It is very easy, when writing in a second language, to worry about communicating your ideas in accurate language. What very often happens is that students focus on this, but then they forget to connect the ideas. As a result, they write lots of short sentences that don’t appear to have any logical connection with each other. Continue reading »
Let’s think about it. How often do we listen to someone’s ideas for hours on end? We may listen to a lecture for an hour, and we might have to listen to friends and family members talk endlessly, but the fact is that we get bored very quickly when we have to listen to someone’s ideas for hours.
So, what has this got to do with academic writing? Quite a lot, actually. If you have written a dissertation of 15,000 words, your reader is in the same position as the person listening. They have to absorb your ideas for a long, long time, and this can be boring. It becomes worse than boring if the English is poor, the ideas are not clear and the arguments are difficult to follow. Continue reading »