Reverse paramedic method is an editing exercise which was first described in Revising Prose by Richard Lanham. The main aim of the exercise is to help people to revise sentences which are wordy and written in the passive voice. This adaptation will reverse one aim of the activity and will aid in recognizing and implementing passive voice, which often is exploited in scientific writing. This method was intended to make sentences less wordy and more concise. The first step is to identify prepositions. A preposition is a word or group of words which will relate a noun or pronoun to another word in a sentence. Some prepositions include about, after, above, during, beyond, since, until, across, amid, besides, concerning, upon. Also it is important to recognize “to be”, or “is” in a sentence. These are what give a description of the “state of being” of people or things in a sentence. Example is was, is, has been, will be, become. It is also important to identify the “action” of a sentence which is the what who is doing what to whom. Look for the subject. The subject is the person or thing that is doing the action. It is important to also look for windups. Windups are the phrases, commonly prepositional phrases that will set up the idea that is supposed to be expressed in a sentence. Some windups are important and necessary to start of the sentences while others are just unnecessary and make words to be wordy. The context of the sentence is the determinant factor of the need to have windups. Windups include such phrase “In order to understand concept A….”, “From the results…”, “In the next lab…”. Redundancies are also a significant aspect that will need to be assessed and evaluated. Redundancies are the parts of the sentences that have been repeated. The use of redundancies makes sentences awkward and lengthy for no apparent reason. They make the ideas that have been presented to be hard to understand for the readers. Active and passive voice is another aspect that needs to be looked into. Active voice is a structure of writing where the doer is emphasized and makes use of active verbs instead of forms of the verb. Example of a sentence written in the active pattern “Jacob attended his friend’s party”. In the above sentence, the doer (Jacob) precedes the verb (attended). On the other hand, passive voice will not emphasize the doer, and will even be written in the past tense. It is common in scientific writing because it is in this writing that the emphasis is what was done and not who did it. Here is an example of a sentence that has been written in passive voice. “The party was attended by Jacob”. In some cases, the subject might not be mentioned in the sentence. Example of such a sentence “The experiment was done at 4.00pm”
Procedure for the reverse paramedic method i. The first step is to circle the prepositions. Remove any unnecessary pre-positions. ii. Identify any references that have been made to the researcher (doer). iii. A replacement of the references to the doer is then done with a passive reconstruction whereby the emphasis will be to the experiment that was done. iv. Any unnecessary wind-ups will be eliminated v. Any redundancies will also be eliminated. ">Reverse paramedic method of editing is an editing exercise which was first described in Revising Prose by Richard Lanham. The main aim of the exercise is to help people to revise sentences which are wordy and written in the passive voice. This adaptation will reverse one aim of the activity and will aid in recognizing and implementing passive voice, which often is exploited in scientific writing. This method was intended to make sentences less wordy and more concise. The first step is to identify prepositions. A preposition is a word or group of words which will relate a noun or pronoun to another word in a sentence. Some prepositions include about, after, above, during, beyond, since, until, across, amid, besides, concerning, upon. Also it is important to recognize “to be”, or “is” in a sentence. These are what give a description of the “state of being” of people or things in a sentence. Example is was, is, has been, will be, become. It is also important to identify the “action” of a sentence which is the what who is doing what to whom. Look for the subject. The subject is the person or thing that is doing the action. It is important to also look for windups. Windups are the phrases, commonly prepositional phrases that will set up the idea that is supposed to be expressed in a sentence. Some windups are important and necessary to start of the sentences while others are just unnecessary and make words to be wordy. The context of the sentence is the determinant factor of the need to have windups. Windups include such phrase “In order to understand concept A….”, “From the results…”, “In the next lab…”. Redundancies are also a significant aspect that will need to be assessed and evaluated. Redundancies are the parts of the sentences that have been repeated. The use of redundancies makes sentences awkward and lengthy for no apparent reason. They make the ideas that have been presented to be hard to understand for the readers. Active and passive voice is another aspect that needs to be looked into. Active voice is a structure of writing where the doer is emphasized and makes use of active verbs instead of forms of the verb. Example of a sentence written in the active pattern “Jacob attended his friend’s party”. In the above sentence, the doer (Jacob) precedes the verb (attended). On the other hand, passive voice will not emphasize the doer, and will even be written in the past tense. It is common in scientific writing because it is in this writing that the emphasis is what was done and not who did it. Here is an example of a sentence that has been written in passive voice. “The party was attended by Jacob”. In some cases, the subject might not be mentioned in the sentence. Example of such a sentence “The experiment was done at 4.00pm”
Procedure for the reverse paramedic method i. The first step is to circle the prepositions. Remove any unnecessary pre-positions. ii. Identify any references that have been made to the researcher (doer). iii. A replacement of the references to the doer is then done with a passive reconstruction whereby the emphasis will be to the experiment that was done. iv. Any unnecessary wind-ups will be eliminated v. Any redundancies will also be eliminated.
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