Category: On Writing

This blog post is part of a series dedicated to developing ideas for a new book I am writing with Shaun Lehmann (@painlessprose on Twitter) and Katherine Firth of the Research Voodoo blog. “Writing Trouble” will be a Swiss army knife of a book, containing range of strategies and tactics for fixing academic writing that …continue reading.

I’m an advocate for blogging, obviously, but should you blog during your PhD? Will you have time? Will it be a distraction? I find it hard to answer those questions, but a growing number of people are doing it and I’m lucky enough that Gaia Cantelli wrote in to share her experience of blogging, which …continue reading.

This blog post is one of a series I am writing that are developing ideas for the new book I am writing with Shaun Lehmann and Katherine Firth of the Research Voodoo blog for Open University press. Writing Trouble will be a ‘swiss army knife’ of a book that will contain a range of strategies …continue reading.

For the last couple of decades people have been experimenting with different types of PhD programs. The PhD by publication has become popular, especially in the sciences, but how do examiners react them? The academic world is quite conservative and some PhD students have encountered difficulties in the examination process. In this post, Chris Keyworth …continue reading.

Dear Readers. Shaun Lehmann, Katherine Firth (of the Research Voodoo blog) and I are currently in the process of writing a new book for Open University Press called ‘Writing Trouble’. The proposed book evolved out of our work on the Thesis Bootcamp program, a writing intervention originally designed by Peta Freestone and Liam Connell. Over …continue reading.

I hate doing literature reviews. I always feel I have not read enough. I worry that what I write will be ‘wrong’ because I have missed some vital piece of literature. These feelings never seem to entirely go away, even though I have been publishing papers for over a decade. I can certainly relate to …continue reading.

I’ve known of Dr Helen Kara and admired her work for some time now. She is one of that rare breed of independent academic who manages to make not being formally affiliated with a university work for her. I was pleased to be able to meet her in person and spend time together in late …continue reading.

This post is by Dr. Jay Daniel Thompson, who teaches at the University of Melbourne, and works as a freelance editor. Dr. Thompson has a background in research administration, and remains interested in issues facing postgraduate students and early career researchers. He can be contacted via email at jaydthompson80@gmail.com There are many lists of skills …continue reading.

As I write, The USA has one more sleep till election day – and the world will breathe out. It’s been rough watching Donald and Hillary duke it out. Just to be clear US based readers – I am not judging you by the level of discourse amongst your politicians. Australia had an election in …continue reading.

While I was in Canada I got an email from Agnes who is finishing the writing part of her PhD. After some kind words about the blog she got down to business: “… I have a question to you that I could not find an answer to elsewhere. I am now writing up my PhD …continue reading.