Category Archives: advice

starting the doctorate – finding good advice

Posted on July 25, 2022 by pat thomson

It’s that time of year. Across the world potential new Doctors have rejoiced. They’ve been accepted by the university of their choice. They are now getting their heads and lives geared up for a new intellectual adventure. I usually write … Continue reading →

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writing advice – caveat emptor

Posted on March 2, 2020 by pat thomson

Advice. Loads of it. Coming out of our ears.  And on every possible topic, including research and writing. Advice needs readers. But we readers also need to be, as Ernest Hemingway put it, “crap detectors”. Howard Rheingold has worked up … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, crap detection, Howard Rheingold, poor advice | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

bad writing advice

Posted on April 23, 2018 by pat thomson

There’s some very bad writing advice out there. Most of it is well-intentioned. Most doesn’t aim to make profit from anxious writers. But unfortunately readily available writing advice is not uniformly good. Does this matter? Caveat emptor perhaps? Well, there’s … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, poor advice, research, writing research | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

the limits of writing advice

Posted on October 26, 2017 by pat thomson

There’s a lot of understanding now about writing. There didn’t used to be. But over the last couple of decades there’s been a lot more talk and writing about academic writing. I see a lot of writing advice around on social … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, Helen Sword, Kristen Iversen, pomodoro, poor advice, writing without a parachute | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

poor writing advice

Posted on April 7, 2016 by pat thomson

There is some very poor academic writing advice out there in the ether. And crappy academic writing advice drives me crackers. So, a health warning, this post is a bit of a rant. What do I mean by poor writing advice? Here’s some I … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, poor advice | Tagged , | 11 Comments

have I got “advice” for you… 

Posted on May 14, 2015 by pat thomson

I want you to imagine that you are going to build a fence. You have a wide choice of potential materials and style. Well and good. But you haven’t build a fence before, so where do you go for some … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, crap detection | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments

digital academic – new research project

Posted on November 29, 2014 by pat thomson

Last week Inger Mewburn – @Thesiswhisperer – and I were at the Digital Academics seminar in Canberra. We presented some ideas for a research project we have been talking about. This was our handout to participants. We’d be interested in anything … Continue reading →

Posted in advice, DIY PhD, Inger Mewburn | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

are we heading for a DIY PhD?

Posted on June 16, 2014 by pat thomson

This is an op-ed piece I’ve recently written. It’s still in press but I thought I might give it a little pre-publication outing here. The DIY theme is one I’m doing more work on right now. In the humanities and … Continue reading →

Posted in advice, doctoral pedagogies, pedagogy, supervision | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

supervision and writing feedback/advice

Posted on January 30, 2014 by pat thomson

One of the biggest problems that supervisors face, when dealing with the writing that doctoral researchers do, is how to be helpful. It’s often much easier to spot a problem than it is to know how to provide strategies that … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, advice, Anthony Paré, feedback, supervision | Tagged , , | 7 Comments