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Subject:Style Survey part 1 of 2 From:Wendy Michelle Drachenberg <wmd0001 -at- JOVE -dot- ACS -dot- UNT -dot- EDU> Date:Tue, 18 Nov 1997 10:03:57 -0600
I am a graduate student in Technical Writing at the University of North
Texas. I am currently studying Technical Style. For this class I am
doing a research project on what technical writers think about style.
My study will compare what technical writers, teachers of tech.
writing, and students of tech. writing think about style.
I would like to know what everyone here at Techwr-L thinks about style.
Please complete the following survey and return it to me at
wmd0001 -at- jove -dot- acs -dot- unt -dot- edu -dot-
Due to the length I am sending the survey in 2 parts.
Thanks in advance,
Wendy Drachenberg
Style is how we choose to arrange our words
to the best effect. -- Joseph Williams, Style Ten
Lessons in Clarity and Grace
Style is a mode of expressing thought in an
oral or written language.
-- Webster's Third New International Dictionary
By elements of style I mean any grammatical,
word, or organizational elements that writers
use to clearly express their thoughts.
How long have you been a technical writer?
Are you a contract worker or do you work as an employee?
What is your job title?
What technical writing duties do you perform?
Do you have a college degree? If you do,
what did you major in?
Which elements of style help increase readers
understanding of what they read?
Do you think that some elements of style are
unimportant or not worth the time/trouble they
take to implement? Please explain.
Which elements of style are the
easiest for you to apply?
Which elements of style do you have the
most trouble applying?
Please rank the following elements of style from
most important to least important.
(10 being the most important and 1 being the least important)
Changing passive voice to active
Placing stress at the end of a sentence
Making the actor the grammatical subject
Removing nominalizations
Placing the action in the verbs
Using parallel structure
Removing negative language
Correcting modifier problems
Having short subjects
Removing metadiscourse
