Study SkillsMy shocking confessionI went to Primary School in NSW in the 1970s (no that's not the shocking bit). During that time the government - in its wisdom - decided to only teach very basic grammar: nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. It was also pretty sparing on punctuation: with attention only to full stops, commas and question marks. That was pretty much it. Luckily I was a voracious reader, and through this ituitively learnt what made for an attractive sentence. But I never understood the rules - I just developed an instinct for what sounded musical and balanced in my head. I'm one of the many people of my generation who will say "I know there's something wrong with the sentence that I've just written - I just have no idea what it is".
Jump forward 40 odd years and I find myself working as a writer, and as an editor, and as a marker of student papers and theses. Often I have to pause and pull out my hefty Oxford Guide to Writing and figure out what on earth a split infinitive is or why my participle might be dangling. So really, much of this content is what I've found helpful as I try to identify and correct what's happening in the mechanics of my writing. It may help my students along the way. The best, most effective ways to take notesI was a terrible undergraduate student; mainly because I had no idea how to take notes. I just used to scribble down everything the lecturer said, writing until my hand cramped and my fingers spasmed, praying that whatever was important would end up on my page. When it came to use my notes I had to wade through pages of illegible notes and try to sort wheat from chaff. If only I had heard of the Cornell note-taking system. See https://theconversation.com/whats-the-best-most-effective-way-to-take-notes-41961
Totally like whatever, you know?Totally like whatever, you know?
By Taylor Mali In case you hadn't noticed, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about? Or believe strongly in what you're saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? See the rest of this wonderful poem, as Taylor Mali implores us to speak with conviction: https://taylormali.com/poems/totally-like-whatever-you-know/ How to avoid sounding silly in emailsThis is written as advice for students - but I think a whole bunch of us could do with this advice!
The 3Rs:Driscoll's Reflective Model
A great reflective model I use in my SOSC2288/7288 class. It essentially looks like this:
A nice easy explanation is provided here: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nmp/sonet/rlos/placs/critical_reflection/models/driscoll.html Using apostrophes
1960s NOT 1960'sOK so this one isn't actually a rule. It's a stylistic preference. But Oxford likes it. And APA likes it. And it makes sense in terms of apostrophes and rules on plural formats. So I'm adopting it. See:
http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/11/pluralize-numbers-and-abbreviations-without-apostrophes.html That vs WhichEver wondered why Microsoft Word grammar checker keeps sticking wriggly red lines under "that" and "which" in your sentences? Often it feels so random and you wonder - does it really matter?
Turns out, it actually does make a difference to meaning. One of the easiest explanations I've found is this one from Brian Klems (2012) on "The Writer's Dig". You can go to the original article here, or read below. "The battle over whether to use which or that is one many people struggle to get right. It’s a popular grammar question and most folks want a quick rule of thumb so they can get it right. Here it is: If the sentence doesn’t need the clause that the word in question is connecting, use which. If it does, use that. (Pretty easy to remember, isn’t it?) Let me explain with a couple of examples. Our office, which has two lunchrooms, is located in Cincinnati. Our office that has two lunchrooms is located in Cincinnati. These sentences are not the same. The first sentence tells us that you have just one office, and it’s located in Cincinnati. The clause which has two lunchrooms gives us additional information, but it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence. Remove the clause and the location of our one office would still be clear: Our office is located in Cincinnati." Thank you Brian, So basically the "which" acts as a kind of "by the way...". Doesn't life feel richer now? |
Updated:09/01/18
How to improve your writing There is a useful web publication with some great open access papers about writing which largely seems to be aimed at students. Is is called Writing Spaces: http://writingspaces.org/essays.
The papers are very clearly written and aimed at improving writing practice. There is also a paper by Irvin 'What is Academic Writing' which is very good: http://writingspaces.org/essays/what-is-academic-writing. The other piece of great advice I've been given comes from writer Anne Lamott. In her book Bird by Bird, she talks about the need to write a “shitty first draft” in order to get to a more polished draft.
I also recommend the blog by Henneke who writes about "How to rescue a shitty first draft". See: www.enchantingmarketing.com/writing-shitty-first-drafts/ Henneke makes this great observation:
How to correct grammar and stay humble.I adore the blog by editor Jonathan Owen called "Arrant Pedantry". In particular, he has a great post called 12 mistakes nearly everyone who writes about grammar mistakes makes - which reminds us to be human while enjoying grammar. (And is incredibly useful for understanding why Microsoft Word gets so thing-y about the that/which rule). Although I can't accept his argument about the word enormity). Another gem is his discussion of how grammar differs from style:
http://www.arrantpedantry.com/2005/12/15/standards-of-usage/ 
How to use (and not to use) quotation marksI like this post on how to use quotation marks - including the importance of using so-called "scare quotes" sparingly:
http://www.arrantpedantry.com/tag/scare-quotes/ and I particularly like this take on scare quores: http://tweedediting.com/2010/04/scared/ Grammar for beginners: All about pronounsNew Zealand company "Writers Write" provide some very helpful blogs on grammar and other aspects of writing. See: writerswrite.co.za/
Trying to stay gender neutralFrom the same company, some thoughts on how to manage the difficulty of working with gender neutrality. See writerswrite.co.za/five-ways-to-stay-gender-neutral/
Sentence structure and clausesTwo space or not two space"Is it really wrong to keep using two spaces after half a century after the publishing world has moved on?"
See: http://www.arrantpedantry.com/2017/11/28/two-space-or-not-two-space/ (Short answer: no - but it's bloody annoying!) | ||
