important commandments of academic writing · aka dr. leblanc’s pet peeves. the good, the bad,...

IMPORTANT COMMANDMENTS OF ACADEMIC WRITING

AKA Dr. LeBlanc’s Pet Peeves

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

Parts of speech and sentence structure

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ The words this and that are not nouns!

– They are demonstrative adjectives or pronouns.

– Correct: This study showed…

– Incorrect: This showed…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Data is a plural noun.

– The singular form of data is datum.

– Correct: The data show…

– Incorrect: The data shows…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Avoid the unnecessary use of helping verbs.

– Correct: This report is included because…

– Incorrect: This report is being included because…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Please align your pronoun referents.

– Correct: Everyone in the class was anxious about his

or her exam grade.

– Incorrect: Everyone in the class was anxious about

their grade.

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Avoid ending sentences with a preposition.

– Correct: Meet the friend with whom I went to

school.

– Incorrect: Meet the friend I went to school with.

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Get rid of the word like. Use as instead.

– Correct: As the researcher stated…

– Incorrect: Like the researcher stated…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Beware of your verb tenses!

– Literature reviews are written in the past tense.

– Grant proposals and program evaluation plans are

written in the future tense.

– Dissertations are written in the past tense with the

exception of the recommendations for future

research section.

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Thou shalt not begin a sentence with the word it.

– Correct: The study showed…

– Incorrect: It showed…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Write in 3rd person instead of 1st and 2nd person.

– Correct: The researcher demonstrated to the

audience…

– Incorrect: My study demonstrated to the

audience…

– Incorrect: The researcher demonstrated to you…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ The word etc. is often used to mask faulty reasoning

or ambiguity.

– Correct: The researcher conducted interviews,

observations, and phone calls.

– Incorrect: The researcher conducted interviews,

observations, phone calls, etc.

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Be aware that the word significant has a unique

meaning to a researcher.

– Correct: My informal poll indicated a substantial

difference…

– Incorrect: My informal poll indicated a significant

difference…

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Use active voice in your writing.

– Verbs that have a direct object

are in active voice.

– Correct: The timer stopped the

clock.

– Incorrect: The clock was

stopped by the timer.

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

■ Use passive voice sparingly, if at all.

– Passive voice can be used when:

■ The actor is more important than the act.

– The professor was struck by lightening.

■ The actor is unknown.

– A ship was recovered off the coast of Florida.

EATS SHOOTS AND LEAVES

Punctuation, contractions, and more

Eats shoots and leaves

■ Grammar is the

foundation of written

communication.

Eats shoots and leaves

■ When using commas

in a series, don’t

forget to include the

Oxford comma.

Eats shoots and leaves

■ Semi-colons connect

two complete

sentences and may be

separated by a

conjunction.

■ Correct: She was late to class; therefore, we had to wait.

■ Incorrect: She was late to class, therefore we had to wait.

Eats shoots and leaves

■ Be mindful of the

difference between its

and it’s.

■ It’s should never be

used in formal writing.

Eats shoots and leaves

■ The subject of a gerund is possessive.

– Gerunds are verb forms ending in –ing and functioning in

a sentence as a noun.

– Correct: Being part of the cohort was important to his

success.

– Incorrect: His being part of the cohort was important to his

success.

Eats shoots and leaves

■ Quotation marks

– For details on the rules regarding quotation

marks, visit:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/57

7/01/

Eats shoots and leaves

■ Avoid run-on

sentences like the

plague!

Eats shoots and leaves

■ Use parallel structures.

– Correct: The professor enjoyed harassing

students, confusing them, and discussing

lessons with them.

– Incorrect: The professor enjoyed harassing the

students, confusing them, and discussions.

EDITING VS. PROOFING

Writing is rewriting!

Editing vs. Proofing

■ Definitions

– Editing: Organizing ideas, connecting sentences,

moving paragraphs, reverse outlining, and other

structural actions

Editing vs. Proofing

■ Definitions

– Proofreading: Checking for errors and

inconsistencies in formatting, spelling, grammar,

punctuation, and grammar

Editing vs. Proofing

■ Structure refers to the whole text as well as the

relationships between the sentences, paragraphs,

and sections.

EXAMPLES AND RESOURCES

A tight academic paragraph

■ (Transition) + One Key Idea + Development of Key

Idea

A tight academic paragraph

■ A paragraph should be consistent in structure; it should

complete three functions in order. First, the paragraph

should open with a transition. The transition can be short or

as long as a sentence. Second, the transition should be

followed by a topic of key sentence. Third, the rest of the

paragraph should provide support or evidence for the idea

in the key sentence.

From Strunk and White’s (2008) The

Elements of Style

■ Choose a suitable design for paragraphs and stick

with it.

■ Use active voice.

■ Use specific, definite, concrete language.

■ Omit needless words.

From Strunk and White’s (2008) The

Elements of Style

■ Make sure the following are used appropriately:

– Of

– That/which

– This/that/these/those

– To be verbs in all forms

– And/as well as/too/or/etc.

From Strunk and White’s (2008) The

Elements of Style

■ Make sure the following are used appropriately:

– Useless words

– Subject-verb agreement

Some ideas to improve your writing

■ Write!

■ Read!

■ Copy the writing of others (visual and kinesthetic).

■ Put together a writing group that meets once a week

or month to share, give and receive feedback, and

hold one another accountable.

Some ideas to improve your writing

■ Consider building your vocabulary through:

– Subscribing to Word a Day email lists.

– Keeping a vocabulary notebook.

– Developing a personal glossary for each course.

Writing is an iterative process!

■ First Review: Ask someone outside your field to read

your paper and comment on its clarity.

Writing is an iterative process!

■ Second Review: Ask someone in your field to review

your paper and point out two or three major issues

that need further revision.

– Have your reviewer look at:

■ Structure Clarity

■ Logic Flow

Writing is an iterative process!

■ Final Review: Ask an expert to review the paper for

the major and minor issues; offer to review a paper

for him or her in return.

Writing is an iterative process!

■ The expert in your case will often be your committee

chair.

■ Don’t burn him or her out!

■ Give the committee your best writing so that the

members can concentrate on content and critical

thinking.

Resources

■ “Becoming an Academic Writer” (Patricia Goodson)

■ “Roget’s Thesaurus of Words for Intellectuals”

■ “The Elements of Style” (William Strunk, Jr.)

■ “How to Critique Journal Articles in the Social Sciences”

(Scott R. Harris)

■ “The Literature Review: Six Steps to Success” (Lawrence A.

Machi and Brenda T. McEvoy)