Writing Style (jms-writing-style)

When to trigger

• The introduction takes three pages to reach the point
• The abstract describes activity ("we examine…") instead of stating the contribution
• The prose is jargon-dense, hedged, or reads like a methods report rather than an argument
• A reviewer says "I had to dig for the contribution" or "the writing obscures the idea"
• House conventions (Harvard referencing, abstract length, UK/US English consistency) are unmet

The JMS voice

JMS prose is theory-forward and argumentative — every section advances the contribution, and the reader is told why this matters early and often. It is scholarly but not opaque: the journal's international readership rewards clarity over field-insider shorthand. Write the paper around the claim, not around the chronology of what you did. Do this section by section.

Section-by-section moves