Motivation and emotion/Assessment/Chapter/Writing tips

Writing tips

Style

• Write concisely; weed out weasel words. Engaging in the discussion forum and Twitter can help to develop skills for writing efficiently.
• Each paragraph should communicate one key idea in three to five sentences
• Shorter sentences are usually better than longer sentences
• Use 3rd person perspective (e.g., "it") rather than 1st (e.g., "we") or 2nd person (e.g., "you")[1]
• Use active (e.g., "This chapter focuses on ...") rather than passive (e.g., This chapter will focus on ..." voice[2][3].
• Use double (not single) quotation marks "to introduce a word or phrase used as an ironic comment, as slang, or as an invented or coined expression; use quotation marks only for the first occurrence of the word or phrase, not for subsequent occurrences" (APA 7th ed., 2020, p. 159).
• Use correct capitalisation (e.g., theory names should not be capitalised)[4]
• Use permanent, rather than relative, time references. For example, instead of "20 years ago", refer to something like "at the beginning of the 21st century". In this way, the text will survive better into the future, without needing to be rewritten.
• "People" is usually a better term than "individuals"

Spelling

• Use Australian spelling (e.g., hypothesize vs. hypothesise; behavior vs. behaviour; fulfillment vs. fulfilment)

Grammar

Make correct use of:

• Commas, including serial commas[5][6]
• Ownership apostrophes (e.g., individuals vs. individual's vs individuals').[7]
• That vs. who
• Affect vs. effect

External links

• 5 tips on writing better university assignments (Alexandra Garcia, The Conversation, 2020)
• 10 tips for more concise writing (Katherine Firth, Research Degree Insiders, 2015)
• How to write paragraphs (Medium)