Category Archives: revision strategy

can you write too much about literatures?

Yes, yes, yes. Too much literatures is a Real Thing. Of course you have to write with, from and about literatures. You need to situate your work in a specific field, showing what texts you are drawing on and what … Continue reading

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can you have too much signposting?

Yes, yes, yes. Too much signposting is a Real Thing. Pamela Haug, author of Revise, refers to signposting as traffic direction. Haug reckons that academic writers often spend too much time directing traffic and not enough time getting where they … Continue reading

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a letter from your writing

This is a little exercise from my workshops and retreats. I don’t always do it. And I only do it with people who won’t think it’s really silly. But if people are prepared to go with it, then it can … Continue reading

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line editing – learning from editors

If you are writing a book, it is highly likely that the publisher will send your manuscript to an editor. Most academic publishers these days do not engage editors who do a lot of developmental and structural work. So it … Continue reading

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revising – mark up your text to achieve focus

There’s so much to say about revising. Even though I’ve just published a book on revising – shameless plug – I still have things I want to say about it.   The key message in the book is that revising effectively … Continue reading

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revising drafts – #AcWriMo

In the spirit of #AcWriMo here is another book that you might find interesting and helpful – this week it’s Verlyn Klinkinborg’s (2012) Several short sentences about writing. Klinkinborg writes a book-length prose poem about authoring. His goal is to … Continue reading

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propositional density – a helpful steer on writing and revising

Yes, it’s another post on terminology, on naming. Being able to give something a name is important – a name is shorthand for a lot of information. When we name something we can then discuss it, and this is of … Continue reading

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check for the passive voice

Passive voice. Put simply, the active voice is when the actor, the person doing the action, is named. The writer does not name the actor when using passive voice. Ironically, the first sentence above does not name the actor – … Continue reading

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the disappearing writer – a redrafting strategy

Academic writers often lose themselves when writing about literatures. It is easier to be textually confident when writing about what you did yourself than to summarise, synthesise and assess other people’s texts. Particularly if those texts are produced by more … Continue reading

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revising? start strategically

Whether you are revising your own writing or responding to reviewer feedback, you need to work out what to do. But you also need to work out where to start.  You may have made a revising plan or written out … Continue reading

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