Programas de Eliminación de la Oncocercosis

2.13.1 Repeat the key nouns or use synonyms to show that you are

referring to the same topic in your paragraph

Another strategy to make your writing flow is shown in the paragraph below. The word “technology” is repeated to make sure the reader can follow the development and organization of the paragraph. Repeated key nouns help the reader to follow the development of your paragraph.

EXAMPLE

2009 HYU CTL English Writing Lab and Adam Turner http://www.hanyangowl.org

In this paper, we describe two technologies for making a wireless multimedia communication system energy-efficient while ensuring QoS. The first technology is an energy-efficient protocol,

Multimode Adaptive Power Saving (MAPS).

Source: Lan and Twefik: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2003 p.268 © IEEE 2003

2.13.2 Repeat key words rather than risk unclear pronouns

Now imagine we take the sentences above and use the pronoun “it” instead of the repeated keyword.

EXAMPLE [MODIFIED]

In this paper, we describe two technologies for making a wireless multimedia communication system energy-efficient while ensuring QoS. [It] is an energy-efficient protocol, Multimode Adaptive Power Saving (MAPS).

In this example, it is not clear what “it” refers to. Is it describing one of the technologies or is it trying to explain Quality of Service (QoS)? This modified sentence is hard to read without the repeated key word to guide the reader. In engineering and formal writing words like “it” and “they” are not used as often as in normal writing. The most important thing is to be clear, even if some sentences are a little repetitive.

2.13.3 Use short forms of terms to link to previous words

Another strategy is to use keywords that are part of the longer descriptions of the terms being used.

EXAMPLE

The information data rate is another factor that affects transmission power. In general, a higher data rate yields higher transmission power. On the other hand, the data rate is associated with the compression ratio of multimedia coders. An efficient multimedia coder can remove most of the redundancy that exists in the raw input data, thus a high compression ratio is achieved. In general, the compression efficiency directly relates to computational power consumption.

Source: Lan and Twefik: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2003 p.268 © IEEE 2003

In the second sentence, information data rate is shortened to just data rate, but it is clear that the same concept is continuing in the sentence. In the third and fourth sentence, multimedia coder is repeated. Finally, high compression ratio is summarized as compression efficiency in the last sentence.

This may seem a bit repetitive, but it is not for research writing. The sentences flow naturally and it is easy to understand. It could even be improved if we changed the position of data rate and transmission power in the first sentence to follow the Given to New information pattern we have mentioned.

2.13.4 Use words that summarize key words of previous sentences

1) Another strategy is to use words that summarize a key word or even a whole clause or previous sentence. As we saw earlier, using only pronouns like “it” or words like “this” alone can make it unclear what the sentence is referring to. Instead, we can use a summary noun (Swales, 2004). Using THIS + noun is a clear and effective way to make your writing more readable. It is used to continue a topic from a previous sentence. Using only “this,” “it,” “these,” or “they” alone can make it unclear. Instead, connect words like “this” and “these”

2009 HYU CTL English Writing Lab and Adam Turner http://www.hanyangowl.org with the key noun (idea) of the previous sentence. Here are some examples of common summary nouns from engineering papers: This shift, This capability, This method, These two approaches, These techniques, This material, This theory, Such problems, etc.

EXAMPLE

The second technology is a simple multirate transmission scheme. This scheme optimally combines the elements of source and channel coding and multirate modulation to form a multirate source- channel-modulation communication system.

Source: Lan and Twefik: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2003. p.268. © IEEE 2003

TASK

Read the introduction of a paper. Scan for any summary nouns and underline them. Then delete or cross out the noun and see how much more difficult it is to read. Is it clear without the summary noun what words like “this” are referring to?

2) Summary nouns can also be used to summarize previous sentences or clauses.

EXAMPLE

Berkeley’s Infopad project [10] also implements a power-aware idea in its design. In Infopad, designers shift most computations for multimedia processing to a base station, provided the

transmission bandwidth is large enough and the distance between a base station and mobiles is short. However, those restrictions do not fit into current wireless systems.

Source: Lan and Twefik: IEEE Transactions on Multimedia, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 2003 p.269. © IEEE 2003

In this example, there are two restrictions: provided the transmission bandwidth is large enough and the distance between a base station and mobiles is short. The words those restrictions summarizes the bandwidth and distance restrictions. The authors also put those restrictions in the beginning of the sentence to emphasize that it is summarizing old

information from the previous sentence. However, as mentioned, in this case the word “these” is usually used rather than “those.”

In addition to repeating the key noun, writing is clearer when the reader is guided along using words that show the relationship between clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and even whole sections of a paper. These transition signals act as signs to help the reader navigate through the text by indicating the relationship between ideas, or when a subject or topic changes. In fact, this paragraph itself is a transition to help me introduce the next section.