Category Archives: planning a paper

planning a paper

Last week I was in Norway running a three part workshop on planning a journal article. The workshop was based around a Tiny Text abstract.   As a planner myself, I use Tiny Texts for sorting out the contribution argument … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, argument, contribution, journal article, planning, planning a paper, Tiny Text | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

a planner’s approach to the first draft

Writing a draft. Mmm. The word ‘writing’ suggests that all you have to do is sit down and type or scribble away. And lo and behold a text is born. But there are different pathways to writing a draft. Some … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, free-writing, looping, planning, planning a paper, poster, powerpoint, storyboard, storyboarding, Tiny Text, titles | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

make a poster then write your paper

Im quite a fan of the academic research poster. However, posters have a bad reputation in some quarters. They’re sometimes seen as a “less than” – less than a conference paper, a second rate public presentation. Ever heard anyone say … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, conference papers, planning a paper, poster | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

writing thesis chapters? beware ‘blocky’ writing

It’s very common to read academic texts, particularly thesis chapters, which present themselves to the reader as a series of blocks of stuff. Each big block of stuff may well be divided up into smaller sub-headed blocks. This is not … Continue reading

Posted in backward mapping, blocky writing, chapter, outline by sentences, planning, planning a paper | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

co-writing the messy first draft

another of those posts where I talk about my own practice… I’m currently engaged in several bits of co-writing. They are not the talk-and-write-together model that I do with Barbara. No, these are variations on the write-together-write-separate process. Because this … Continue reading

Posted in abstracts, co-writing, planning, planning a paper, word budget | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

planning v creativity in academic writing

Now a lot of people know that I’m an advocate of planning your writing. I’m not a great fan of just writing and just writing and then editing and just writing again and editing some more. I know people do … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, creativity, literature review, planning, planning a paper | Tagged , , , | 12 Comments

this academic life – no New Year resolutions, but definitely some reflections and a plan

I don’t have a lot of time for New Year’s resolutions. I don’t spend my time vowing that this will be the year I’ll go back to the gym/stop buying new shoes/finish reading Zizek. At this time of year, I … Continue reading

Posted in calendar, collaboration, conference papers, New Year, planning, planning a paper | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

our paper on academic blogging: using powerpoint as a planning tool

Thesis Whisperer and I have been researching for a paper we are giving at a forthcoming conference. it’s about academic blogging and you can read our initial abstract here. We divided the researching task into two and Inger ‘found’ and … Continue reading

Posted in academic blogging, argument, blogging, blogging taxonomy, planning a paper, powerpoint | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments