Category Archives: voice

what is author ‘voice’?

Patter is on annual leave and is posting pre-prepared writings snatched from elsewhere. The term ‘voice’ is not as straightforward as it might first appear. Commonly used in relation to a number of art forms, it is highly ambiguous and slippery. … Continue reading

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co-writing – strategies for working with other people’s words

There are various types of co-writing practices. Pretty well all of them involve you working on text that other people have written. This is a sensitive matter. Many people are anxious about their writing and do not enjoy the process … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, co-writing, revision, revision strategy, Uncategorized, voice | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

voice and thinkingwriting

You have probably heard, or read, that writing is thinking. But what does writing is thinking really mean? Anything? Nothing? Well, it doesn’t mean that you have to write in order to think, because of course you can think without writing. … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing voice, thinking, voice, writing and thinking | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

exorcise the inner “doctoral student” from your writing

Some of us can probably remember the film The Exorcist. It was one of those “demon child” films so popular in the 1970s. It featured Linda Blair as a possessed young teen – her green-slime spitting, 360 degree swiveling head … Continue reading

Posted in "doctoral student", academic writing, authority in writing, style, voice | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

academic writing voice …. and voices in your head…

I’ve just been to a summer festival. It was a picture perfect weekend. The weather was hot. While it was humid, it wasn’t so sticky that it brought the mosquitoes out. There was no need for wellies, the ground was … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, authorship, voice | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

thesis to book – finding your author ‘voice’

At the start of a new book, Barbara and I always think about our joint ‘voice’. We decide first of all how we are going to talk about ourselves, and how we are going to address the reader. We find … Continue reading

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academic writers need a dictionary

When I began my PhD, my partner bought me a dictionary. A very big dictionary. I wasn’t quite sure that I needed it, since I was after all an English major and I read prolifically. However I did use it. … Continue reading

Posted in Access, Uncategorized, voice, words | 4 Comments

writing in my own words?

John Field recently wrote, in his The Learning Professor blog, an interesting post about academic writing. He was particularly referring to the tendency for editors and researchers to ‘clean up’ quotations from research participants. Indeed, sometimes participants themselves felt the … Continue reading

Posted in APA, barbarism, language, voice, words | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

‘voice’ and the craft of academic writing

Academics often worry about finding their ‘voice’ when writing. They feel that it’s something they ought to have. However, they also often feel that the process of getting/finding their ‘voice’ -whatever voice is – is pretty difficult when there is … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, Kirin Narayan, voice | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

writing the thesis from day one is risky

I was reading a final draft of a thesis written by one of the doctoral researchers I was working with. I’d just started and the text was going along very nicely indeed until I reached the end of the first … Continue reading

Posted in academic writing, dissertation, identity, literature review, thesis, voice, writing | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments