Memorandum

To:

Victoria M. Arthur

From:

Ricardo Juarez G.

Date:

January 19, 2016

Subject:

Project 1 Pros Styles

Introduction
The purpose of this memo is to addresses the pro style found within my writing. I have analyze
previous lab reports and essays. In which I have found areas that could be improved. Below I
have listed examples of these pro styles. Such as being concise, specific, direct, and stress
emphasis.

Being Concise
Being concise is process of keeping your sentences simple and clear. Making sure that you only
use necessary words. This is achieved by the elimination of redundant words and phrase. Within
my writing, there were several areas this could be applied. As shown in the following example of
an experimental report.

Our strategy was to simply cover multiple corners of the plant.

In this examples the highlighted word added nothing to the structure of the sentence. Therefore it
becomes redundant. In order to fix this the word simply should be removed.

Being Specific
Being specific is the ability to write for your given audience. In a manner that they are able to
understand your purpose. Your audience determines how much details you can specify and how
to go about presenting it. Within my analysis I found very little error in regards to being specific.
However there were some in terms of wording and using jargons. As shown in the following
body of text.

Cuticles essentially created a tight seal around the bottom of the plant preventing them
from drying out thus allowing them to live in dry climates.

Although this sentence explains what cuticles do, it holds no significant meaning to the audience.
As they are aware of the function. The objective of the paper was to report our testing methods.
Therefore the sentences should be delete in order to keep the content of the paper precise.

We wanted to see wither the pores were either open or closed. If there was a presences of
CO2 (photosynthesis).

In this sentence there are two particular problems. First the usage of the jargon CO2. I used it 6
times within the paper. In order to fix this problem. I should replace the jargon CO2 with the
chemical compound name, carbon monoxide. As the audience is more likely to recognize the
actual name. Also I made the mistake of parenthesizing the word photosynthesis. The audience
will likely associated it as the meaning of CO2 in this sentence. When I really meant to say that
that because CO2 photosynthesis occurs. To fix this I should add an extra sentence explaining the
correlation or omit it from the sentence.

Being Direct
Being direct is the act of known when to use an active or passive voice tone. While making sure
that your nouns and verbs are strong. Although I mainly write in an active voice and know we
should try to do it always. I found an instance where I should have used a passive voice instead.
As shown below

In this experiment we wanted to test the density of the stomata. We wanted to see wither
the pores were either open or closed. I originally predicted that for the most part the pores
would be semi-open in the plant leaves we collected. I thought this would be the case
since we picked the plants in the evening, also when the weather was fair.

In these sentences I am using the words I and we. Which take away the attention from the
experiment and put it on me and my group. Since this a scientific paper the primary focus should
be the experiment. Therefore this should be written in a passive voice. This is what it would look
like rewritten.

The purpose of the experiment was to test the density of the stomata. In order to
determine wither the pores remained open or closed. The prediction made the by the

group suggested that the pores would remain semi-open in the plant leaves collect.
Because the plants were picked in the evening, when the weather was fair.

This version is proper for this the case. As the readers do not know who the actor is and the actor
is not important to understanding the material. The focused of the paper is the experiment itself.

Stress Emphasis
Stress emphasis is the act of making sure your last sentence with in a paragraph contains the
message you intended initially. It needs to leave the reader with clear understanding of the
overall content of the paragraph. Upon reviewing my writing, I found no particular instance
where I fail to do this. Here is an example of from a lab report.

Even though each sample was cultivated under the same conditions. After examining the
results from the soil, milk, and living environment samples. You will notice that there is a
varied diversity of bacteria among the petri-dishes. Proving that bacteria, are truly diverse
organisms.

In this example I placed the most important concept at end. Since the readers will emphasis at
this point in the reading.

Conclusion
After analyzing my writing pros, I have determine the areas where I can improve. In particular I
noticed that I am using redundant words. Mainly to add style, but in reality it is using up
unnecessary space. I also notice I tend to be un-specific at times, to try and meet the word
requirement. As far as direct and stress emphasis I believe that with a little bit of practice I can
achieve better writing in those areas as well. Overall this project has helpful in understanding
sentence structures. As well as my finding my weakness with my pros styles.