Temporary Compound Tips: Is it follow-up or follow up?

Are you writing follow-up with a hyphen between follow and up because that is how you have seen it written most often, so hopefully that is correct? But did you wonder why you also see follow up without the hyphen? Maybe that is correct? The answer is that both can be correct. It depends on the context in which the phrase is being used. This podcast explains when to use hyphens between two words that are normally separate.

10 Tips for an Effective Abstract

This podcast describes how to write a clear, concise, complete, and accurate summary of the contents of your paper, and it offers 10 additional tips to increase your chances of publication. A research abstract is extremely important for two reasons: first, it is the only part of a paper that most people will read; second, it may be your best chance to convince a journal editor that your work is a good fit for the journal and that your findings are sufficiently important to send your paper out for peer review.

4 Precheck Steps to Increase Your Publication Rate

Authors are always asking how they can increase their publication rate. Even with both well-conducted research and a well-written paper, your manuscript can be returned to you by the journal editor without ever being sent out for peer review. Why? Because it failed the journal’s precheck steps. Here are 4 tips to ensure that your paper passes the journal’s prechecks and moves on to the peer review stage.

Which Verb Tense is Used in Each Part of a Research Paper

This podcast explains where (and why) to use the past or the present tense (or the present perfect tense) of verbs in each part of a research paper. For example, should the Results section always be in the past tense? Which verb tense is correct for Figure Legends or Subheadings? Did you know that verb tenses can change within the same sentence? Even native-English authors of medical and science papers get the answers to these questions wrong!

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Using “A” or “An” Before a Noun in Research Articles

When do you use indefinite articles, and which one do you use? There are two indefinite articles in English: “a” and “an.” The word indefinite as related to grammar means something that has not been identified, is generic, or is an unfamiliar person or thing. You use an indefinite article when (1) you are introducing new information, (2) the reader does not know exactly which noun you are referring to, or (3) the noun is not unique.

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Always Singular or Always Plural Nouns

Here is a handy short list of uncountable nouns (which are always singular) and a few countable nouns that are always plural; both are commonly used in science and medical writing.

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