How to Read an Academic Article

Remove Prepositional Phrases

A list of common prepositions for you to search in order to find prepositional phrases: Aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, like, of, off, on, over, past, since, through, to, towards, until, up, upon, with, within, without.

How to Read an Academic Article

In this lecture we talk about how to approach difficult academic articles that are, sometimes, much more difficult than we'd normally read. The two articles I referenced: 1. Heavy metal hyperaccumulating plants: How and why do they do it? And what makes them so interesting? 2. Design of a Fuzzy Logic Evaluation to Determine the Ergonomic Risk Level of Manual Material Handling Tasks

ChatGPT and Why We Write

In this brief lecture we talk about new essay writing technology and why, while it's cool, it doesn't really have any bearing on why we do what we do as writers.

Paragraphs, Transitions, Topic Sentences

In this episode we talk about a subtle difference between two ways of thinking about paragraphs.

Every Sentence is a Story

It just so happens that every single sentence that can be constructed in English has something in common with all of the other sentences: every single one is a story. Understanding how that's the case, why that's the case, and what it means for clarity can help you become a better writer.