Student Interview

Professional Interview

How to Avoid Offensive and Gender-Specific Language

Hello, I'm Ada Fisher, and I'm a colleague of Joshua Schwartz. This article will focus on how to avoid using offensive and gender specific language, according to the advice of the Senior Editors of Yahoo! (Barr, C., & Senior Editors of Yahoo!, 2010).

Offensive language is language that leaves your readers feeling excluded or offended.  Offensive language—which includes sexist language, biased language, and nonliteral language that excludes non-native speakers of English—gives your writing the appearance of bias, and can damage your credibility. Your writing should be free of offensive language.

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How to Avoid Gender-Specific Pronouns

Gender-specific pronouns are appropriate to use when you write about specific individuals, but you should avoid using gender-specific pronouns when you write about groups that could have members of either gender. Using the gender-specific pronoun she to refer to nurses generally, for example, is both factually inaccurate and potentially offensive. You could avoid the appearance of gender bias by using phrases like "he or she" or "his or hers," but using these phrases often leads to awkward or clunky sentence construction.

Here are several methods for eliminating gender-specific pronouns from a sentence.

• Remove the pronoun if the sentence works without it.
• "Accept any challenging assignments that your boss offers to you to show them your eagerness."
  becomes
• "Accept any challenging assignments that your boss offers to you to show your eagerness."
• Rewrite the sentence to remove the need for gender-specific pronouns. Substituting a or the for the pronouns can sometimes eliminate this problem.
• "“A crossing guard performs his job carefully.”
  
  becomes
• “A crossing guard performs the job carefully.”
• Use the imperative form—write the sentence as a command—and replace gender-specific pronouns with you and your.
• “A writer should proofread before she publishes.”
  becomes
• “Proofread before you publish.”
• Use the plural form of the noun, and replace gender-specific pronouns with they.
• “A professional golfer should never lose his composure.”
  becomes
• “Professional golfers should never lose their composure.”

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How to Avoid Gender-Specific Words

Some words in the English language are inherently masculine or feminine; to keep your writing gender-neutral, replace masculine or feminine words with gender-neutral terms. Here are a few examples.

• "We need a new chairman to head the board."
  becomes
• "We need a new chair to head the board."
• "You may call the stewardess over to help adjust your seat."
  becomes
• "You may call the flight attendant over to help adjust your seat."
• "Man the terminal while I'm away."
  becomes
• "Operate the terminal while I'm away."

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How to Write Culturally Inclusive Text

Writing clearly, efficiently, and literally accommodates your international audience.  Here are a couple of tips to make your text more understandable to an international audience.

• Avoid idioms, rhetorical language, slang, and nonliteral usages.
• Non-native speakers of English may not understand idiomatic language, and may find phrases like "that was a piece of cake" or "that was a slap on the wrist" confusing or meaningless.
• Slang is culture-specific, and sometimes carries offensive connotations.
• Keep sentence structure simple 
• Limit the number of words in each sentence.
• Use active verbs.
• Use positive language.
• Negative language increases the number of words in a sentence, and can sound bureaucratic.
• Negative questions—for example, "Don't you like coffee?"—can leave nonnative speakers of English uncertain as to how to answer. A "yes" answer could be understood to indicate a dislike of coffee by speakers of another language.

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Thanks for reading, and thanks to Joshua for allowing me to write this guest post. If you're interested in exploring alternative forms of narrative, visit my text game tutorial blog Text Game Tutor.

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Source

English Writing Infographic

 
        Top Ten Mistakes College Writers Make
 

| Create infographics

How to Properly Place Modifiers

Another important aspect of style is how to correctly use a modifier. This article focuses on how to improve the usage of a modifier according to the University of Wisconsin (Twelve common errors, 2013).

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How to Use a Modifier

A modifier is a word that changes the meaning of another word. In the next examples, the modifiers have been italicized while the words they change have been underlined.  

• "The ball is red."
• "He ran quickly."
• "The crooked stairs are difficult to climb."
• "To boldly go where no man has gone before."

What Happens When We Misuse a Modifier 

• A modifier becomes misplaced
• A modifier becomes a dangling modifier

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Misplaced Modifiers

A misplaced modifier is a modifier that creates confusion in a sentence. Misplaced modifiers are found near multiple nouns or any two clauses. In the following examples, the misplaced modifiers have been italicized while the words they modify are underlined. 

Notice how the misplaced modifiers create confusion in the sentences.

• "People who laugh rarely are sad."
• Are the people who laugh rarely sad, or do they laugh rarely?
• "She saw a puppy and a kitten on the way to the store."
• Did she see a puppy and a kitten going to the store, or did she see the puppy and the kitten as she herself was on her way to the store?

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How to Fix a Misplaced Modifier

To fix a misplaced modifier, move the modifier next to the word or clause it modifies. Notice in the changed above examples, the modified words are closer to their modifiers. 

• "People who rarely laugh are sad."
• "On the way to the store, she saw a puppy and a kitten."

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Dangling Modifiers

A dangling modifier is similar to a misplaced modify, but slightly different. In a dangling modifier, the modifier is present, but the word that it modifies is absent. In the next examples, the modifiers have been italicized. 

Notice how the modifiers lack a word to modify.

• "Walking down the street, the weather was fine."
• Who walked down the street?
• "Bored of the long trip, John's excitement rose as he spotted a rest house."
• John's excitement is incapable of being bored

How to Fix Dangling Modifiers

To fix a dangling modifier, include the missing modified word into the clause that contains the modifier. Using the earlier examples, the modifiers have been italicized, while the newly included modified words are underlined.

• "Walking down the street, I saw the weather was fine."
• "John felt bored of the long trip, but his excitement rose as he spotted a rest house."

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Review

Tips on How to Spot Misplaced/Dangling Modifiers

• Use your eyes! Many grammar checkers often miss a misplaced modifier or a dangling modifier

1. Identify the words that are being modified and the words that modify the aforementioned words
2. Are the modifiers and modified words close together? If not, check to see if they fit the criteria for a misplaced/dangling modifier
3. Rewrite the sentence so that the modifiers and modified words are as close together as possible

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Sources

Avoid Helping Verbs and Modal Verbs

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List of Helping Verbs and Modal Verbs

Helping Verbs

• Will, shall, may, might, can, could, must, ought to, should, would, used to, and need

Modal Verbs

• Can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, would

How to Write Clearer and More Efficiently

Now that a college student knows how to fix most of their grammar issues, it is time to move on to writing style tips. The focus of this article will be on how to improve the flow of a written work, according to the advice provided by the Senior Editors of Yahoo! (Barr, C., & Senior Editors of Yahoo!, 2010)

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How to Use Determiners

A determiner is a word that comes in front of a noun. 

• "The cat is sleeping."
• "A giant bird just flew past my head."
• "Dude, did you eat my pizza?"
• "Both blinds were drawn fully open to let the moonlight seep inside the room."

Why Using Determiners Improves Your Writing

• Reduces the grade level of your writing
• Makes it easier for non-native English speakers to translate the written work

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How to Untangle Messy Sentences

1. Check for Excessive Gerunds

• "Slipping the round peg into the electrical configuration, making sure that it fits properly, adjusting it for proper fitting." 

    2.    Remove Unnecessary Modal Verbs

• "Can you if you would, the shortest route to Kansas is by bus."

    3.    Avoid Passive Sentences

• "I have been running since I was at least six years old."
• This rule never applies if you follow an old/new pattern (see below)

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Follow an Old/New Pattern

An old/new pattern occurs when you start the next sentence of a paragraph with a subject that has been introduced in a previous sentence.

"The dog ate from its bowl. The bowl was very clean. Cleanliness is important for dog owners. Dog owners must make sure that their dogs avoid becoming sick."

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Review

How to Make Your Writing Clearer

• Use Determiners
• The, a/an, both, many, some, few, etc.,
• Untangle your sentences
• Check for gerunds
• They are verbs that end with -ing, running, hitting, swinging, etc.,
• Check for modal verbs
• Can, could, would, shall, might, etc.,
• Avoid passive sentences
• Instead of "she has been running until she became tired," use "she ran until she was completely tired."
• Follow the old/new pattern
• Remember that it is okay to use a passive sentence if a new subject has been introduced in a previous sentence

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Sources