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Tips for professional writing. Goal: Check your own writing for common research paper slip-ups. Rule #1. DON’T write “don’t” Avoid contractions such as aren’t, she’ll, they’re wasn’t, or can’t unless they are inside a quotation. Rule #2. DON’T write “I” or “my”
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Tips forprofessional writing Goal: Check your own writing for common research paper slip-ups
Rule #1 • DON’T write “don’t” • Avoid contractions such as aren’t, she’ll, they’re wasn’t, or can’t unless they are inside a quotation
Rule #2 • DON’T write “I” or “my” • Express your thoughts with statements that sound factual • Don’t write about your own paper (“In this paper, I will present the problem of genetically modified food”) • If you need to reference something in the paper, write, “As mentioned earlier,” or, “As the previous paragraph shows,” • NOT: “As I mentioned,” or, “As I showed in the previous paragraph”
Rule #3 • DO write out numbers • Write “ten” instead of 10 and “first” instead of 1st • However, numbers higher than twenty CAN use digits, if you choose (Eg: 235 or 5,120) • If the sentence begins with a number, always spell it out • Eg: Twenty-five thousand, nine hundred forty-two people attended the environmental protest. • NOT: 25,942 people attended the environmental protest. • Write “percent”, not “%”. For a fraction, write “eight out of ten”
Rule #4 • DO capitalize proper nouns • Names of: • People • Company/school names • Cities and countries • Months and days of the week • Examples: • The doctor worked at the hospital. • Doctor Smith worked at St. Anne Hospital.
Rule #5 • DO avoid fragments and run-ons • (see powerpoint)