Welcome to the chapter on similar punctuation. This chapter outlines the technical symbols and notation defining English grammar. For example, did you know there are different types of lines and… Read More →
All posts by uniedit@fixacademicwriting.com
4-question Uni-edit Academic English Writing Quick Quiz
Short on time, take the 4-question quick quiz: START THE 4-QUESTION QUICK QUIZ You might like to share the quiz or test with your colleagues and students too! It’s free!
13-question Uni-edit Academic English Writing Test with Analysis
Ready for a challenge, take the 13-question test and receive a free analysis report: START 13-QUESTION TEST WITH FREE ANALYSIS You might like to share the quiz or test with… Read More →
Semi-colons for monster lists
Level of difficulty: Intermediate Your research reports often include long lists of complex items. Sometimes using only commas is insufficient to offset the items. Here is an example: Incorrect: We… Read More →
How to use hyphens correctly: Part A
Level of difficulty: Advanced Editors at Uni-edit often need to correct the use of hyphens during English editing of manuscripts. Correct use of hyphens shows the author’s advanced command of… Read More →
Parallel structures: Part A – What are they?
Level of difficulty: Intermediate This is a five-part series about using parallel structures. While editing English manuscripts, Uni-edit editors often need to correct sentences for correct usage of parallel structures…. Read More →
Variants of World English – American and British
Difficulty: Easy Have you heard of the term lingua franca? It’s a Latin phrase, but you can use it in English. It comes from Latin, and literally means ‘French language’:… Read More →
Verbs: Consists of / comprises / composed of / constitutes / make up / includes
Difficulty: Medium Contain, consist, compose, constitute, comprise…what these verbs have in common is the Latin root “com-”, which means “to put together”. They describe the relationship of parts to the… Read More →
Present perfect tense and past tense in your introduction
Difficulty: Advanced How many times have you been told the following: “the past tense denotes an event that happened in the past, while the present perfect tense denotes an event… Read More →
Using past tense and present tense in your introduction section
Difficulty: Advanced The Introduction and Literature Review sections of your paper must include background to your research. Authors who publish successfully and publish often know how to use verb tense… Read More →
Do you have a conflict of interest?
Difficulty: Easy In an ideal world, research is objective and impartial. The facts are the facts, and the academic author is the objective reporter and analyzer of these facts. In… Read More →
Reducing wordiness in academic writing
Difficulty: Medium Quick quiz: There are 21 words in the sentence below. Can you reduce it by 4 words while retaining the same meaning? “There are several reports that suggest… Read More →
“On the other hand” vs. “Besides”
Difficulty: Easy Many Uni-edit customers are from Chinese & Japanese language backgrounds. Our customers sometimes translate the characters “一方” or “一方面” into English as “on the other hand” and “besides”… Read More →
How to significantly improve your usage of the term ‘significant’
Difficulty: Intermediate How many times have you seen the word ‘significant’ used in a scientific paper either with statistical results or to discuss the importance of something? Did you know… Read More →
Why should I nominate peer reviewers?
Difficulty: Easy One of our customers asked us about a specific request from their target journal to nominate peer reviewers for their manuscript when submitting it to a journal. My… Read More →
What’s wrong with “the present study”?
Difficulty: Intermediate Uni-edit English Editors are accustomed to seeing the self-referential phrase “the present study”, which an author uses in a paper to refer to itself or accompanying research. It’s… Read More →
Prove it! (2017) Confidence, Evidence, and Citations
Difficulty: Intermediate Groundbreaking research pioneers new directions by identifying gaps in the literature, and by forming new hypotheses to reconcile contradictory findings. You can’t achieve this goal without knowing the… Read More →
When do I have to define my acronyms?
Difficulty: Intermediate These days, it’s almost impossible to read an academic paper without encountering acronyms. The intention is to make papers easier to read, and to create new lingo for… Read More →
Introduction: Publish or Perish
If you’re reading this article, we’re assuming you’re in academia, and by extension you know the high value assigned to publishing research. You can probably relate to at least one… Read More →
Part 1: Who Pays to Publish? Two Models of Publishing
Traditional Publishing Model The financials of scientific authorship differ from those of typical book and magazine publishing. In the latter, authors of book and articles are paid for their work… Read More →