Botany Honours 2020 Blogs

By: Priscah Lakane Writing for dummies I have always been that student that would worry about the assignment they had just handed in, not because I was afraid that what I wrote was wrong, but because I was scared that the level of English that I used in the assignment was “too basic” compared to the academic level I was at. I started making sure that I used more fancy words and synonyms every time I wrote an essay. Simple words like begin would be changed into commence , journey would change to voyage. In the end what could have been a simple sentence such as “…and the journey began” turned into “thus, the voyage commenced”. I complicated my writing and complicated my life as well because I had trouble reading and understanding what I was trying to say, and if I cannot understand my own work then how do I expect the reader to cognize what I am trying to convey? Oops, I did it again “…to understand what I wrote?” The thing with writing is that it is a means of communicati...

By Alastair Potts This blog is where the Honours students at Nelson Mandela University in the Botany Department can share some of their ideas, thoughts, research, and fascinating scientific discoveries (both their own and what they find in the world of science). Blogging is a powerful means of communication. It doesn't have the weighty responsibility of peer-review, but it is going to be read by other people on the internet ​— so it needs to pithy and to the point (with some referencing where necessary). See my blog for good and bad examples of blogging (I leave it to you to decide which is which):  http://pottsresearch.blogspot.com/  So a few pointers: Ask a friend or colleague to read over your blog. Help correct any grammatical or logic errors. Have a catchy title. Put your name under the title, as it is not automatically shown who wrote the blog. Feel free to include pictures! Other than that, the format is pretty free flowing. Happy blogging!