While writing a post...

Hi all,

This is Priya Venkat from El Paso, TX. I am glad to be a part of this group.

As we are all living at different parts of the world, its no way possible to exactly understand what others are actually thinking unless we communicate in an effective manner. As a Ph.D. student who has gained some experience in writing technical article and as an individual who has less vocabulary knowledge, I would like to tell you things that will help communicate better...
Though it is not possible for us to follow all points, the members can do a quick check right before we publish a post.. I am conveying some of my points by using badhri's recent post. No offense. He is my sweet cousin but I would like to point things out so that others can try not to repeat it.

While writing a post ..

1. Simplicity: The phrase "x can be considered to be a y" is best replaced by "x is like a y." The construction "it is the x that frobs the y" should be written as "the x frobs the y." In the same vein, "we refer to x as frobbing y" should be "we say that x frobs y."

2. Do not use too many conjunctions: Usage of many and's and that's and which's make the reader lose track. And tryto lay out things in a step by step manner

No offense badhri!!!

>>Or we are drowned in the sea of "good project ideas" that we end up implementing projects targeting mutually unrelated and often conflicting objectives, thus ensuring that the net progress towards the overarching objective (which here is standard of living) at the end of a number of projects, is minimal>>>

Its shows his english skill. But, believe me, it took me a lot of time to understand what he meant. Esp. when a group has to sustain by just reading, it is very important to be simple and non-voluble. We can say the same like this

" We may have to start somewhere. Otherwise, we may get drowned in the sea of good project ideas. Such 'good project ideas' may lead us to work on projects that may not exactly focus on our objective to raise the standard of living"
- We dont need details how it may not make it work !!!

3. Define things.. Do not assume what you are talking about

>>>This clearly mandates a framework that poses questions about the characteristics of the project, whose answer would shed light on the eventual million dollar question "How much will this project contribute towards improving the standard of living of the overall community">>

Yeh, it needs a framework.. a frame work to stay focussed in our objective to raise the std of living. But by framework, what exactly do you mean?? Wait and explain what you mean??
And it did not pose a question to me or others " about the characteristics of the project" and you have gone to the answer .. Stop.. Is the discussion or statement about the question and answer and the billion dollar question anyway directly relevant to stress the "need of frame work" esp. when you are getting back to talk abt the" refine.. define... " stuff.
Yeh.. focus on relevance

4. Relevance: Please make sure that every statement you say is relevant to your aim of the post. There is a big difference between an essay post and a technical post. Ours is more close to a technical post.

5. Organize your thoughts and be coherent: Do not jump back and forth.. It distracts the motto of the post.

6. Weak adjectives and adverbs: Many adjectives and adverbs add little to the sense of a sentence. It is often wise to remove the adjectives "mere," "basic," "essential," "major" and "fundamental," as well as their adverbial forms. Some adjectives are advertisements without substance. Unless you explain what you mean, don't use words like "advanced," "powerful," "sophisticated," "flexible," or "special."

7. Weak verbs: Certain verbs, notably "make," "do," and "perform," are often used in situations where a much better verb can be found. For example, "The priest did a check after the penitent made his confession" is best recast as "The priest checked after the penitent confessed." Likewise, "I can't make a determination on the basis of one symptom" should be written as "I can't base a determination on one symptom," or, even better, "I can't determine it from one symptom." If you find that most of your meaning is in your nouns, and very little is in your verbs, you should be using stronger verbs. A symptom is excessive use of "is" and "are."

8. Double negatives: Remove double negatives. Replace "not dissimilar to" with "similar to". Replace "no different from" with "similar to" or "the same as". It is sometimes better to replace "not less than" with "greater than or equal to", even though the replacement is wordier.

9. Self-heckling: Don't contradict yourself within the same sentence in which you make a positive statement. Wait until a later sentence

I grabbed some other points from a professor's website in University of Kentucky (my univ)wherefrom I learned. For more info reg. writing, please visit here

Thanks for patience and your understanding.