The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: October 30, 2015

November 1 is two short days away from being here. Since 2011 when Charlotte Frost (Founder and Director of PhD2Published) created #AcBoWriMo, November has been a month long marathon for academic writers to declare their writing goals, write and share progress updates along the way, plus connect and encourage other academics all over the world also striving to reach their writing goals. Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo for short), as it is now called, is the perfect excuse to start a blog or Twitter account to share your goals and progress, to encourage others, and to receive support and encouragement as you write.

10 Ways to tease out your perfect dissertation topic

If you’re beginning or in the throes of your dissertation, you may know from other long-suffering students that the work engenders a love-hate relationship, with all the exasperations, frustrations, teeth-clenching, and eye-rolling, and occasional affection, elation, and fulfillment (eventually) of a primary human relationship. Therefore, your topic, like your partner, should be one that initially excites you and sustains you throughout the inevitable rages and reconciliations, desires to divorce yourself from it or run back to its scholarly arms, and finally settle into a consistent satisfying relationship.

The top 10 reasons we don’t reach our goals (And how you can banish them!)

It’s October, so it’s a good time to get a little witchy. Imagine we are under a clear and starry sky at night. Let’s add a cauldron into the picture. Come circle around it with me. Together we are going to cook up the foulest stew you have ever tasted. The ingredients will be all the reasons why people don’t reach their goals. We will throw them in one by one. Watch, as we do, how the brew starts to bubble and smoke.