Advice about academic writing often stresses the iterative nature of the writing process; the creation of an effective final draft generally requires multiple drafts and extensive revision. A crucial corollary to a commitment to extensive revision is an acceptance that revision mustn’t be allowed to go on indefinitely. Otherwise, a certain mania can set in: any draft can always be other than it is. After a certain point, we have to ask ourselves about diminishing returns and about the very real possibility of messing up what is already working.
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: New Year’s Edition
It’s a new year, which means new goals and resolutions. I’m sure during this past week you’ve put some thought…
Use this revising strategy to make your writing flow
Q:Â What strategies do you use during the revision process?
A:Â Mike Kennamer: “Before I send the article to an editor, I always read it out loud as part of the editing process. I also try to get colleagues to read it and provide input before I send it off to the editor.
When a section just doesn’t seem to flow as I would like, I will print the article and (literally, with scissors) cut out each paragraph and lay it on the floor in the order that it is in for the article. Then I will start to move certain paragraphs around to see if that helps with flow. I use the floor because it gets me out of the normal place where I write. There is something about sitting on the floor with my work in little paragraph-sized slips of paper that helps
The most useful textbook & academic writing posts of the week: October 17, 2014
It is hard to believe it is the middle of October already. Hopefully you have settled back into a routine; most…
6 Do’s and don’ts of editing your dissertation
Picture this: You’ve just finished up the last paragraph of a section in your dissertation. Now comes the time to read over the whole chapter and edit it, even though you feel that you’ve been over it a million times, so maybe you’ll be fine without editing—right? Wrong. Editing your dissertation is one of the most important things you’ll do before submitting it and earning your doctorate, so here are some do’s and don’ts of editing your dissertation.
Textbook writing strategies: Create your own editorial style guide
Starting with the first edition, physical geography textbook author Robert Christopherson developed an editorial style guide specific to his books.…