This document discusses various types of academic writing and provides tips for effective academic writing. It outlines common academic writing formats such as journal papers, books, and reports. It also lists writing necessities like having a clear purpose, understanding your audience, using proper grammar and being concise. The document cautions against plagiarism and not proofreading. It provides additional dos and don'ts for writing, such as using simple language and avoiding filler words. Overall, the key message is that academic writing requires selling your ideas effectively to the reader.
4. 4
What Else is Academic Writing?
•Job applications
•Activity reports
•Letters of recommendation
•PR materials
•Department brochures
•Conference Announcements
•Job postings
•Material for non-technical audiences
•Testimony
5. 5
Absolute Necessities
•Have something to say
•Know what it is
•Have a defined and understood
audience
•Correct grammar, syntax and
usage and punctuation
•Clarity
•Conciseness
7. 7
What Makes Alan Cringe
•Passive voice
•“It is anticipated that this
research…” vs. “This research
will…”
•Non-sentences
•“Therefore, x y 20"
•Sentences that begin with a
symbol
•Excessively long sentences and
paragraphs
•Turgid = swollen and distended
or congested
•KISS
8. 8
More Cringe Inducers
•Filler
•“One can see that”
•“It is clear that”
•Unidentifiable antecedents
•In sentence 7 of a paragraph: “This
means that …”
•“He/she,” “She/he,” and all other
tortured gender pronouns
•Rewrite the sentence
•Excessive timidity
•Symptoms: however, although, but
9. 9
Things that Work
•Outlines
•Learn how to diagram a sentence
•Remember that readers are busy
•They range from hostile to skeptical to
receptive, but always need to be
convinced
•My model: P(turn page|No proactivity)
<= .2
•Remember that you know more about it
than anyone else
•Read it aloud
•Get someone else to read it
•Good graphics
12. 12
Things that Don’t Work
•Excessive jargon and acronyms
•Sequential revelation
•Obfuscation
•“It is clear that” when it isn’t
•Gratuitous embellishment
•“Inchoate” vs. “nascent” vs. “emerging”
•Attempting to demonstrate that your
knowledge is infinite
•Counting on editors, referees or copy
editors to catch or fix mistakes
•Mindless adherence to (someone else’s)
rules
13. Co-Authors
•
•Lots of contributors but one integrator
“Reads as if it were written by a
committee”
•Or at least one at a time
•Version control is mandatory
•Every author must read and approve the
final document
•If your name is on it, you are responsible
for it
•Additional challenges when co-authors
come from multiple disciplines
•Conventions
•Language/jargon
13
14. 14
Now, What Do These Quotations
Mean?
•“Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.”
[Ernest Hemingway]
•“Write what you know. That should leave you
with a lot of free time.” [Howard Nemerov]
•“I have only made this letter longer because I
have not had the time to make it shorter."
[Blaise Pascal]
•“The most valuable of all talents is that of
never using two words when one will do.”
[Thomas Jefferson]