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