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Lactation Information and Discussion

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Subject:
From:
"Kathleen G. Auerbach" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 4 Dec 1998 09:38:35 -0800
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One of my pet peeves is people who are TOLD to write badly when reporting
research becuase it will SOUND better or MORE professional.

I was fortunate to have a PhD advisor who flatly refused to accept
sentences longer than 7 lines.  Don't laugh.  It is VERY EASY to write long
convoluted sentences when they are written in the passive form.

Ex: "It would seem appropriate to consider the possibility that the woman's
nipple skin was being.... blah blah blah.

How much better is the same report in the active verb form.

Ex: "The mother suffered from nipple trauma, which was resolved by...."

If you really want to get picky, note the number of syllables in the two
sentences.  One need not use BIG words to make clear what one wishes to
say.  Journal editors who allow obfuscation for the "sound" of scientific
importance (ARGGHHH!) are missing the point entirely.  What people want to
read, in fact NEED to read, is something that is readable and
understandable!  (Oh dear, I am starting to lose oxygen as this soap box
begins its ascent to the clouds!)  That can be done MORE easily with
shorter words, active verb form, and thus be the article people REALLY
remember as most helpful.

Although LACTNUTS might go out and dig up the really poorly written pieces
to see for themselves if THEY understand it, how many others will? I
suspect those articles will be consigned to the dustbins of readers'
minds--if they remember it at all!

'nuf said....

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"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.telcomplus.net/kga/lactation.htm
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