Interlude: Word Limits, Retractions, and -Ough Words

If you've been around here for a while, you know that I love a good word-count challenge. So when this post came across my feed, I had to share it with you.

If you find word limits challenging, I recommend checking out my Resources page. You'll find tons of articles (and cheat sheets!) to help you write more concisely.

Now onto this week's round-up...

💌 Round-up

💻 From My Desk

Passive Voice Primer​
The Passive Voice Primer settles the long-held debate on when to use passive and active voice in scientific and medical writing. In this course, you will learn why passive voice was the traditional norm, what has led to the new focus on active voice, and when to use passive voice to strengthen your writing.

The introductory price is going up on October 1. Get access now for only $20.

📆 Upcoming

The Future of Editing: Cultural Awareness, Technology Tools, and Mentoring – AMWA Conference
On October 25, 2024, I'm joining two amazing editors for a panel-style discussion on mentoring scientific and medical communicators, encouraging use of inclusive language, navigating cultural differences among diverse clients and colleagues, and adopting helpful technology tools to make your work faster and easier.

👓 Reading

Why are retraction rates rising?​
"An analysis recently published in Scientometrics and discussed in Nature news uncovered a quadrupling of retraction rates since 2000 among biomedical science articles with corresponding authors based at European institutions, from about 11 per 100,000 articles to almost 45 per 100,000 in 2020. . . Research misconduct was the most prevalent factor…"

​Unraveling retraction dynamics in COVID-19 research: Patterns, reasons, and implications​
"An analysis of the reasons for retractions indicates that a quarter of retractions were attributed to multiple causes, predominantly associated with publications in Q2 journals, while another quarter were linked to data issues, primarily observed in Q1 publications. Elsevier retracted 31% of papers, with the majority published as Q1, followed by Springer (11.5%), predominantly as Q2."

🖥️ Watching

The Meeting to Decide -Ough Words​
I enjoy watching these meeting skits by @stage_door_johnny. They remind me of the challenges of learning the English language, which I (admittedly) can take for granted. In this funny skit, he portrays the inconsistencies in pronouncing words ending in -ough.

💬 Quote

"Communication is about what is received, not what is intended. If there is a gap between what you are saying and what they are hearing, you have to find a new way to say it.” –James Clear

Thank you so much for reading.

Warmly,

Crystal