Writing - good habits
If you look in books and on the Internet, you will find myriad helpful hints for writers.
Strangely, they hardly ever say the same things. What follows is my advice on the
actual writing process required for a dissertation.
Understand that writing is just like any other skill
Writing is not a magical skill. It is a skill with a standard set of approaches and
procedures that can be learned, and learned relatively quickly. If you took up tennis
or golf or any new sport when you came to university, you would not expect to
become very good without some practice. So it is the same with writing – it can be
learned but it takes some time and practice. Most universities have excellent study
skills support units that will help you develop your writing skills. Many universities
have e-learning and web-based support for writing skills. Many students never get
round to involving themselves with developing their writing skills. This is a real
shame because poor writing skills can weaken excellent ideas and research.
Develop a writing habit
Writing is a skill and skills must be practised. The best practice for writing is to write.
Early in your dissertation there will be very few opportunities for writing large pieces
of work. But you should get into the writing habit early. You can create opportunities
for writing by reviewing, paraphrasing and critiquing some of the important theory in
your subject area. The content will then be useful when you write the critical
literature review. Reviewing and critiquing research studies in your subject area will
serve a similar purpose. In my view, in the early part of the dissertation you should
set aside at least six to eight hours a week to develop your writing skills. The
development nature of this writing will be further enhanced if you can arrange for
feedback on your writing.
Use feedback to improve your writing
We are often very poor judges of our own writing. To enhance our skills in writing we
have to overcome our slight fear of showing our writing to others. Clearly, the
uncomfortable feeling can be less when we are getting feedback from others in the
same circumstance. This is where a small study group can be really useful. Get
feedback on your writing from your study group. You will also get valuable feedback
from the skills unit of your university. The added benefit if you use the skills unit is
that they will diagnose any weaknesses and point you to development resources to
improve that part of your writing. Your tutors may also be willing to assist in helping
with writing skills.
Understand that writing takes time
Writing takes time, so you need to plan and organise carefully to ensure that you
have enough time to carry out the writing and the reviewing process. Failing to
provide the right amount of time to carry out the writing will lead to poor, rushed
work. Typically, you will need about six to eight hours to complete (think, write and
review) 1,000 words of academic writing. This assumes that you have done the
background planning and research. See sections 10.3 and 10.4 below about
macro/micro writing.
Read, think, design, write, and reread every day
Writing, thinking, planning, reading, and rereading must become a daily habit when
you are completing a dissertation. Unless you have carried out the reading of
background material and have been thinking about that material, you will not have
anything to write. By ‘thinking’ I mean understanding, critiquing, analysing,
synthesising and evaluating. Once you have written a passage of work you must
reread it to make sure that it is correct, makes sense and has clarity of thought and a
strong argument. Try to set aside time every day for these tasks.
Develop ‘stickability’
You may not have come across the term ‘stickability’ – it means the ability to
concentrate on a task over periods of time, especially when the task seems to be
getting increasingly difficult to complete. Stickability is a frame of mind. Successful
people are often quite stubborn and will not be beaten by anything. This makes them
difficult to live with, sometimes, but they do achieve things. Some people are
naturally stubborn and stick at things. If you are not, you may want to think about
developing your stickability. Stickability first comes from having goals you believe in
and want to achieve – completing a dissertation should be one of those goals. Then
plan and organise your time and allocate space to writing. If you plan to spend two
hours writing, do only this – stick at it. Gradually, you can increase the scheduled
writing periods until a four-hour session is possible. Set session goals – such as ‘I
will complete 400 words in this writing session’ – and do not stop until this goal is
achieved. Finally, do not allow distractions when you are writing – no stopping for
drinks, or a bit of net surfing, texting, a phone call or snacks.
Think and plan and make notes before you write
Sections 10.3 and 10.4 in this chapter introduce and explore the notion of
macro/micro writing. Essentially macro writing is the planning that is done before you
start to write. It is a highly structured approach where you plan each chapter, section
and paragraph before you start to write. This ensures that when you do write, the
process is less daunting in that you simply extend each first sentence in a paragraph
to make one full idea of a whole paragraph. You will have to develop and personalise
your planning style, but it is essential that you do plan, think and make notes before
you start writing.
Get it ‘write’ first time
Following on from the idea of careful and extensive planning is the notion of writing
structured, well-planned and evidenced paragraph. This structured approach means
that you are likely to write a paragraph that is ‘write’ first time. If you type first and
think afterwards, you are likely to have to make extensive and time-consuming
revisions. The quickest and most effective way to write is to think, plan, structure and
organise – and only then WRITE. There will nevertheless always be a need to revise
and correct small parts of what you have written.
Understand the necessity to revise your writing
An idea forms in your head and is then transferred to type. While the idea may be
well thought through and well evidenced, the writing process will always need review
and improvement. You must plan a strategy for reviewing and revising your work.
One effective strategy has been outlined in these good writing ideas. The first phase
of writing is always clear and detailed planning. Once the words are typed, review
each sentence in each paragraph before you go on, then review the whole
paragraph. When you have read it several times and made corrections to the English
usage, the clarity of idea, and/or the form of words, move on to write the next
paragraph. Leave the writing for at least a week and then review whole sections and
make revisions and adaptations. If you are able to enlist the help of someone else –
friends, family, study group – let them read it and comment. I generally ask them to
read it twice, first for the clarity of the meaning of the words and the strength and
clarity of the argument; secondly, to check for spelling and grammar errors.
I feel sure that if you are able to follow some of these approaches, you will find
the writing process enjoyable and you will produce clear, precise and correct
writing.