Walden University Writing Center

Where instructors and editors talk writing.

By Sarah Matthey

I was recently at the Lansdowne residency and while talking to students, I found that we discussed the same daunting writing issue in seminars, advising sessions, and in the labyrinth halls of the National Conference Center. Our discussions centered around the use of the scholarly voice. Many students were frustrated by trying to attain what they viewed as unattainable: the graduate-level academic style of writing. We writing specialists (nerds, grammar-obsessed, otherwise unemployable English majors, you can pick) talk all the time about the importance of the scholarly voice. We use that catchy phrase in our presentations and when providing feedback to students (not when writing blogs—this is clearly in the informal voice). But, what does this phrase really mean? How does one describe the scholarly voice? Defining this concept was more difficult than I thought it was going to be. However, after much internal debate (and internal monologue), I think I came up with a quantifiable list of what it means to write in the scholarly voice.

The first component of writing in the scholarly voice concerns vocabulary usage and word choice. One way to help determine what kind of language you should use is to consider your audience. When writing in a graduate community, the writer is addressing a formal audience. This means that casual forms of speech like slang (dang), metaphors (my heart is a lonely hunter of articles and the library is an emptied forest), similes (the due date is looming like a storm cloud), or cliché phrases (those researcher’s findings were as clear as mud) should be avoided. These types of speech not only detract from your academic voice, but they may also be confusing to the reader. A metaphor or a cliché phrase may mean something different to everyone who reads it. Along those same lines, contractions (won’t, shouldn’t, can’t, etc) should also be avoided because they are casual forms of speech. Eliminating informal language from your paper will not only make you sound more professional, but it will also make your language more clear and concise.

In addition to removing casual language from your paper, you should also consider removing unnecessary pronouns. Some pronouns to avoid include the personal you (as in, you are reading this blog), the editorial we (we all know this or that to be true), and the over reliance on the personal I (I know how much you must enjoy reading what I wrote and I would appreciate you telling my boss). When a writer uses the personal you, they appear to be speaking directly to the reader (like I am doing now. See? It’s distracting), as if they are having a personal conversation with them. This is too personal for a scholarly paper.

APA 3.09 states that broad uses of the word we may leave readers confused about who the we encompasses (p. 69). For example, if a student wrote “We need to exercise greater self-control,” the reader is not sure whom the plural we might encompass. Does it apply to the reader or to some unseen other person? Try to use the proper noun whenever possible.

Finally, while some assignments require that the personal I be used (like reflection papers, assignments that require a personal example, or when the writer has conducted research himself or herself), academic papers require the third person voice to be used. Use of the third person is objective and will sound more scientific. Although personal feelings and experiences are valid, they can be difficult or even impossible to support with the literature and may not be understood by a reader. It is best to try to use nouns instead of pronouns in academic writing.

The final component of scholarly writing is the use of unbiased language. As a social scientist, everything you say must be objective and supported by evidence. APA 3.07 states that arguments should be presented “in a professional, noncombative manner” (p.66). Writing using unbiased and neutral/noncombative language can be tricky. Be on the lookout for making broad generalizations; avoid using over-sweeping adjectives (outstanding, obvious), adverbs (really, clearly), and qualifiers (some, many, a bit), in particular, always and never. Qualifiers lead to generalizations, which can be demonstrative of bias. Try to avoid using emotional (I am deeply moved by Sarah’s comments) or inflammatory (I am sick and tired of APA) language. Instead of saying that Smith’s findings were terrible, embarrassing, horrific, and so on, state that Smith’s findings were questionable.

Be sure that everything you say is supported by evidence. If you make an assertion, be sure that a citation is nearby. Try to think of a Writing Specialist sitting on your shoulder say, “Oh yeah? Can you prove it?” Using unbiased language and supporting your assertions will show that you are an effective, scientific researcher, and that you are serious about contributing to the scholarship in your field.

Writing as at the graduate level is different from writing at an undergraduate level. Mastering the unbiased voice and supporting everything with evidence is challenging. However, like everything else, it will get easier with practice. So as you sit down tonight (or whenever, this is an asynchronous program) to craft that literature review, remember to challenge yourself to be the best social scientist you can be and that graduate-level, scholarly writing is not unattainable.

By Jeff Zuckerman, Writing Center Director

It was the dog days of August. I sat my dog Toby down to discuss hyphens. Again.

Hyphens! he barked. Quit dogging the real problems!

Toby said he was dog-tired of the dog food that he said I buy dog-cheap. Even those doggy bones, he whined, that I had brought home in the doggy bag from the fast-food joint had a crummy hot-dog taste.

Well, that’s a dog’s life for you, I said.

Just a doggone minute, Toby said. I’m dog-sick of those invisible dog fences. And don’t tell me it’s a dog-eat-dog world. It’s a dog-eat-squirrel world.

Yes, I said, the world has sure gone to the dogs. Now can we talk about hyphens?

Bow-wow, Toby replied, and retired to his doghouse for a dognap.

Well, here’s the lesson we would have discussed.

Toby Principle 1: Look it up in a good dictionary, especially Merriam-Webster’s. The phrase dog days is two words. A doghouse is one word. Dog-tired is listed as hyphenated, despite Principle 3 below.

APA Style Principle 2: Use a hyphen if a compound adjective expresses a single thought. A hot dog taste could be read as a very warm taste of fresh dog. A hot-dog taste would be the taste of a hot dog.
So be careful: An invisible-dog fence would enclose an invisible dog. An invisible dog fence is a fence you can’t see.

APA Style Principle 3: Most compound adjectives are hyphenated only before the noun they modify. A short-legged corgi, but the corgi was short legged. A hyphen-challenged fox terrier, but the fox terrier was hyphen challenged. A canine-cleaning brush, but a brush made for canine cleaning. A dog-eat-dog world, but a world in which it’s every man or woman for himself or herself.

APA Style Principle 4: Most words formed with prefixes are one word: antihero, bipolar, codependent, megalomania, metacognition, pretest, unreliable.

Toby Principle 5: Adverbs ending in –ly plus a participle or adjective are generally not hyphenated: doggedly tired Scottie, utterly useless cat.

Toby Principle 6: Hyphenate a number combined with an adjective before a noun. A 9-year-old cockapoo, but a cockapoo that is 9 years old. A 300-page APA manual, but the manual is 300 pages long.

Questions about hyphenation or APA style? Visit Walden’s online writing center for APA style tutorials.

Questions about prairie dog grammar? Check out the work of Dr. Constantine Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University.

By Jeff Zuckerman, Writing Center Director

I have always said that even experienced editors need editors.
I know that’s true because I’ve been editing for about 25 years and somehow still manage at least once a day to goof up a spelling in an email message. I do my best to model good writing habits but I know somewhere out there is a student who read a Word document of mine with a balloon comment reading, “Be carful with your spelling.”
* * *
It’s true, you know. Even good editors need editors.
I’ve been editing for 25 years and still manage at least once a day to goof up a spelling. I do my best to model good writing habits, but somewhere out there is a student who read a Word document with a balloon comment reading, “Carful with your spelling.”
* * *
Even good editors need editors.
I’ve been editing for 25 years, and at least once a day I screw up a spelling in an email message. I try to model good writing habits, but somewhere out there an author has read a balloon comment of mine reading, “Carful with your spelling.”
* * *
Even editors need editors.
I’ve been editing for 25 years. Writing and revising even a simple paragraph can be painful. Yesterday I sent off a manuscript with this balloon comment: “See how cutting 10 needless words improved readability? Also, use your spelchecker.”

By Amber Cook, Senior Writing Specialist

There’s a gym not far from my house. The gym’s marquee last week read like this:

NO CONTRACT MEMBERSHIPS
AVAILABLE

Now, it’s certainly possible that this gym has run out of contract memberships: Perhaps they had memberships that require a contract, and there are no more available. If you’ve ever been to a gym, though, you probably know that contracts are pretty much always available. Just TRY to join a gym without signing one.

It’s probably safe to assume, then, that this gym intended to advertise no-contract memberships (memberships that do not require a contract). Here, that teeny-tiny missing hyphen means the difference between turning customers away and inviting them to try a new type of membership.

Granted, not every driver passing that sign last week was a grammar nerd like me. Maybe most readers made the same assumption I did, mentally supplying the needed hyphen. In communicating, though, one goal is to reach as many people as possible with the clearest possible message. Even if only 20% of the readers were confused by the missing hyphen, that’s still a significant loss of potential customers.

The next time you’re passing by the marquee in front of your workplace (or any other public written work that represents your company), try to see it from the perspective of your potential consumer. Perhaps you can catch an error that will lead to more business. Who knew good grammar could be so profitable?

By Jamie Patterson, Writing Specialist

One of my favorite residency sessions is a 90 minute grammar class that includes a lot of references to pop culture. At the end of the session we include a picture quiz where we ask students to identify the incorrect grammar on a store sign, on a billboard, or in a song. Sometimes we even use celebrity messages to their fans. Is it completely fair to apply grammar and APA rules outside of the classroom? Maybe not. But there are advantages to recognizing the dissonance between the writing standards expected here at Walden and what you are exposed to in your life outside of the university.

Many of the points we go over in this grammar class are meant to be friendly reminders of rules we’ve been learning since our grade school years. In fact, many EdD students leave this grammar class and comment that they’d like to use the same presentation in their own elementary school classrooms. Should it be alarming to you, as graduate students, that material we’re teaching at the graduate level is relevant at your local grade school? I hope not.

Grammar rules are much like APA rules: Many of them should be accessible to the earliest level of learners. After all, including a serial comma was never meant to be rocket science. It was, however, meant to ensure clarity and accessibility to thought. This becomes increasingly more important as you take on multidimensional and complicated research to affect social change.

Considering the accessibility of grammar rules, why is it that even your local grocery store has signs that say “10 items or less” when less should be replaced with fewer? Why are there signs posted that say “no pets, shirts & shoes required” (Better: No pets. Shirts & shoes required)? Why would Christina Aguilera tell fans “Today is a joyful and special day for Jordan and I” (should be Jordan and me)?

We might have been exposed to many of these grammar rules at an early age but there are as many grammar rules as there are words. Pop culture and our everyday environment certainly don’t help us in our struggle to understand the nuances of language rules. For those of us who have dedicated our professional, academic, and personal lives to the craft of writing there is still something new to learn every day. Take advantage of our expertise and drop in on one of our classes at an upcoming residency or email us with questions: writingsupport@waldenu.edu. I’ll tell you now what we tell the students at the end of our residency session on grammar: Being a grammarian is being aware of the details that surround us on a daily basis. Being aware of details is bound to make you a better student, a better researcher, and (our hope) a better writer.