Expert writing (academic and professional)
- Interferences between what the writer want and what the reader want.
- Readers tend to see the world in terms of actions, and thus they look for verbs. But writers store/remember the important concepts of their field as nouns, not verbs.
- Readers tend to understand the world in terms of characters (someone/something capable of acting), and they expect to find them in subjects.
- Diagnostics when reading a text:
- underline verbs and ask if they correspond to significant actions;
- underline subjects and ask if they correspond to significant characters.
- Principles of clear writing:
- express as verbs (rather than nominalizations) the actions one want the readers to focus on;
- express as subjects the characters one wants the readers to focus on, and be consistent.
- Tips:
- Subjects create focus, so choose them according to the readers, but also choose those that are valued by the readers.
- Possible to use passive verbs when they allow a character to be the subject.
- Possible to use nominalizations when they are also perceived by the readers as characters.
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