Parallel Constructions

TECHNICAL WRITING STYLE GUIDE

Edition 24

April 2005

CONTENT

GRAMMAR AND STYLE

Tips for Clarity 3

Parallel Constructions 3

Misplaced Modifiers 4

Dangling Modifiers 5

Plurals and Singulars 5

Collectives and Their Verbs 6

Verb Tense 6

Italicization 7

Capitalization 8

Abbreviations 11

Acronyms 11

Web-Related Items 12

Numeral Usage 12

Monetary Amounts 14

Units of Measure 14

Chemical Names and Symbols 15

Corporate Names 16

Russian-English Transliteration 17

Personal Titles 18

Addresses 18

Lists in Text 19

SPELLING

General Tips 20

PUNCTUATION

Period (.) 21

Comma (,) 21

Semicolon (;) 23

Colon (:) 24

Apostrophe (’) 25

Parentheses ( ) and Brackets [ ] 25

Ampersand (&) 26

Hyphen (-) 26

Hyphenation of Unit Modifiers 28

En Dash (-) 29

Em Dash (¾) 30

Quotation Marks (“ ”) 30

Single Quotation Marks (‘ ’) 32

Slash ( / ) 32

Spacing 32

Appendix 1. Common Problems with Usage and Grammar 34

Appendix 2. Spelling Dictionary 38

Appendix 3. Acronyms 41

Appendix 4. Units of Measure 45

GRAMMAR AND STYLE

Tips for Clarity

Be concise. Eliminate unnecessary words. Prefer a short word to a longer word or phrase with the same meaning. Change the following in your text:

Due to the fact that-because, utilize-use, for the purpose of-to, in reference to-about, employ-use, etc.

Prefer active voice. Blend voices in your text, but give preference to active voice, as it is more clear, expressive, and short.

Passive voice: An improved method was recommended by the authors.
Results of the five experiments are shown in Fig. 2.

Active voice: The authors recommended an improved method.
Fig. 2 shows results of the five experiments.

On the contrary, while translating to Russian, remember that in Russian technical writing passive voice is more common.

Avoid jargon. Use commonly accepted terms rather than professional jargon. Note that English and Russian jargons are quite different and cannot be translated adequately.

Limit the use of abbreviations. Do not abbreviate terms used in text just few times. Spell out the frequent term at the first use and put the abbreviated form in parentheses; then use only the abbreviation or acronym (See Appendix 2).

Avoid meaningless redundancies.

actual measurements advance planning completely absent first initiated
join together relative proportion rise up sink down
throughout the entire area dark green in color

Parallel Constructions

The following sentence elements indicate parallel constructions:

(1) Coordinate conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor, yet). A shift in verb tense, voice, or mood, after a coordinating conjunction, violates parallelism and may create difficulties in understanding.

Incorrect
Limestones in massive beds and thin layers of sandstones.

Correct
Limestones in massive beds and sandstones in thin beds.

(2) Correlative conjunctions (both…and, either…or, if…than, neither…nor, not only…but also). If a verb follows one, a verb should follow the other; if a prepositional phrase follows one, a prepositional phrase should follow the other. Repair of faulty parallelism may require only transposition or addition of a word or two.

Incorrect
This nation not only has achieved great things in science but also in the arts.

Correct
This nation has achieved great things not only in science but also in the arts.

(3) And which, and who, and that, but which, but who, and but that need preceding which, who, or that.

Incorrect
This basin, the largest and which contains the principal oil field, is in the western part of the country.

Correct
This basin, which is the largest and which contains the principal oil field, is in the western part of the country.

(4) Items in a list, table, or series should be in the parallel format.

Incorrect
(a) Laboratory equipment should be assembled; (b) then arrange samples in proper sequence; (c) tests are run; (d) we recommend that results then be recorded.

Correct
(a) Assemble laboratory equipment, (b) arrange samples in proper sequence; (c) run tests, (d) record results.

(5) Expressions of comparison and contrast.

Incorrect
The instruments on Skylab were more complex than the ERTS payload.

Correct
The instruments on Skylab were more complex than those on ERTS.

Date: 2015-12-24; view: 929