The mental movie of a mouse cowering the corner of a cage that has another mouse in it gets chunked into ‘social avoidance.’ You can’t blame the neuroscientist for thinking this way. She’s seen the movie thousands of times; she doesn’t need to hit the PLAY button in her visual memory and watch the crittersContinue reading “Bring clarity by objectifying your language”
Category Archives: Sentence-Level Editing
Cut “is”
This is a writing problem that is easy to correct. (10 words) This writing problem is easy to correct. (7 words) When editing your draft, search for the word “is.” In the two sentences above, searching for “is” and rephrasing the sentence enabled the writer to cut 30% of the original word count without losingContinue reading “Cut “is””
Favour the active voice
Active voice sentences are shorter and clearer than passive voice ones. When you write in the passive voice, the person who is doing the action is removed from the story you’re telling. Think of the difference between these two (fictional) headlines: Funding for Scientific Research Cut (passive voice) Trudeau Cuts Scientific Research Funding (active voice)Continue reading “Favour the active voice”