Category Archives: academic writing

Should academics do unpaid work to share their research? if so, when and how?

Posted on January 24, 2022 by pat thomson

This is a guest post from Dr Anna Bull, Lecturer in Education and Social Justice at the University of York and co-director of research and campaign organisation The 1752 Group. My comments on Twitter seemed to resonate with a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in "free work", academic writing, Anna Bull, impact | Tagged "free work", Anna Bull, impact | 4 Comments

refresh your writing ideas

Posted on January 17, 2022 by pat thomson

Reading is key to developing your understandings of what makes good academic writing. Anthropologist Ruth Behar (2020) suggests that academic writers shouldn’t stop at the classic texts in their discipline, but also read other genres. She says We need to read poetry … Continue reading →

Posted in creative writing, reading, refreshing | Tagged creative strategies, Pat Thomson, reading, refreshing academic writing | Leave a comment

revising? try a four step approach

Posted on November 1, 2021 by pat thomson

Many people approach revising as if it is a single shot process. They tell themselves, “I’m just going to sit down now and revise my paper”. But revising and refining a text are not one activity, they are several. The … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, communication, revision, revision strategy, supervision | Tagged communication, Pat Thomson, revision, revision strategy, supervision | 2 Comments

understanding academic writing – starting the PhD

Posted on October 18, 2021 by pat thomson

Writing is a crucial aspect of doctoral work – indeed all the scholarly work you will undertake from now on. Writing is integral to scholarship. Whether you are in or out of higher education, if you are researching, you are … Continue reading →

Posted in argument, essay, starting the PhD, writing regularly | Tagged academic writing, argument, discipline, essay, Pat Thomson, writing regularly, writing repertoire | 2 Comments

starting the PhD? 25 things to consider

Posted on October 11, 2021 by pat thomson

Are you just starting a PhD? Worried? Excited? Nervous? Fear not.:There’s lots of support and help available to you. Your institution is likely to provide an induction programme where you’ll find out about all the internal procedures and timelines you … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, reading, reading routine, routine, starting the PhD, writing regularly, writing routine, writing to learn | Tagged academic writing, Pat Thomson, reading, routine, starting the PhD | 3 Comments

making the most of research leftovers

Posted on September 27, 2021 by pat thomson

You all know about leftovers. The bits of a meal that you couldn’t quite finish. The remnants that end up in a plastic box or a covered bowl in the fridge. Mostly you get round to eating them for lunch … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, data, data analysis, leftover, Pat Thomson, research | Tagged academic writing, Pat Thomson, research, research leftovers | 1 Comment

recycling your thesis text – is it self plagiarism?

Posted on September 13, 2021 by pat thomson

The term self-plagiarism is usually associated with re-using your own work, recycling slabs of material already published, cutting and pasting from one text to another, producing something which duplicates something that has already appeared elsewhere. Self-plagiarism is not the same … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, plagiarism, re-use, self-plagiarism, thesis | Tagged Pat Thomson, self-plagiarism, text recycling, Text Recycling Project, thesis | 4 Comments

“showing” and “telling” in the thesis

Posted on August 30, 2021 by pat thomson

The thesis must show and tell your examiner that its writer is ready to be called Dr. Yep. Dr (insert your surname here.) What do I mean by show and tell? Well, even if these are not the usual definitions, … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, audit trail, conclusion, introduction, literature reviews, methods, show and tell, thesis | Tagged academic writing, audit trail, conclusion, introduction, literature, methods, show and tell, thesis | 1 Comment

should you publish during your PhD?

Posted on August 23, 2021 by pat thomson

So you are not doing PhD by publication. You’re not in a country and/or discipline which expects you to publish during your PhD – yes really, some do. And you hear conflicting advice about whether publishing during your PhD is … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, publishing, text work/identity work, thesis, writing for publication | Tagged Pat Thomson, publishing during the PhD, scholarly conversation, text work identity work | 11 Comments

can you say something about the “theory chapter”?

Posted on August 9, 2021 by pat thomson

I’ve been asked about writing a theory chapter. But should I say anything? I feel a bit iffy about the very idea. What to do? Take your own advice here. Write for ten minutes about a theory chapter. Write about … Continue reading →