Education
Writing
academic
Educational
Academic Writing
Writing Tips
Thesis Preparation
Manuscript Development
Steps that work for academic writing (thesis chapter, manuscript, etc.) ๐งต๐๐ป1. Start by preparing a skeleton- open a blank document & write down the main headings of your piece. No sentences yet!
2. Add bullet points under each heading, capturing the main ideas you want to include in that particular section. Soon you'll have a bird's-eye view of the storyline you're building. Gaps will be more easily identifiable.
3. Begin expanding each bullet point into 2-3 sentences. Less intimidating than writing straight out of the gate. To keep the flow, write things you know to be true and add the refs afterwards. Leave in-text reminders to yourself to do so, e.g. "X is known to cause Y (Add Ref)".
4. Use a reference management software! (Mendeley, Zotero, EndNote, etc.) There is no good reason not to. Absolutely no one wants to switch citation styles across an entire document by hand.
5. Read & re-read your piece. Then read it again. Writing is incredibly iterative and is more than transcribing your thoughts to the screen. Develop and polish each sentence and your argument as a whole.
6. At the start of each writing session, assess your energy level and work on tasks accordingly. Don't start introducing that high-level concept on a day you're really only cut out for formatting figure captions.
7. Work in Pomodoro sessions (25 min + 5 min break), especially on days the mountain feels hard to climb. It's far less intimidating, while still building confidence & momentum. Use an online timer & commit until the break. Put your phone in a drawer or under your pillow.
8. Writing is thinking! Don't assume you must complete your thinking & understanding beforehand. Writing helps organise your thoughts enough to clarify them. So start all this even when you're still confused!
@OpenAcademics @AcademicChatter @PhDVoice @VoicesofIndAcad
@OpenAcademics @AcademicChatter @PhDVoice @VoicesofIndAcad
Loading suggestions...