Tag Archives: drafting

make a poster – it may also help you write a paper

Posted on June 14, 2021 by pat thomson

Academic posters. They are a thing. You can find academic posters at a lot of conferences. Ah, conferences. Remember when we had face to face conferences? Oh, that seems like a long time ago now – but when we had … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, conference papers, drafting, poster | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

working up a first draft: a twelve step strategy

Posted on December 14, 2020 by pat thomson

If you are drafting, it is pretty easy to find a lot of advice about the benefits of free writing. Lots of people find that timed writing sprints help to generate content. Unstructured writing is useful to work out what … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, crappy first draft, drafting, notebook, Tiny Text, writing in chunks | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

a planner’s approach to the first draft

Posted on September 16, 2019 by pat thomson

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

the writer’s tic – it’s all about the invisible gorilla

Posted on June 23, 2016 by pat thomson

Lots of us have writing tics. A writing tic is involuntary, something we do without thinking. Many of us get a writing tic or two when producing a first draft. But we only find this out afterwards, when we read through what … Continue reading →

Posted in drafting, invisible gorilla, revision, selective attention, writing tic | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

a drafting strategy

Posted on May 26, 2014 by pat thomson

I’m not a should-must-always person when it comes to academic writing. I think there are lots of ways to get scholarly authoring done and there are lots of ways for it to look and read. I always feel pretty uncomfortable … Continue reading →

Posted in planning, publications, reader, revision | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

good academic writing – it’s about revision not editing

Posted on February 24, 2014 by pat thomson

Creative writers are accustomed to the idea that their writing must go through several drafts. However, much of the advice on offer to academic writers proceeds as if all they have to do is produce a draft which is then … Continue reading →

Posted in Ann Lamott, early onset satisfaction, editing, revision | Tagged , , , , | 36 Comments