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Sharing ideas and advice about academic and professional writing

Notes and quotes: How to use Google Docs to write your novel

A writer described how she uses Google Docs to make her productive as she works on a novel. Main point: "Docs provided me with the flexibility and resources I needed to power through my first draft, and I’ve discovered even more features while doing revisions and...

The importance of writing out your ideas

The author of the linked article calls it the "rule of writing," writing out your thoughts in a well-developed memo. Main point: "If you want to clarify your thinking, remember something important, or communicate something clearly, write it down." Photo by Negative...

Don’t make your academic writing emotive and grandiose

Don't make your academic writing emotive and grandiose.More about it:What the principle really means is to "avoid appeals to emotion and inflated claims."In other words, you want to "clearly communicate ideas, information and arguments, not to inspire an emotional...

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Notes and quotes: How to use Google Docs to write your novel

A writer described how she uses Google Docs to make her productive as she works on a novel. Main point: "Docs provided me with the flexibility and resources I needed to power through my first draft, and I’ve discovered even more features while doing revisions and...

The importance of writing out your ideas

The author of the linked article calls it the "rule of writing," writing out your thoughts in a well-developed memo. Main point: "If you want to clarify your thinking, remember something important, or communicate something clearly, write it down." Photo by Negative...

Don’t make your academic writing emotive and grandiose

Don't make your academic writing emotive and grandiose.More about it:What the principle really means is to "avoid appeals to emotion and inflated claims."In other words, you want to "clearly communicate ideas, information and arguments, not to inspire an emotional...

In academic writing, don’t get long-winded

In academic writing, don't get long-winded. More about it:It's tempting to get wordy so you can meet a word count requirement. If you use my 3-part approach to writing, you will never have that problem.A variation is finding longer words via a thesaurus. Select words...

Make sure your academic writing doesn’t get personal

Make sure your academic writing doesn't get personal.More about it:That's because "the text should focus on the research itself" rather than the author's reflections.Unlike less formal writing like this blog article, don't use "you." Instead, use less casual words...

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