Category Archives: disciplines

what is “measured” writing?

Posted on May 13, 2019 by pat thomson

I was recently part of a small discussion on another social media platform where someone reported that their supervisor had said their writing wasn’t sufficiently “measured’. Without seeing the actual work it was pretty hard to understand what the supervisor … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, argument, boosters, disciplines, hedges, measured writing, nominalisation, passive voice, stance, thingification | Tagged academic writing, measured writing, Pat Thomson, stance, supervision | 9 Comments

when peer review is scent marking

Posted on June 19, 2017 by pat thomson

Continuing random posts on peer reviewer behaviour… So we all know what scent marking is. It’s when animals set out the boundaries of their territory by leaving their scent in strategic places. Scentmarked territories are often used for sleeping and/or mating … Continue reading →

Posted in disciplines, journal article, peer review, subfield, territoriality, Uncategorized | Tagged journal article, Pat Thomson, peer review, territoriality | 2 Comments

read what you want to write

Posted on April 3, 2014 by pat thomson

One of the common pieces of advice given to creative writers is to read widely, work out what you like and then write like those you admire. This writing-like-admirable-others requires the aspiring creative writer to analyse various aspects of the … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, conversation, creative writing, debates in the field, disciplines, doctoral education | Tagged academic writing, debates, genre, Pat Thomson, style | 10 Comments

literature review step one, scoping. #acwrimo work in progress

Posted on November 11, 2012 by pat thomson

One of the things that we all have to do when starting a piece of research is to find out what else has been said about our topic. This is usually called the literature review, although I prefer to think … Continue reading →