For anybody reading this, I will be sticking to a schedule in which I write about improving academic writing on Monday until I’ve thoroughly exhausted my ability to improving writing and research for academics. Hopefully that is never but we’ll see how long my attention can keep up with this commitment.
One of the most common mistakes in academic writing is the use of This and other indefinite or uncertain terms like It, Would, Could and many others. In academia you must be perfectly clear about what you’re discussing, for a number of reasons but the biggest two are Clarity, and Assertion.
Clarity
Growing up speaking the English language we often don’t see how improper our language might be or how our spoken words outside of context might not make sense. What seems perfectly sensible to us, hits the page and is complete and utter nonesense to others. I’m a the furthest from a grammatical saint, I still couldn’t firmly tell you where a comma should go.
In academic writing using indefinite words such as This, It, and They+ (She/He is also indefinite) shows a lack of clarity that might make sense to the writer but often might not make sense to the reader. More often than not, it is simply that a four or two letter word are incapable of communicating complex ideas adequately:
“Navigating this is easy” = “Navigating academic clarity is easy”
Now it seems simple enough but in every paper I’ve seen from my fellow students use the word This at one time or another to communicate something that isn’t clear. ‘This’ is often used to link two ideas together, something along the lines of:
George R R Martin creates a world in which is modelled after the Plantagenet dynasty of Medieval England. This shows how history can inspire literature even today.
Now when reading this is makes sense to the writer, but it leaves room for debate as to what ‘This’ is. There are a number of things that ‘This’ could be referring to, and after reading it it makes sense but the uncertainty remains. In this scenario in particular ‘This’ encompasses the idea of the previous sentence and links it to a summary or statement of the next sentence. To fix it, there are a number of ways, but I can guarentee that it is always possible to remove the uncertainty and replace it with clarity.
George R R Martin creates a world in which is modelled after the Plantagenet dynasty of Medieval England, showing how history can inspire literature even today.
or
George R R Martin creates a world in which is modelled after the Plantagenet dynasty of Medieval England. Martin’s world shows how history can inspire literature even today.
The first method might not always be possible, but shows how simple the solution can be. The second is the ideal solution. Following this example, you must always ask yourself: “What does ‘This’ refer to?” Even when ‘This’ seems obvious you will do yourself a favour by just clarifying.
The exact same process can be done with “It” and “They+” Identify what ‘It’ is and replace it in the sentence. With They you will be identifying who ‘They’ are, and even if ‘they’ are more than one person.
‘They’ will likely be referring to an author(s) or someone else’s opinion, and in those instances you will always want to clarify who’s opinion it is. To avoid plagiarism and to increase clarity!
You best tools for this will be CTRL+F! So use that Find Function, Find all the uncertanity and make it certain!
I will discuss Assertion next week. Cheers!
