Secondary sources are documents that you did not read yourself but that were referred to in documents that you did read and that are in your list of references. Referring to a secondary source is also called "indirect...
A comma before the "and" at the end of a list is known as a serial comma or Oxford comma. Commas are used to separate each item in a list (or series), and the last item is separated from the others by a conjunction...
In the olden days, it was accepted that references to he/his/him included women as well as men. Then we starting being expected to include women as well as men specifically in statements. However, it is clumsy to say...
Usually a number and its unit have a space between them; for example, 100 km. The unit sign for 100 degrees Centigrade (100 °C) is written the same way but many people have never noticed that the degree sign belongs...
Usually a number and its unit have a space between them; for example, 100 km. A number expressed as a percentage is usually not written the same way - there is no space between the number and the percent sign (100%)....
There is a lot of confusion about the difference between the different types of editing, even in the publishing world, and some editors and publishers also use the terms line editing, mechanical editing, content...
In schools publishing, Mathematics as a subject has a capital letter, e.g. He chose Mathematics instead of Physics,. When referring to the field of study, it is written in lower case, e.g. That’s a popular concept in...
Use that without a comma when you are referring to something defining or limiting that could not be removed from the sentence. Use which with a comma before it when you are referring to something specific that adds...
Academic documents usually use a space to denote thousands, even if the region (like the US) requires a comma. The shortcut is Ctrl+shift+spacebar. The US Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ widely used...
How long is a piece of string? Most editors will ask for a sample of your work in order to assess the type of editing needed. They will also ask you what you need in order to clarify your expectations of the editing...
Word’s Track Changes function allows you and a collaborator (editor, supervisor or reviewer) to easily see where changes have been made, such as added and deleted text or comments. Toggle the function on or off in the...
Too many nouns in a sentence can cloud your meaning. Shorten phrases by changing the noun into its related verb. For example: ‘The participant made reference to …’ becomes ‘The participant referred to …’ ‘I will take...
Using too many words is called “wordiness”. It is boring and wastes your readers’ time. Clear writing that uses as few words as possible is also easier to understand. For example: Wordy Concise a sum total a total...