Steven Pinker
- Why academic writing stinks
Academics mindlessly cushion their prose with wads of fluff that imply they are not willing to stand behind what they say. Those include almost, apparently, comparatively, fairly, in part, nearly, partially, predominantly, presumably, rather, relatively, seemingly, so to speak, somewhat, sort of, to a certain degree, to some extent, and the ubiquitous I would argue. (Does that mean you would argue for your position if things were different, but are not willing to argue for it now?).
Steven Pinker
- Why academic writing stinks (p. 4)
Thoughtless writers think they're doing the reader a favor by guiding her through the text with previews, summaries, and signposts. In reality, metadiscourse is there to help the writer, not the reader, since she has to put more work into understanding the signposts than she saves in seeing what they point to, like directions for a shortcut that take longer to figure out than the time the shortcut would save.
Thomas S. Kane
- The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing
Paragraph unity involves two related but distinct concepts: coherence and flow. Coherence means that the ideas fit together. Flow means that the sentences link up so that readers are not conscious of gaps. Flow is a matter of style and exists in specific words and grammatical patterns tying one sentence to another. Coherence belongs to the substructure of the paragraph, to relationships of thought, feeling, and perception. Both are necessary if a paragraph is to be truly unified.
Joanna Lillis
- Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan. Kingdom of the Kazakhs
The Kazakhs date their history of nationhood back to the foundation of the Kazakh Khanate in 1465, when Kerey and Zhanibek broke away from one of the successor kingdoms to the Golden Horde, the Shaibanid Khanate, which at one point controlled swathes of land stretching across much of what is now Kazakhstan.
