One of the single best pieces of advice I give my clients to improve their writing is to read what they write ALOUD.
You might feel silly doing it, but it works.
Example: you’ll notice you’ve used the same word three times, or a sentence is way too long, or suddenly your paper sounds like a text message, complete with emojis.
Things have been a little hectic for Miss Molly these days, and the blog has suffered accordingly. But I’ve carved out some time so here we go! Yep. Any minute now. Words of wisdom on tap. Deep insights and razor-sharp observations. Galloping across my cerebral cortex. Nothing. Typical of the Muse to abandon Miss Molly…
Let me tell you how I feel about the use of (most) intensifiers in professional or academic writing. Words like, REALLY. Or VERY. Or EXTREMELY. When I read an otherwise well-written paper discussing the transmission of Covid and the (student) writer describes it as “a really desperate situation” I just think — really? Did you…
Some of the things that I hear from students — ALL THE TIME, actually — are versions of the following: 1) “I’m such a terrible writer, I don’t know how you could help me; or 2) I’m not talented in that way, it doesn’t come easily to me.” Now, to me this is wrong on so…
