Maybe all those typos aren't entirely your fault

Can you read the paragraph below? If so, you have demonstrated why it is so easy for editors and writers to miss typographical errors in English text.

This article by Esther Inglis-Aell explains how your brain tricks you into thinking you are reading recognizable words even when they are spelled incorrectly. 

Today's writing tip: What is Effective Academic Writing?

Today's writing tip comes from the James Cook University Graduate Research School. 

Differences in speaking and writing

Effective communication on paper is not the same as communicating through speech. Written communication follows different rules of logic, layout, conciseness and clarity which is not expected in speech. Learn these structures and format, and anyone can write clearly and effectively.

 Good writing and critical thinking work together

Writing is not separate from thinking: we cannot think through really complex problems and solve them mentally. We certainly cannot communicate to others our mental understandings of solutions unless we use sequential words. If you want a critically sophisticated argument/thesis, then you need to learn how to draft and edit your work.

 A thesis is not your results; it is a whole story

We need to think about what the reader needs to know, not just think about describing the results. Good writers learn to stand back from their work and see it as others need to see it. They tell the whole story and not just one aspect...

You can find the complete article here.

Just for Fun

I Write Like is one of those useless-but-fun Web tools that pop up on the Internet from time to time. Simply cut and paste a sample of your writing into the text box, hit a button and out pops the name of the famous author your prose most resembles. I pasted in the lede paragraph of a news story I had written, which turns out to be a dead ringer from the rough and tumble writing of Jack London. I've already booked a ticket on the next clipper ship for the gold fields of the Klondike. Give it a whirl. Even established authors have been known to play around with it. Speculative fiction writer Neil Gaiman recently posted to his Twitter account that an exerpt from his novel Anansi Boys is in the vein of both JRR Tolkein and Steven King. Hmm.