Mike Hannay en J. Lachlan Mackenzie - Effective Writing in English

Part 1 The process of writing

English and Dutch differ with respect to average sentence length. Compar ison of similar English and Dutch texts has shown that sentences in English argued texts tend to be on average somewhat longer than their Dutch coun terparts. This is partly because Dutch has a certain tolerance for the type of incomplete sentence discussed in Section 4.2 above. Another reason is the existence and frequent use in English of ‘participial constructions’, for which there is no real equivalent in Dutch. These constructions are built around a form of the verb with the ending -ing and occur, preceded by a comma, at the end of a sentence. Compare the following sequence of two Dutch sentences:

De zegspersoon van de regering zei op dat moment geen verklaring te kun nen afleggen. Hij voegde nog toe dat er geen verklaring in het verschiet lag.

In English a single sentence with a participial construction would be more natural:

The government spokesperson stated that he was unable to make a state ment at that moment, adding that no statement was in the offing.

Our advice, which we will come back to in Chapter 6, is to bear this fact about English argumentative prose in mind as you write. If you have created two separate sentences that stand next to each other and are closely connected in their meaning, it may well be appropriate to link them together into one more complex sentence, for instance using a participial construction.

1.7

Review

This chapter has given brief coverage to many aspects of writing argued texts in English. We will return to them later in the book where they will be looked at in greater depth. Here is a summary of the main points of Chapter 1: 1 You should plan your argued text in advance. 2 You may quote or paraphrase peer-reviewed publications. 3 You must make every effort to avoid plagiarism. 4 You should not only present facts but also bring out your perspective and your communicative intention. 5 You need to prioritize reader-friendliness and coherence. 6 You should avoid the use of first- and second-person pronouns. 7 You should make sparing use of questions and orders and avoid exclama tions altogether. 8 You should write complete sentences. 9 You should not import certain characteristics of Dutch texts into your English writing.

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