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27 tips on academic writing and publishing

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The path to publication is arduous! "Publication is a self-invasion of privacy." - - -  Marshall McLuhan You can't publish unless you've written something ... 1. Ban thoughts of failure or rejection; by starting to write you are improving on the blank page of terror 2. Write a rough draft quickly; the quality of the writing should be worked on later 3. Familiarise yourself with an appropriate academic phrasebank 4. Learn to use a range of connectives in order to make your ideas flow 5. Avoid writing marathons - they seldom produce quality outcomes 6. Learn to use short stretches of highly focused writing time 7. Check that your have displaced all potential distractions 8. Identify SMART targets for your short periods of writing: Specific – target a specific area for improvement. Measurable – quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress. Assignable – specify who will do it. Realistic – state what results can realistically

A Quick Guide to Writing an Abstract

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But will your abstract fit inside the box? If you have been reading my blog on The Art of the Abstract , are you now ready for the quick guide? FORMAT Use one paragraph. Stick to the word length. Check the format style guides for the journal or awarding body / institution. Employ a professional style STYLE Use language that will be understood by readers in your field. Consider also the needs of the general reader. Think about the most relevant key words that need emphasis Write short sentences. Very short. Employ transitions between the sentences. Use the active voice, rather than passive constructions Use the third person singular. IT. Choose the past tense in the main body. Check your grammar Avoid abbreviations. Provide clear statements: avoid loose opinions. Employ the present tense for the introduction and the conclusion. PROCESS Learn from other respected scholars in your chosen field. Read journal abstracts in order to beco

The Art of the Abstract

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  ' Supervisor, I found Yorick's Abstract. ' “ Do you hear, let them be well used, for they are the abstract and brief chronicles of the time. After your death you were better have a bad epitaph than their ill report while you live .” --- Shakespeare’s Hamlet . Nowadays there is more pressure than ever to publish often and early. Such is the plight of the doctoral student and the early career academic; such is the life of any career academic. One of the tricks of the trade that every academic learns is how to write an effective abstract. Typically this activity was undertaken at the end of the third year of the Ph.D and was part of the processing of submitting your work for critical scrutiny. But really we were abstracting all the way along. The ability to compose a quick summary of what you have been reading is the beginning of abstraction. It’s a useful habit to acquire early in one’s intellectual development. What you find in the abstract will als