Academic Writing:Strategies for Productivity

November 11, 2013

Greg Skutches, Ph.D.Director of Writing Across the Curriculum

Lehigh University

Workshop Overview

• The difficulty of writing

• Thoughts on productivity

• General strategies for success

• Specific strategies for getting the job done

Writing is HARD

• Acknowledge it.

• Come to terms with it.

• But know that we often make it harder than it has to be.

“Inspiration is for amateurs.”—

Chuck Close

Thoughts on Productivity

“If you can’t write anything at all, it is probably because you are too squeamish to let yourself write badly.”

~Peter Elbow

Thoughts on Productivity

“The first draft of anything is s**t.”

~Ernest Hemingway

Thoughts on Productivity

“You either wrote today, or you didn’t.”

Thoughts on Productivity

“Do not hurry. Do not rest.”~Goethe

Strategies for Success

Make a firm commitment—a promise to yourself—to write for a certain length of time

every day. Thirty minutes will do.

Strategies for Success

Establish one or two regular places in which you will do all academic writing.

Strategies for Success

Make it comfortable.

Strategies for Success

Identify your usual distractions and banish them from your writing space. (How will you

do this with the internet, social media?)

Strategies for Success

Close the door.

Thoughts on Productivity

“Avoid binge writing.”

Specific Strategies

“English usage is sometimes much more than mere taste, judgment, and education—sometimes it’s sheer luck, like getting across the street.”

—E. B. White

“Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.”

—Matthew Arnold

The Paragraph

Source: Williams, J. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 2003

What is coherence?

Sayner, Wisconsin is the snowmobile capital of the world. The buzzing of snowmobile engines fills the air, and their tanklike tracks crisscross the snow. The snow reminds me of Mom’s mashed potatoes, covered with furrows I would draw with my fork. Her mashed potatoes usually make me sick, which is why I play with them. I like to make a big hole in the middle of the potatoes and fill it with melted butter. This behavior has been the subject of long chats between me and my analyst. My analyst has never been to Wisconsin.

What is cohesion?

The particular ideas toward the beginning of a sentence define what a passage is “about” for the reader. Moving through a paragraph from a cumulatively coherent point of view is made possible by a sequence of topics that seem to constitute a limited set of ideas. A seeming absence of context for each sentence is one consequence of making random shifts in topics. Feelings of dislocation, disorientation, and lack of focus occur when that happens.

Readers look for the topics of sentences to tell them what a paragraph is “about.” If they feel that its sequence of topics focuses on a limited set of related topics, then they will feel they are moving through a paragraph from a cumulatively coherent point of view. But if topics seem to shift randomly, then readers have to begin each sentence from no coherent point of view, and when that happens, readers feel dislocated, disoriented, and the passage seems out of focus.

Cohesion vs Coherence

• Think of cohesion as the experience of seeing pairs of sentences fit neatly together, the way Lego® pieces do.

• Think of coherence as the experience of recognizing what all the sentences in a paragraph add up to, the way lots of Lego® pieces add up to a building, bridge, or boat.

The collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble creates a black hole.

A black hole is created by the collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble.

Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. The collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble creates a black hole. So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways.

Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. A black hole is created by the collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble. So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways.

Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. The collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble creates a black hole. So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways.

Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists studying black holes in space. A black hole is created by the collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble. So much matter compressed into so little volume changes the fabric of space around it in puzzling ways.

Cohesion

Readers feel one sentence is cohesive with the next when they see at the beginning of a second sentence information that appeared at the end of the previous one. That is what creates the experience of “flow.”

The Sentence

Source: Williams, J. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 2003

The cause of our educational system’s failure at teaching basic skills to all children is not understanding the influence of the cultural background on learning.

Our educational system has failed to teach all children basic skills because we do not understand how their cultural background influences the way they learn.

A sentence can be thought of as a story.

Stories have characters.

Stories have a plots.

Once upon a time, there was Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, the Woodsman, and Wolf. The end.Once upon a time, a walk through the woods happened, when a jump out from a tree caused fright.Once upon a time, a walk through the woods by Little Red Riding Hood was occurring, when Wolf’s jump from behind a tree caused fright in her.

Once upon a time, Little Red Riding Hood was walking through the woods to Grandma’s house, when Wolf jumped out from behind a tree and frightened her.

The cause of our educational system’s failure at teaching basic skills to all children is not understanding the influence of the cultural background on learning.

Our educational system has failed to teach all children basic skills because we do not understand how their cultural background influences the way they learn.

Readers feel they are reading clear prose when writing meets two expectations:

1. Subjects name central characters.

2. Verbs express the most important actions.

The cause of our educational system’s failure at teaching basic skills to all children is not understanding the influence of the cultural background on learning.

Our educational system has failed to teach all children basic skills because we do not understand how their cultural background influences the way they learn.

The Federalists’ argument that the destabilization of government was the result of popular democracy was based on their belief in the tendency of factions to further self-interest at the expense of the common good.

“Academese”

Verb Noun = Nominalization

The Federalists’ argument that the destabilization of government was the result of popular democracy was based on their belief in the tendency of factions to further self-interest at the expense of the common good.

The Federalists argued that popular democracy destabilized government because they believed that factions tended to further their self-interest at the expense of the common good.

The Federalists argued that popular democracy destabilized government because they believed that factions tended to further their self-interest at the expense of the common good.

The Federalists’ argument that the destabilization of government was the result of popular democracy was based on their belief in the tendency of factions to further self-interest at the expense of the common good.

The Federalists argued that popular democracy destabilized government because they believed that factions tended to further their self-interest at the expense of the common good.