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By Ron Kraybill

With Apologies to the Author of the Original Ten^*

Thou shalt build thy paper around a well-organized outline. Before beginning a paper, develop an outline of the major points you wish to make. If possible, organize the paper into several major sections with appropriate headings. This makes it easy for your reader to easily grasp the �big picture� of the content of the paper.

Some writers find it difficult to lay out a whole outline before beginning a paper. �I figure out what I want to say in the process of saying it,� a friend once commented. �I think as I write.� If you find it difficult to foresee where you will go in a paper until you have begun the writing process, do not be discouraged. Start by writing any part of the paper you choose, perhaps one idea that you have or even the ending! But after you have written for a time, stop and re-visit the matter of outline. Ask yourself: What are the major points I wish to communicate to the reader in this paper? Use these points to form the paper�s outline. If the paper is lengthy, introduce these ideas to the reader at the beginning and summarize your major findings or conclusion about them at the end.

Thou shalt build thy paper around well-constructed paragraphs. Each paragraph should convey one central idea. Of course you may have sub-points within a paragraph that support the main idea. But there should always be a clear, logical connection binding the entire paragraph from beginning to end. Usually you should introduce this idea in the first sentence of the paragraph. Place ideas that bear no direct connection in separate paragraphs.

A good exercise to strengthen your paragraphs is to read every paragraph critically after you have written it. Ask yourself: What is the major point I am trying to make here? Take your eyes off your paper and summarize the point in your mind. Then return to the paragraph and see if the paragraph communicates clearly the summary you made in your mind. If not, revise until it does!

Thou shalt not use passive voice verbs; thou shalt use crisp, precise verbs in active voice. More than any other grammatical form, people in academia abuse the passive voice, a verb form which tells what was done but does not specify who did it.

Each of these sentences is in the passive voice. Each would be more precise and livelier to read if the writer used the active voice instead:

Using active voice awakens not only your prose and your reader. It keeps you, the author, on your toes. Notice that the active voice sentences above specify who rose, who fired the shots, who considered the options, who mediated. When you switch to active voice you have little choice but to be clear and precise. Sloppiness and sleepy sentences fly out the window!

Many people seem to think that passive voice is preferable in academic writing. It is true that sentence after sentence of passive voice deadens the mind and leaves the reader constantly unsure about what the author is trying to say. In this fog of unclarity, it is possible that a slight halo effect develops around the author. If you seek cheap haloes, maybe the passive voice is for you�.!

More seriously, on rare occasions vagueness is unavoidable, even desirable. But let those moments be the exception. If you use passive voice more than once per page, you are probably over-using it! Eliminating passive voice is for most writers the quickest and easiest way to achieve a significant improvement in the readability and clarity of their prose.

Thou shalt revise, revise, and revise again; no unedited papers shalt thou submit. Good prose requires as much perspiration as inspiration. Do not expect to achieve clear, precise writing in your first draft. Good writers revise three, four, five or more times before considering their work finished. The EMU CTP is of course not a writing department, and papers here are not graded on the basis of writing. (Notice that I just used passive voice, but only after trying an active voice version in my first draft and deciding upon re-reading that, in this instance, the point came through more smoothly in passive voice.) But you�d be surprised at how much time and re-reading it takes me as a professor just to understand what students are trying to say.

Because good writing is such an asset in peacebuilding work, I am prepared to assist in refining your skills by commenting on your writing. If you want this kind of commentary, please add a note at the top: �writing suggestions requested� or something similar. Absent such a specific request, I won�t bother to comment (unless I really can�t bear to suffer in silence!)

However, you need to keep your end of the bargain: you must first do the best you can with your papers before requesting my critique. I don�t mean your paper must be perfect, but I can�t proofread and comment on papers that students have not themselves proofread. Before submitting it, I ask that you re-read and revise any paper you want me to critique from a writing perspective at least twice.

Some tips in revising:

1. Make every word earn its keep. Chop any word or phrase that can be eliminated without changing the meaning, clarity, or �flow� of the sentence. Every such deleted word is a victory for the cause of clear writing!
1. Add zest to your prose by banishing the word �very�. Why jack up a weak word by preceding it with an even weaker one? At times, of course, you will want to add emphasis; you may want the reader to understand that your point is very important. In that case, say that the point is �critical�, �urgent�, �pivotal�, etc. The rule of thumb here: If you want to make a strong impression, select a strong word to make it.
1. Do final editing a few days after you have finished a section and the paper has grown �cold� in your memory. A sentence which appeared brilliantly clear in the heat of writer�s inspiration often seems opaque 48 hours later; even to me, its author! Any sentence, any paragraph which on �cold� reading requires a second glance to understand is an obvious candidate for revision.
1. Try reading your writing aloud to yourself as you edit. Many people �hear� mistakes and rough spots more easily than they �see� them in print.

Thou shalt value clarity more than show, simplicity more than grandiosity. Do not fall into the sins of the academics, who prefer the obscure term over the simple one. Do not use a five-dollar word when a ten cent one will do just as well.

Whenever possible, write in language that any high school graduate could understand. There are times, to be sure, when a five syllable word or obscure academic term communicates an idea with a precision that no simpler word can match. In this case, use the fancy word! But maintain a bias for simple language.

Use the fancy term not as first resort but as second, and use it only in those moments when you cannot find a way to express your ideas as efficiently or precisely in ordinary terms. Your readers will be grateful! Your ideas will get a broader hearing because more people will read and understand them! In the end, you will look more intelligent and credible; by refusing to fluff your ideas with jargon you demonstrate your confidence in them.

Perhaps the biggest payoff of raising your standards of clear writing is that it also raises your standards of thinking. The truth is that big words often disguise muddled or vague thinking on the writer�s part. To write simply forces an author to clarify: what am I really trying to say? If you write clearly and without pretension you become a better thinker as well.

For anauthorguide for writing in American writing style, see also the inexpensive, ewritteby Strunk and White, The Elements of Style.