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18.01.2022 Sunday chores. It’s good practice to spend some time on your writing every day. On the weekend have a few short tasks to complete so that your are making progress even though it's not a work day. Perhaps weekends are your work days, and if so, apply this to the days you typically spend away from the desk. 1. Run the spell check through a chapter or two. If you are using terms that are correctly spelled, but not in the dictionary, add them. (Seriously, check that you have spel...Continue reading

12.01.2022 Had great feedback from a PhD student I helped. His supervisors were very pleased with the direct, clear writing and he's another step closer to receiving his doctorate!

11.01.2022 Got the writing blahs? Uninspired, bored, fighting procrastination? A trick that got me through a dull period of my MPhil when I HAD to keep on writing: Change the font! ... Change it again! And again! If this gets you over the blahs and back into writing, who cares if it looks...mad? One global change at the end and no one will know . You could change colours, too - whatever novelty tickles your brain into thinking writing is a fun way to spend Easter. BUT!! Don't obsess over the quality of your writing. That can be edited. Remember that you can only edit after writing, and you were struggling to write a few minutes ago. Make progress. Don't edit until you have 1000 words or at least 80% of the word count that you need (if less than 1000 words). If you finish a sentence and are struck by inspiration - don't waste time deleting, write inspired sentence straight down. Losing a great thought because you are deleting a sentence is wasteful. Your brain power is generally 80% hard work and 5% inspiration (the other 15% is getting coffee, gazing out window and thinking about dinner). Happy writing, folks!

08.01.2022 I've been so busy writing myself, but I haven't forgotten you all! The winter chills make sitting at a desk difficult, especially if you don't have a sunny study. What helps? Hot drinks. Combining writing with housework - get moving and get warm! Also get 2 jobs done at once . Move to a sunny spot, but make sure you aren't easily distracted (or fall asleep!)... Does your writing feel stale or uninspired? Don't be tempted to give up - everyone has struggle days. It’s important to keep going. Getting your thoughts down is progress, even if you don't like the quality of your writing. I've said this before! Remember, too, that if you think of a better way to phrase a thought mid-sentence DON'T STOP TO DELETE! Carry on with new phrasing, because if you stop even for a moment you will probably lose that great idea or phrase. This is what 'stream of consciousness' should be - it needs to be directed towards your topic (not just idle nonsense). Worry about punctuation and spelling later. Turn off spelling and grammar notifications. Who cares if you misspell a few words (or more)? Just get writing without filters. Don't waste time formatting. Write. Write more. Keep going! Enjoy!

06.01.2022 Easter weekend is approaching! Typically a chocolate - fuelled hiatus from lectures when I had ink stains on my fingers and the outside of my right hand little finger was polished from rubbing on paper. Chapter or section planning is vital. I will go into detail in a post later, but here are a few tips. 1. Don't write the Introduction (of the entire work) until you have written and edited an entire draft of the following chapters. You can make notes of the topics that you pla...n to discuss, but wait until you have defined your essay/thesis before writing the introduction. 2. In most instances, the same applies for Abstracts. 3. The chapters will be the spine of your essay or thesis. CREATE CHAPTERS 4. List the main points of your essay/thesis. These are your CHAPTERS 5. Are the main points/chapters in a logical order? Types of order include: chronological, developmental, storytelling, instructional, formal thesis/dissertation (ie lit.review, method, discussion, etc.) FOR EACH CHAPTER 6. Each chapter must begin with announcing what the chapter is about and the scope of the focus of that chapter (the precise aspects of the main point that you will examine). 7. Now make a list of the topics that relate to the main point. Do any relate directly to others? If so, list them consecutively. These are your PARAGRAPHS. What else comes to mind - do you have sub-topics? These are more paragraphs. What order of topics makes sense? Chronological order is great for history essays - but not necessarily suitable for creative or scientific assignments. 8. You are telling a story. Each paragraph and topic has a purpose. When you have listed all the topics of that main point (chapter) it is time to move towards the next main point, which will be the next chapter. 9. The concluding paragraph for this chapter summarises the main topic and leads into the topic for the following chapter. It can do this in a number of ways. The next chapter/main point may be an exception to the previous. It may develop directly as a result of the previous main point. It may be another view held by academics/business leaders/religions/historians etc. Summarise the main point of the chapter and introduce the next main point briefly. The next chapter discusses: Don't skip the chapter planning phase. Even if you have already written a draft - now is a good time to take a blank piece of paper and do chapter planning. You know the subject of your thesis/essay well now. As you plan your chapters, you may find that you switch around the order. This is fine. As long as each chapter is well developed, you can easily modify the concluding paragraph to lead into the next chapter main point. Rearranging chapter order is common in editing phase. Good luck!

01.01.2022 Between Drafts Editing website is coming soon! There you will find all my posts and plenty of information to improve your written work.