Writing Clearly

There are three overarching values that we have as academic writers: clarity, concision, and style.

Clarity involves expressing your ideas in a comprehensible manner to a reader; concision involves expressing those ideas using as few words as possible; style refers to expressing your ideas in an engaging and distinctive manner.

Sometimes these values work in conjunction with one another. Other times, they can conflict.

Part of your job as a writer is to determine which value you wish to prioritize in a particular instance. In this section, we will look at strategies for writing clearly, both within sentences and across sentences.

Writing Clearly within Sentences

There are many strategies for writing clearly within sentences, but in this section, we will highlight four strategies.

Keep the subject and verb close together

By keeping the subject and verb close together, the writer improves readability as the reader can easily determine who or what is doing the action.

Example of an unclear construction: “The company, which in addition to punctuality, conscientiousness, and appropriate education, is looking for employees with strong communication skills.”

Example of a clear construction: In addition to punctuality, conscientiousness, and appropriate education, the company is looking for employees with strong communication skills.”

In the sentence that is clearly constructed, the subject (i.e., “the company”) immediately precedes the verb phrase (i.e., “is looking). This close connection helps the reader to determine who is doing the action.

Choose strong verbs

By using strong verbs in your writing, you are not only providing more specificity, your reader can better visualize the action.

Example of a weak verb: “High inflation is a problem for the long-term growth of the technology industry.”

Example of a strong verb: “High inflation threatens the long-term growth of the technology industry.”

Write in the active voice

When you write in the active voice, the reader can recognize who or what is doing the action. Writing in the passive voice, on the other hand, obscures the actor. While there is a time and a place to write in the passive voice (e.g., some scientific writing, government reports), generally the active voice is preferred. Writing in the active voice is also more concise.

Example of the passive voice: The essay was written by me.

Example of the active voice: I wrote the essay.

To write in active voice, make sure the subject of the sentence is performing the action of the sentence.

Begin sentences with contextual information, and end sentences with new and/or interesting information

When we begin sentences with contextual information, we provide the reader with a foundation of knowledge to build on. Moreover, when we end the sentence with the most interesting information, we engage the reader by building intrigue and establishing the context for subsequent ideas.

Ineffective example: American cinema saw a resurgence of the auteur in the 1990s.

Effective example: In the 1990s, American cinema saw a resurgence of the auteur.

In the example above, the time period “In the 1990s” provides the reader with necessary contextual information, while the main idea of “a resurgence of the auteur” is the main takeaway from the sentence and anticipates what comes next. This main idea is therefore well placed at the end of the sentence.

Writing Clearly across Sentences

Clear individual sentences are necessary for clear writing but not sufficient. We must also consider how our sentences combine to form passages and paragraphs. There are numerous strategies that we can use to improve clarity and cohesion across sentences.

Keeping the subject consistent

By keeping the grammatical subject consistent across multiple sentences in a passage, you can better ensure that your reader will be able to recognize the focus of the passage.

Consider the following two sentences. Although on their own the sentences are clear, there is less clarity when they are combined. One of the reasons for this lack of clarity is the shifting of the grammatical subject.

The basis of our Canadian democracy – equal opportunity for all – is being threatened by university costs that have been rising fast for the last several years. Increases in family income have been significantly outpaced by increases in tuition at our universities during that period.

With multiple subjects included, the reader must do a lot of work to determine the overarching focus of the passage (is the focus democracy? Income? Tuition?). Consider, the following revision instead:

In the last several years, university tuition has been rising so fast that it is now threatening the basis of our Canadian democracy – equal opportunity for all. During this period, tuition significantly outpaced increases in family income.

Here there is consistency in the grammatical subject (i.e., tuition) across sentences, which gives the reader a basis from which to work through the text.

However, as writers, we cannot keep the subject consistent across all our sentences because this will lead to repetition and stale writing. Fortunately, there are other strategies in clarity that we can use.

The old/new strategy

As a general rule, introducing new information to a reader at the beginning of a sentence is not recommended. This is because the reader will be temporarily lost as they try to understand this new idea or concept. Instead, a useful strategy is to transition to new ideas in the middle or end of a sentence (i.e., the new) and return to those ideas at the beginning of the next sentence (i.e., the old). Sentences can also begin with old information to help the reader see connections between ideas.

For example, consider the following passage:

Richard Dawkins is a contemporary evolutionary biologist, who is famous for writing The Selfish Gene. This book was heavily influenced by Darwin’s The Origin of the Species. Many of Darwin’s ideas are developed in Dawkins’ book with the aid of new scientific findings.

• New information: The Selfish Gene, Darwin's The Origin of the Species, new scientific findings
• Old information: "This book," "Many of Darwin's ideas"

The old/new strategy is not only an effective clarity strategy, but it can help generate momentum and “flow” into your writing.

Transition words and phrases

Transition words and phrases are another effective strategy to build clarity and cohesion. These words and phrases such as “therefore” and “in addition” help to guide your reader through your work as they convey relationships between sentences and ideas. Please see the Writing Services handout, “Transition Words and Phrases.”

Writing Services, Wilfrid Laurier University, CC By-NC 2023