Does “play a role” still play a role in your writing?

Consider these sentences, paraphrased from real journal articles. ❌ Rising motion is hypothesized to play a role in the transport of moisture to the tropopause. ❌ Insolation forcing plays a primary role in determining equatorial seasonality. ❌ The Rocky Mountains play a key role in controlling the land and sea-surface temperatures in high latitudes. ❌ […]

Common Problems with However, Therefore, and Similar Words

One of the common writing mistakes that I observe is the misuse of however, therefore, and other similar words. Here, I am referring to the use of these words as conjunctions (i.e., words that connect two ideas), not the definition of however that means “in whatever way” (e.g., “However you decide, know that I will […]

Top 40 potential questions to be asked in a PhD viva or defense

Students worry about their vivas. They wonder whether they need to do additional work or read textbooks and articles again. For most students, they don’t need to do all this. My advice has consistently been the following to prepare for your viva: Pick up dissertation a few days before the viva, and read through it […]

Free Writing and Publishing Online Workshop: 19–20 June 2024

Join Prof. David Schultz of the University of Manchester for a free 6-hour workshop on writing and publishing. During this two-day workshop, you will learn the process of peer review from an experienced and interdisciplinary author, reviewer, and editor. Get behind-the-scenes insight into how to better prepare your manuscript for submission, engage with the reviewers […]

Editorial: How to Be a More Effective Author

Looking for top tips from the editors of Monthly Weather Review on how to be a more effective author?  The November 2022 issue has an editorial by the 21 editors with our top tips from planning the paper, writing the paper, addressing a rejected manuscript, and responding to reviewers and editors. In addition, we have […]

The Five Most Common Problems with Introductions

Source: https://scribemedia.com/write-book-introduction/The introduction is often the toughest part of a scientific paper to write. Authors looking for good role models in the published literature are often seduced by less-than-ideal examples that look superficially good and easy to emulate, but are not as effective as they could be. Here, I indicate five of the most common […]

Eliminate excessive and unnecessary acronyms from your scientific writing

Source: https://sspinnovations.com/blog/know-your-gis-and-non-gis-abbreviations-acronyms-and-initialisms/ I can’t say that there was a specific moment when I noticed it happening more often. Either it is increasing in frequency or it is testing my patience more these days. That is the tendency for authors to introduce numerous and unnecessary acronyms in their manuscripts. These authors abbreviate phrases, geographical locations, and […]

Get your paper accepted faster: Responding to reviewers’ comments

Getting your manuscript accepted at a journal can typically take one to three rounds of back and forth with reviewers, each round taking one to three months. In my experience as Editor, sometimes the process could go faster because of things that the author could have done better or done differently when writing their responses […]

Handout: Common Errors in Student Science Writing

For many years, I have compiled a list of common errors that my students have made in writing scientific papers. I have printed it out and handed it out to several cohorts of first-year undergraduate students over the past few years. I hope this short guide to student writing has helped them improve. It’s been […]

“Don’t use the same word twice.”

There’s always that memory that you have from your childhood that still influences your life today. When I was probably 8 years old, someone showed me a centipede on the ground and then said, “Don’t touch it. It’s poisonous.” Of course, now I know better, but I still can’t help but be unrealistically reluctant today. […]

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