March 22, 2021, by Lisa Chin
Writing and editing
Despite attending courses and workshops about academic writing and editing, some might still don’t find them easy. And in some instances, we either seek inspiration on the web or use the opportunity for procrastination.
In this blog post, we would like to share some blogs with several relevant articles and we hope you will find them useful. We would also like to highlight some of our training and development courses that are specifically designed to developing and improving your writing skills as a postgraduate researcher.
Writing
In our previous COVID-19: Graduate School updates dated 3 March 2021, we shared some information and guidance that might be useful for your writing. In case you missed it, here is a recap:
Writing consultation for postgraduate students
The Centre for English Language and Foundation Education (CELFE) is pioneering one-to-one writing consultation sessions specifically for postgraduate students starting this semester until April 2021.
These sessions, schedule by appointments only, provide personalised task-specific writing support for postgraduate students with the goal of helping them become better writers. They do not provide proofreading or editing service for students’ theses and dissertations.
Writing effectively
The University also has a section on its website dedicated for the topic of writing.
“I had a discipline change and had to shift the way I write, because the writing of history is different from the way you would write for other disciplines.” – Laura Theobald, postgraduate student
From understanding the many forms of writing to managing your writing with limited time, correctly crediting your sources to maintaining integrity in your work, find out how you can develop your writing skills and your own style.
5 minute guide to writing your first scientific paper
In this blog post, Prof Mike Lee from Flinders University gives advice and insight on writing for a scientific audience.
“The largest and most important component of a scientist’s work is writing… So it is essential that you learn to write well.“
Use a structured abstract to help write and revise
In this blog post, Prof Pat Thomson from UoN writes how you can use a structured abstract as part of your writing.
“Using structured abstracts as an aide to revision might seem counter-intuitive. Equally, using a structured abstract to orient your writing, even if it isn’t the abstract you will use in the final version, may seem equally odd. But as exercises, as part of the process of writing a well-argued paper, using structured abstracts can be a great help.“
Time to write
We are offering a writing session called Time to write (previously known as Shut Up and Write) on Thursday 22 April 2021 at 10am – 12noon via MS Teams.
This session aims to assist in structuring periods of writing and limiting distractions while providing the necessary guidance and motivation to write efficiently and effectively.
The session is designed to help you focus when writing. It is not a training course but a concentrated period of writing. So in order to get the most out of the session, you should have something to write!
Editing
The difference between good writing and poor writing often relates to how well you revise and edit your writing. We often hear this aphorism, good writing is the product of many, many revisions. This effectively highlights the importance of developing your editing skills, alongside writing, which ultimately means becoming your own professional editor.
Editing your writing – lessons from chefs?
In another blog post by Prof Thomson, check out an interesting metaphorical piece of article relating the term ‘editing’ in the cooking and academic context.
“So editing, in the cheffy sense of the word, is about taking control of the impulse to do whatever you think counts as accomplished and prize worthy. Focus instead on respecting the ingredients, creating flavour and a neat presentation. Sound familiar? Maybe because there’s an academic writing equivalent to the over-enthusiastic cooking competitor and their overcrowded plate.“
Revise – by connecting academic reading and academic writing
In this blog post, also by Prof Thomson, find out how you can become a self-evaluator of your writing.
“How do you know what to do when you are revising your writing? Revision always involves making a judgment about your own work. You become a self-evaluator. But what criteria do you use?“
#AskDrEditor blog on academic writing and editing
In this blog by Dr Letitia Henville, there are lots of useful articles sharing advice and tips on academic writing and editing.
Editing academic writing
We recently ran a course on editing academic writing on Wednesday 10 March 2021. Delivered by Dr Revathy Sankaran, Research Training Development Assistant Manager at the Graduate School, this course explored the different components and types of editing academic writing. It also examined a series of techniques and approaches to editing, and subsequently identified examples of good editing practices.
The course will be offered again in the next academic term. It will be particularly useful to those who have begun to draft and write their thesis and those in the later stages of the doctoral process (pre-submission).
Acknowledgment: This post is edited by Dr Tissa Chandesa, Research Training Development Manager at the Graduate School.
For any queries or more information, please email us at graduateschool@nottingham.edu.my.
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