Category Archives: poor advice

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 , , | 2 Comments

bad writing advice

Posted on April 23, 2018 by pat thomson

There’s some very bad writing advice out there. Most of it is well-intentioned. Most doesn’t aim to make profit from anxious writers. But unfortunately readily available writing advice is not uniformly good. Does this matter? Caveat emptor perhaps? Well, there’s … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, poor advice, research, writing research | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

the limits of writing advice

Posted on October 26, 2017 by pat thomson

There’s a lot of understanding now about writing. There didn’t used to be. But over the last couple of decades there’s been a lot more talk and writing about academic writing. I see a lot of writing advice around on social … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, Helen Sword, Kristen Iversen, pomodoro, poor advice, writing without a parachute | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

poor writing advice

Posted on April 7, 2016 by pat thomson

There is some very poor academic writing advice out there in the ether. And crappy academic writing advice drives me crackers. So, a health warning, this post is a bit of a rant. What do I mean by poor writing advice? Here’s some I … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, poor advice | Tagged , | 11 Comments