Forming and Using Present Participles in the English Language Present participles perform more than one important function in the English language. They can, for instance, act as adjectives to modify nouns, as nouns themselves or as aspects of compound verbs,…
Notes & Advice on Mastering the Future Tense in Academic Writing
Mastering Tense in the English Language: The Future In my earlier posts on mastering tense I discussed the present and past tenses of English verbs. In this post I would like to provide some advice on the four basic future…
Mastering Tense in the English Language: The Past
Mastering Tense in the English Language: The Past | Tips on How to Get Your Research Published As a continuation of my earlier posting on the present tenses of verbs in the English language, I would like to provide some…
The Tiniest Points of Punctuation
The Tiniest Points of Punctuation There are many authors these days who would argue that fussing over punctuation with the goals being precision and consistency is simply a waste of time. The point, they might argue, is to get the…
Using Hyphens in Compound Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs
Using Hyphens in Compound Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs Hyphens are often used to form compound nouns, adjectives and verbs in the English language, but not in all cases. In fact, the appearance of hyphens in compound constructions can seem unpredictable…
The Hyphenation Associated with Prefixes & Suffixes in Academic Texts
The Hyphenation Associated with Prefixes & Suffixes in Academic Texts There are many different uses of hyphens in the English language, and some authors might argue with justice that there is a great deal too much unpredictability in the principles…
Using Apostrophes in Contractions and with Letters, Numbers and Symbols
Using Apostrophes in Contractions and with Letters, Numbers and Symbols Although the most common use of apostrophes in the English language is to form the genitive or possessive case of nouns, there are other valid uses of this tiny but…
Mastering Tense in the English Language: The Present
Mastering Tense in the English Language: The Present Writing in the English language is far from an easy task, especially for those academics and scientists who are not native speakers of the language. Among the many challenges faced by authors…
Odd or Particularly Troublesome Possessives in the English Language
Odd or Particularly Troublesome Possessives in the English Language Most possessive or genitive nouns in the English language are relatively straightforward to form and use, but there are some constructions that are odd or simply difficult to use correctly. The…
Three Tricky English Verbs and How To Use Them Correctly
Three Tricky English Verbs and How To Use Them Correctly English presents many challenges for academic and scientific authors who aim to communicate with precision and sophistication. This is obviously the case for scholars who are not native speakers of…
Forming the Possessives of English Nouns by Adding an Apostrophe Alone
Forming the Possessives of English Nouns by Adding an Apostrophe Alone When forming the possessive or genitive case of English nouns, an apostrophe (’) is almost always necessary. For singular possessive nouns the general rule is to add an ‘s’…
To Hyphenate or Not To Hyphenate? No Simple Question
Navigating the Challenges of Effective Hyphenation There is no set of straightforward rules to govern the use of hyphens in the English language, which means that a consistent system of hyphenation can be incredibly tricky to establish in a scholarly…
British vs. American English: Spelling Differences in Academic Writing
British vs. American English: Spelling Differences in Academic Writing There are two main forms of written English – British and American – and most scholarly journals will indicate a preference or requirement for one or the other in their instructions…
Creating En Rules and Em Rules in Microsoft Word
Creating En Rules and Em Rules in Microsoft Word En rules (–) and em rules (—), which are also called en dashes and em dashes, are used with considerable frequency in scholarly prose. Each type of rule can be used…
Possessive Nouns in English and How To Use Them Well
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 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…
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…
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…
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),…
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…
The Correct and Effective Use of En Rules without Spaces in Your Thesis or Dissertation
The Correct and Effective Use of En Rules without Spaces in Your Thesis or Dissertation As you draft your thesis or dissertation, you will likely discover that you need to use en rules, so you will also need to understand…
The Correct Use of Infinitive Verbs in Academic & Scientific English
The Correct Use of Infinitive Verbs in Academic & Scientific English It was once considered completely inappropriate to split infinitives in formal, particularly scholarly writing in the English language, but the rules tend to be less strictly observed these days….
How to Use the Semicolon Correctly in English
How to Use the Semicolon Correctly in English Although the semicolon (;) is used more rarely these days than it once was and is even considered redundant by some writers, it remains an effective piece of punctuation with very specific…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Forming English Possessive Nouns with an Apostrophe Only
Forming English Possessive Nouns with an Apostrophe Only In my previous discussion of apostrophes, I listed a number of instances in which both an apostrophe and an ‘s’ should be added to form the possessive case of words. In this…
Using Hyphens in Formal English Writing: Rules and Perils
Using Hyphens in Formal English Writing: Rules and Perils Hyphens may seem too small an element of writing to warrant the term ‘perils,’ but a consistent system of hyphenation can be incredibly tricky to establish because the use of hyphens…
Plurals and Punctuation of Numbers in Academic and Scientific Writing
Plurals and Punctuation of Numbers The plural forms of numbers expressed as words do not use an apostrophe; instead, they are formed just as other plurals are by adding an ‘s’ or ‘es’ (‘sixes and sevens’) or by changing a…
Why English Verbs Should Not Be Split and Other Writing Tips
Why English Verbs Should Not Be Split and Other Writing Tips English is a notoriously difficult language to use correctly, more so to use elegantly, and verbs are among the most troublesome aspects of English to negotiate. Care must be…
Formatting Numbers (Dates & Time) in Academic & Scientific Writing
Dates In all academic and scientific writing, precise dates are far more effective than general references such as ‘lately’ and ‘in recent years,’ but if clarity is to be maintained, the format of dates and eras must be precise and…
