I really enjoy reading the blog Explorations of Style, by Rachael Cayley, for all of the author's wonderful insights on writing. Because she works with graduate student writers, the topics she tackles in her blog often tie directly to the types of writing conundrums MALS students face. Which is why I've decided to share three of her recent posts here today!
Voice
I think most of us are familiar with voice in literature—if you have a favorite novelist, you could probably identify a sample of his or her writing without a name attached because it just sounds like that author. Many graduate student writers struggle with making their own voices heard among all the research they're citing as evidence. Check out this Explorations of Style post to learn about how to include your own voice in your academic writing.
Parallelism
Most of us have seen this marked on our papers at one time or another. This can be a tricky mistake to spot and fix in your own writing, but parallel structure in lists is so important for clarity. Here, Cayley offers three ways to fix a rather complex sentence that lacks parallel construction.
But of course!
In this post, Cayley illustrates how using phrases like "of course" can clarify your writing, but she also offers alternatives for when saying "of course" might make you sound rather, ahem, too sure of yourself.
