Clear, Concise, and Conversational

Each time you publish an academic paper, you’re presenting new information or a new perspective. Often you’ll need to convince critics that your research is solid and explain new concepts to readers unfamiliar with your field of expertise.

How you convey that information is crucial. The language you use and the way you present your work to your readers will determine how well your paper is received, the impact of your research, and even how often it is cited by your peers.

Before you draft your next paper, consider the three C's: Make sure your writing is clear, concise, and conversational.

Get clear

The first thing you need to be clear about is your target audience: Are your readers experts in the same field as you or are you writing for a more general audience? Do you speak the same language? In many cases, you will want to write for a global audience to have your research reach the widest readership, so writing clearly also means using language that is simple enough for non-native speakers to understand.

Another reason to strive for clarity above all else is that half of the communication between you and your readers lies in how they process what you have written; the message they receive needs to be the same as the one you have sent. If readers misinterpret your message, then all of your impressive research will have been in vain.

To this end, one journal I work with simplifies its entire editing process as ‘results first,’ meaning that all papers need to have a focus on results. By scrutinising articles with this in mind, you clarify the article’s relevance to your reader. Emphasizing this in your paper will allow readers to instantly grasp why your findings are important - in general, and specifically to them - and will encourage them to read further to get the details.

Concise language for the strongest impact

You’ll find that as you write more clearly, your writing will naturally get more concise. You should provide all of the information your reader needs but without all the long, drawn-out descriptions that detract from your key findings. If you can get your point across with fewer words, why not?

A couple of tips:

• Keep an eye out for redundant/unnecessary words. I’ve often edited texts that state a finding is “significantly important.” Significant and important mean virtually the same, so use one or the other. If you need more emphasis, use a more powerful word such as vital or critical.

• Watch out for sentence length. English doesn’t have the genders and multiple endings found in other languages, and long sentences suffer because they can get confusing. There’s no need to cut down all of your sentences, but do vary the sentence length. If a sentence runs more than 30 words, the reader might start to lose interest.

• Your abstract is one section in which being concise is especially beneficial. It’s wise to spend time editing your abstract as it acts as an advert for the rest of your paper. If you struggle with this, consider using an editor or use these tips to reduce your manuscript as required.

Conversational tone to actively engage your reader

Be conversational. Now, I know your academic paper isn’t the place for personal stories or excited displays of exuberance. However, if you write a little more as you would speak then your writing will be more engaging and interesting to read.

Unless the journal you’re writing for specifically requests you write in the passive voice, write actively as much as possible:

Instead of this: As can be seen from the results, the effect of using additive x in coatings…

Write this: The results show that using additive x…

As you can see, active language is more conversational, it’s clear, and usually much more concise. It encourages you to read on. Passive language requires a bit more thought and makes your text more cumbersome and difficult to understand.

Many languages use the passive voice more than is customary in English, so this might feel a bit awkward at first if you’re a non-native English speaker. However, using an active voice will strengthen your writing. It’s the equivalent of having a good, strong handshake – you mean business and aren’t afraid to take responsibility.

Increase your readership and the impact of your research

More support for this concept can be found in author guidelines by certain publishers such as Nature Research, which prefers authors to write in the active voice. The guidelines state that papers that are “clear, comprehensible and as short as is consistent with this goal, [are] very likely to increase the paper’s readership, impact and the number of times others cite it.” Sounds good to me.

In a world where your reader is bombarded with information, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get your message across to those who need to hear it. By writing clearly, concisely, and more conversationally, you’ll engage your reader and stop them skimming over the details. Ensure your complex results are understood and your message is received as intended. You’ll also improve your chances of acceptance to the journal, and as an added bonus, make it easier, quicker, and therefore cheaper to translate and edit your work.