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You represent a small intersect of people who are both good writers and academics, so your advice is rare and valuable to people seeking to follow in your foots
by exo-pla-net 5y ago
You represent a small intersect of people who are both good writers and academics, so your advice is rare and valuable to people seeking to follow in your footsteps.
Any other tips or strange adaptations you've had to make, in order to make good writing work in academia?
- scott_s 5y agoI don't think of it as making good writing work in academia. Good writing is an advantage in academia. Reviewers are more likely to accept your paper, and readers are more likely to read more.
- exo-pla-net 5y agoI understand your distinction. Nevertheless, you've brought up two habits that a traditionally good writer might erroneously bring with them when writing an academic paper. Namely, their reluctance to repeat themselves and their inclination to build up to a big reveal. Have you had to make any other modifications? Do you have any other tips for a starting academic with a passion for writing?
- scott_s 5y agoI'm not sure if it's a habit from a "good" writer, but most new academic writers are reluctant to make themselves the subject of sentences. This leads to passive voice and awkward sentences. Who ran the experiments? We ran the experiments. The experiments were not run. Who proved the theorem? We proved the theorem. We present. We conclude. Our analysis. It not only leads to better, simpler sentences, it's more accurate. We, as human beings who exist in this world, did these things. Also, and this is more of a pet-peeve and may only be a practice from my particular community, but references are not nouns. "Betty White [6] already proved a version of this result" is good. "[6] already proved a version of this result" drives me batty.
- exo-pla-net 5y agoMuch appreciated. Passing this on to my SO who is finishing up her postdoc and who is eager for academic writing guidance.