Posts Tagged precise writing style
November 15
Reported Speech
One of the aspects of academic writing which cannot be avoided is the need to quote others: other writers, other speakers, other researchers, etc. The term academic implies research, and all that research must be paraphrased, quoted and cited. Most students can handle the research, the paraphrasing, the quoting and the citing, but they run [...]
August 09
Mean Exactly What You Say
I was ill last weekend and spent an inordinate amount of time watching television. There was a commercial that seemed to air at least twice an hour, and that commercial did nothing to make me feel any better. The actor in the commercial was cooking rapini, and he said, “It smells spectacular!” How can something [...]
June 07
Passive Ain’t Bad
As an English tutor, I spend a great deal of time with people who don’t like English; the irony of this is not lost on me, so don’t worry about it. :) What I learn from my students is, mostly, perspective. When you can’t get the right verb tense, that’s a major problem. When you [...]
March 15
Adios, Strunk and White
Adios, Strunk and White, by Gary and Glynis Hoffman There are three chapters in this marvellous book: Style, Form, and Critical Thought and Research. After the first column of the Table of Contents, it gets interesting. The sub-chapters for Style are Flow, Pause, Fusion, Opt and Scrub. Form contains Time Warping, Encircling, Layering and Bursting. [...]
December 14
Breaking All The Rules
One of the reasons I appreciate Sentenceworks is because it teaches the rules of the English language rather than just pointing out the errors and having a computer automatically fix it. If you’ve been using Sentenceworks regularly since the beginning of the school year, by now you should have learned to correct at least three [...]
November 30
Do You Really Mean That?
This is a great website: Tips For Formal Writing. Dr. James A. Bednar has compiled this thorough list of things which will weaken your writing style, and possibly annoy your reader to the point where they are distracted. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I’ll just quote my favourite part of the website: Write what you [...]
November 23
Roget’s Thesaurus
I’ve gone on about this before, but I was writing something a couple of weeks ago and realised exactly how fiercely I cling to this book while writing. I did a few little experiments with my students, and have come to an absolute: one simply cannot write without a copy of Roget’s Thesaurus by one’s [...]
November 16
George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language
Politics and the English Language is an essay by George Orwell (well-known author of 1984); in it, he discusses the decline of the English language. This essay provides a good read. Orwell gives examples of the changes in English and puts the examples in context – by translating a verse of the Bible – to [...]
About Author
I'm Sheila van den Heuvel-Collins. Currently, I am the primary blog
writer. Please feel free to contribute writing tips and ideas by
commenting on the blog entries.
Categories
- Books (3)
- Conferences (1)
- Contests (1)
- ESL (5)
- Essay Formats (2)
- Grammar and Punctuation (35)
- Guest Posts (5)
- Lords of Language (7)
- Neologisms (1)
- Sociology of Writing (21)
- style (52)
- Uncategorized (11)
- Websites (13)
- Writing Centre (61)
