Writing to Clients and Referring Professionals about Psychological Assessment Results: A Handbook of Style and Grammar

by Allyn; Janet B.

• ISBN13: 9780415891240
• ISBN10: 0415891248
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2012-01-10
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This bookrepresents a natural evolution from the author'¬"s work with editing assessment reports and is specifically structured to meet the writing and communicating needs of the psychologist assessor. A combination of reference book and tutorial, Writing to Clientselucidates the qualities that create a writer'¬"s unique presence on the page with illustrations of correct English grammar, and is appropriate for graduate psychology students and for practicing professionals. In addition to style and grammar, the author details how to write less formal reports in letter form and to write a therapeutic story as an extension of the report for child, teenager, or adult.

Author Biography

J.B. Allyn specializes in creative and technical writing and editing in the field of psychology. She is affiliated with the Center for Collaborative Psychology, Psychiatry, and Medicine in the Bay Area of Northern California.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
Building Blocks of the Report: Attitude, Tone, Style, and Voice
Attitude: The Writer's View	p. 5
What Is Attitude in Writing?	p. 6
Attitude Toward Your Own Writing	p. 7
Attitude Toward Your Subject and Audience	p. 9
What Influences Attitude?	p. 10
Attitude and Your Reader	p. 12
Tone: Words and More	p. 17
Formality in Tone	p. 19
Formality and Contractions	p. 22
Word Choice	p. 22
Accuracy and Clarity	p. 23
Clarity Versus Variety	p. 25
Denotation and Connotation	p. 26
Selecting Material and Subtext	p. 27
Juxtaposition and Finn's Levels 1, 2, 3	p. 28
Style: Content Plus Structure	p. 31
Beginning, Middle, and End	p. 33
Communication Qualities: Clarity and Accuracy	p. 34
Communication Qualities: Specificity	p. 35
Concrete Versus Abstract Terms	p. 37
Abstraction and Hayakawa's Ladder	p. 38
Communication Qualities: Sensitivity, Compassion, Respect for Your Subject and Reader	p. 40
Jettison Unnecessary Jargon	p. 42
Clear Away Clutter	p. 43
Energize Text	p. 44
Dynamic Versus Linking Verbs	p. 45
"Smothered" Verbs	p. 47
Active Versus Passive Structure	p. 48
Voice: What Is It and How Do I Find It?	p. 49
Active Versus Passive Voice in Sentence Structure	p. 49
Using Active and Passive Voice	p. 52
Narrative Voice/Point of View	p. 53
Third Person	p. 54
First Person and Second Person	p. 55
Stylistic Voice	p. 55
Narrative Stance	p. 58
Neutral Voice and Objectivity in Writing	p. 59
Mortar to Fortify the Building Blocks: Grammar and Editing
Big Picture, Small Details: Format, Write, Edit, Proof	p. 67
Formatting	p. 68
Choosing Font: Style and Size	p. 68
Ordering Sections and Content	p. 69
Possible Formats	p. 72
Using an Outline	p. 74
An Alternative Approach to Outlining	p. 76
Writing	p. 77
Evaluating and Editing	p. 78
Proofing	p. 79
Content that Communicates: Sentences and Paragraphs	p. 81
Sentence: What Is It and How Is It Structured?	p. 81
Initial Decisions	p. 82
Sentence Structure	p. 83
Basic Sentence	p. 83
Sentence Order	p. 84
Varying Your Sentences	p. 86
Paragraph: How Do Sentences Build Into Paragraphs?	p. 87
Building the Paragraph	p. 88
Standard Phrases for Reports	p. 89
Parallel Structure	p. 90
Fillers, Redundancies, and Unnecessary Phrases	p. 92
Assessing Readability	p. 93
Readability Tools: Various Formulas	p. 94
Reaching Agreement: Subject-Verb, Pronoun, and Gender	p. 99
Verb Tenses	p. 100
"Mood" in Grammar	p. 101
Verb Pairs: Which to Use?	p. 101
Used To Versus Use To	p. 102
Can Versus May	p. 103
Fewer Versus Less	p. 103
Lay Versus Lie	p. 104
Raise Versus Rise	p. 104
Set Versus Sit	p. 104
Subject-Verb Agreement	p. 105
Intervening Words	p. 106
Compound Subjects	p. 107
Collective Nouns	p. 107
Additional Subject-Verb Agreement Challenges	p. 108
Pronouns	p. 109
Selecting Pronouns	p. 110
Indefinite Pronouns	p. 111
Gender Neutrality in Pronouns	p. 111
Pronoun as Subject or Object	p. 114
Prepositions	p. 116
Modifying the Main Idea: Adjectives and Adverbs	p. 119
Adjectives	p. 120
Articles = Adjectives	p. 120
Using Adjectives of Quantity	p. 120
Compound Adjectives	p. 122
Placing Adjectives	p. 122
Adverbs	p. 124
Splitting Verbs With Adverbs	p. 124
Adjectives, Adverbs, and Linking Verbs	p. 125
Degrees of Comparison in Adjectives and Adverbs	p. 126
Avoiding Ambiguity and Awkwardness	p. 127
Separating Related Words	p. 129
Misplacing Modifiers	p. 129
Constructing Awkward Adverbs	p. 129
Adding Too Many Adjectives or Adverbs	p. 129
Modifying Absolutes	p. 129
Using Hopefully and However	p. 130
To + Base Verb: To Split or Not to Split	p. 131
Precision: Right Word, Right Spelling	p. 133
Spelling in the Body of a Word	p. 135
Prefixes and Suffixes	p. 135
Spelling Plural Nouns	p. 136
Numbers: Digits or Words?	p. 137
Spelling Words That Sound Alike	p. 138
Effect Versus Affect	p. 138
Other Words Easily Confused	p. 142
Abbreviations and Acronyms	p. 142
Capital Letters	p. 144
When Not to Capitalize	p. 147
Spelling Variations and Modern Usage	p. 147
Guiding the Reader: Punctuate and Connect for Clarity	p. 149
Independent and Dependent Clauses	p. 150
Connecting for Clarity	p. 150
Punctuation Marks: How and Why We Use Them	p. 151
Periods and Semicolons	p. 152
Commas	p. 153
Recognizing Fragments and Run-on Sentences	p. 154
Colons	p. 157
Hyphens and Dashes	p. 159
Apostrophes	p. 161
Quotation Marks	p. 162
Ellipsis	p. 165
Connecting Words Revisited: Special Challenges	p. 165
Although, Though, While	p. 166
Since	p. 166
Like Versus Such as	p. 166
That Versus Which	p. 167
Beginning a Sentence With a Conjunction	p. 168
Beyond the Report: Extending Clear and Effective Communication
Continuing the Therapeutic Goals: Writing Letters and Stories	p. 173
Letter to the Individual Assessed: An Overview	p. 174
Tone in Letters Written as Feedback	p. 175
Can a Letter of Written Feedback Be "Therapeutic"?	p. 175
A Clinician's Approach: Assessing Personal Warmth in Letters to the Person Assessed	p. 177
Metaphor: A Bridge Between Fact and Truth	p. 178
Conceptual Metaphor: Everyday Life	p. 180
Metaphor and the Brain	p. 183
Therapeutic Stories	p. 184
Children's Stories: Fables	p. 185
Adult and Adolescent Stories: Allegories	p. 187
Narrative and Dialogue	p. 188
Richness, Texture, Safety, and Risk: Communicating Verbally	p. 191
Written Versus Spoken Communication	p. 193
Richness and Texture in Communication	p. 194
"Voice" in Speech	p. 195
Pacing and Pauses	p. 196
Loudness and Pitch	p. 196
Interruptions and Overlap	p. 197
Report-Talk Versus Rapport-Talk	p. 198
Nonverbal Cues	p. 198
Active Listening	p. 200
Communicating When Fear Equals Risk	p. 202
Glossary of Terms: Grammar, Style, and Communication	p. 205
References	p. 213
Index	p. 221
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