Developing Effective Writing Habits

Writing Obstacle 1: Lack of confidence

Writers who lack confidence worry they don’t have the skills necessary to make a contribution to their field or they haven’t correctly analyzed their data, so their conclusion must either not be worthwhile or simply wrong. This is similar to the impostor syndrome: the belief they aren’t good enough to succeed, or they’ve deceived themselves or others about their ability to succeed. Additionally, telling yourself that you’re “not a good writer” is also counterproductive.

Strategy: Counter negative self-talk

Self-talk is about remaining confident in your skills and addressing any negative thoughts about your abilities. When your negative voice emerges, recognize it and gently self-correct. Counter those feelings with an affirmation about your abilities: You’re in graduate school because you are smart enough. You can learn to write well. From there, take one task at a time (if you’re overwhelmed by a number of tasks, it’s difficult to make headway). A checklist helps build confidence in your abilities to continue making progress. Source: thewritepractice.com/self-talk

Strategy: Form a writing group

Writing groups help you gain confidence by providing feedback, receiving encouragement from others, and helping you realize you’re not alone in your struggle to write. When you share your project timeline with others, you also become more accountable in completing tasks. Writing groups work best when writers are at a common stage in their careers (working on a final paper is a different task from writing a dissertation) and have a similar disciplinary focus, although members need not be from the same department. However, a word of caution is in order: A writing group must retain its focus; if it devolves into a social gathering or a meeting to vent frustrations together, you should either redirect the members to the group’s original purpose or, failing that, leave the group altogether. To start a writing group, talk with colleagues in your department or contact the Office of Graduate Studies.

Writing Obstacle 2: Distaste for writing

Perhaps the most common obstacle, many writers have a distaste for writing. Those who dislike writing think about how difficult it is and what they’d rather be doing. They often find writing exhausting.

Strategy: Outline

For writers who have a distaste for writing or who lack confidence in their writing abilities, outlining is a strategy to help them make measurable progress. Before writing, outlining the argument for a chapter, section, or even a paragraph gives the writer perspective on the project and shepherds thoughts into place. When it’s time to write, the writer doesn’t have to sit staring at a blank screen, wondering how to start.

Below are a writer’s two attempts to outline his progress report on the 1988 forensic investigation of the ill-fated Pan Am Flight 103—an air disaster that killed 243 passengers and 16 crew members.

When you read it closely, you’ll see that the weak outline suffers from vague descriptions, inconsistent coordination and subordination of ideas, single item headings, and an overall lack of transparent logic. After reading it, ask yourself this question: Does this outline really provide the direction the writer needs?

Weak Outline

• Debris recovered
• Cataloguing
• Interpretation
• Results
  • Placement
  • Bomb makeup
• Work to be done
• Interpretation

Unlike the first attempt, the revised outline reflects the writer’s intentional efforts to organize thoughts into a naturally logical, consistently well-coordinated and subordinated flow of ideas . . . before the actual writing begins! The strong outline provides clear directions for the writer.

Strong Outline

• Completed Work
  • Recovering debris
  • Cataloguing debris
  • Interpreting debris
• Preliminary Results of work
  • Placement of bomb
  • Construction of bomb
• Future work

So, you’ll need to be self-critical of your first attempts at outlining. Taking the time to do so will make writing much easier and save you a great deal of time. Outlining is a powerful tool that helps you reflect on your own thinking and puts you in charge of meaning making when you’re ready to put thoughts onto the page.

Strategy: Create a distraction-free environment

Once you’ve scheduled writing times, it’s important to have an environment that’s conducive to writing. A designated workspace minimizes distractions and helps you get in the right frame of mind for working. Before you start writing, have things like snacks, water, and tissues within easy reach. Doing so will keep you from getting up every few minutes. Turn off your phone and leave it in another room. Let your family and friends know there will be times when you’ll be unavailable because you’ll be writing. Similarly, use a productivity application on your computer to block internet sites you know will be especially distracting to you. In addition to physical distractions, there are mental distractions to writing—usually remembering something you have to do that’s totally unrelated to the task at hand. Keep a pad of paper within easy reach to jot down reminders for later, then put the pad aside.

Writing Obstacle 3: Lack of time for writing

Ask any graduate student, postdoc, or faculty member—there are a lot of demands on their time, and there’s always something else that needs to be done. If you don’t make writing a priority it’s easy to go days or weeks without writing, and deadlines arrive before you know it.

Strategy: Create a schedule

Scheduling a regular writing time will help you make writing a priority and keep you working on your writing projects, even in the middle of a busy semester. Here’s how to schedule a regular writing time:

1. Use a weekly planner to break days into 30-minute increments. First, fill in your weekly commitments: classes, meetings, and appointments.
2. Next, schedule one or two hours a few times a week at the time of day you know you do your best work.
3. Finally, allocate the time for less important tasks to the slots that are left. These blocks of time are flexible—you might use them to scan readings ahead of a seminar or quiz. Start writing for 15 minutes or half an hour. Over time, you’ll be able to lengthen your writing sessions to an hour or two. Distinguish your writing time independent from secondary writing tasks such as outlining, editing, fact-checking, and writing footnotes. These are common distractions for writers who put off the more challenging writing task of actual writing.

Strategy: Set goals

Make the most of your writing time by setting goals—for the project, sections of the project—even for a day or a week.

The best goals are SMART goals. They are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based.

Setting SMART writing goals takes practice. Over the course of a project, by setting goals and reflecting on the work you did that day, you’ll learn when you’ve been too ambitious and when you can push yourself a little more.