From 1987 to 1996, Weed Technology featured “Helpful Hints”, a series of essays giving stylistic and grammatical advice to authors of scientific papers. As a service to our current authors, the collected Helpful Hints are now available free of charge.

• Avoid Direct Objects Derived from Verbs
• Avoid Subjects Derived from Verbs
• That or Which?
• Avoid Adjectives Derived from Verbs
• Avoid Double Trouble
• Seed, Seeds, and Seedlings
• Don’t Write Ambiguously
• Jargon in Technical Writing
• Careful Research Planning Facilitates Writing
• More Information Without More Words
• Statement of Results as Titles
• Love Thy Reviewer as Thyself
• Be Sure Pronouns and Antecedents Agree
• Strive for Reader-Friendly Writing
• Nouns as Adjectives
• Technical Writing Compared With Other Writing
• Be Careful with the Term “Result in”
• The Indispensable Outline
• Authors Are Responsible to Serve as Reviewers
• Avoid Redundancy in Writing
• Avoid Excess Words
• Avoid Dangling Participles
• Writing Effective Paragraphs
• Adding a Preposition Can Improve Readability and Avoid Ambiguity
• Misuse of “Occur”
• Examples of Good and Bad Technical Writing
• Don’t Misuse the Verb “to be”
• Strive for Direct Expression
• Mean What You Write and Write What You Mean
• Affect and Effect Are Problem Words
• Some Troublesome Words
• Drastic Revision May Be Needed
• Use Enough Words
• The Semicolon
• The Comma
• Speculation in Scientific Writing
• Simple Things Can Affect Clarity