I had a question from a client a couple of weeks ago that I suspect resonates with many academic writers. In The Scholarly Writing Process, I talk about the importance of identifying the audience for the article or book you are writing. You don't need to do this right at the beginning, but knowing … [Read more...]
Communication vs Validation: why are you publishing?
I’ve created an audio version of the post so you can listen to it on your commute, or while you’re cooking, or whatever. Listen here: The primary purpose of publishing, even scholarly publishing, is communication. If you centre the communicative role of publishing, with a focus on the … [Read more...]
Stop worrying about recycling
Back in 2011, Aimée Morrison wrote a post on Hook & Eye Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in which she discussed the question What I've been really thinking about lately is this: how much reusing and recycling of our work is appropriate here? This is a common concern, especially among early career … [Read more...]
Writing for the people who will like your work
It strikes me that many academics spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the people who will hate their work. Even before you've written the article, you are imagining someone criticizing it, probably in a particularly mean and hurtful way. No wonder you have trouble writing. Write for … [Read more...]
Book proposals
Someone on Twitter mentioned book proposals in response to my post on planning. This is a good example of getting stuck in the plan (and then possibly getting stuck with the plan), so I thought I'd talk more about it. What is a book proposal for? The obvious answer is that it is the means by which … [Read more...]
