Last week, I headed up to Canberra to hang out with my How to Fix your Academic Writing Trouble co-authors and hold … More
Category: Academic Writing
Getting started on your PhD proposal
A couple of people in my wider circle have recently asked me about how to get started on a PhD … More
Almost, nearly, very nearly totally complete… except…
There is a stage at the end of a major project, like sending off a book or a thesis, where … More
Who am I writing this article for?
You know how it is. You’ve been working on an article forever, but it just isn’t working. You need to … More
Research story ‘arcs’: the ‘Heroes Journey’ and other stories
I’ve been doing a bit of a deep dive into stuff I know about writing because of my English Literature … More
Tense about tenses? A grammar guide and a coffee mistake
Getting your tenses right in academic writing can make people feel quite anxious, because it goes very quickly from ‘so … More
Tiny text, narrative outline: A new storytelling planning technique
You know I love Kamler and Thomson’s Tiny Texts–and we talk about them at length in our Academic Writing Trouble … More
‘Learning to be a co-author’ over on Research Whisperer
I am currently working on three book projects with three different teams, and that has led me to think carefully … More
Getting your head in the game: the pause before you start work
When I started going to the gym (see Exercising Like a Girl parts 1 and 2), one of the things … More
Wikipedia, Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and “pre-research”
We all know academic writing “shouldn’t quote Wikipedia”… but what we often get wrong is why it’s not ‘the done … More
