Writing Workshop: Omit Needless Words

 

Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.—Strunk & White, The Elements of Style, 1959 (2000)

Writing Workshop: Choose Good Words

[Hemingway] has no courage . . . He has never been known to use a word that might cause the reader to check with a dictionary. -William Faulkner

Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? -Ernest Hemingway

We've arrived at the part of the writing workshop where we talk about revising. For the next several chapters, I will assume that you already have a bad draft of whatever you are writing, and you are ready to revise it into a better draft. These chapters are about polishing up words, sentences and paragraphs.

Writing Workshop: Talks and Posters

One of the underestimated tasks in nonfiction writing is to impose narrative shape on an unwieldy mass of material.  -William Zinsser

Writing Workshop: Grants and Fellowships

Writing Workshop: Articles

Featuring IMRad, the friendly hourglass! 

Parasites in Peril

Last week I received an email from the academic publishing giant Elsevier, inviting me to check out Elsevier’s new Open Science page. I don’t believe for one minute that Elsevier supports open science, but I found the email encouraging, because it shows that even Elsevier knows its current business model is unsustainable.

Writing Workshop: Define Your Research Question

Writing Workshop: Review the Literature

Writing Workshop: Resistance

The scariest moment is always just before you start.

–Stephen King

Writing Workshop: The Weekly Plan

The only thing you can control is how you spend your time.

Writing Workshop: The Term Plan

Writing productively is about actions that you aren't doing but could easily do: Making a schedule, setting clear goals, keeping track of your work, rewarding yourself, and building good habits. -Paul J. Silvia

Writing Workshop: The IDP (Individual Development Plan)

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. 

-old military adage, cited by Dwight D. Eisenhower

Writing Workshop: Introduction