Forming and Using Possessive Nouns Correctly in Academic Prose Apostrophes are used to form the possessive or genitive case of English nouns, with the standard singular possessive of a noun usually formed by adding an apostrophe and an ‘s’ (’s)…
How To Use Referencing Shortcuts Effectively
How To Use Referencing Shortcuts Effectively Very few scholars enjoy the task of adding in-text or in-note references and the complete bibliographical lists that should accompany them to their scholarly documents. In fact, many academics and scientists pass the job…
How To Punctuate and Format When Using Round Brackets
Punctuating and Formatting Correctly in Relation to Parentheses Parentheses (or round brackets) are used with considerable frequency in academic and scientific writing, but the punctuation and formatting that some scholars use in relation to parentheses are inappropriate, inconsistent and sometimes…
Providing a List of References for Your Scholarly Manuscript
Providing a List of References for Your Scholarly Manuscript The author guidelines provided by a scholarly journal or publisher will generally include some instructions on the referencing style and format required or preferred in manuscripts submitted for publication. If examples…
Affect or Effect? A Question for Academic and Scientific Authors
Affect or Effect? A Question for Academic and Scientific Authors Among the many words in the English language that prove tricky for even the most highly educated authors to use well are ‘affect’ and ‘effect,’ both of which are used…
Expert Writing Advice for Students and Scholars of History
Expert Writing Advice for Students and Scholars of History At every stage in the career of a historian, writing is an essential skill that must be acquired, nurtured and mastered. History students write essays, reviews, research papers, dissertations and theses…
Three Steps for Effectively Proofreading and Editing Scholarly Articles
Three Steps for Effectively Proofreading and Editing Scholarly Articles Proofreading and editing are necessary processes in the production of a publishable academic or scientific article, so they should never be treated lightly or skipped altogether if you wish to achieve…
The Importance of Paragraphs and How To Write Them Well
Paragraphs, Argument and Structure As units of thought that reflect and present the development of an author’s ideas and argument, paragraphs are vital to the effective structure and progression of academic and scientific documents. There are no absolute rules for…
Some Tricky Little English Words and How To Use Them Well
A Few Troublesome Words and How To Use Them Effectively English is not an easy language to master. Speaking it can certainly be challenging when it is not your native language, and writing it can be akin to a nightmare,…
Rules, Dashes and the Punctuation of Parenthetical Clauses
Using En Rules and Em Rules To Punctuate Parenthetical Clauses An em rule or em dash, which is about as wide as an uppercase M, is longer than an en rule or en dash, which is about the width of…
How To Inspire Your Readers’ Confidence in You as an Author
Earning the Confidence of Readers: Advice for the Scholarly Author It is extremely difficult to predict exactly what will win or lose the confidence readers must have in an academic or scientific author in order to consider his or her…
General Uses of Parentheses in Academic Writing
General Uses of Parentheses in Academic Writing Generally speaking, parentheses or round brackets tend to appear in scholarly writing more frequently than other brackets do. They have a number of specialised uses (in mathematical equations, for instance, or textual studies),…
How To Use Publisher Guidelines To Format References
Getting Your References Right: Reading and Following Publisher Guidelines Almost every scholarly publisher, whether it is a university press that prints academic books or a reputable journal that publishes scientific articles online, provides specific guidelines for recording references to source…
The Positive Aspects of Negative Feedback from Journal Editors
The Positive Aspects of Negative Feedback from Journal Editors Every writer has heard the old adage that any response is better than no response at all when it comes to the comments offered by readers, and given the increased ability…
Tips for Making Your Academic or Scientific Writing Eminently Citable
Tips for Making Your Academic or Scientific Writing Eminently Citable Excellent research, significant results, effective analysis and thoughtful discussion are sound ingredients for scholarly writing that will attract readers, disseminate knowledge and earn citations. However, as many authors of academic…
Archaeological Writing for Successful Journal Publication and Grades
Archaeological Writing for Successful Journal Publication and Grades It has been said that writing is as vital to archaeology as fieldwork is, and it is certainly true that artefacts and sediments do not become exciting propositions and established theories about…
Adding Corrections, Explanations and Other Comments to Direct Quotations
Adding Corrections, Explanations and Other Comments to Direct Quotations Whenever an academic or scientific author directly quotes material from a source, he or she should ensure that the content of the quotation is accurately represented and will be clearly understood…
Reviewers Comments on Research Papers and Publisher Rejection
Reviewers Comments on Research Papers and Publisher Rejection In virtually all worthwhile endeavours there is significant risk. Sharing your scholarly writing is no exception, and this is the case whether you are submitting it to a journal or press for…
How To Write for Your Readers: Three Essential Concerns
Knowing Your Readers and Tailoring Your Academic Writing for Them Although advanced scholars and business professionals tend to write for very specific groups of people much of the time, they sometimes forget just how important it is to know who…
Presenting Your Academic Research and Promoting Its Publication
Nurturing Your Conference Paper for a Long and Successful Life Although the average conference paper is presented in less than half an hour, its ideal life is much longer. From initial conception to final publication, this sort of long and…
Using Adjectives Effectively in Academic and Scientific Writing
Using Adjectives Effectively in Academic and Scientific Writing Some authors claim that adjectives are virtually unnecessary. Choosing the correct noun in any given situation is the key, they would argue, and with the right noun, who needs an accompanying adjective?…
En Rules or Short Dashes and Their Many Proper Uses
Using En Rules without Spaces Correctly and Effectively An en rule or en dash is longer than a hyphen and shorter than an em rule. It can be used closed up without any spaces around it or with spaces on…
How To Write Perfect Headings for Your Journal Article
Structural Headings and What Comes under Them in Academic Writing The relationship between the headings an academic or scientific author uses to organise and divide his or her journal article and the material that comes under them is usually straightforward….
How To Use and Reply to Journal Editor and Reviewer Suggestions
How To Use and Reply to Journal Editor and Reviewer Suggestions What To Do When the Revisions Requested Will Compromise Your Scholarship No scholar would deny that an academic or scientific author goes through a less than pleasant experience when…
A Good Beginning for Every Sentence in Academic & Scientific Writing
A Good Beginning for Every Sentence in Academic & Scientific Writing The wording at the beginning of English sentences in scholarly prose should be both precise and complete, and certain elements should not be used in that position. Numerals, for…
How To Discuss and Adjust Quotations in Academic and Scientific Writing
How To Discuss and Adjust Quotations in Academic and Scientific Writing In most instances, the words of writers or speakers are directly quoted in academic and scientific writing because those words are exactly what the quoting author needs to support…
Punctuating Abbreviations: The Use of Full Stops in Academic Writing
Punctuating Abbreviations: The Use of Full Stops in Academic Writing Abbreviations of all kinds are a common feature of academic and scientific writing, and they have to be absolutely correct and consistent to be effective, yet deciding where full stops…
Helpful Writing Tips for Authors Working in the Medical Sciences
The Challenges of Writing in the Medical Sciences Writing in many fields within the medical sciences can appeal to and reach a very wide audience, from the highly educated specialist to the general public. When preparing a paper for publication…
Challenging Nouns: Plurals That Seem Singular and Collective or Group Nouns
Challenging Nouns: Plurals That Seem Singular and Collective or Group Nouns In formal scholarly writing, agreement should always be maintained between nouns and the verbs used with them. This is usually straightforward: singular nouns should be used with the singular…
Using Relative Pronouns Correctly and Effectively
Using Relative Pronouns Correctly and Effectively A recent newsletter for authors published by a prominent press emphasised the importance of an author knowing as much as possible about his or her readers. The advice is sound, but the language in…
Writing the Perfect Covering Letter when Submitting an Article to an Academic or Scientific Journal
Writing the Perfect Covering Letter when Submitting an Article to an Academic or Scientific Journal Although a covering letter is not always a necessary aspect of submitting an article to an academic or scientific journal, a carefully written covering letter…
How To Construct an Academic Argument in a Journal Paper
The Importance of Establishing and Developing a Clear Scholarly Argument A carefully constructed argument is as vital to a successful academic or scientific paper as methodology and evidence are. Indeed, the argument or thesis of a scholarly article encompasses all…
Helpful Writing Tips for Law Students and Legal Professionals
The Importance of Refined Writing Skills for Legal Professionals Legal careers are notoriously busy careers that tend to involve a great deal of professional writing. Pleadings, briefs, contracts, letters and memoranda are produced daily by lawyers, and many legal professionals…
Advice & Helpful Tips on Writing with Sophistication in the Humanities
Advice & Helpful Tips on Writing with Sophistication in the Humanities Writing is an essential skill for all scholars working in the humanities. Students must write essays, reviews, dissertations and theses in order to earn their degrees, and the production…
How Do I Use a Semicolon Correctly in Academic & Scientific Writing?
How Do I Use a Semicolon Correctly in Academic & Scientific Writing? It may now be the case that many writers use the semicolon (;) to send a winking happy face to family, friends and colleagues more often than they…
The Serial or Oxford Comma: When, Where and Why or When, Where, and Why?
The Serial or Oxford Comma: When, Where and Why or When, Where, and Why? A serial comma is the comma that appears immediately after the penultimate item in a series or list when a conjunction separates that item from the…
Adversarial Peer Reviews and What To Do To Prevent Them
Adversarial Peer Reviews and What To Do To Prevent Them Written in the context of Computer Science, this witty and informative article on the techniques of adversarial reviewers is well worth a read no matter what field you are working…
How to write in an Academic Style – Some Fascinating Facts about Stylish Academic Writing
How Significant Is the Style of Your Academic or Scientific Writing? Well, according to this blog post, writing style is very important indeed if you want to produce academic or scientific work that is both interesting and accessible: http://bit.ly/1Z57qPO. The…
Acknowledging the Essential Role of Peer Reviewers
Acknowledging the Essential Role of Peer Reviewers Peer reviews are vital for maintaining high standards in academic and scientific publication, and many scholars invest a great deal of time in reviewing the articles submitted to journals and offering commentary to…
Helpful Tips on How To Find and Use the AMA Manual of Style
Online Resources for the American Medical Association Manual of Style The American Medical Association (AMA) Manual of Style is ‘a must-have guide for anyone involved in medical and scientific publishing,’ and the 10th edition is now available online at http://bit.ly/1Wt4U46…
Online Guides for Using Chicago Manual of Style References
Online Guides for Using Chicago Manual of Style References The Chicago Manual of Style is an incredibly useful resource for academic and scientific authors. The guidelines of many scholarly journals request that this style guide be used to prepare articles…
Using Overleaf for Writing and Teaching in LaTeX
Using Overleaf for Writing and Teaching in LaTeX If you use (or would like to use) the LaTeX document preparation system to write scholarly articles for publication, you may want to consider Overleaf at http://bit.ly/1OcKaN9, which allows authors to use…
The Many Benefits of Writing an Academic or Scientific Book
Thinking of Writing an Academic Book? Although an enormous proportion of modern scholarship is published and disseminated via academic and scientific journals, there is still a great deal to be said for the scholarly book. In the humanities, social sciences…
Developing Ideas for Your PhD Thesis as You Consult Sources
Developing Ideas for Your PhD Thesis as You Consult Sources Reading a source that deals with topics and concepts central to one’s own doctoral research and dissertation can be highly inspirational – rather like brainstorming in a conference setting, except…
How To Proofread Academic Documents for Yourself and Others
How To Proofread Academic Documents for Yourself and Others The effective proofreading of complex scholarly and professional documents is extremely challenging, yet how to do proofreading seems to receive a lot less attention than the reasons for proofreading or the…
Integrating Foreign Languages into Academic English Writing
Integrating Foreign Languages into Academic English Writing Many pieces of academic and scientific writing in English require the use of words, phrases and longer passages in a foreign language. It is essential that such additions be integrated into the English…
Advice on Critical Comments & Getting an Academic Paper Published
Advice on Critical Comments & Getting an Academic Paper Published When submitting a paper to an academic or scientific journal, any scholar would love to receive a response from the editor expressing his or her excitement about the work, the…
English Infinitive Verbs and Why They Should Not Be Split
English Infinitive Verbs and Why They Should Not Be Split The days when it was considered anathema to split infinitives in formal, particularly scholarly writing in the English language are long gone. In English text of virtually all kinds, from…
The Importance of Good Grammar for Clear Communication
The Importance of Good Grammar for Clear Communication Strange as it may seem to those who aim to produce excellent writing that communicates with precision and eloquence, the validity of fussing over correct grammar seems to have become a hotly…
Three Academic & Scientific Styles and When To Use Each of Them
Engaging Journal Readers with the Right Style It goes without saying that any academic or scientific author who wants to be taken seriously should aim to write as well as possible, employing correct grammar, spelling all words accurately, using pronouns…