Category Archives: sentence skeleton

patter is eight and celebrating with writing skeletons

Happy birthday to me July is patter’s eight birthday and this is my 784thpost.  That’s a lot of words. At about a thousand per post, well, there’s about ten books worth buried in this blog. I’ve had a bit of … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, sentence skeleton, Tiny Text, warrant | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

your MC for this paper is…

Academic writing often needs an MC. Yes MC, a Mistress/Master of Ceremonies. The MC, or emcee, is an official host. A compere. At a public event, say a festival, their job is to introduce the acts – speakers or singers … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, meta-commentary, meta-text, sentence skeleton | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

explain your terms – writing a journal article

That picky reviewer. They’ve questioned your words. Asked you to clarify. Suggested that you have things wrong. What’s that about? Reviewers often take issue with the ways in which writers use particular terminology. They may politely suggest that some clarification … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, definition, journal article, sentence skeleton, terms, theory | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

explaining and justifying the use of theory via a sentence skeleton

I started this blog in early July 2011. To begin with I put up a load of small writing/researching ‘tools’ that I often used in teaching doctoral research methods and academic writing. After three years of blogging I thought I … Continue reading

Posted in sentence skeleton, theory | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

writing a road map – christmas present one

During December I thought I would offer some short writing ‘hacks’, that can be used for practising particular aspects of academic writing. These will be in the form of ‘meta texts’, where the original content has been stripped out to … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, introduction, meta-text, sentence skeleton, signposts | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment