Author Archives: pat thomson

About pat thomson

Pat Thomson is Professor of Education in the School of Education, The University of Nottingham, UK

thinking about collaborations

A lot of academic work is collaborative. It’s a fine irony then that academics are generally managed, promoted and audited as individuals. Citation measures like google scholar are a prime example – publications are seen as solo affairs, even when … Continue reading

Posted in collaboration, complementary collaboration, distributed collaboration, family collaboration, teams | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

a note on acronyms

So have you seen that paper they mentioned in the meeting today? TL;dr TL? More like TMA;dr Eh? Exactly LOL. So there you have the issue with acronyms in a nutshell. As long as both parties understand the acronym and … Continue reading

Posted in acronym, reader, readers | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

using jargon

Technical terminology is often called jargon. The dictionary definition of jargon is “special words or expressions used by a profession or group that are difficult for others to understand”. Sounds OK eh. Nothing to worry about. But the word jargon … Continue reading

Posted in audience, communication, jargon, reader, readership | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

line editing – learning from editors

If you are writing a book, it is highly likely that the publisher will send your manuscript to an editor. Most academic publishers these days do not engage editors who do a lot of developmental and structural work. So it … Continue reading

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five focusing questions to kick off some writing

So you’re about to write a paper. Or a chapter. You’ve gathered together all of the stuff you think you need – analysed data, a short list of references to cite, some early jottings. Now you begin to think about … Continue reading

Posted in beginning writing, contribution, pomodoro, the point, Tiny Text | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

revising – mark up your text to achieve focus

There’s so much to say about revising. Even though I’ve just published a book on revising – shameless plug – I still have things I want to say about it.   The key message in the book is that revising effectively … Continue reading

Posted in annotation, revision, revision strategy | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

cutting and pasting early text into the thesis – part 2.

So you are writing your thesis about the research that you have done. And what you write now is is likely to be a little different from the expanded proposal you wrote to confirm your candidature. And a little different … Continue reading

Posted in literature review, revision, thesis, thesis revision | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

can you cut and paste early text into your thesis?

Well of course you can. The question is, should you? You wrote large chunks of text when you first started your doctorate. These writings were most likely to do with literatures, methodologies and research design, and the warrant for your … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, old text, rewriting, thesis | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

developing a research agenda

So you’re thinking about how to develop a research agenda after your doctorate. This is often difficult to do. You’ve been down and dirty with the same question (and with all of the material you generated) for quite some time. … Continue reading

Posted in research, research agenda, research decisions | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

getting to grips with PSA – Pre Submission Angst

Not everyone feels the same way about getting their thesis done. Some people can’t wait to submit. They are sick of it. They’re over it. The sooner they can get the text to something that their supervisor says is OK, … Continue reading

Posted in completing, handing in, Pre Submission Angst, stuck points | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments