g) demonstrate
h) however
i) sufficient
j) facility
k) establish
l) manufacture
1. about
2. after
3. but
4. enough
5. let
6. make
7. plant
8. set up
9. show
10. spending
11. take part
12. use
Short words
Long words may come across as sophisticated, but they can sometimes cloud your meaning. The Economist Style Guide (p.123) prefers the words in the column on the left. We recommend a balance of the both longer and shorter words throughout your writing, depending on your audience. There are certainly instances when using a word from option a) to b) is vital to create your professional tone.
Avoiding wordiness
Consider this quote:
“As a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigour it will give to your style” – Sydney Smith
Be careful about unnecessary prepositions:
Companies can be bought and sold rather than bought up and sold off.
Budgets may be cut rather than cut back.
Organisations should be headed by rather than headed up by chairpersons.
Markets should be freed, rather than freed up.
Adapted from The Economist, pp.138-9.
Cut redundant words (obviously this is dependent upon context)
A top priority is usually just a priority.
A major speech is usually just a speech.
Most probably and most especially are probably and especially.
The fact that can often be shortened to that.
Loans to the industrial and agricultural sectors are just loans to industry and farming.
There has been movement on X is usually X progressed.
So as to do something can usually be to do something.
The Economist Style Guide; Ann Wroe, 2018, The Economist, p139.
Jargon
Simplifying your language doesn’t mean simplifying your message – in fact, it can be quite the opposite. Jargon is very useful in stream-lining communication between members of a company or profession who are acquainted with the specific jargon. For people not acquainted with the jargon, it can provide further obstacles to you getting your message across clearly.
Good reasons for using jargon: People from the same profession/company using specific terms related to their work. This can also demonstrate your level of professionalism and proficiency in a positive light and, in some cases, be a requirement for your daily communication.
Bad reasons for using jargon: using specific terms out of context, using jargon to try and sound impressive when it is not relevant and trying (consciously or not), to hide your meaning from the reader.
Match the jargon from 1 to 5 with their equivalent from a) to e):
1. exponential
2. negative health outcome
3. competencies
4. to improve costs
5. increased prices
a) death
b) to reduce costs
c) higher prices
d) skills
e) fast
Relative pronouns
Knowing when to use which relative pronouns like whom, whose, that, or which, will demonstrated an elevated and more refined writing style.
| Who | Whom | Whose vs who’s | That vs which |
|---|---|---|---|
| Used to refer to the subject of a sentence. | Used to refer to the object of the verb or preposition. | “Whose” indicates possession.
Whereas who’s is a contraction of who is/who has. |
“That” introduces restrictive information and refers to groups of people, places, things and events. “Which” is used if the sentence doesn’t need the clause that the word in question is connecting. |
| Who is going to take the minutes for the meeting? | To whom was the email addressed? | New York is a city whose lights burn all night long.
Whose diary is on my desk? vs. My PA is exceptional. She is the person who’s (or who’s been) responsible for most of my career success. |
Example: This is the writing style that I have adopted. |
| Who brought the cake in the fridge? | For whom was the cake in the fridge bought? | Whose cake is in the fridge?
vs. Who’s going to eat all of this cake? Who’s put this cake in the fridge/ who’s eaten all of the cake? |
Our office, which has two lunchrooms, is located in Cape Town.
Our office that has two lunchrooms is located in Cape Town. |
| Who forgot to turn the alarm on last night? | I don’t know with whom I will share an office next year? | Whose office is this?
vs. Who’s willing to share an office with me next year? |
|
| Tip: Substitute “she,” “he,” or “her,” “him” into your sentence instead of who/whom.
If “she/he” fits then use who. If “her/him” fits then use whom. You might have to reorganise the sentence to run the test. |
Example:
With who/whom will I share an office next? I will share an office with “she/he”? I will share an office with “her/him”? Her/him? So, with whom will I share an office next year? Who/whom ate my piece of cake? “Her/him” at my piece of cake?” “She/he” ate my piece of cake?” “She/he”? So, who ate my piece of cake? |
Tip: Substitute the words who is and then who has into the sentence and see if that works. If not, then whose will be more appropriate. | Tip: The part of the sentence that comes after the that in a sentence is indispensable to the meaning of the sentence. There is no comma after that as the information that follows in not a subordinate clause.
Which is used to indicate extra information (i.e a subordinate/dependant clause), without which, the meaning of the sentence would not change and is always preceded by a comma. |
Obligation, Possibility, Hypothetical and Prediction
Language expresses a range of subtlety. In this section, we explore the difference between, as well as how to use modals (should, can, may, might, etc) accurately. We further understand how to use wish, hope and want, as well as when to use can and may in the correct contexts. This will aid in expressing obligation and possibility in speech and writing, as well as using grammar to make predictions in your writing.
Should, would and could
Should
Use should and shouldn’t for advice.
- You should go to the doctor.
- You shouldn’t spend so much time on the computer.
- You should apologise to your friend.
Use could and couldn’t for ability in the past.
- When I was younger, I could run faster.
- Yesterday, I couldn’t find my car keys.
- At the beginning of the course, he couldn’t understand verb tenses, but now he can.
Use could for possibilities in the future.
- I could design a large poster.
- He could canvas the people in the street.
Use could to make polite requests.
- Could you please be quiet?
- Could you make copies of this report?
Use would to talk about unreal or unlikely situations.
- If I were the boss, I would make a lot of changes.
- She would travel around the world if she had a lot of money.
Use would you like to make polite offers.
- Would you like something to drink?
- Would you like to go to the beach?
Can vs. may:
- I can swim very well.
- I can read extremely fast.
- I can iron your slacks as well as my top.
- I can do that for you if you like.
- I can walk to the station.
BUT:
- You may not eat sweets after you have brushed your teeth.
- You may not go to the beach before you have finished your work.
- You may not go home until you have finished the report.
- You may not get on the train until all the passengers have alighted.
- You may not carry more than seven kilometres of hand luggage onto the plane.
Wish and hope
Use hope to indicate that you want something to happen in the future.
You are not talking about wanting an action or situation to be different.
You are not talking with impatience either.
- I hope it won’t rain tomorrow. (Not I wish it won’t rain tomorrow.)
- I hope she’ll pass her exam. (Not I wish she’ll pass her exam.)
- I hope her plane won’t crash. (Not I wish her plane won’t crash.)
Use wish in some fixed expressions.
- I wish you a happy anniversary.
- We wish you good luck for your exams.
Use wish to mean want in a formal situation as in the following examples:
- I wish to leave now.
- I wish to speak to the boss.
- I don’t wish my name to appear on the list