- 1). Review the last paper or email you sent to a co-worker or colleague about scientific or statistical data you recently reported on. Look for misspellings and grammatical errors, such as words that are in the wrong tense or have misplaced apostrophes. Mark these with a pen and correct them in your original electronic document.
- 2). Print out the corrected document and give it to three people who are not intimately involved with the research your paper or email discusses. Ask each person to read your paper and identify the main point. Ask colleagues or professors to review your technical or scientific document for accuracy and thoroughness. Ask them to identify any data you might be missing or for recommendations they have on the placement of your data within your paper to ensure you've positioned it in the place that is most convenient for the reader. Consider placing all data and charts in an appendix for nontechnical audiences, but throughout the document if your report is intended for a group of your peers or other technical/scientific professionals who care more about the raw data than an explanation of it in prose.
- 3). Examine the responses you gained from your reviewers and assess whether they received the main point you were trying to communicate in your report or email. Use their feedback as one measure of how much improvement you must make with your writing.
- 4). Reread your report or email again and eliminate all passive voice (any use of "to be" in any form) constructions from it. Eliminate convoluted sentence structures. For example, write "22 percent of subjects sampled..." and not "It was discovered that 22 percent of subjects sampled...). Examine your technical or scientific report for sections of text that might be more clearly explained with a graph or chart. Instead of explaining test results in a page-long paragraph of figures, create a table that allows the reader to scan the information quickly in a more visual manner.
- 5). Cite sources according to MLA, APA or another approved style, but don't let your research cloud the point you are trying to make. Include a short introduction and conclusion that is concise with any report you create, which summarizes your findings. Use the paper to explain the details after giving your reader the big picture. Summarize your findings and main point in one to two sentences at the beginning of an email and then provide the details in the body. Keep your email to one screen length or less and rewrite it as a paper that you can send as an attachment if it is longer than that.
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