Healthy and Productive Change in Academic Writing and Research

 Dear Real Academics,

Few people I know like change. While change can be exciting and adventuresome, it is never easy. 
For this blog post I want to ask, "When is it time for change when it comes to academic writing and research?"

The following are three examples of when it may be time for change in academic writing and research. I also provide ideas of what you can do to initiate healthy and productive change:

  • When your ideas have dried up. If you are in the world of writing and research, having ideas is important. If you feel your ideas have dried up, try to "change things up". Try a free-writing exercise, or try writing in a different genre. Write a blog post or try your hand at creative writing (yes, even poetry). You may be surprised how changing from the more technical, academic genre can actually give you ideas for your next writing and research project. 
  • When you feel stuck. The question to ask yourself here is: Why do I feel stuck? Am I stuck because I don't think I can do something or because I'm afraid of what others will think? If you feel stuck, then it's time to be brave. Find a trusted friend to read your writing and provide you with useful feedback (read more about what this means here: Giving and Receiving Useful Feedback). 
    • Allow me to illustrate this point: There's a strategy I learned in training my very nervous rescue puppy, Rocky. The strategy involved gently forcing a nervous dog to confront its fears. The idea is that if the dog never confronts its fear, it will always be "stuck." For example, Rocky was terrified of dogs bigger than him. Terrified. So, when I walked him, he would start barking and lunging anytime he saw a dog bigger than him, regardless of whether the dog was friendly or not. One day, a really, really, REALLY -- I am not exaggerating! -- big dog came around the corner out of nowhere and sniffed Rocky's nose. Rocky and I had no option but to confront our fear in the moment -- yes, I was terrified, too...of what Rocky might do! And you know what happened? Rocky was fine. And now he can greet dogs bigger than him. It doesn't mean it's easy for him (or me), but it does get easier every time -- as long as the bigger dog is friendly, of course! Same with writing. Find a friendly feed-back giver, share your writing, do this regularly, and you'll soon feel less stuck. 
  • When you are no longer learning. If the topic you are working on no longer excites you or is no longer accessible, for some reason, then find a new topic! The topic could be related to something you are doing, but see if you can change the angle from which you are approaching a research question. A quick example is how I switched from focusing on multilingual student learning to teachers' learning of how to work with multilingual students (that's a super broad explanation!! Email me if you really want to know more...).
I hope this was helpful, Real Academics! As always, we are here to be your friendly feed-back givers on all topics related to your academic work, including writing and statistical analysis. Contact us if we can be of help. We are excited to be helping several academics, and would be delighted to help you, too! You can contact us at www.therealacademics.com.

Until next time, happy writing!

Maggie

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