10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly

Michael C. Munger has a wonderful post with 10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly at the Chronicle of Higher Education. He raises the point that few academics receive solid training in writing, yet the foundation of tenure, grant writing etc. is based on being able to clearly and concisely write about research. His tips, in brief, are this:

1. Writing is an exercise. (Practice, a lot.)

2. Set goals based on output, not input. (Time in chair may not get the results need – set specific section, project, word or page number goals.)

3. Find a voice; don't just "get published." (Publishing for publishing sake means bad writing.)

4. Give yourself time. (Good Thinking = Good Writing ∴ Take Time)

5. Everyone's unwritten work is brilliant. (Actually exploring ideas make you realize how much you don't know.)

6. Pick a puzzle. (Conceptualize ideas in different ways.)

7. Write, then squeeze the other things in. (Schedule!)

8. Not all of your thoughts are profound. (You have to go through a lot of crappy writing to get to the good.)

9. Your most profound thoughts are often wrong. (Revision, of ideas, not just words, is necessary.)

10. Edit your work, over and over. (And find writer friends to reciprocate.)

Motivation and Prioritizing

Motivation

Based on:

Silva, Paul J. (2007). How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Monitoring Progress

      Setting a goal is just the beginning of being a successful writer. People who are successful at something monitor their progress – saving money, losing weight, training for a marathon, or selling cookies. “Most people have no idea how much – or how little – they're writing. Because they view themselves in a flattering, self-enhancing light, most people think that they're writing more often and more efficiently than they are. To write a lot, you need to take a cold, accurate look at your writing progress” (pg. 39).

       Besides seeing the reality of your effort, monitoring your progress can also be very motivating. Writing down your progress at each writing session helps keep your focus on the project. Monitoring your own behavior, research had shown, produces the desired behaviors – in other words – the desire to write down progress encourages progress. Financial planners and diet gurus play to this desire. To get control of spending, the spendee has to write down everything they purchase, or the dieter writes down every bite they take. Having to write down the details encourages more thoughtful spending or eating. Writing down your sessions encourages increased time and more productive work.

      Silvia uses a spreadsheet format with columns for date, session goal, word count, and a check for met/unmet goals. However, a notebook or chart on the wall would work just as well. It is the visual cue that is most important. If you like playing with numbers, you can then figure out the average words per day or percentage of session goals met. Then, try to increase that percentage each month.

8 Online Goal Progress Tracking Tools

15 Fantastic Apps to Track & Manage Your Goals

12 Things Successful People Do Differently

Reward Yourself

      B.F. Skinner studied reward behaviors in people. It is clear that self-reinforcement and reward is highly motivating. You might consider setting a reward when you set your large writing goals. For session goals, it may be something smaller – a a 2-minutes mediation, a “Risky Business” like dance and singing, or a cup of Earl Grey tea. By generating a feeling of accomplishment for reaching goals, you're more likely to want to succeed more often. But, do NOT reward yourself with skipping a writing session. That is like rewarding yourself for quitting smoking with having a cigarette!

Writer's Block

      Silvia believes that in academic writing, there is no such thing as writer's block. The narratives academics craft do not (in many cases) resemble the figurative, flowery stuff of fiction and poetry. “Writer's block is nothing more than the behavior of not writing” ( p. 46). Writing on a schedule, with specific goals, should take care of this. However, if you need some suggestions on how to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, read the article linked below (a short summary is provided):

Breaking Writer's Block: Ten Effective Methods for Better Writing by Phil Partington

1. Write about something else
2. Write about a picture
3. Keep a journal
4. Make an outline
5. Read
6. Take a break
7. Establish a writing habit
8. Listen to non-lyrical music
9. Research
10. Ask others for ideas

 Prioritizing 

It is very easy to get distracted by non-important but fun items on your to-do list. Stephen Covey, in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People proposed four quadrants of activity management to help people organize and prioritize the things they need to do. To often, we spend most of our time in the Urgent/Important square because we don't have a clear picture of our overall goals, projects and deadlines. Then, deadlines creep up and it become Urgent/Important and we rush to get it done. Those of us who procrastinate tend to locate ourselves in the Not Urgent/Not Important quadrant – choosing to do things that are immediately pleasurable, but don’t advance our goals or projects. You might consider using this graphic organizer as another way to think about your weekly writing and grad school roles – which will allow you to see both the urgent and the important tasks during the week.

 Instead of reading Stephen Covey's book, I would recommend his son's adaptation of the ideas for teenagers, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey.  It is shorter, illustrated, and less dry than the original.  Or, check out some of the interpretations of Covey's ideas below:

A Beginner’s Guide to Time-Management

Important vs. Urgent: 5 Ways to Focus On What Really Matters

When You're Right to Refuse (an academic's view)

     Another helpful hint that I have heard from #phdchat is to have a list of things that should get done, but don't require intense concentration.   For example, renaming and organizing files, deleting old emails, or skimming articles to see if they would be useful.  These activities can be saved for the times that your energy and concentration is low.  In addition, have a file of work that is always with you for the times that you find you are unexpected waiting (at the doctor's office, for your car etc.).    The most effective and efficient academics plan ahead and use even the smallest chunks of time, like the 15 minutes in-between conference sessions or the time waiting for a late appointment.

Goals for Summer

The Chronicle of Higher Education posted a useful advise column this week about what graduate student should be doing over the summer to get ready for the job market. It is geared more toward the hard sciences, but still has some good advise for social sciences.

How New Graduate Students Should Spend Their Summers by Julie Miller Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong

The short version is this:

• Look for and write grants - even if you have full funding
• Find and study potential journals for your own publications
• Practice talking about your work – start a study group, look for conferences (and apply)
• Prepare for teaching – look for opportunities both in your department and outside (museums, volunteer, internship)
• Reflect and record what you have already accomplished (preparing for your CV)

I have heard over and over from nearly finished doctoral students that they wished they had done these things earlier – especially the publication part. The advice that I keep hearing from new faculty is to craft every major class paper into a publishable article with a targeted journal. Leaving grad school with a track record of publications is a huge benefit.

However, summer is also a time to re-charge, as the school year is often overbooked with TA work, classes, personal research and other jobs. Gradhacker has some advice on how to recharge during the summer.

Setting Goals and Prioritizing

People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine. ~ Brian Tracy

1. Realize that goal setting is a part of the process of writing.
2. List your project goals.
   • Individual projects that need to be written.
   • Include things with definite deadlines.
   • Include things you would like to get done, but don't have a deadline
   • Post this list near your writing area or in your planner
3. Prioritize
   • What has specific deadlines?
   • How long will something take?
   • Set a due date if something doesn't have one
4. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals for the list.
   • Specific
   • Measurable
   • Attainable
   • Realistic
   • Timely
5. Set a concrete goal for each writing session.
   • Look at your SMART goal
   • Break the project into smaller parts
   • Tackle each smaller part separately

The above information is summarized from:

Silvia, P.J. (2007). How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.

There is a wonderful blog post about setting a writing schedule by Megan Crowe here:

Six Steps to a Writing Schedule

Here are two great forms for charting how you are using your time:

Time Management Chart - List all your scheduled items in column one of a day, at the end of the day, write what you ACTUALLY did in column two of that day.

Time Log - Developed by Alan Chapman Consultancy to free style track your daily activities.

This entry as a handout.

Initial Meeting - Purpose and Structure

Agraphia – the pathologic loss of the ability to write

The idea of an Agraphia Support Group is founded on the principles expounded by Dr. Paul Silvia, a psychologist and professor of psychology, in his book How to Write A Lot (2007). He contends that, “Writing productively is a skill, not a genetic gift, so you can learn how to do it. This book [group] will show you how to make writing routine and mundane. It presents strategies for writing during the normal workweek, writing with less stress and guilt, and writing more efficiently.” (pg. xi) Being a psychologist, he believes, “Writing productively is about actions that you aren't doing but could easily do: making a schedule, setting clear goals, keeping track of your work, rewarding yourself, and building good habits. Productive writers don't have special gifts or special traits – they just spend more time writing and use this time more efficiently.” (pg. 3-4)

As graduate students, we all have a lot to write – papers for classes, grants for money, proposals for research and articles for publication. Much of the difficulty is in getting started and staying motivated. This support group will not teach people how to write, nor will the focus be on peer editing (though you may find some good contacts). Instead, the group will support you in your goal setting, motivation, and maintaining good writing habits through positive peer pressure.

Group Components:

1. Set concrete, short-term goals and monitor progress of the group

• Each person will need to state a specific, measurable goal
• It will be recorded on a chart
• Next meeting, we will review goals and state whether met or unmet

2. Stick to writing goals during meetings – not other topics

• Meetings should be brief and to the point
• Avoid complaining about teaching, department etc.
• Focus on writing

3. Celebrate real accomplishments, encourage group members when struggling

• Carrot and stick – social (maybe other?) rewards and punishments
• Expect to be held accountable to schedule and goals

4. Graduate students only

• Professors have different needs in writing, plus may be intimidating to students
  
  
  
  
  Specious Barriers to Writing a Lot
  (and how to hurdle them)
  
  
  Excuses that sound like legitimate reasons for not writing, but don't hold up.
  
  
• I can't find time to write.
  1. Allot time to write – make a schedule – write it in your planner
  2. Regularity is more important than # of days or hours
  3. Don't binge write
  4. Guard your writing time – don't let other commitments creep in
  5. Always write during writing time – but enjoy the freedom of writing at other time (windfall writing). Don't cancel a writing time because of windfall.
• I have to a) analyze more b) read more.
  1. Writing is more than typing words.
  2. Use scheduled writing time to:
     1. Crunch stats
     2. Read article (specifically related to writing goal)
     3. Review journal submission guidelines
     4. Fill in grant application (specifically related to writing goal)
     5. Read books about how to write better
• I need a new . . . computer, chair, desk, place, printer, paper, pen . . .
  1. Equipment will not help you write a lot – only a schedule and sticking to it
     1. “In order to write, all a man needs is paper and pencil.” William Saroyan
  2. Looking for the perfect whatever is an avoidance tactic
  3. Fancy doodads can be a distraction – best self-control is to avoid situations that require self-control
• I write when the mood strikes – I write when I feel inspired.
  1. If you are here, it is clear this strategy isn't working :^)
  2. Research has shown that waiting for inspiration doesn't work
  3. You may never feel inspired to write a required piece of writing (grants?)
  4. There are no Muses for academic writing
  5. “Serious writers write, inspired or not. Over time they discover that routine is a better friend to them than inspiration.” Ralph Keyes (2003)

Bottom line: You need to set a writing schedule and stick to it, even if you don't feel like writing.

Homework:

1. Set a writing schedule that you can stick to. Write it in your planner. Begin following it. Be prepared to share how you managed it.
2. List all the writing projects you need to complete. Bring in the list and be prepared to share next time.
   
   
   This entry as a handout.