Getting your tenses right in academic writing can make people feel quite anxious, because it goes very quickly from ‘so … More
Category: Academic Writing
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
How to edit book manuscript final proofs
So How to Fix your Academic Writing Trouble has just arrived in the publisher’s warehouse, which means it’s nearly ready to send … More
A thesis has shape as a tree has shape: Imperial Gardens, legitimacy and editing
This is a reflection on the form of a writing genre and what that means. I started thinking about it … More
An early draft is a fragile flower
By the time your academic writing is ready to be published, it’s a tough nut, a rose hip, a thick-skinned … More
Who is this article for? Finding your audience.
For every article (or book chapter), you need to understand who you are writing for to write a strong abstract, … More
Ten things I’ve learned about learning a new skill (especially if you are rubbish at it to start with)
When you start a PhD, you are doing something you’ve been practicing for a long time, studying, and you’ve … More
