One of the challenges of starting to teaching asynchronously online is to adapt your writing style. This can be particularly challenging for academics who have spent years honing their academic writing style.
Writing for distant learners is different – it requires a new set of rules. It is essentially simpler and more straightforward than academic writing. Here are some guidelines to writing style and readability.
General points
Our aim in education is to communicate clearly and effectively with learners. To do this in blended learning we usually recommend that writers use a direct, simple, conversational style of writing. Often, this is the opposite of what we have learned to do in formal writing. Sometimes it is the opposite of what we may be encouraging our learners to do (for example when they write reports or practice creative writing).
In blended learning we try to establish the same relationship with each learner as we would have when teaching him or her face-to-face. An emphasis on a learner centred approach in course planning should make it possible for you to write material which is relevant and motivating for all your learners.
There are two goals for good writing in blended learning:
• it must be self-explanatory.
• readers must understand your argument if they are going to interact with it and respond critically.
Therefore readers should be able to get your message without having to read and re-read what you have written.
Address the reader directly
Use personal pronouns—‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘you’ in your writing, just as you would in the classroom.
Use ‘we’ when there a group of people involved in the writing, or when you are referring to a group that involve you. Otherwise, use ‘I’. In the first paragraph of this section I used the term ‘we’ to refer to teachers (me and other teachers), and again to refer to workers in blended learning (me and colleagues in my field).
Use a conversational style
Try to write as you would speak, or write a letter. Remember, you are trying to get each of your learners to engage in a dialogue with you, through the written text and other media.
Use a simple grammatical style
In general, write short sentences with one idea to each sentence. Avoid writing long or multiple subordinate clauses in a sentence. Also, avoid using lots of adjectives.
But do try to keep your writing varied, to make it interesting. Writing that consists only of short simple sentences can easily become monotonous and uncomfortable to read. Most experts agree that clear writing should have an average sentence length of 15-20 words.
Use paragraphs, too, to reflect the structure of your text. Use them to break your writing into manageable ‘chunks’, with paragraph breaks where you introduce a new concept or example, or where your argument can be broken into steps.
Use simple vocabulary
Research shows that the use of simple words improves understanding and reduces reading errors. Simple words also make your writing more pleasing to read and more effective. By simple words, I mean words that your reader will understand.
If you find you are using long or multi-syllabled words, look for shorter words to replace them. Use a thesaurus and develop your own list of substitutes for words that you use often. Even technical terms can be replaced with simpler equivalents—usually it is more important to communicate effectively than to get students to use all the ‘jargon’ of your subject.
When you are writing for other purposes, use jargon only when you are writing to someone who uses the same jargon. Even then you should take care: often the use of jargon causes major misunderstandings.
Use an active writing style
Generally this means using ‘active’ forms of verbs in English—basically the difference between saying ‘I did it’ and ‘It was done by me’. The second example is a passive style. Most passive sentences include some form of the verb ‘to be’ and a past participle – for example ‘it was’ and ‘done’ in the example just given.
In most sentences that contain active verbs, the doer comes first, then the action, then the object. This kind of sentence makes it clear who the ‘doer’ is. For example:
Passive: ‘It has been shown that passive writing is more difficult to understand.’ Shown by whom?
Active: ‘Researchers have found that passive writing is hard to understand.’
Most of us were encouraged to write in a passive style during our own education. (That was another passive sentence: if I had written ‘our teachers encouraged us to write passive prose’ it would have been more active). Active sentences are generally easier for readers to understand.
Passive writing also introduces a grammatical form referred to as a nominalisation, where a verb is changed to a noun form. For example:
‘We had a meeting to discuss the house style.’
Can be written more actively as ‘We met to discuss the house style’
‘The house style makes reference to principles of informative writing’ is better written as ‘The house style refers to principles of informative writing’.
Suggestion The grammar checking programme in Word will help you identify where you are using a passive style. Look for ‘Grammar’ in the ‘Tools’ menu.
Remember These are guidelines, not rules. Sometimes a passive style may be necessary. For example, you may not know who the ‘doer’ is. Or who they are may not be relevant to the reader. But in general, seek an active style.
Allow for differences between your readers
Refer to your learner profile as you write your materials, and check that your examples and assumptions are appropriate to all your individual learners. For example, with women and men studying blended education programmes, it is good practice to learn how to write in a gender-inclusive way—using ‘he or she’ where you might in the past have written ‘he’.
Remember that your learners may be old or young, rural or urban, male or female. Some may have skills that others do not. Some may have access to resources that are not available to others, and so on. When you write activities or assignments, check carefully to make sure you haven’t asked students to do something which some may find impossible—for example because they do not have access to the facilities you refer to.
Suggestion When you ask colleagues or experts to comment on your materials, make sure that they know who you are writing for. If necessary, give them a copy of your learner profile.
Check your readability level
You can use a variety of ways to check the reading level of your materials and help you improve your skills of writing simply and directly. One way is to use the grammar checking facility in Word, which will give you a readability score once it has checked your writing. Another way is to use the ‘Gunning Fog Index’, a common way of judging how understandable a piece of writing may be. To use the Fog Index, follow these steps:
If your score is much higher than 10, consider:
• dividing sentences into two
• looking for simpler words to replace the longer ones
• setting a series of items in list form whenever this is appropriate.
• getting rid of unnecessary words or phrases
Be positive
People seem to find it easier to think positively. Negative sentences are usually harder to understand than positive ones. Often this is because you are placing the emphasis on the thing you want readers to ignore or avoid. For example:
‘Don’t depart from the house style’ is less direct than ‘Keep to the house style’.
The strongest word in the first sentence is ‘depart’ which may leave exact the opposite impression to what you intend.
Break the rules
Conversational writing style includes writing in ways that we have been taught were ungrammatical. This simply acknowledges the way that language changes, whilst writing styles can be slower to change. In particular, despite what you may have been taught it can be good practice to:
• Start a sentence with ‘And’, ‘But’, ‘Because’, ‘So’, ‘However’ and other useful linking words
• Split infinitives – like ‘to wisely observe’
• End a sentence with a preposition.
• Repeat a word in a sentence if it is the right word for your purpose.
One of the challenges of starting to teaching asynchronously online is to adapt your writing style. This can be particularly challenging for academics who have spent years honing their academic writing style.
Writing for distant learners is different – it requires a new set of rules. It is essentially simpler and more straightforward than academic writing. Here are some guidelines to writing style and readability.
General points
Our aim in education is to communicate clearly and effectively with learners. To do this in blended learning we usually recommend that writers use a direct, simple, conversational style of writing. Often, this is the opposite of what we have learned to do in formal writing. Sometimes it is the opposite of what we may be encouraging our learners to do (for example when they write reports or practice creative writing).
In blended learning we try to establish the same relationship with each learner as we would have when teaching him or her face-to-face. An emphasis on a learner centred approach in course planning should make it possible for you to write material which is relevant and motivating for all your learners.
There are two goals for good writing in blended learning:
• it must be self-explanatory.
• readers must understand your argument if they are going to interact with it and respond critically.
Therefore readers should be able to get your message without having to read and re-read what you have written.
Address the reader directly
Use personal pronouns—‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘you’ in your writing, just as you would in the classroom.
Use ‘we’ when there a group of people involved in the writing, or when you are referring to a group that involve you. Otherwise, use ‘I’. In the first paragraph of this section I used the term ‘we’ to refer to teachers (me and other teachers), and again to refer to workers in blended learning (me and colleagues in my field).
Use a conversational style
Try to write as you would speak, or write a letter. Remember, you are trying to get each of your learners to engage in a dialogue with you, through the written text and other media.
Use a simple grammatical style
In general, write short sentences with one idea to each sentence. Avoid writing long or multiple subordinate clauses in a sentence. Also, avoid using lots of adjectives.
But do try to keep your writing varied, to make it interesting. Writing that consists only of short simple sentences can easily become monotonous and uncomfortable to read. Most experts agree that clear writing should have an average sentence length of 15-20 words.
Use paragraphs, too, to reflect the structure of your text. Use them to break your writing into manageable ‘chunks’, with paragraph breaks where you introduce a new concept or example, or where your argument can be broken into steps.
Use simple vocabulary
Research shows that the use of simple words improves understanding and reduces reading errors. Simple words also make your writing more pleasing to read and more effective. By simple words, I mean words that your reader will understand.
If you find you are using long or multi-syllabled words, look for shorter words to replace them. Use a thesaurus and develop your own list of substitutes for words that you use often. Even technical terms can be replaced with simpler equivalents—usually it is more important to communicate effectively than to get students to use all the ‘jargon’ of your subject.
When you are writing for other purposes, use jargon only when you are writing to someone who uses the same jargon. Even then you should take care: often the use of jargon causes major misunderstandings.
Use an active writing style
Generally this means using ‘active’ forms of verbs in English—basically the difference between saying ‘I did it’ and ‘It was done by me’. The second example is a passive style. Most passive sentences include some form of the verb ‘to be’ and a past participle – for example ‘it was’ and ‘done’ in the example just given.
In most sentences that contain active verbs, the doer comes first, then the action, then the object. This kind of sentence makes it clear who the ‘doer’ is. For example:
Passive: ‘It has been shown that passive writing is more difficult to understand.’ Shown by whom?
Active: ‘Researchers have found that passive writing is hard to understand.’
Most of us were encouraged to write in a passive style during our own education. (That was another passive sentence: if I had written ‘our teachers encouraged us to write passive prose’ it would have been more active). Active sentences are generally easier for readers to understand.
Passive writing also introduces a grammatical form referred to as a nominalisation, where a verb is changed to a noun form. For example:
‘We had a meeting to discuss the house style.’
Can be written more actively as ‘We met to discuss the house style’
‘The house style makes reference to principles of informative writing’ is better written as ‘The house style refers to principles of informative writing’.
Suggestion The grammar checking programme in Word will help you identify where you are using a passive style. Look for ‘Grammar’ in the ‘Tools’ menu.
Remember These are guidelines, not rules. Sometimes a passive style may be necessary. For example, you may not know who the ‘doer’ is. Or who they are may not be relevant to the reader. But in general, seek an active style.
Allow for differences between your readers
Refer to your learner profile as you write your materials, and check that your examples and assumptions are appropriate to all your individual learners. For example, with women and men studying blended education programmes, it is good practice to learn how to write in a gender-inclusive way—using ‘he or she’ where you might in the past have written ‘he’.
Remember that your learners may be old or young, rural or urban, male or female. Some may have skills that others do not. Some may have access to resources that are not available to others, and so on. When you write activities or assignments, check carefully to make sure you haven’t asked students to do something which some may find impossible—for example because they do not have access to the facilities you refer to.
Suggestion When you ask colleagues or experts to comment on your materials, make sure that they know who you are writing for. If necessary, give them a copy of your learner profile.
Check your readability level
You can use a variety of ways to check the reading level of your materials and help you improve your skills of writing simply and directly. One way is to use the grammar checking facility in Word, which will give you a readability score once it has checked your writing. Another way is to use the ‘Gunning Fog Index’, a common way of judging how understandable a piece of writing may be. To use the Fog Index, follow these steps:
If your score is much higher than 10, consider:
• dividing sentences into two
• looking for simpler words to replace the longer ones
• setting a series of items in list form whenever this is appropriate.
• getting rid of unnecessary words or phrases
Be positive
People seem to find it easier to think positively. Negative sentences are usually harder to understand than positive ones. Often this is because you are placing the emphasis on the thing you want readers to ignore or avoid. For example:
‘Don’t depart from the house style’ is less direct than ‘Keep to the house style’.
The strongest word in the first sentence is ‘depart’ which may leave exact the opposite impression to what you intend.
Break the rules
Conversational writing style includes writing in ways that we have been taught were ungrammatical. This simply acknowledges the way that language changes, whilst writing styles can be slower to change. In particular, despite what you may have been taught it can be good practice to:
• Start a sentence with ‘And’, ‘But’, ‘Because’, ‘So’, ‘However’ and other useful linking words
• Split infinitives – like ‘to wisely observe’
• End a sentence with a preposition.
• Repeat a word in a sentence if it is the right word for your purpose.