I Condense My Writing Style

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Recommended: Written and oral communication skills

Prior to starting my studies at University, I believed I had a firm grasp on the English language and was a more than competent writer. My history as a songwriter gave me the confidence to express myself clearly and make strong statements. Regular comments in the feedback I received, suggested that I needed to condense my sentences. It had been fifteen years since I last studied and I quickly discovered that academic style writing was a register I was unfamiliar with. I According to Grellier and Goerke (2014) a key element in academic writing is being kind to the reader. This meant using simple language where possible rather than demonstrating grandiloquence. I also discovered that my use of pronouns sometimes leave the reader with too much work to do. I assume the reader can follow my thought process; however, I now understand that I must make my academic writing as simple as possible. Grellier and Goerke (2014) suggest writing in the active voice as often as possible and I know by using too many pronouns my writing can be too passive.

Since starting this assignment and reading the text by Grellier and Goerke, I find I am already much more reflective with my writing and analyse it closely. The suggestions of word games for spelling mentioned in Grellier and Goerke (2014) and a weekly review of my personal …show more content…

I shall seek help from these websites as I write an assignment. Conversely, I analyse my writing far too critically at the draft stage and often find myself skipping this stage altogether. To become more successful at academic writing I must allow ideas to flow and come back to them to refine my spelling, grammar and sentence structure. I will also use the Smarthinking application at various stages of the writing process to see if I am on track and to help highlight points I may fail to pick up

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