Writing in English
Spot the Differences Between Writing in
German and English and Eliminate
Common Mistakes
"If it is not clear, then you might as well not write it"
William Zinssler
(1922 – 2015)
American writer, editor, literary critic, and teacher
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Table of contents
● Strengths and weaknesses
● Writing phase
Grammar
Sentences
Lexis
Abbreviations
Numbers
● Post-writing phase
● Sources and literature
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Strengths and weaknesses
● Strength
 knowledge, talent, skill, asset
● Weakness
 lack of attention to detail in words, phrases, clauses
and structure during the writing process
● Identify your weaknesses
 review old reports and other corrected documents – determine the problem
 ask a fellow student, friend or team-mate for input
 take online writing quizzes
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Grammar
● Tenses
 The scientists published the results.
 The scientists have published the results.
 The scientists have been publishing the results.
● Adjectives / adverbs
 He works hard. – He hardly works.
 I feel good. – I am not well.
● Sentences
 word order
 straight forward sentences
Grammar questioning:
• simple
• not too long
Do subjects and verbs agree?
Have you corrected misplaced modifiers?
Are there any run-on sentences (no paragraphs)?
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Lexis
● False friends
You mean
You should say
Do not say
bekommen
get
become
aktuell
current
actual
das Transparent
banner
transparent
prüfen
audit, test
prove
per
by, via
per
Ressort
department, division
resort
also
so, it seems
also
Provision
commission
provision
Fantasie
imagination
fantasy
fast
almost, nearly
fast
Chef
boss
chef, chief
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Lexis
● Spelling
 which / witch / with
 do not mix British and American English
(colour - BE / color - AE, programme - BE / program - AE)
 British and American lexis
(bill - check, petrol - gas, ground floor - first floor)
 Capitalization
• first word of a sentence including complete sentences within sentences
e.g quotations, statements after colons
• first and last word of titles and headlines and all other words except:
articles (a, the)
coordinators (and, but for. …)
short prepositions (in, at, on)
• names of specific persons, places and objects
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Lexis
● Wordy phrases






on two separate occasions = twice
a large number = many
not frequently = often
on a regular basis = regularly
in most cases = usually
at an early date = soon
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Lexis
● Redundant expressions




free gift
new innovation
first introduced
future plans
● Non-specific words
 thing
 stuff
 really
Lexis questioning:
Does your writing have the right tone (right
amount of formality or informality)?
Is your writing bias-free (not in favor of any
group / objective)?
Is the information presented according to a
logical scheme (eg. categorization, cause and
effect, chronological)?
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Punctuation
● Comma





before and after adverbials
to indicate a pause in speech
in relative sentences
in some conditional sentences
before the word 'too' (= also)
"When in doubt, leave it out"
Punctuation questioning:
Do the punctuation marks help readers grasp the
meaning?
Is there any surplus punctuation?
Are quotation marks correctly placed?
● Apostrophe
 genitive
 contractions
NOTE: No contractions in formal written English!
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Punctuation
● Punctuation with numbers
 decimals, sums of money:
€1,000.75 English
€_1.000,75 German
 time expressions
6.50_am
 with other symbols
90°C (no space)
40_W
13.8_m
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Abbreviations
● Some examples:





e.g. (lat. exempli gratia) = for example
et al. (lat. et alii) = and others
etc. (lat. et cetera) = and so forth
i.e. (lat. id est) = that is
vs. = versus
● Do not abbreviate: (when used in a text)






names of cities, states, countries
month of the year, days of the week
parts of place names e.g. Street, Avenue, Road, Park, Port, Mount, River
units of measure e.g. miles, kilometers per hour
courses of study e.g. mechanical engineering
the words page, chapter, volume
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Numbers
● Spell out numbers
 that begin a sentence: Three hundred thousand meters of cable are sold.
 large round numbers: eight billion pounds or 8 billion pounds
 in time expressions: when used as a number alone (at three) or with the
word o‘clock (eight o‘clock)
Mechanical style questioning:
 numbers from one to ten
Are abbreviations kept to a minimum?
Is capitalization consistent?
Are there any gaps in page numbering, tables
and figures?
● Dates
 May 8, 2016 or 8 May 2016
 May twenty-fourth or the twenty-fourth of May or May 24 or May 24th
Note:
• figures are used when the year is mentioned
• no ordinal endings (1st , 2nd etc.) when the year is mentioned
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Post-writing phase
● Editing





identify information gaps
reorganize paragraphs
clear up confusing words, misplaced punctuation marks
remove redundancies
clean up inconsistent format
● Proofreading
 confirms that editing changes have been made
 lets you correct typos
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Summary
"When something can be read without effort,
great effort has gone into it's writing"
Enrique Jardiel Poncela
(1901 – 1952)
Spanish playwright, novelist and journalist
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Sources
Andrea B. Geffner, Business English, Barrons Ecucational Series, New York 2010
F.W. Sutton, MA / Karl Beilhardt, Essentials of English Grammar, Klett, Stuttgart 1986
Literature
Sherman, J., Essential writing skills for intermediate students, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1994
Phyllis Creme, Writing at University: A Guide for Students, Open University Press, Buckingham 1997
Dorothy E. Zemach, Writing Research Papers (Macmillan Writing Series), Mcmillan / Hueber 2011
Unknown, The Essential Writer's Companion, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1994
Felicitas Macgilchrist, Academic writing (Uni Tipps Band 4087), UTB GmbH (available at the HTW library)
Dierk Siepmann, Wissenschaftliche Texte auf englisch schreiben: Ein Leitfaden, Klett Verlag 2012
Online writing quizzes:
http://www.grammarbook.com/interactive_quizzes_exercises.asp
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm
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