My editing advice column, Ask Dr. Editor, is available through UniversityAffairs.ca. This Ask Dr. Editor piece I advise on how to disseminate research through writing clear, accessible, and conscientious policy briefs: “Moving your research results into practice through policy briefs.” Have a question you want me to answer? Contact me!
Tag Archives: clarity
#AskDrEditor: How to write clear objectives for your research grant proposal
My editing advice column, Ask Dr. Editor, is available through UniversityAffairs.ca. This Ask Dr. Editor piece covers four essential characeristics of clear and effective research objectives for grant proposals: “How to write clear objectives for your research grant proposal: They are the bricks that you’re laying on the path towards your goal.” Have a question you want meContinue reading “#AskDrEditor: How to write clear objectives for your research grant proposal”
What is Writing Well is Hard?
writingwellishard.com is a free digital tool that helps academic writers to identify the patterns in their own writing, and to compare their work to a sample of their choice. I made writingwellishard.com because I’m not persuaded there’s only one way to write well, and I don’t like that the norms of “good” writing are tooContinue reading “What is Writing Well is Hard?”
#AskDrEditor: Zombie-proof your writing: Tips for making the conceptual concrete
My editing advice column, Ask Dr. Editor, is available through UniversityAffairs.ca. This Ask Dr. Editor piece discusses how alternating between abstract language and concrete details can help you explain complex concepts: “Zombie-proof your writing: Tips for making the conceptual concrete.” Have a question you want me to answer? Contact me!
#AskDrEditor: Simple tricks to add clarity in complex sentences
My editing advice column, Ask Dr. Editor, is available through UniversityAffairs.ca. This Ask Dr. Editor explains why starting your sentence with the word “this” can creative unnecessary ambiguity, and provides a straightforward fix: “Simple tricks to add clarity in complex sentences: The criticism that some academic writing can be difficult to read shouldn’t be ignored.”Continue reading “#AskDrEditor: Simple tricks to add clarity in complex sentences”
#AskDrEditor: Your Reader is a Little Bit Drunk
My editing advice column, Ask Dr. Editor, is now available through UniversityAffairs.ca. The second Ask Dr. Editor question comes from a faculty member who isn’t sure how to advise her trainees as they write their job application materials. Have a question you want me to answer? Contact me!
Making paragraphs flow
We all know that good paragraphs cohere around a single topic and are book-ended by strong, analytical take-away sentences. But how can a disjointed, staccato-sounding paragraph be made to have flow? Flow is an elusive quality — it’s the sense that sentences move logically and seamlessly without repetition or heavy-handed transitioning. Sometimes this flow comesContinue reading “Making paragraphs flow”
Words to watch for: zombie nouns
“The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication of a tendency toward pomposity and abstraction.” In her New York Times essay, the academic and writer Helen Sword terms “nominalizations” — that is, nouns that contains within them shorter verbs, adjectives, or other nouns — “zombie nouns” because they “cannibalize active verbs,Continue reading “Words to watch for: zombie nouns”