Scholarly writers should avoid using conversational sayings, colloquial terms and informal words and phrases (i.e., “very,” “a lot,”...

Wordiness often occurs using an extra word here or there, not just when writing run-on sentences. Many of these extra words come in the...

As a English profession, we have traumatized students with our red ink!!! In efforts to point out ways to help students improve as...

You have been working consistently and started to get into your writing groove. Then, the unexpected happens to interrupt your routine:...

Some people mistakenly think that learning to be concise only applies to wordy writers. However, conciseness is often achieved by...

One of most commonly misused punctuation marks in the English language is the comma. Most people are confident with their use of the...

Grant writing is a distinctive genre of writing that incorporates technical writing, persuasive writing and narrative writing....

Most academic writing is persuasive, which means the writer wants the reader to accept what he or she presents as true. Anyone who has...

One of the most common questions I am asked is how to gain and maintain writing momentum, especially when trying to complete a thesis,...

By far, one of the most well-attended, requested workshops that I present on is the Literature Review. I title the session "You Want Me...

As a new study proves, good academic writing isn't what we always think. Rather than trying to "sound" smart through the use of heavy...

This week, we continue to focus on verbs since they express the action of any sentence. Using the proper verbs ensures that ideas have...

Last week, we used verbs to illustrate extraneous words. However, extra words can include any part of speech, whether verbs, nouns,...

This week, we return to verb usage. Clearly ensuring that you use the proper verb to represent the action in your sentence is central to...

In every sentence, verbs express the action being performed in the sentence. Sometimes, this action is active; at other times, the action...

A common word used when speaking and writing is “this.” Too often, people transfer written ways of communicating into their writing. Yet,...

Concise writing can be achieved in numerous ways. The quickest way is to eliminate unnecessary words in a sentence. By nature, certain...

A question I am frequently asked as a writing coach is how to write productively. While I can answer that question in numerous ways, I...

One of the most critical writing process topics to cover for academic writers is prewriting. This first stage of the writing process,...

As an editor, I receive countless requests to "edit" documents. Many people don't realize that editing occurs in two forms: content...