{"id":214,"date":"2019-10-14T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T08:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/?p=214"},"modified":"2019-10-24T15:29:59","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T15:29:59","slug":"your-writing-playlist-id-do-anything-for-love-but-i-wont-do-that-by-meatloaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/2019\/10\/14\/your-writing-playlist-id-do-anything-for-love-but-i-wont-do-that-by-meatloaf\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Writing Playlist: I\u2019d Do Anything For Love (But I Won\u2019t Do That) by Meatloaf"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third in our blog series in which we use popular song to help you consider the oft-posed question: \u201cIs my writing academic enough?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The most cursory of glances around this blog will reveal two important things about the WDC: 1.) we like 90s music and 2.) we dislike unhelpful study advice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advice like \u201cmake sure your writing is clear\u201d is particularly unhelpful because, well, if we\u2019ve written something then odds on we\u2019re able to understand it. It can be very difficult to distance yourself from your work to the extent that you can respond to it as a reader would. This makes it tricky to spot any instances where your reader could get a bit lost and where communication between the two of you could break down.<\/p>\n

Tricky, but not impossible. There are practical editing strategies you can apply to help identify any areas where your meaning might be getting lost. One such strategy is ensuring you don\u2019t repeat the mistake Meatloaf makes in his stirring power ballad, \u201cI\u2019d Do Anything for Love (But I Won\u2019t Do That).\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Ever since its release in 1993, the song has been part of a running joke in pop culture as people across the globe puzzle over just what exactly it is that Meatloaf wouldn\u2019t<\/em> do for love. Wrestle a bear? Climb a mountain? Investigate what\u2019s blocking the U-bend? If you\u2019re simply agog to find out, you\u2019re not alone. Apparently, \u201cWHAT WOULDN\u2019T YOU DO FOR LOVE MEATLOAF?!\u201d is one of the questions most frequently put to the man himself.<\/p>\n

Well, would it surprise you to learn that the answer was there in the song all along? It would? You don\u2019t believe us? Let\u2019s take a closer look at that first verse, then, shall we?<\/p>\n

And I would do anything for love<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d run right into hell and back<\/em><\/p>\n

I would do anything for love<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019d never lie to you and that\u2019s a fact<\/em><\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll never forget the way you feel right now<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh no, no way<\/em><\/p>\n

And I would do anything for love<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh I would do anything for love<\/em><\/p>\n

I would do anything for love, but I won\u2019t do that<\/em><\/p>\n

No, I won\u2019t do that<\/em><\/p>\n

See? The answer was hiding in plain sight all along. Meatloaf would do anything for love but he would never, under any circumstances, not even if you paid him a million dollars, \u201cforget the way you feel right now\u201d (eew). So why the confusion?<\/p>\n

Well, in this case the cause of the confusion is a four-letter word: \u201cthat\u201d. The relationship between \u201cthat\u201d and the thing it actually refers to (\u201cthe way you feel right now\u201d, remember?) is not clearly signalled. The fact that there are four lines of emoting in between them doesn\u2019t help matters either. Even if you had managed to establish what \u201cthat\u201d was, you\u2019re likely to have forgotten by the time the word crops up.<\/p>\n

So, if you\u2019re wondering how on earth you can check whether your writing is clear or not, one thing you can do is ask yourself if it\u2019s always apparent what you\u2019re referring to. \u201cThat\u201d is just one potential cause of confusion. You might also like to double-check any instances of \u201cthis\u201d, \u201cthey\u201d and \u201cthese\u201d. That way, any \u201cMeatloaf Moments\u201d may be neatly avoided.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third in our blog series in which we use popular song to help you consider the oft-posed question: \u201cIs my writing academic enough?\u201d The most cursory of glances around this blog will reveal two important things about the WDC: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5886,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-style"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/academicskills\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}