notes_on_writing

Notes on writing, language, and grammar

The basis of this material is copied and pasted from different sources, but I have arranged, re-arranged, explained, re-explained, commented, and changed comments to make it easier to understand. In other words, the contents of the files are either very different to the original material or essentially the same and don't provide anything new, depending on how you want to look at it. Simply put: these are simply my personal notes and they are arranged and edited in a way that is convenient for me; no claims are made and no guarantees are given.

Contents

Folders

The two folders below contain notes from MIPT courses that are not available online anymore. The course consisted solely of video lectures and had no written content. The notes on this repository are made from the video transcripts.

• MIPT_Sch_Com: a course on presenting interesting ideas to improve scholarly communication (most notably related to the differences between rhetorical styles of native English speakers and non-native English speakers).

• MIPT_Tech_Writ: a course on technical writing

  • MIPT_Tech_Writ--Week_2.md ("From Start to Finish") introduces the basics of technical writing
  • MIPT_Tech_Writ--Week_3.md ("Organizing the Information") contains general guidelines on using visuals, defining terms, effective planning of technical report writing

Single files

• analysis_public_speaking_thesis.md is an analysis of Emily Johnston's Three Minute Thesis University of South Australia Grand Final winning presentation

• big_summary_penguin_punct.md contains a summary to The Penguin Guide to Punctuation by R.L. Trask

• linguistic_terminology.md explains the context and meaning of different terms in linguistics; this is "neither a dictionary nor an encyclopedia, but something in between". I can't say that I've tried to keep the summary as short as possible, or that it's a "practical" guide, but I've certainly tried to build the summary around the terms that, over time, I've found essential to know.

• oxford_abbreviations.md contains a summary on the usage of the abbreviations e.g., i.e., viz., and etc.