by Dr. Kristin Huggins, Consultant
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
– Stephen King
Veteran authors posit that reading and writing go hand in hand, regardless of genre or convention. However, the way students recreationally read may not necessarily serve all purposes of their academic writing needs. Instead, they quickly learn to skim for needed information. After all, there are only so many hours in the day. If graduate students hope to finish annotating the 20 articles they have left in their stack before midnight, chewing on every word will only slow them down.
Simply put: To be successful and meet deadlines, we must learn to adapt our reading process to fit the needs of our writing tasks. However, I would argue that sometimes this form of reading (i.e., skimming, treasure-hunting, or scanning) does not always lend itself to long-term improvement of writing skills and knowledge of craft.
While skimming or scanning will help you identify the findings and implications of an empirical study, it may not be as helpful for improving your vocabulary. You may not provide yourself with the space to allow for creative exploration and inspiration for your work. You may miss academic terminologies specific to your discipline, terms that signal to journals and committees that you understand the unspoken expectations of your field. Thus, exhaustive or intensive reading (i.e., reading that digs deeper and moves slower) may also be beneficial in addressing these concerns.
“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they [authors] do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
– William Faulkner
I can already hear the rebuttal: “Graduate students don’t have time to read – REALLY read.” Insert long list of anxiety-inducing, mind-numbing deadlines for grant applications, conference proposals, research prospectus defense, preliminary technical reviews, etc.
Trust me. I get it. I didn’t allow myself to read for pleasure for nearly three years as a doctoral student. And it nearly killed every creative bone in my body.
For me, reading has always been the jumper cable to my creative battery. When my tank was empty, reading filled it back up. It has been an intellectual, emotional, and creative support system for as long as I can remember. So, making the conscious decision to forgo recreational reading for the duration of my doctoral program was not one made lightly. And I deeply regret it.
I would argue that reading in all forms (recreational and academic) is invaluable: it creates more competent scholars, more empathetic humans, more eloquent writers, and more emotionally stable graduate students. If you want to write, you must READ!
What is a musician who doesn’t listen to music? Or a chef who doesn’t enjoy sampling different cuisines on their day off? Or a dancer who hates watching ballet?
What is a writer who doesn’t read?
Consider, dear reader, the following reasons why reading in all forms is beneficial for writers:
Reading Expands your Vocabulary
If you find yourself repeating the same words (especially descriptive terms that are not content-specific to your field), reading material in your discipline can help add to your vocabulary while illuminating which words may be more acceptable in your genre than others.
When you come across a phrase or a term that sparks your interest, dig deeper. Look up definitions. Write them down in your research/drafting journal. Explore ways in which new terms could be applied to your current or future work.
Reading Explores Knowledge of Craft
Reading exposes us to the rules of writing, including conventions of genre and style. It also shows us when authors choose to willingly break those rules, and whether this choice served the goals of their writing. Reading also exposes several forms of “voice,” which helps you to begin identifying your own.
Exemplars are invaluable for the graduate student. If you’re drafting a journal article, read several from the journals you plan to submit to. Take note of the common denominators you see throughout the works they accept for publication. If you’re writing a methodology chapter of your thesis or dissertation, pull several recently published dissertations in your field with comparable methodologies to see how they structured their chapter. What headings did they use? What tone did they incorporate?
Reading Stimulates Inspiration for Your Own Work
It may not be a thunderclap of inspiration – it may just be an ember. But with the right conditions, an ember can become a forest fire. Collect your embers as you read. Keep an Idea Journal nearby. Write ideas down. Think on them as you drive home from work, or as you walk across campus. Allow your brain to turn them over time and time again. This is how creative tanks become refilled and you find your footing with your own writing again.
Don’t be afraid to cross genres! Inspiration isn’t bound by parameters or rules. Can you believe I discovered a new way to catalog and synthesize historical literature in my field from a novel about an alchemical Oxford scholar who discovered vampires were real? VAMPIRES. My creativity has no shame. And neither should yours.
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
– Samuel Johnson
Happy Writing (and Reading), Dear Reader.