Writing Models
Dear Real Academics,
Did you know there's such a thing as a writing model? And, here, I don't mean a person holding up the palm of their hand under a piece of paper to display it.
Here I mean an example of writing similar to the one you need to or want to (or both!) compose.
When I was in graduate school, I knew I needed to write a dissertation in order to graduate. Early in my program, I had never written a dissertation, much less read one. So, I looked for dissertation models in my program and studied them -- not for the content but for the structure. I asked myself:
- How long are dissertations? (they vary tremendously depending on methodology, I discovered!).
- How are dissertations organized? (there are traditional chapters, but there are formats that include a collection of related journal articles).
- How does each dissertation section begin and end? (I learned they are fairly repetitive in the beginning and end of each section because they are so long and want to remind the reader of information).
And so on. You can do this for any virtually any piece of writing. Become an investigator and student of the format, length, and even "tone" of a writing piece like the one you must produce (and here, I by no means am talking about plagiarizing! I am talking about the structure, conventions, and standardized ways of writing in a field).
Eventually, you'll develop your own style, but there are certain conventions that are helpful to follow. For example, do you want to get published in a certain journal? Then, study recently published pieces in the journal. Ask similar questions as the ones above regarding their length, format, structure, sections, etc.
Danielle Steven's, Write More, Publish More, Stress Less! includes a chapter which guides you through how to analyze and learn about the genres of academic writing, with templates and ideas. The book covers much more, and is a new "must have" for academic writers:
(paid link)
For academic writers, the general format for research pieces is fairly straightforward: Introduction, Theory, Literature Review, Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, References. I've mentioned Dr. Patricia Goodson's book, Becoming and Academic Writer, before (and will likely mention it again!). This excellent resource powerfully guides you through writing each piece of a research manuscript:
(paid link)
Once you have the format down for your writing piece (the easy part), the more challenging (but fun!) part is making your content interesting. Too often, academic writing is rather dull, and it makes no sense to present interesting work (if you really think your work is interesting) with dull language. Then your writing will really be a "model" piece! Check out Helen Sword's book, Stylish Academic Writing, to learn more about this:
(paid link)
Do you use writing models, Real Academics? If yes, good for you! If not, go try out my recommendation. You don't have to just magically know how to format something. You can always use writing models.
Until next time,
Maggie
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