You can quickly identify passive verb forms, a common problem in academic writing, by "to be" verbs before a form of the main verb. Often used to avoid "I," they slow down your writing, sound unnatural, and rob verbs of impact. Active verbs help readers, provide variety, and add punch. Underline every passive construction and try to limit yourself to one per paragraph on rewriting.

Passive construction and the coy use of "one," "the author," etc. are evasive and lack personality. Use "I" to speak of yourself and "we" to refer to what you, as writer, and the reader can do together. (E.g., "I will argue..." or "From this we can see....") Obviously, co-authored articles are an exception.

Pay attention to the difference between precision and mealy-mouthed qualification. Be careful in using "might," "should," "often," "would seem," "perhaps," etc. Excessive qualification makes you look timid and your argument halfhearted.

Strings of prepositions slow down your writing; you can reduce them by using possessives, adverbs, and adjectives to make the same point. Put brackets around each prepositional phrase and see how many you can eliminate.

"Nuance" as a verb is an anglicism that sounds pretentious to US ears and destroys your credibility, as do other words our readers don't commonly use in speaking. Check you vocabulary against mundane general usage; if it seems unusual, see if you're gaining anything by using it. For example, the figurative use of "foreground" as a verb seldom means more than the everyday verb "to emphasize." ("Privilege," "articulate," "inflect," as verbs are similarly questionable.) The literal translation of foreign critical terms without explanation (e.g., "overdetermination," "difference," "problematic" as a noun) confuses earnest readers who want to understand what you have to say but don't have a pass key to the concepts. Similarly, casual and careless use of critical terms which represent major (and often debated) concepts inhibits clear communication (e.g., "Brechtian" and "distanciation" must be used precisely). Use neologisms only if they clarify and enhance the meaning.

The "German" sentence rarely contributes to meaning in English. Wordiness is bad — always.

Stand back from your writing and look for tired and trite expressions such as: "intensely personal," "the bottom line," "there are a number of" (for "numerous").

While we are always ready to help nonnative speakers of English get articles in shape, we have little time for interesting pieces with severe style problems from native speakers. It's up to the writer. Any standard college composition and grammar book will elaborate on the above.

Style

In general, we use the current edition of the Modern Language Association Style Manual, but we accept other recognized styles such as U. of Chicago, and American Psychological Association which are based on putting page references in the text and bibliography at the end of the article. For example: