Don't Stare at Blank Screen/Piles, Stacks, Folders

Another website that all grad students and new faculty should know about is Inside Higher Ed. (http://www.insidehighered.com/) The site is described as “Inside Higher Ed is the online source for news, opinion and jobs for all of higher education. Whether you're an adjunct or a vice president, a grad student or an eminence grise, we've got what you need to thrive in your job or find a better one: breaking news and feature stories, provocative daily commentary, areas for comment on every article, practical career columns, and a powerful suite of tools to help higher education professionals get jobs and colleges identify and hire employees.” There is a nice calender of Calls for Papers and a Twitter Calender of online chats. Plus, there are lots of interesting articles – which leads me to the point of this post – Pre-Writing!

Peg Boyle Single, author of Demystifying Dissertation Writing: A Streamlined Process from Choice of Topic to Final Text and an academic writing coach, posted about learning habits of writing fluency. She provides many tips so you “Don't Stare at a Blank Screen” & “Piles,Stacks, Folders”:

1. Read actively – take notes while reading, interact with the information by writing summary statements. Write notes on your notes – what you are thinking, connecting etc. (Could be called “memoing” ala grounded theory.) Also called, “citable notes.”
2. Write a clear, concise, and convincing focus statement
3. Create a 1 page outline with the basics – including references (don't trust your memory)
4. Insert your citable notes from your reading notes to create a long outline
5. Use your long outline to write your prose

I would strongly encourage you to read all of Boyle Single's postings at Inside Higher Ed. She also talks about perfectionism, procrastination, having too much to say, and getting into the routine of writing regularly.

There is also a ppt of one of Boyle Single's seminars.