Showing posts with label writing tips. Show all posts

Monday, August 22, 2022

Abstract writing

Use headers: background, methods, results, conclusions

background should end with a gap statement

each should be similarly weighted word-wise.

actually talk numbers with results, don't be vague.

Monday, January 10, 2022

Grant writing samples

From Georgetown Postdocs

Reading grant samples is a great way to improve your own grant writing! Check out the links below for sample applications!
Looking for more help with your writing? Check out our new writing resources document!

Writing Tips and Tricks

We've compiled some helpful resources to get you started on your writing. Some example resources we have are:
- NRSA section templates
- Thesis writing tips
- Sample writing materials
- Online writing tools to help you with your literature review or grammar
Join the GU writing group for a space to write! Current sessions are Mondays and Fridays from 9:30-11:30AM. Email the GU PDA to sign up or join in directly here!

Writer's diet

Copied from: https://writersdiet.com/writers-diet-help/ since the help text only expands on Edge

What is the conceptual basis for the Writer’s Diet?

The Writer’s Diet is based on 15 key principles organized according to the 5 word categories described above, each of which is represented by a different color. You are encouraged to follow these principles thoughtfully and consistently rather than rigidly and without exception.

Verbs

Favor strong, specific, robust action verbs (scrutinize, dissect, recount, capture) over weak, vague, predictable ones (have, do, show).
Limit your use of be-verbs (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been) to no more than a few per paragraph.
Avoid passive verb constructions (the research was performed; mistakes were made) unless you have a specific reason for using them.

Nouns

Anchor abstract ideas in concrete language and images.
Illustrate abstract concepts using real-life examples. (“Show, don’t tell.”’)
Limit your use of abstract nouns, especially nominalizations (a.k.a. “zombie nouns”) that have been formed from verbs or adjectives, such as conceptuality or intellectualization.

Prepositions

Avoid using more than around three prepositional phrases in a row (e.g. “in a letter to the author of a book about birds’) unless you do so to achieve a specific rhetorical effect.
Vary your prepositions.
As a general rule, do not allow a noun and its accompanying verb to become separated by more than about twelve intervening words.

Adjectives & adverbs

Let concrete nouns and active verbs do most of your descriptive work.
Employ adjectives and adverbs only when they contribute new information to a sentence.
Avoid overuse of “academic ad-words” with suffixes such as able, ac, al, ant, ary, ent, ful, ible, ic, ive, less, ous.

It, this, that, there

Use it and this only when you can state exactly which noun each of these words refers to.
Avoid using that more than once in a single sentence or three times in a paragraph, except to achieve a specific stylistic effect.
Beware of sweeping generalisations that begin with “there.”

Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Limits of the Artistic Imagination and the Secular Intellectual

https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=macintl

1. providing counter-information in an age where the media have the resources to manage and manipulate reality

2. a reinterpretive function at the level of communicating ideas

3. demysticification by articulating the basis issues of justice and human good or evil surrounding these issues

4. interefering and interevening across the lines of specification that attempt to privatize knowledge

5. an insurgent and resistent position when consensus is arrived on the basis of domination

6. the task of exercising a moral function of deploying the irreconcilable and irreducible oppositions between ideas, peoples, societies, histories and claims at the level of performance

Taken from Left of Karl Marx, ch 1, ph 9

Chapter 1 from : https://rampages.us/goldstein/wp-content/uploads/sites/7807/2018/08/Johnson-and-Lubin-2017-Futures-of-Black-radicalism.pdf

Friday, August 3, 2018

Manuscript writing: Starting projects / Writer's block

Here are some techniques I use to start projects and get out of writers block:

Get out of writers block it using Zero draft writing - basically write everything you can think of, as quickly as you can, as often as you can, without deleting anything. See Writing your dissertation in 15 minutes a day, by Joan Bolker https://www.margaretedits.com/2015/04/14/writing-a-zero-draft/
Use a whiteboard to plot your ideas, question, new directions and sketch out the arc of the project
If you feel like you aren't making progress each day, remember to mark how much time you spend doing things, and just write out what your thought process was
When you get to the tough parts of a project, write everything out, then do things one step at a time.
take frequent breaks
choose a vice / hobby to distract you that doesn't come with additional guilt
Print our your results tables and figures so you can physically see them and reference when you are writing

Things to keep in mind throughout:

What is the question you are actually trying to answer
What do you need to show to prove your argument
Write up as you are going along in methods and working, not everything will be used immediately, but it will help you stay on track, feel like you are making progress and not waste time
Start simple

When I feel really stuck:

For example, trying to respond to reviewer comments when I really don't want to. Write down each section of the paper (Abstract, Introduction, etc). Then say I'm going to spend 1 hr on each one. Then just put on earplugs and do it. Just for an hour.
or even 20minutes. You can do anything for 20 minutes!
If you are really stuck, try writing about why you are stuck. Acknowledge and validate this!

The right environment:

put Word in draft view, turn on the new focus view, and set the style area pane to 1inch (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2010/08/09/show-the-style-area-pane-in-word-2010/)