- Revise and rewrite. (See the "paramedic method.")
- Never use a long Latinate word when a short Anglo-Saxon one will do. As William Zinsser says: "The English language is derived from two main sources. One is Latin, the florid language of ancient Rome. The other is Anglo-Saxon, the plain languages of England and northern Europe. The words derived from Latin are the enemy—they will strangle and suffocate everything you write. The Anglo-Saxon words will set you free."
- Cut needless words
- Mindless introductory phrases (“It is important to keep in mind the fact that”);
- Redundancies ("This is a tough hurricane. One of the wettest we've ever seen from the standpoint of water." -- Donald J. Trump, September 18, 2018)
- Write with nouns and verbs, not adjectives and adverbs.
- Shun the passive voice and forms of the verb to be. Use active verbs.
- Vary the length of your sentences and paragraphs.
- Do not shift from one verb tense to another if the time frame is the same.
- Make your point at the start. Use the rest of the essay to support it.
- Do not conclude with a mere summary.
- Never use contractions in academic writing.
- Proofread. The computer will not catch all your mistakes.
- Avoid "dropped quotations."
- For endnotes, use Arabic numerals, not lower-case Romans. (Click here to see how to change formats.) Follow these steps if you need to convert footnotes to endnotes.
- When referring to the legislative branch, capitalize Congress. When referring to political parties, capitalize Republican and Democratic.
- Choose your words carefully. Never use feel for think, verbal for oral, incredibly for very, or novel for a work of non-fiction.
- Stay off tangents. Cut anything that fails to advance your argument. In academic essays, avoid sermonettes. (“However, I feel that Franklin Pierce was an incredibly lousy president under who, the national polity was lead into it's crucial crisis ...”)
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