David Merchant: English beta reader, editor, indexer, and proofreader

Writing Help

Table of Contents

Writing Tips

Write at the same time every day or write at the same place; this can help the brain develop a subconscious habit of getting into the writing zone: as the appointed time nears or as you approach your writing spot, your brain shifts into serious writing mode. With repetition, that happens faster. It is not unlike why, for example, Louisiana Tech football players touch the statue of Champ (team bulldog mascot) on the way to the field: it is a subconscious trigger that shifts the players to serious, dedicated game mode–not just consciously, but subconsciously as well; in other words, the trigger helps them get “into the zone” more effectively.

Music can help as well. Try to not use music with lyrics as your brain will try to follow along, unless those lyrics are in a language you do not understand. Psychologists have studied video game music and they have found that that genre of music really is designed to keep you focused, at least good video game music does. They suggest journeying or questing music for regular writing sessions and boss fight music for when you are up against a deadline.

But I’m a bad writer! I have people say that to me often. They say they are a bad writer and when I ask why do they think that, they respond that writing is hard for them. I have news for you: it is hard for everyone. Writing is hard, especially professional writing—even for professionals. It does not mean you are a bad writer–maybe an inexperienced writer, but not a bad writer. As Hawthorne wrote: “Easy reading is damned hard writing.”  Good writing takes time and energy. Writing is thinking. All good writing is hard, from creative to technical.

Writing is a process. Those who do it often go through the process more quickly, but they still go through the process. This is especially true for technical writing as you have to think of the reader every step of the way. Everything you do is for the reader. 

An analogy I like to use is an artist molding in clay. I do not know of any artist who can take a lump of clay, clamp their hands around it, release it, and have a beautiful, detailed statue of a bird. An Idaho potato, maybe, but not a bird. No, that artist has to mold a rough shape, then work at it, stepping back at times and to look it over and make adjustments, tweaking here, removing there, reshaping this, adding that, until finally a statue is done. That is very analogous to writing. 

Instead of clay, you are molding with words, with sentences, that must flow coherently. This means writing drafts, tweaking sentences, removing unnecessary words and phrases, moving parts around, adding missing information, revising, and editing until a paper is done. Writing, like molding in clay, is a process. Those who have done it repeatedly can do it faster but they are still going through the process.

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Editing and Revising Tips

Read your writing backward. No, not like “sdrawkcab ti daer…” or “backward it read…”; what I mean is read the last sentence first, then the next to the last sentence, and so on. Why? Because if we read the first sentence first, our brain is racing ahead and not concentrating on that sentence. Our brains do not race backward as easily, making it easier to concentrate on the sentence we are reading.

Have someone read your writing. Why? Because our brains will trick us. We do not actually see everything our eyes take in. There is too much information for our brain to process. Our brains make up for this by interpolating. Con men, magicians, and optical illusions take advantage of this. What has this to do with writing? When reading over our work, our brains will sometimes insert words and punctuation that are not actually there. This is especially true when we are tired or distracted. (And no, you cannot really multitask. Not like you think you can. Especially when writing something that needs as much focus as an academic or technical document.) So you need someone to read your writing and give you honest feedback: was there a section they did not understand? Is there a word they think might be misspelled? Etc.

Read your writing out loud. Why? Because reading it aloud forces our brain to see the paper as if for the first time. Our ears can catch errors our eyes do not.

Listen to your writing read by someone else (or by text-to-speech software). Have someone read your writing out loud. Why? As mentioned above (Have someone read your writing), our brains will trick us. We know what we meant to say and, as well, our brain will race ahead. Listening to someone (or text-to-speech) read your writing can help you reflect on your writing, to keep your brain focused. Find a quiet spot, close your eyes, and focus on what is being read. Smartphones, tablets, Readers, and Microsoft Word all have free apps for converting text to speech. See How to Use Text-to-Speech on Your Devices for more information.

Editing and revising are two different things. Editing is looking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. It does not make sense to edit while you write or to edit during the revising process as you will be changing sentences, wording, organization, and document design which will affect looking for grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. To be efficient, editing should be the last thing you do before submitting your paper. Perfectionists beware: trying to write perfectly the first time is another way of procrastinating. It is inefficient and, thus, an imperfect way of approaching writing. Writing IS a process. 

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Grammar Lessons & Tips: Selected Books, Videos, and Websites

The following are just some of the resources that English language learners (and native English speakers) may find useful.

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Online Grammar, Spelling, and Usage Checkers

The following are some tools (not an exhaustive list) that can help identify some common sentence-level grammatical and spelling errors. Most can also help with conciseness. CAUTION: While they can be useful, keep in mind no automated style checker is perfect; you will get some false hits. Also, because the checkers do not understand the context, for some errors, their suggestions will be worse than the error they are trying to correct; this is especially true for removing passive voice suggestions (remember: not all passive voice is wrong). Thus, do not take their advice blindly.

AutoCrit: www.autocrit.com/
They have a forever free service. Their other services are pricey and are more useful for book writers.

Cliché Finder: www.clichefinder.net/
“This free cliché finder finds and highlights clichés in your writing so you can remove them. “

Consistency Checker: www.proz.com/PerfectIt/Consistency_Checker
Free service from Proz.com. You can upload a PDF, DOCX, DOC or TXT file (maximum file size is 100 MB); for best results use DOCX.

GradeProof: gradeproof.com/
Has a free plan and a Pro plan. It is cross-platform and can help with conciseness, as well as the usual spelling and grammar checks.

Grammarly: www.grammarly.com/
Need to create a free account to use, though you can sign in using your Google account.

Hemingway Editor: www.hemingwayapp.com/
Click on the “Write” button (top left-hand corner of the page), then clear the sample by clicking in the sample text, press CTRL+a to highlight all the text, and hit the delete key. Next, type in or paste the text you want to check. Click on the “Edit” button when you are finished.

Nitpicker:nitpickertool.com/index.html
Click on “Enter your text” to input the text you want checked. When finished, press the Analyze button.

ProWritingAid: prowritingaid.com/
The online check is free; however, the Word, Google Docs, and other plugins are not.

The Writer’s Diet: writersdiet.com/test.php
Can check 100 to 1,000 words at a time. The Writer’s Diet “identifies some of the sentence-level grammatical features that most frequently weigh down academic prose. It is not designed to judge the overall quality of your writing — or anyone else’s.”

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Dictionary Browser Extensions

The Guiding Tech website has a list of 7 dictionary extensions for Chrome; however, many can be used in other browsers, not just Chrome, and some can also interact with other programs, such as Microsoft Word. All have free versions. Most can give you synonyms and pronunciations. This is not an exhaustive list but it does list the most commonly used ones. My wife and I use WordWeb (paid version as we like the extras that come with it) and I have used Google Dictionary (which is quite good). But use whichever suits you best.

Online Citation Generators

These resources and tools can help you create a correctly formatted citation. Be careful when copying and pasting as sometimes you can lose required formatting (for example, italicization vanishes, text color changes from black to gray, and the citation is no longer in hanging indent form).

Also, Purdue Online Writing Lab has online citation generators for:

Citation Styles Guides

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

ASA (American Sociological Association) Style

Chicago Manual of Style

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style:

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Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism Overview from Purdue Online Writing Lab

Common Knowledge

Common knowledge is when a phrase or an idea–such as a historical event, a fact, or an equation–is well known among your peers (same field or industry). Common knowledge may not need to be cited. Here are a few rules to help you decide what does not need to be cited:

  • Facts are available and unattributed (not cited) in multiple major professional or academic sources (more than three).
  • Findings from your own field research; however, you should make it clear they are your findings from your own field research; otherwise, you are insinuating your findings are already widely verified, replicated, or otherwise accepted.
  • Found in a general reference book or dictionary.

When in doubt, cite the source. Here are a few rules to help you decide what needs to be cited:

  • Claims that are arguable.
  • Facts that are not widely known. Remember: common knowledge in one field might not be common knowledge in another. Always keep in mind who is your audience.
  • Help provided by others.
  • Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries.
  • Visuals from any source (not created by you based on your own field research).

Plagiarism quizzes from Amherst College:

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Microsoft Word Help

While the quality of ideas is important, professional writing also demands a high quality for how those ideas are communicated and that includes formatting documents correctly. 

Specific Microsoft Word Help

Add Page Numbers to a Header or Footer (see also: Format Page Numbers)

Change Spacing Between Paragraphs

Choosing Specific [RGB] Colors in the Colors Dialog Box

Creating/Inserting a Table of Contents (video)

Creating a List of Tables and Figures With Captions (video)

Creating Section Breaks HandoutDownload
Inserting Dot LeadersDownload

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