Category Archives: revision strategy

revising – nine steps for making meaning

Posted on May 10, 2021 by pat thomson

In 1973 the late Donald Murray published an essay in The Writer in which he argues that writing begins when the first draft is completed. From then on, he says, the writer revises, reads and changes their words, closing in … Continue reading →

making your writing authoritative – a citation revision strategy

Posted on April 19, 2021 by pat thomson

Readers expect academic writers to know what they are talking about. We meet that expectation by grounding our writing in good scholarship – and making it sound authoritative. Authoritative. You can see the words author and authority contained within authoritative … Continue reading →

Posted in authority in writing, citation, citations, laundry list, revision, revision strategy | Tagged citation practice, citations, Pat Thomson, revision strategy, writing with authority | 8 Comments

a very neat hack to avoid repetition and duplication

Posted on March 22, 2021 by pat thomson

Do you repeat yourself? Most of us do. It’s not unusual. Repetitive writing takes many forms – several sentences that say the same thing using different words, a word or phrase used over and over, paragraphs and sentences that have … Continue reading →

Posted in concision, duplication, repetition, revision, revision strategy | Tagged concision, duplication, Pat Thomson, repetition, revision | 5 Comments

editing your writing – lessons from chefs?

Posted on March 8, 2021 by pat thomson

You can pick up helpful ideas from the most unlikely places. Like cooking shows. Yes I watch cooking shows, it’s one of my guilty pleasures. I’m sure I’m not the only one, given their popularity. Sometimes they offer more than … Continue reading →

Posted in citations, editing, revision, revision strategy | Tagged citations, editing, Pat Thomson, references, revision | 8 Comments

use a structured abstract to help write and revise

Posted on February 22, 2021 by pat thomson

Most journals don’t expect an abstract to be written in a particular format. But some do. They require writers to follow a particular format – a pre-structured template. These templates – structured abstracts as they are called – are specifically … Continue reading →

Posted in abstracts, academic writing, conference abstract, Pat Thomson, revision, revision strategy, structured abstract, structured abstracts, thesis abstract | Tagged abstract, Pat Thomson, revision, structured abstract, writing exercise | 3 Comments

meeting your readers’ expectations – a revision strategy

Posted on February 15, 2021 by pat thomson

There are multiple ways to revise a paper. If you’re revising, you’ll find a load of strategies on this blog, just search using the key word revision. While none of these is The One Way to sort out your writing, … Continue reading →

Posted in authorship, reader, readers, readership, revision, revision strategy | Tagged academic writing, Pat Thomson, reader expectations, readers, revision | Leave a comment

revising like a reader

Posted on December 7, 2020 by pat thomson

Academic writing is generally intended to be persuasive. The writer – let’s say that’s us – wants to put a proposition to the reader, and convince them that what we have presented is credible. Our writing is worth taking seriously … Continue reading →

Posted in reader, revision, revision strategy | Tagged Pat Thomson, reader, revision, revision strategy | 3 Comments

revision – writing without protection

Posted on August 24, 2020 by pat thomson

Academic writers need to let their readers know that they know what they are talking about. But feeling and talking like an expert is not easy – in fact, it’s often the exact opposite of how you think about yourself. … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, Peter Elbow, protective scaffolding, revision, revision strategy | Tagged Pat Thomson, Peter Elbow, protective scaffolding, revision, revision strategy | 3 Comments

this, they, it, those, these – a revision strategy

Posted on July 27, 2020 by pat thomson

One of my pet peeves is reading sentences which contain an ambiguous pronoun. The pronoun stands alone, isolated. The lonely goatherd on the hilltop. Sentences that start with, or contain, an unattached this, they, it, those, these seem to expect the reader … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, grammar, revision, revision strategy, syntax, thesis revision, vagueness | Tagged academic writing, Pat Thomson, pronouns, revision, revision strategy, syntax, vagueness | 11 Comments

tracking the path to research claims

Posted on January 6, 2020 by pat thomson

All researchers make claims about their work. Remember the phrase staking a claim? That’s what we are actually doing when we claim something. We are metaphorically placing a marker in a field that we are prepared to stand on, stand … Continue reading →