Category Archives: crap detection

writing advice – caveat emptor

Posted on March 2, 2020 by pat thomson

Advice. Loads of it. Coming out of our ears. And on every possible topic, including research and writing. Advice needs readers. But we readers also need to be, as Ernest Hemingway put it, “crap detectors”. Howard Rheingold has worked up … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, crap detection, Howard Rheingold, poor advice | Tagged advice, crap detection, Howard Rheingold | 2 Comments

have I got “advice” for you…

Posted on May 14, 2015 by pat thomson

I want you to imagine that you are going to build a fence. You have a wide choice of potential materials and style. Well and good. But you haven’t build a fence before, so where do you go for some … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, crap detection | Tagged academic writing, advice, crap detection, doctoral education, Pat Thomson | 15 Comments

crap detection and blogging

Posted on August 21, 2014 by pat thomson

I’ve got an inbuilt fondness for the encyclopaedia. As a child from a family with a pretty modest income, but one which valued books, Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopaedia took pride of place on the bookshelf. Whether there was a school … Continue reading →