Too many academics are given bad writing advice.
You're given it by people who don't know your disciplinary norms; you're given it by people who think that norms are rules; you're given it by average writers who don't know just how average their writing is.
This course is designed to help you better understand the techniques and patterns in your writing, so that you can make deliberate, intentional choices about how you want to convey your research. You can apply your learning from this course to your next article manuscript, monograph, grant application, tenure dossier, or op-ed.
Whether you're new to graduate school or going up for promotion to full, the quality of your writing matters. If you want it to be read, understood, cited, and funded, this course is for you.
Writing well is a skill
As an academic, you aren’t judged on the work that you do in the lab, the archive, the field, or the classroom. Instead, you’re judged on how you write about that work--in journal articles, monographs, grant applications, and promotion & tenure dossiers.
Yet the bulk of resources and websites and coaches available in the academic support industry focus on getting writing done, instead of getting writing done well.
We trust that you'll figure out the process to get writing done that works best for you. This course will show you how to polish your writing so it is clear, efficient, and compelling.
Lesson Overview
- Step 7: Breaking the Rules
- Bad Rule #1: No long sentences
- Writing to be Heard Online
- Break this rule: Using right-branching sentences well
- Familiar-to-new constructions
- Literature Reviews that Work
- Bad Rule #2: No fun
- Using Figurative Language Well
- Bad Rule #3: No jargon
- Integrating non-English words into academic writing
- Jargon, but with emphasis
- Challenging norms
- Break Bad Rules
Meet your instructor
Letitia Henville, PhD, is an award-winning instructor and freelance academic editor. She has experience working in-house as a grants editor, reviewing arts & culture grants for the Vancouver Foundation, and success in editing ~$4M of research funding proposals.
She's also the author of the academic writing advice column Ask Dr. Editor, published monthly in University Affairs. Letitia has taught academic editing and writing for Editors Canada, the Editorial Freelancers Association, Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Manitoba, the University of Toronto, and Wilfrid Laurier University.
Letitia's work can be found at letitiahenville.com.
