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I& #39;ve been reading a lot of undergrad assignments, postgrad theses, research papers & a book recently. My overwhelming impression is that humans write poorly, so here are some unsolicited tips... 1/n
1) Proof read your work by reading it out loud. Many people write things they would never say. Read to yourself & a friend & correct stuff that sounds daft. Do this again & again & edit each time until it sounds ok. Don& #39;t let someone else be the first to read your words! 2/n
2) Do some research & find out what a sentence is. If you are >60 years old you will have been taught that a sentence has a (1) subject & the predicate. The important part is the ONE subject. A good sentence identifies the subject & tells us a little about it. 3/n
Bad sentences have two or more subjects & switch between them so the reader hasn& #39;t a clue what is going on. This is a good resource... https://arts.uottawa.ca/writingcentre/en/hypergrammar/the-parts-of-the-sentence#:~:text=Every%20complete%20sentence%20contains%20two,tells%20something%20about%20the%20subject.">https://arts.uottawa.ca/writingce... 4/n
3) Use fewer words (per sentence, paragraph etc). Word limits are tight in scientific writing, so get the message across, use a full stop & start another sentence (on the same or a new subject). If possible, don& #39;t use any one word more than once per sentence. 5/n
4) Use plain language whenever possible. There may be an academic & #39;style& #39; but there is no reason to use words like & #39;Musculature& #39;. & #39;Muscles& #39; means exactly the same thing & doesn& #39;t make you sound like a tosser. It also uses up fewer characters & that& #39;s good for abstracts... 6/n
5) Minimise the use of abbreviations. Readers (reviewers!) hate these because they cost us time. We really hate the new rubbish abbreviations you& #39;ve invented (WTFWYDT?). Abbreviations are needed only if you& #39;ve not been concise 7/n
If your thesis has a full page of abbreviations you must be trying to shit the readers/reviewers up the wall. This is a bad idea. If it isn& #39;t MVC or MVO2 does it really need to be abbreviated? 8/n
6) Prepositions are really hard, particularly if English is not your first language. Does one get punched in, on, around or through the face? Fortunately, there are plenty of resources online; eg. https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/prepositions">https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-u... 9/n
