Tag Archives: revision

Saving words – check your citations

It’s amazing how much citations can add to your word count. Before you know it, you’ve amassed a few hundred words just filling in brackets. Of course you need citations. You can’t just leave them out. You can’t just assert. … Continue reading

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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

Posted in literature mapping, literature review, literature themes, literatures paper, revision, revision strategy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

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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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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my supervisor expects me to keep revising – why?

I often hear doctoral researchers asking this question. They’ve sent their supervisor some writing. It’s come back with feedback and suggestions and maybe actual corrections. The doc. researcher has attended to all of these and sent the revised text back … Continue reading

Posted in doctoral experience, doctoral pedagogies, revision, supervision, thesis revision | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

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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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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revising? try a four step approach

Many people approach revising as if it is a single shot process. They tell themselves, “I’m just going to sit down now and revise my paper”. But revising and refining a text are not one activity, they are several. The … Continue reading

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revision – the “make it better” exercise

Occasionally I offer strategies that you can try to see if they work for you. If they do, and not everything works for everybody, then you can add them to your academic writing repertoire. Today I’ve got an exercise designed … Continue reading

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revising – nine steps for making meaning

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

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