Academic Writing – Page 5 – Research Degree Insiders

The “Writing Oxygen” and other tales from inside a writing house

Writing has technical aspects, sure. You need skills, and training. And you need to be organised and disciplined about keeping up with deadlines and juggling projects. And writing has physical challenges, you have to sit and use your back and wrists and neck and eyes. But, you also bring your weird, inner, non-rational self to the desk when you write. The inner self that has views about what music you can listen to, or that you need to enact your writing rituals before typing a word. There are good reasons why you might like what you like, but a lot of it just is personal preference, and that is totally a great reason to take it seriously.

My whiteboard project-tracker

One of my favourite tools in my home office is my whiteboard. Today, I want to talk about how I use a whiteboard to keep track of writing projects.

The 5 worst writing myths

It will be no surprise to anyone that I hear a lot of writing advice—some good, some less helpful. But some of it is just literally untrue, and yet the myths are so pervasive that people believe they are terrible writers because they are not following that advice.

Is the thing you need to learn from feedback… how to accept praise?

There is an important aspect of feedback that you may be ignoring… and that is accepting positive feedback.

Yet another book? Yes, but the last one for a while, I promise!

Just popping into the blog to say that Level Up your Essays, the new book with Inger and Shaun, is now out in the world.

3 breathing exercises before you start writing

Want to feel calm, get fired up, or find a balance? Give yourself 2 minutes and some mind control of your lungs, you can do it!

How do you co-author 3 books in a year and not lose the plot?

In 2019-20 I was writing 3 books with other people (publication ranged from Nov 2019 to March 2021, but this does not reflect the writing or editing period of the books.) The books took between 9 months and 3 years to finish, and all of them overlapped in a great crash.

The 5 stretches that kept me going during my recent final book edit

This year was the year of so much editing for me. Having two books coming out a few months apart meant that I had barely submitted responses to one set of edits than the edits for the other book would arrive in my inbox (sometimes I could count the breathing space in hours). It was tough for my brain to stay focussed, but it was also tough on my body.

When your writing mistakes aren’t so ‘silly’

If someone who has made it to university and cares about their studies is making a persistent error that most students can avoid, it suggests a systemic glitch.

Should I do it myself? Writing and delegation

What you need to do yourself to prepare a publication? This is one of the big shifts for people moving from being a student, where

Category: Academic Writing