Best of 2013
January 16, 2014
In 2013, we linked to over 200 articles via Twitter. These articles included great advice on university-level reading, writing, presenting, thesis study, referencing, grammar, and more from around the world.
You can see the full list on the Massey Study Support Twitter account. You don’t need a Twitter account to follow these links. (If you want a Twitter account, they’re free, and they let you follow others, reply, or create your own tweets. Begin here: Getting started with Twitter.)
Here are some of the best articles we saw in 2013.
Explorations of Style
This blog targets postgraduate students, but the advice is useful for all academic writers.
- What are your paragraphs doing for you?
- The perils of local cohesion
- Contribution and voice in academic writing
Lifehacker
Lifehacker features tips, tricks, and shortcuts of all kinds. If you’re just beginning study, they can be real timesavers.
- Five best mindmapping tools
- How can I make my PowerPoint presentations amazing?
- Boost your productivity by working near other people
- Optimize your cramming time with this Venn diagram
APA Style
Much of Massey University uses the APA style of referencing. This official blog from the APA tackles the tricky questions of APA style.
- When to include the year in citations appearing more than once in a paragraph
- Group authors
- Do I capitalize this word?
Grammar Girl
This blog has one of the most engaging and readable treatments of grammar on the Internet.
- Top ten grammar myths
- How to avoid a common comma error: The comma splice
Pat Thomson
A Professor of Education blogs about academic writing. This one is especially useful for doctoral students.
- Seven reasons why journals reject papers
- How much should doctoral researchers read?
- Literature reviews – beware The List
Other doctoral sites
PhD skills (@PhDSkills)
- Ten tips for the first 100 days of a Phd
GradHacker (@GradHacker)
- If I had only known… (tips for new postgrads from successful postgrads)
The Thesis Whisperer (@thesiswhisperer)
- Surviving the reading marathon
Other articles
Reading
- How to read and understand a scientific paper: A guide for non-scientists
Writing
- Seven simple steps to tackle writer’s block
- My little bag of writing tricks
- Emergency writing motivation techniques
- Not whether, but when
Presenting
- An introvert’s guide to better presentations
The Thesis
- How long is the average dissertation?
- Bean-counting as a step to thesis writing?
- How not to write a PhD thesis
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