#AcWriMo: Overcoming Academic Writing Blocks

In the second of our academic writing-themed posts during #AcWriMo this year, Dr Lizzie O’Connor, Postgraduate Community Engagement Manager in the University Graduate School, acknowledges that we all struggle to write at times, and suggests some strategies to overcome this.

Writing is one of the most important parts of our academic lives, but it can also be one of the most fraught. Dorothy Parker’s words that joy comes not in writing, but in having written, can ring very true as we stare at a blank screen or an unedited paper for hours on end, waiting for the motivation to start, continue, or finish our writing.

Photo by Henry & Co. on Pexels.com

Many of us have an ‘ideal’ writing practice in our mind, such as daily writing targets, a fluent style, or time spent writing, and many of us see this ideal defeated by procrastination, lack of confidence, distraction. It can leave us feeling disappointed, frustrated, and even ashamed, which feeds into a cycle of worrying about our writing and – crucially – not fully engaging with our writing practice. What techniques can we employ to overcome these blocks, and build good writing habits? What stops us from writing in the way we’d really like to?

Silencing Our Inner Critic

We all have an inner critic, and for many of us this critic comes out most fiercely when we are trying to write. The inner critic will tell you that your writing is terrible, that none of it is good enough in quality or quantity, and becomes the main culprit for our procrastination. Even great writers struggle with this: when Marlon James won the Booker prize, he attributed his success to getting up earlier than his inner critic.

One of the most powerful techniques to manage the inner critic is to confront and recognise this sabotaging voice, rather than following the impulse to ignore it or stop writing altogether. I like the following suggestion from best-selling author Cathy Rentzenbrink to talk to your inner critic in order to disarm it:

Being curious about it or getting to know it can help. […] Put ‘What do you want?’ at the top of the page and just let your hand move. If you find out the motivation you can offer some reassurance. If we know its intention, we can say, ‘Thank you. My today self no longer needs you to protect me.’ Or you can say, ‘I know you are trying to help, but when you hit me over the head with a stick and tell me I’m rubbish, it paralyses me and then I can’t get stuff done, so could you be a bit nicer?’ Or you can imagine yourself locating the volume switch in your head and turning it down.

Target-setting and Procrastination

We often accuse ourselves of laziness when we procrastinate, but like the inner-critic, procrastination is more often an anxiety-based response: your brain shying away from a task that feels frightening, is overwhelming, or that has high stakes.

You’ve probably heard of target-setting as a technique to overcome procrastination. It’s something the Research Skills Team use in their in-person Shut Up and Work sessions, and that we use in the University Graduate School’s online version.

A method I used in writing my own PhD thesis was setting anti-targets: writing targets so low in effort and ambition they scraped the bare minimum of what I could write each day, such as, say, writing 300 words. It worked because it was so unintimidating: I could write freely, and in my busiest days could always squeeze it in, keeping up a momentum of daily writing. There was no voice in my head berating me for taking a lunch break, or daydreaming, or worrying. It set a positive pattern of self-worth: instead of starting the next day feeling like a failure because I didn’t meet my targets or wasn’t productive enough the day before, I could start it positively, feeling like a success. Feeling as though I could write and could accomplish, I did. And those 300 words added up more than you would think!

Ultimately, the only way to build a writing practice is to write. It’s a vital part of our work as academics, but also a lifelong skill in expression and the process of drafting. The tips above rely wholly on self-compassion: take the pressure off, be kind to yourself, get words (any words! Terrible words!) on the page, and join Dorothy Parker in the joy of having written.

#AcWriMo: Critical Engagement with the Literature

November is #AcWriMo! In the first of our academic writing-themed posts this month, Dr Kate Spencer-Bennett, Academic Skills Advisor in the Academic Skills Centre, considers how we might approach the literature in our field in a critical way.

You’ll often hear it said that good academic writing involves a ‘critical engagement’ with the literature. And you probably know that an effective literature review involves something more than a summary of everything that has been said on the topic. So, if Academic Writing Month (or #AcWriMo) is inspiring you to settle down to your desk, then you might be asking how you can comment on your reading in critical ways.

There are, of course, many ways to talk about your reading, but I often think that comments fall into one of three broad groups – the evaluative comment, the analytical comment, and the connection-making comment. Let’s consider each.

Evaluative comment

This type of comment reveals a critical engagement with the literature because it assesses the value of a piece of research. It asks, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the work? What is interesting, useful, or valuable about this article, book, or report? Where are its limitations? Thinking and reading in these ways might lead you to a more critical approach with your writing.

This kind of comment might begin, ‘This work is valuable because …’

Analytical comment

This type of comment seeks to look carefully at something and offer an interpretation. You might pick out one element of a text for close inspection. Is there an interesting argument being made? Is there a particular point, statistic, or telling phrase which you can point to? What does it suggest about the writer’s position?

This kind of comment might begin, ‘The use of the phrase x suggests …’

Connection-making comment

This type of comment aims to draw connections between different texts. Rather than summarising the research piece by piece, connection-making comments find agreements and disagreements in the literature. When you are reading, you could ask yourself how a particular journal article, for example, responds to what has been said on the topic before. What has been said since?

Or, alternatively, you might look at broader patterns within the research in your field. Can you begin to group what you have read by theme? Where do you see harmony in approach or viewpoint? Where are the tensions? These kinds of questions can lead you to synthesis in your writing. You bring different elements together to make something new.

This kind of comment might begin, ‘This work aligns with …’

When evaluating, analysing, and making connections you demonstrate a close reading of the literature and, in subtle ways, reveal your own perspective. Whether you feel that you are sometimes too descriptive, or just want to make sure that your own voice comes through as you discuss the existing research, perhaps these ideas could get you started next time you sit down to write.

Helen writes: cut to the chase

Writing Skills Advisor Helen Williams continues her occasional series with this post on editing your writing to keep within the word count.

In the Academic Skills Centre the bulk of our work involves supporting taught students, and with the academic year drawing to a close the most pressing task for students currently is finishing dissertations. Many of my conversations with students inevitably circle back to the topic of editing and an issue that crops up repeatedly is how to meet the word count. Despite doctoral theses usually having a word count many times higher than the average Masters dissertation, keeping within the word count – either for a chapter, or the entire thesis – is still a challenge. No matter how many words are permitted, or how huge that number initially feels, somehow everyone (including me!) always ends up writing too much.

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Whilst it’s important to have some practical ways of tackling this (more on that later) I think first it’s helpful to try to reframe how we think about writing, and specifically editing or cutting content. It always feels painful to have to cut words, particularly if whole paragraphs or sections need to be axed. This is most likely content that you spent a considerable amount of time on, and sometimes the temptation is to leave words in simply because of the effort involved in churning them out. The process of ‘writing up’ is also positioned as an end-point, where we write with certainty about what we have done or found. However, it might be more helpful to think of writing, cutting, re-writing and editing as an extension of our thinking or learning about a topic. We constantly reformulate and refine ideas in our mind as we move through the research process, so why not try to view your writing as part of this? Accepting that your writing might keep changing and developing, even into the very final stages prior to submission – and trying to view this as a positive thing – can feel quite liberating. Plus, it will almost always leave you with a superior final product. Whilst re-writing a section over and over might not feel productive, in the long-run it most certainly is. Leaving sub-standard text in because it took you ages to write is not.   

If trying to alter your whole mindset around the writing process feels a bit much right now, here are some more manageable steps to cutting words whilst improving content:

1. Remember your reader(s)
   This should be a straightforward one – your most important readers are the people who will be examining your thesis, as well as your supervisors. Bear them in mind when you are considering what to cut or include. What will they already know, or be familiar with? Every subject has content that is considered ‘common knowledge’, which you shouldn’t need to use up masses of words to explain. Have you included lengthy explanations that you could reduce, for example?
2. What is adding value?
   Think about the balance between descriptive content and that which is more critical. Whilst you always need a bit of description to provide context and background, it’s important that this doesn’t crowd out the space for the more valuable analytical or critical discussion. Read through your chapters with this in mind and try to limit descriptive waffle where possible.  
3. Be brutal
   It seems intuitive to chop words and sentences here and there whilst editing for word count, but this can leave you with lots of different snippets of writing that feel disjointed. Sometimes it’s much easier to identify a paragraph that doesn’t quite work and delete the whole thing. You might be surprised how little difference this can make – especially if it wasn’t great content to begin with. If this cut-throat approach feels a bit too bold, just save all your offcuts in a separate document.

For more word-cutting tips, see the excellent ‘5 Way to Kill your Darlings’ blogpost by the Thesis Whisperer.

Writing is part of the adventure

Amica Liburd, a PGR in the Department of Theology and Religion, attended many of the workshops as part of the Postgraduate Researcher Online Writing Summer School 2023, held 10-14 July. Here, she reflects on what she gained. To access recordings of all the workshops, enrol on the Canvas module.

Amica’s work desk

What if there is more to the PhD journey than simply writing a thesis? Participating in PROWSS2023 online workshops helped me to appreciate the value nurturing the skill of writing so that after years of “writing towards a thesis”, I can emerge as someone who can effectively communicate to others about the ideas that I am passionate about. Since starting the PhD journey in September 2020, I’ve wanted to dedicate a week to attending this annual workshop. Back then it seemed like the ideal way to start the journey. Unfortunately, it took three years to attend and even then, I still had to negotiate attending some sessions alongside a Conference that was being held simultaneously. Fortunately, both events were online and all the resources for PROWSS2023 are also now available online so if I missed a session, I could easily access it later. Prioritizing the sessions which were relevant to my stage in the PhD journey was an excellent decision and at the end of the week there were at least three sessions I was glad that I didn’t miss. The perfect conditions for attending this year’s PROWSS did not come, however two of the sessions I attended and found most helpful were Managing Writing Momentum and Shut up and Work!!

Managing Writing Momentum

Point me to the PhD student who has perfectly mastered the art of maintaining writing momentum! The week was certainly off to a great start with this topic. We were reminded by the Dr Emma Foster that writing momentum is something that can be cultivated and thereafter maintained with practice. To cultivate such momentum, writing must become part of one’s daily routine. Writing every day can help me professionalize something that I already enjoy doing. And if I’m not enjoying it on any given day, … I’ll just have to try pretending that I do. Alternatively, I can imagine that I am a renowned author/academic with an readership who is eager to read my next publication. This session reinforced just how closely related the researcher’s holistic wellbeing is to maintain sustainable patterns for engaging with research and writing well. The image of writing as a muscle that must be strengthened was insightful. But even more sobering was the caution that unhappy writers often lack inspiration, are melancholy, aren’t as creative as they can be and are starved of determination. Prioritizing breaks so that the subconscious can creatively blend ideas is imperative, unless of course you fancy a quick burn out. Not only do regular breaks replenish creativity but it goes a long way to keeping the writer happy to produce quality work. A bit of light yet meaningful humour … “Don’t stop unless your rear end falls off. And if it does fall off, put it in a paper bag and take it with you. Stopping is what kills momentum!” Perseverance is key.

Shut up and work!!

The Online Shut-up and Work Sessions organised by the Graduate School have over the past three years been quite helpful. No surprise then that the day of focused work with other researchers who were determined to accomplish some set tasks was equally valuable. Using the Pomodoro technique with regular intervals helped me to catch up on work that I needed to get done, after a week of online conference and workshops. Being able to identify key areas for follow up the next week gave me a plan for my next workday.

Interestingly the two sessions I reflected on were the start and the end of PROWSS2023. This is not to say that what happened in between was not pertinent to the overall experience. The online resources state otherwise. The start and the end of PROWSS2023 reflect what holds the PhD experience together if we choose to persevere in what could be an edifying adventure.

#AcWriMo: The Big Conversation

In our final blog post for #AcWriMo 2022, Kate Spencer-Bennett, an Academic Writing Advisor in the Academic Skills Centre, thinks about how writing fits into the landscape of the literature.

Becoming familiar with the literature in your field can be a daunting task. Where should you begin with your reading? Where should you end? How can you make sense of the connections between the different pieces of research?

I believe that it’s useful to think of the literature on a topic as a big conversation. With #AcWriMo upon us, I’ve been thinking about how this analogy could help us to think about our writing.

‘The Big Conversation’ goes like this. The scholars working in a particular field are sitting around a table having a conversation about a topic. Somebody says something – they write an academic article, a book chapter, or a report. Somebody else hears what they say and joins the conversation to say, ‘yes, good point,’ or, ‘that’s interesting and also…,’ or, ‘but have you thought about?’ In this vein, the conversation continues with a bit of back and forth between the people at the table. People arrive at the table and listen for a while and have a say. And, as in any conversation, there is agreement, disagreement, and everything in between.

Viewed in this way, the literature is a series of ‘turns’, and each new piece of research published represents a new ‘turn’ in the conversation. This has consequences for how we view our own writing. Our thesis chapter, conference presentation, or academic article becomes a response to what we have heard in the conversation. And, like any other scholar, when we plan our writing, we are planning our own turn. If what we are saying is a response to what has come before then some important questions emerge:

• What has been said already?
• What hasn’t been said?

And perhaps most importantly:

• What would I like my turn to be?

So next time you sit down to write, think about what you want to say at the table. How are you responding to what has come before? Which contributions do you want to highlight? What gaps in the conversation are you trying to fill? What do you want others to take from your contribution? Perhaps you’ve heard the debate at another table and want to bring different conversations together.

And, if nothing else, thinking of your writing as a turn in the big conversation means you’ll be ready for that classic viva question – ‘What is your unique contribution?’

#AcWriMo: why take part and what’s happening?

Natalia Hartono is a PhD student in the Mechanical Engineering Department. This time last year marked the beginning of her third year, and tons of to-do lists! Here, she shares how #AcWriMo 2021 helped her. And read about how you can get involved with #AcWriMo 2022.

Natalia writes

I signed up for AcWriMo in November of 2021. I’ve been a member of PGR Shut up and Work ever since the pandemic, and the first one I attended was conducted online. To me, attending these sessions, whether they are held in person or online, is a fantastic opportunity.

The announcement of AcWriMo 2021 made me happy because I gain a lot from these meetings. Shut up and Work only takes place once a week, but in the month of November, it happened three times a week! I’m glad there were more schedules to join in because November was a busy month for me. I’m trying to balance my time between studying, meeting deadlines, working as a PGTA, and taking care of my child.

Helen writes: #AcWriMo productivity vs procrastination

Writing Skills Advisor Helen Williams continues her occasional series during #AcWriMo with her thoughts on ways to deal with a tendency to procrastinate.

I recently read this column in The Guardian on procrastination – most likely when I should have been doing something else – and started thinking about the relationship between productivity and procrastination. When I speak to students about procrastination, they often seem to think they need to change a lifetime of habits, how they approach their work, and even the type of person that they are. Of course, this in itself becomes a mammoth (and impossible) task. Much more effective, as the article says, is to start changing the smallest possible habits that you can. If you’ve been taking part in Academic Writing Month (#AcWriMo), you may already have started to form a few new habits that can help with productivity, but if not, here are a few suggestions.

Baby steps: start by making small changes to your habits

Taking Part in #AcWriMo: Reflections and Responses

November is Academic Writing Month (#AcWriMo) and in this post, Liam Knight, a PGR in the Department of English Literature and a Westmere Scholar, reflects on his experience of participating in last year’s event.

Back in 2020, I took part in AcWriMo, a month-long writing event in which people working within academia set themselves goals to accomplish over the month of November (e.g. write X000 words, collect X amount of data sets, read X number of papers, etc.) and then use their local and online academic communities to keep themselves accountable and supported and ensure that they reach those goals (or come as close as is reasonably possible)!

Details of this year’s #AcWriMo at UoB, hosted by your Westmere Scholars

Helen writes: find the gap

Continuing her occasional series, Writing Skills Advisor Helen Williams reflects on what it means to find a gap when writing your literature review.

The fact that doctoral research must be original and fill some kind of ‘gap’ in the literature is trotted out all the time, particularly to PGRs in their first year or so of study who may still be grappling with all the existing research on their topic. But how do you search for an absence? How do you identify something that isn’t there?

It can feel like a somewhat impossible task, especially if there are reams of articles, chapters and books that have been written on your topic. One answer could be changing the parameters of your research slightly; focusing on a specific and under-researched angle might tick that ‘originality’ box in a field that is saturated with research. However, if this isn’t practical, or you’re already fairly set on what research you want to carry out, it might be that you need to try to record your reading in a way that makes that gap more obvious.

#PROWSS2021 – Cracking the Code

12-16 July was the Postgraduate Researcher Online Writing Summer School 2021 (or #PROWSS2021) and Bridget Blankley, a PGR from the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies, reflects on her experience of attending.

Why is it that life as a PGR that means learning to write all over again? Just as you think you have got the hang of writing essays suddenly, there are a whole new set of things that you have to write; abstracts, literature reviews, conference papers and even, whisper it softly, grant proposals. What’s worse, each one seems to have its own set of, often secret, rules that you have to learn. Well, at least that’s how I felt before I attended #PROWSS2021 this year. It was four days of ideas and advice followed by a full day of Shut up and Work – a great way to put into practice some of the ideas that you picked up earlier in the week.