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

Planning vs. panic: 5 strategies for success

Someone whose work I really appreciate is Jo Van Every (@JoVanEvery). She has written a lot of blog posts (for … More

Start making Done lists instead of To-do lists

I’ve mentioned ‘done lists‘ before, but as it’s the beginning of the year, I thought it was time to remind … 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 many drafts should you write?

There are no right answers here, but the true answer to the question ‘how many drafts should I expect to … More

5 situations when ‘Planning by Chatting’ is an effective technique

I’m currently setting up a Learning Hub for La Trobe to bring together all the learning support across 6 campuses, … More

Escape from the Perfect Sentence Vortex of Doom: Second Edition

In 2013, I wrote one of my most significant early posts on this blog, The Perfect Sentence Vortex and How … More

Hemingway’s advice to writers

While I’m writing the Writing Trouble book, I’m surrounded by some of my favourite texts about writing. None of them … More

How to plan your research days

Hello everyone! It’s been quiet here for a bit, not because my drafts folder isn’t full of future posts but … More

To-do lists that actually work

I’m not actually much of a fan of to do lists. They aren’t actually much use, in my view, at … More