A number of years ago I compiled a writing checklist for students. Its primary purpose was to make my life easier, but the list was meant to be helpful for the students as well. The checklist is here.
My pet peeves: (1) abrupt changes of topic; (2) poorly designed figures; (3) tables and figures that are not described properly in the main text; and (4) ambiguous referents (“this”, “it”).
For more detailed advice I highly recommend the guidelines from Dan Simons. Also, you may enjoy the article I wrote for the APS Observer a decade ago (Wagenmakers, 2009).
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