Archive for the Uncategorized Category
December 27
Auld Lang Syne
Happy Holidays! Just a short little post today. The new year is creeping up (and is about to pounce); I’ve been thinking about “Auld Lang Syne” – that song we sing at midnight. Clearly, it’s not English, so why does everyone sing it? And what the heck does it mean? In true English form (i.e. [...]
December 05
Look It Up… Or Not
“If you don’t understand a word, look it up in the dictionary.” How many times have you heard that? And how many times have you actually done that? Yeah. Me, too. Let me start at the beginning of language acquisition: when you were a baby, did you look up all the new words in a [...]
March 21
Deadly Sins
This one is for the students who “don’t like writing”. Academic English Today has posted a YouTube video discussing the 11 Deadly Sins of (Bad) Academic Writing. The first eight sins have been discussed thoroughly on this blog – and everywhere one might find information on academic writing. I’m posting this because of the last [...]
October 11
Sweet Conclusions
The ending of an essay is just as important as the beginning. Why? you say. It’s the end. We’re all done. There are no more points to make. Yeah, it’s all been said, but an essay without a conclusion is like a telephone conversation where people hang up without saying goodbye. Or – worse – [...]
May 10
Parallel Structure
Okay, I’m the first to admit that I’m not fond of following the rules; straight lines are for the birds. However, when you have signed yourself up to follow the lines, it seems counterproductive to deliberately cross them. Parallel structure is one of those things that is de rigueur in formal writing (though you’re welcome [...]
April 26
Academic Writing Gets Messy
Academic Writing Gets Messy Very cool YouTube video. I beg to differ with some of it, though. It’s no harder to keep track of the 10 000 websites you’ve visited than it is to keep track of the 10 000 books you have all over the library table. Citations are relatively simple; the OWL at [...]
March 29
Essays and Dissertations
There are, I think, more “how to write an essay” books out there than there are self-help books. As with anything else, one must sift through the rubble to find what one needs. The rubble tends to include a lot of introductory books – the equivalent of Essay Writing for The Witless. These are utterly [...]
March 08
Mulling Things Over
If any man wish to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts… – Goethe When I sit down to write, I rarely pause in my writing; everything spews out as if it’s coming from a faucet. This always amazes my students. They think I have some sort of magical [...]
February 01
Verbing
I have an adult student who has come to me for tutoring. Although his spoken English is excellent, his written English requires some work. He came to Canada recently, and just signed himself up for some courses at the local college. He’s taking, amongst other courses, Business Communication and Introduction to English Literature. We had [...]
July 03
Citations and Plagiarism
If it’s done properly, no one mentions it at all. If it’s not done properly, there are big red marks all over your paper. If it’s not done at all, you get a Big, Fat Zero, or they threaten to expel you. Citations: the bane of an academic writer’s existence. Deliberate plagiarism is not all [...]
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.
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