As you turn the page on a new year today, reflect on your accomplishments in the year that was, dream of opportunities in the year ahead, and design a plan for action to move you forward each day. Take time to reflect, dream, and plan. Writing is a creative process that requires learning from what was in order to create what will be. In fact, Burton Rascoe once said, “A writer is working when he’s staring out of the window.”

As is often the case during the holidays, the Internet gets quiet as people take breaks from the normal routine of work and academic life, but we did find several posts worth sharing this week as you seek balance, refine your writing practice, evaluate your work, and breathe new life into your writing style in the new year.

As you move into the new week, and the year ahead, reflect, dream, plan, and perhaps take some time to stare out the window. Happy writing!

Seeking information balance in 2020

In the final weeks of the year, CCC’s podcast series is looking back at the past twelve months. In this third episode of a three-part review for 2020, three takes on information illuminate the golden rule that sources matter – and the more, the better.

On the importance of the reading, note-taking, synthesizing and writing sequence in developing an academic research and writing practice

Trying to teach reading, note-taking, synthesizing and writing altogether is kind of a chicken and egg problem. What do students need to learn first, reading or taking notes? Teaching strategies for both simultaneously is hard to do, and I struggled all year to do this. Nevertheless, over the summer and fall I tried the following sequence.

Revise – by connecting academic reading with academic writing

How do you know what to do when you are revising your writing? Revision always involves making a judgment about your own work. You become a self-evaluator. But what criteria do you use?

Utilize the power of breath units to write masterfully

You may not have heard of breath units. In fact, if you Google this term, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any information on it. Breath units are simply the number of words spoken in one breath. Why should you care? Because your writing style is all about breath units.