PG Writing Group 09/05/11 Academic Writing – Tips & Techniques for Getting Started

Monday lunchtime 09/05/2011, 12-1pm, Room 2204 Social Sciences South

There is no simple way for academic writers to produce text of high quality– it requires practice and a long (and often difficult) process of drafting, refining and polishing. But if you want to complete your thesis, you need to start writing. These are a few tips & techniques that may help you transfer your thoughts onto the page.

1. When you start writing a new section don’t worry about quality — just write. First drafts are for you only. They are called rough drafts because they will be rough.
2. Students with perfectionist tendencies find writing particularly difficult. If you attempt to write perfectly you’ll probably write very little.
3. Judging your writing as you write, or even before you begin writing, will make the writing process so difficult you are likely to experience ‘writer’s block’. Turn off your internal editor.
4. Keep in mind that the writing process takes time. Even the most experienced academic writers write numerous drafts before they publish. James Michener, who has written over 40 books and won the Pullitzer Prize for Fiction, once said, “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter”.
5. Rather than postponing writing until you think you have your ideas sorted in a logical way in your head, use writing as a tool to explore, refine or test your thinking. These exploratory drafts are likely to require significant revision, but will clarify your thinking and speed up the writing process.
6. Find a writing strategy that works for you.

In the Postgraduate Writing Session on Monday 9 May we will focus on two early writing strategies: Freewriting & Invisible Writing

For more details on the process of free writing see Getting Started With Freewriting: http://grammar.about.com/od/yourwriting/a/freewrite.htm?terms=freewriting

For more details on unconscious writing strategies (including Invisible Writing) see York University’s Unconscious Pre-Writing Strategies http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/prewriting/unconscious.html 

St. Cloud State University’s Low Stakes and High Stakes Writing http://ctlwriting.project.mnscu.edu/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={029C7F18-1147-45E4-BE15-288130DEE326}