Struggling with your academic writing? Try these experiments to get the words flowing
Yet writing does not lend itself to a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, Jay does his best writing—including this column—in the late afternoon before he races to pick up his kids from school. June, on the other hand, prefers the quiet of the morning alone at a coffee shop in her mountain college town. We propose that you act like a scientist and try these three simple writing “experiments” designed to enhance your writing effectiveness, efficiency, and even enthusiasm.
Experiment One: Embrace Revision
Remember: You are not your paper. Let go of your ego and embrace the opportunity to grow as a writer. As professor Keith Baar noted in a viral tweet about writing (and receiving edits on) academic papers, “This is a process. No one starts perfect.”
Experiment Two: Create a writing group
By fate or luck, he stumbled upon Paul Silvia’s book How to Write a Lot, which lays out several concrete strategies for building a writing routine—including starting a writing group. Jay reached out to his junior colleagues in his department and three of them were willing to try it out.
Experiment Three: Write a paper in a day
All the authors booked a large chunk of time in our calendars and came to the meeting with our computers, ready to write a paper in a day. We had also taken Dr. Tackett’s advice and done some necessary background work to get the most out of our time together.
Working in the same room as our co-authors kept us focused; it was impossible to get distracted or log on to social media.