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How to Prepare for Your First GWC Consultation

By Jasmine Stovall, Consultant

Picture it: You’ve been working diligently on a writing project for quite some time and have reached a point in your writing process where you think you could benefit from the feedback of a second set of eyes. You make the very wise decision to reach out the GWC to make an appointment for your very first consultation. You login to the online portal, input all the necessary information, and successfully submit your request. Within a couple days’ time, a consultant contacts you and after a brief e-mail exchange, your appointment is officially set.

So… now what?

Well, I’m glad you asked! If the scenario above sounds like an experience you’ve had or are currently having, you’re going to want to keep reading. This blog post is to serve as a guide for preparing for your first GWC consultation. I will talk about things you can do beforehand to prepare, what you can expect during your consultation, and offer some tips that will be helpful in making you your consultant’s favorite client and ultimately result in a successful, productive consultation session.

Let’s begin by discussing some things to do before your consultation:

  1. Be prompt and communicative – The GWC prides itself on our flexibility and short turnaround time. With that being said, we do operate on a first-come-first-served basis. So, essentially, the more prompt you are in your responses, the sooner you and your consultant can plan to meet. Being prompt and communicative from the first contact is an immediate green flag to consultants because it tells us that you are serious about seeking help, that you want actually want to be here, and that you are intentional when it comes to time and planning. Remember, when it comes to longer documents like dissertations or class assignments with known deadlines, you can make an appointment with a consultant as far in advance as you need to receive assistance in enough time to submit your project by the deadline. Of course, we understand that life happens, and grad student schedules can be unpredictable at times, but generally, communicating with your consultant and being respectful of deadlines (i.e., sending the consultant your document within the requested timeframe) will only help you leading up to your consultation and even after.
  2. Don’t be afraid to make your needs known up front – As consultants, our number one priority is to help you become a stronger, more confident writer, but we can’t help you if we don’t know what you need. So, as you are preparing for your consultation, don’t hesitate to communicate any specific needs you may have or anything you’d like us to pay close attention to as we read. Worried about whether your argument is clear and consistent throughout? We can help with that. Need help organizing your thoughts into an outline? We’ve got your back. Struggling with word choice and transitions in your intro? No worries. Or maybe you want us to focus specifically on the organization and sentence structure of your discussion section and only read the remaining sections if time allows? Can do. This allows us as consultants to be more intentional about how we allocate our reading time. When we can focus specifically on your requests, it makes for a more productive meeting overall and ensures that we are meeting your needs to the best of our ability.
  3. Set goals for yourself and for the meeting – This one is self-explanatory. Make some time beforehand to set goals and have an idea of what you hope to accomplish over the course of the meeting. If you have clear expectations for yourself and your consultant, the meeting is generally more productive. 
  4. Provide your consultant with any supplemental materials – In addition to your document, we encourage clients to send us anything else they think might be helpful in understanding the nature of the assignment. Whether it be a rubric, assignment description or instructor feedback, the more information we have regarding the context of your project before we begin reading, the more tailored your feedback will be.

Now that you are well prepared for your consultation, let’s talk about some things you can do during your appointment to get the most out of your session:

  1. Don’t be afraid to take the driver’s seat – While we are here to help you, we also want you to take ownership of your writing and your GWC experience. You are free to lead the meeting to ensure that you get out of it what you want to get out of it.
  2. Keep an open mind and be open to suggestions – As consultants, we are here to serve you and do what we can to provide feedback that will strengthen your paper. However, keep in mind that our suggestions really are just suggestions, not law. That means you can take or leave them, no harm no foul. Even still, I would encourage you to make it a point to at least be open to new ideas and changing the way you think about communicating your ideas and the practice of writing in general.
  3. Be open to both asking and answering questions – Some of the most productive consultations come from discussion and collaboration. While we are your consultant, we are also your peers. Some of my most enjoyable meetings have been a result of me feeling as though I am talking with my client rather than at them.  
  4. Come with questions – Our job as consultants is to not only help you improve the piece of writing for which you are seeking feedback, but also to make you a stronger writer overall. This means your questions do not have to be limited to your project by any means. We welcome broad writing questions as well with hopes that our session will help you write with more confidence for this piece and all those to come.

Here are some final thoughts and additional tips for success in your first consultation:

  1. Don’t feel like your writing has to be perfect or even complete before you meet with us – Part of our job is to help you get to the finish line (or as close to it as possible) at any point in the writing process. The finish line looks different for everyone. For some it may mean going from an outline to full paragraphs, while for others it could mean reviewing a polished article ready to be submitted to a journal for review. Either way, it is perfectly acceptable to seek help with a work in progress as opposed to a finished product.
  2. Remember that vulnerability is a part of the process – Writing is personal. When you think about big writing projects such as dissertations and theses that often are a result of research that has been years in the making, your connection to it goes deeper than just the words on the page, it means something to you. Therefore, it takes a lot of courage to surrender something you’ve put so much of yourself into to a stranger placing yourself at the mercy of their feedback. Keep that in mind as you go into your consultation and remember that while it may not seem like it in the moment, being vulnerable makes for a stronger, better you in the long run.

As with most things in life, showing up is the hardest part, and if you’ve managed to successfully do that then you’re already winning in my book. The same principle applies to your first GWC consultation. Start by showing up. Communicate your needs, set your goals, take ownership, keep an open mind, and let the rest the unfold from there. I hope after reading this you feel equipped with the necessary tools and confident in your abilities to prepare for a stellar first consultation with the GWC.

Reverse Outlining for Effective Revision

By Reilly Fitzpatrick, Consultant

Perhaps even more than the actual drafting process, revising your writing can be challenging and intimidating. As a writer, I feel pretty confident about my ability to go over my sentences with a fine-tooth comb and correct typos, resolve grammatical errors, or improve my word choice. However, trying to make big-picture edits—things like paper organization, cohesive argumentation, paragraph structure, and the ever-elusive pursuit of “flow”—often seems much more overwhelming to me. Is this true for you?

One of the strategies I have implemented in my own writing process, as well as when I teach revision practices to undergraduates, is reverse outlining. Reverse outlining is exactly what it sounds like: it is the process of creating an outline of your paragraph or paper in reverse, once you have already written it. Most of us use an outline when we write our original draft, but reverse outlining helps you to identify and analyze the specific goal of each paragraph and sentence in light of your overarching objective for the paper and evaluate how effectively you are accomplishing those goals. Reverse outlining is a practice that allows you to revise your writing on both a paragraph and sentence level, but more importantly, it gets you to think about your writing choices, not just what you are arguing.

While the writing process is rarely formulaic, reverse outlining is a strategy that works best with a checklist. Here’s a step-by-step guide to reverse outlining and revising your writing that I’ve created based on my own writing and teaching experiences. You’ll notice that most of these steps prompt you to answer questions about your writing, which means that your progression through the reverse outlining process will vary based on your answers and you will end the reverse outlining process with reflection and revision that is tailored both to your project and your individual writing style.

  1. Choose a paragraph to reverse outline. Usually this process works best if you make your way through your paper chronologically, but you can also jump right to a problem paragraph if you’re short on time!
  2. Start a page of notes where you will answer the following questions. These notes will ultimately constitute your reverse outline and help you identify strategies to revise.
  3. Without re-reading the paragraph you’ve chosen, write down what you think the main idea of this paragraph is. What are you trying to explain, argue, or persuade the reader of?
  4. Next, write down how this paragraph connects to your thesis as a whole. Why is it important to include this paragraph? How does it help you accomplish your overarching goal in this paper?
  5. Now, let’s look at the paragraph itself. Start with the topic (or first) sentence: what does it communicate to the reader? Write this down. Remember, topic sentences need to articulate 1) the main idea/claim of the paragraph, and 2) how it relates to your thesis. Hint: You just identified both of those goals in steps 2 and 3, so make sure they match up with your topic sentence! If they don’t, think about how you might rewrite your topic sentence to more effectively meet these goals.
  6. Move on to the next sentence in your paragraph and identify the goal of the sentence. Remember to think about the goal of the sentence not in terms of content (What am I saying here?) but rather structure (Why am I saying this here?). Here are some possible goals for sentences in your paper. Does the sentence…
    a. Provide context for the main idea of the paragraph to my reader?
    b. State my sub-claim and how it relates to my thesis?
    c. Summarize my stance on the topic?
    d. Explain what a scholar has to say about this idea?
    e. Provide evidence (like a quote, statistic, or example) to support a claim I am making in this paragraph?
    f. Explain how a direct quote or paraphrased idea from a source is relevant to my claim?
    g. State how my claim is different from other scholars’ arguments?
    h. State how my claim relates to an idea I discussed in a previous paragraph?
    i. Something else?
  7. Once you have identified the goal of the sentence, ask yourself these questions:
    a. Does the sentence actually accomplish its identified goal?
    b. Does this sentence directly connect to the main idea of this paragraph as I have identified it in the topic sentence, or does it contain ideas that are irrelevant or tangential?
    c. Does this sentence fully explain an idea, or does it need to be developed further (either by expanding the sentence or adding another sentence)?
    d. Is this sentence necessary in this paragraph, or could it be combined with another related sentence or deleted altogether?
    e. How can I revise this sentence to be clearer, more relevant to the main idea of this paragraph and my thesis, and more persuasive?
  8. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for every sentence in your paragraph, answering each question for the sentence in your notes.
  9. Once you reach the final sentence of your paragraph—the transition sentence—ask yourself these questions. (Remember, sometimes you will need more than one transition sentence at the end of your paragraph in order to accomplish all of these goals!)
    a. Does this sentence sufficiently summarize the main idea of this paragraph and remind the reader of what I have argued in it?
    b. Does this sentence connect the main idea of this paragraph back to my thesis?
    c. Does this transition sentence guide the reader from the main idea of this paragraph to the main idea I will discuss in the next paragraph?
  10. Now that you have finished reverse-outlining your paragraph on a sentence level, answer these questions about the paragraph as a whole:
    a. Is this paragraph accomplishing what I need it to in this paper? Does it clearly connect to my thesis? Is it necessary to prove my argument?
    b. Do I have one main idea in this paragraph, or do I jump around between several ideas? Does my topic sentence reflect this main idea and remind the reader of how this idea connects to my thesis, or does it just generally state the topic?
    c. Do I fully explain, argue, and support my sub-claim in this paragraph? What do I need to add in order for my paragraph to be persuasive—more explanation of my stance, more evidence from sources, or more background information?
    d. Does this paragraph repeat any information or ideas I have already talked about in another place? Which place makes the most sense for me to include that content?
    e. Does this paragraph need to be combined with another paragraph or split into 2 or more paragraphs? Does this paragraph need to be longer or shorter?
    f. Where is this paragraph placed in my paper? Does it work where it is, or does it need to be earlier or later in the paper?
  11. Repeat these steps to reverse outline your next paragraph!
  12. After you have made a reverse outline of every paragraph in your paper, think about the quality and quantity of paragraphs you’ve written. Do you feel confident that your thesis has been effectively explained, argued, supported, and proven? Have you noticed any gaps in your argumentation or methodology? Do your introduction and conclusion accurately predict and reflect the actual content of your paper? Have you considered all the perspectives on your topic and sufficiently surveyed the scholarly conversation related to your claim? As you became the reader (or the audience) of your own writing, what did you notice about your clarity, persuasiveness, and tone? What are some aspects of your writing that you would like to change or improve as you revise this paper and work on other projects?
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Once you’re done reverse outlining your paper, take a step back and reflect on what you learned. What have you noticed about yourself as a writer? Are there specific writing strategies or skills that you are especially good at? Are there patterns in your paper that indicate a skill you need to develop? How might you adjust your writing or revision processes in the future based on what you have learned? While you might want to jump right into revisions, spending some time reflecting on your writing personality and processes will help you become a more competent and confident writer in the future.

Unraveling Why we Procrastinate and How to Conquer Writer’s Block.

By Madhur Wyatt, Consultant

“I promise to start tomorrow.” “I can’t really start writing till I have researched enough.” “I don’t even know what to write!” Sound familiar? Procrastination and writer’s block (a feeling of being stuck or unable to generate ideas for writing) can be real barriers to your life as a grad student. However, there is always a reason you procrastinate, and if you can understand the psychology behind it, you can reclaim your writing productivity.

The three reasons you may be procrastinating:

  1. Running from the bull: When you find a task daunting, your brain is super clever at escaping it or delaying the task for momentary relief. But this can become worrisome – especially when deadlines get closer. If you find yourself doom-scrolling, watching Netflix, or finding fall recipes, you are satisfying your brain’s search for instant gratification. These attractive distractions can further reinforce procrastination. So, my friend, when you find yourself running away from tasks, acknowledge that it’s your brain playing tricks on you to escape writing that research project.
  2. Waiting for the stars to align: Let’s be honest, most of us have perfectionist tendencies (otherwise, how did we get into grad school). Perfectionism is paralyzing. You may fear that your work will not meet standards. You may find yourself constantly editing, revising, re-writing, or erasing it all–ultimately slowing down the progress of your work. This perfectionism can come in the way of you making substantial progress, perpetuating writer’s block.
  3. Lost in transition: Grad school writing is not your typical chit-chat with a friend at Starbucks. It follows a certain style, structure, and organization. Additionally, writing for academia demands skills and conventions that may not be intuitive. Scientific writing, for instance, may not be second nature to you. This unfamiliarity can be very uncomfortable and make writing feel like an uphill battle, leading to further procrastination.

So, now that we’ve acknowledged three drivers of procrastinating. Let’s discuss some practical writing strategies that you can use in your next writing project:

  1. Pen the ponderings: So, if you are running from the bull or waiting for the stars to align, try setting a timer for 10 minutes and free-writing whatever comes to mind. The goal is to get words on paper and remember there are no judgments. This will kickstart your writing process.
  2. Map your mind: Create mind maps: a visual showing the central concept branching out with related concepts. This will help you organize and contain your thoughts and identify connections, ultimately helping you with the flow of ideas. This is exactly what you need when you find yourself dodging the bull or waiting for those perfect constellations.
  3. Setting the stage; Painting an outline: Imagine you are dealing with a mammoth-sized writing project or a paper that includes the following sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion. You can get overwhelmed just by thinking about it. So, the trick is to start with an outline for the project. This outline will include breaking down each section into subpoints or guideposts. These sub-points will keep you on track and will provide goals for each writing session. Bull-evasion!
  4. Eat the elephant (or the bull), one bite at a time: Attack your writing in bite-sized portions. Once you have an outline of the project, you can start elaborating on these sub-points one by one. This way, the bite-sized writing session will not overwhelm you and slowly you will see your writing flow.
  5. Sprint writing: Up for a challenge to sidestep the bull? Try a writing sprint! Set a timer for 20 minutes and write. No editing is allowed in this period. Unlike free writing, writing sprints intentionally attack each section of your mind map or paper outline one by one and start writing about it. But, since you are not allowed to edit, you will make progress on your research paper as you start writing about it.
  6. Two heads are better than one: Grab a writing buddy! Either write together or exchange writing assignments and provide a critique. An accountability partner will get you going on the project and an additional set of eyes will help refine it.
  7. Textual Navigation: Referencing the pros: Navigate through the complexity of writing by opening up several journal articles on your browser and analyzing the writing styles, formats, and word choices. This will serve as a valuable guide as you compile your work and mitigate loss in transition ensuring smooth and cohesive writing. 

With these strategies, you will not only overcome procrastination and writer’s block but also hopefully enjoy the writing process. Happy Writing!

Top Tips for Cultivating a Great CV

The Curriculum Vitae, or CV is one of the most important documents you will develop during your time in graduate school. A Latin term that translates to the “course of [one’s] life,” this document reflects your academic journey, the experience you’ve accumulated along the way, and what you have to offer future institutional employers.

But is a CV something you only write once? How can you make sure it’s the best possible reflection of your expertise? What are some steps to begin taking, even when you think you won’t need a CV anytime soon? Today’s article will offer some answers to those questions, as you begin crafting this academic narrative.

Don’t Stop at One Draft:

Your CV is something that should undergo multiple iterations as you progress through grad school. Whether it’s updating your sections on fellowships and grants, adding a new conference, or simply giving it a fresh review once in a while, it’s important that this doesn’t become a static document. So, make sure it’s always updated to reflect your latest experience and qualifications. Then, whenever a new opportunity comes your way, your materials are always ready and you’re not scrambling to get everything in order.

And if you haven’t put together an official CV yet, then wherever you are in your graduate journey, go ahead and begin drafting that document. Even if it doesn’t end up being a draft you ever use, the process of going through your experiences and putting it together will help to grow your confidence as you assemble later versions for actual job applications. It can also be helpful at this stage to go ahead and begin keeping two versions of your CV: a longer one for applications, and a shorter form for websites, professional social media, and online forms.

Get Another Pair of Eyes

Don’t be the only person who’s ever seen your CV. Just like with any other academic document, it’s important to gain the feedback and insight of others. Perhaps you have peers with experience in the job field, a faculty member who’s willing to offer input, or you book an appointment with the Graduate Writing Center, but wherever you can, make sure that you take the time to seek out as much assistance as possible while you are refining this document.

Additionally, remember that a CV doesn’t look the same in every discipline, since different fields have different priorities. So, if you’re a STEM student, perhaps don’t model your CV off of an English grad’s, and vice versa. Find relevant documents from your field and use these to form an accurate assessment of what you need to prioritize. Check out the Graduate Pathways to Success workshop on CVs here; you’ll find this page also includes sample CVs from across various disciplines, so take advantage of these available resources. And of course, schedule a session with one of our consultants here at the GWC, who are all well-equipped to offer helpful insight and feedback.

Bring Your Best Work

Perhaps most importantly, make sure to bring your best writing to the table. When you think of a CV, it can be easy to label it as something which requires more effort for organization than writing. However, it’s still one of the central documents that potential employers will use to gain an impression of you. As such, avoiding proofreading errors, practicing brevity, having a good system of organization, and demonstrating ability to prioritize what is relevant for an institution are all traits that will show the effort and care you have invested into the job application process: in other words, it shows that you value the time your reviewer is investing in reading these documents, something which you always want to communicate.

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And finally, one of the most important things you can do while crafting your CV is to be confident. As a grad student, you’ve had tremendous opportunities to study and perform research and cultivate expertise in many areas, so don’t hesitate to bring those accomplishments into the light. Because as a job applicant (whether now or in the future), your goal is not simply to receive an offer from someone else, but to find a place where you have the opportunity to share what you have learned with others through teaching, mentorship, and exploration, as you guide them in the process of finding the course of their own lives.

Writing with Dogs: How Your Pet Can Aid Your Writing Process

As a grad student, one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is figuring out first, what a work-life balance is, and second, how to make that balance feasible for yourself. For many students, pets become one way to reinforce this type of balance: making sure you’re taking time off by having someone around who depends on you. However, when the busy part of the semester rolls around and assignments begin piling up, it’s easy to feel like your life becomes all work and no balance, and that you’re not spending as much time with your pet as you’d like. As the owner of a quite active Corgi, this is a challenge I’ve faced as well, so this week’s article is dedicated to areas where your dog can not only be involved in your writing, but even improve your routine.

Getting Out of the House

Whether it’s in a home office or a designated spot on campus, always writing in the same space can leave you feeling burnt out and uninspired. As a result, you may need to change up the scenery once in a to refresh and reset your writing process. And the good new is, you can bring your dog along while you do this! Many libraries, restaurants, or even coffee shops have outdoor (and sometime indoor) areas where pets are welcome. So the next time you feel the need for a change in routine, take your dog along. Not only will this provide them with great socialization, it’s also a helpful reminder for when to pack up and go home for the day. After all, you might be willing to work overtime, but chances are, your dog knows exactly when meals are supposed to be served and won’t hesitate to remind you. And for those writers, like myself, who work best by verbally processing ideas, having a dog present to talk to can be a lot easier than trying to discuss things all by yourself.

Having outdoor time scheduled with your dog periodically throughout the day is also a way to set stronger boundaries for yourself around your writing while also taking time away from your workplace. Taking a walk, playing games outdoors, or just getting that breath of fresh air offers a chance to declutter your thoughts and get new inspiration for your next step in the writing process. So schedule those things in a way that both works for your dog, and helps you take much-needed rest from your own labors.  

Meeting Other People

Writing groups are wonderful places where you have the opportunity to both hold yourself accountable to and receive encouragement from others who are traveling on the same journey as yourself. Connecting with other student dog owners can also be a great way to form writing community. Maybe it’s in a backyard, public park, or even one of those coffee shops mentioned earlier, but bringing your dogs along to writing group can help enrich that sense of camaraderie in your group through connecting over experiences outside the workplace, while also helping you get an occasional change of scenery. While the pups play, you can make some headway on your writing project, and head home at the end of your meeting knowing that not only have you done good work, but your dog is probably so tired from playing with buddies, that you won’t need to exercise him as much for the rest of the day.  

Cultivating a Routine

One of the real benefits of dog ownership is that it helps you cultivate a sense of routine. You may not always feel like adhering to the same rhythms of life, but your dog will. Having set times of the day where you sit quietly to write is also something your dog will remember, and you can reinforce that memory as a way of holding yourself accountable. For myself, after a couple of hours at my desk in the mornings, I like to do some training or games with my dog. As a result, while I’m writing, he typically takes a nap under my chair or around the house, but when 10:30am arrives, he is up and ready to remind me of that breaktime. Not only does this help strengthen the rhythm of breaks and breathing space that I’ve set for myself, but having that pseudo-deadline in the back of my mind helps keep me motivated during the hours of writing leading up to it. And then, once I’ve taken some time away from my work to engage in an activity that’s totally different, I’m able to reconnect with my projects both rested and rejuvenated.

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But most importantly, let your dog help you enjoy the writing process. There’s few things cozier or more relaxing than having a pet curled up nearby while you work, where you can give them a pat on the head or a good scritch behind the ears once in awhile. It’s a nice reminder that writing does not have to be a manic or stressful process, and that you can still take your time and enjoy yourself throughout your end-of-semester projects. Of course, if your dog is anything like mine, you can’t let him get too close to the keyboard while you work: it’s nearly impossible to type when he insists on periodically licking all the keys.

Five Essential Writing Apps & Software for Graduate Students

Grammarly

Software: Add-ons, Widgets for Office and Browsers

Website: https://www.grammarly.com

I would be remiss as a writing consultant if I didn’t start this list out with Grammarly (arguably the #1 writing software we recommend to all GWC clients). Grammarly is a communications assistance software that handles multiple levels of revision at once: spell-checks, punctuation, grammar, tone, level of formality, clarity, consistency, passive versus active voice, etc. You can also download add-ons that integrate Grammarly into your Microsoft Office applications and your browsers.

The free version is fantastic and will get you serious mileage on your writing projects for quite some time. However, I would strongly recommend paying for the Premium version once you’re in the final stages of writing and revising your master’s thesis or dissertation document. The paid version adds plagiarism checks, citation formatting, full sentence rewrites, and word choice suggestions: all invaluable tools for the overwhelmed, exhausted graduate student trying to limp across the finish line of their Final Tech Review.

Notion

Software & Application: iOS & Andriod, Mac and Windows Desktop

Website: https://www.notion.so

In high school, I can remember carrying around a massive three-ring binder filled with notes, handouts, and assignments for all seven class periods. By mid-year, I swore the binder weighed more than I did – I gave up toting it in my backpack, as its weight caused the straps to dig into my bony shoulders, and instead carried it in front of me like the tome from the Lost Ark. This was the only way I could stay organized, keep track of my calendar, and hold my notes all in one place.

You do not have to suffer this indignity, dear reader. Notion will do all of this FOR YOU.

Think of Notion as your three-ring binder. You can take notes, store pictures and videos, create calendar items, track deadlines, and more. As a graduate student, you are constantly being pulled in so many different directions. Why not give yourself a digital organization system that’s easily accessible and syncs across all of your devices?

Academic Phrasebook

Website: https://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: academic voice is not natural. One doesn’t launch into graduate coursework with the ability to “posit” and “synthesize” in APA with ease. The ability to discuss theoretical frameworks in relation to your research comes with time. And practice. So much practice. But… while you become more comfortable finding your own academic voice, the Academic Phrasebook is here to help you jumpstart your writing in the right direction.

This website is priceless for the early-career graduate student looking to polish and refine their academic prose. Created by Manchester University, this site provides formal academic terms, phrases, and sentence starters based on what area of your thesis, article, or dissertation you are working on.

How many times have you gone to a thesaurus to look up another word for “examine” or “investigate” because you feel like you’ve used it 60 times in your writing? This website can help you diversify your vocabulary and sound like a seasoned academic scholar.

Otter.ai

Website: https://otter.ai

Otter.ai is a dictation software that allows you to convert audio or spoken words into text. In the fledgling stages of my research prospectus, I would often find inspiration when driving to and from work. I’d do my best to try and hold onto these moments of clarity until I got to my office to write them down. This rarely went well. I’d be left bereft of inspiration and cranky at my failing memory the rest of the day. If I had known about Otter.ai, I could have used it during my morning commutes to dictate my thoughts and save them on their cloud storage system for easy access later.

Otter.ai is also quite helpful when you find yourself stuck in a particularly difficult section of your writing. Using Otter.ai allows you to soundboard and record your ideas without the hinderance of word/page count paralysis or visual imposter syndrome getting in the way.

Calling all qualitative researchers! If you are conducting a qualitative student and plan to conduct several interviews with study participants to collect your data, Otter.ai can provide you with hands-free recordings and transcriptions of your conversations! However, be mindful that transcriptions will not be perfect and WILL need to be cleaned up later.

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Dropbox / Google Drive / Apple / Skybox / OneDrive, etc.

Do not–I repeat–DO NOT save your documents on your laptop or computer and call it a day. I cannot tell you how many nightmares I’ve had as a graduate student that my computer crashed and I hadn’t saved the lasted version of my dissertation in my Google Drive. I literally woke my husband up screaming.

Get into the habit now of backing up all of your files onto a cloud storage system of some kind. I don’t care which one you choose. There are several now available, often for free or low monthly rates. Choose what works best for you and your devices.

I began using Dropbox in the beginning to catalogue copies and screenshots of research for my literature review. What I didn’t account for was running out of room. I had already used a large portion of my Dropbox space to store my digital music library of repertoire for studio teaching. This meant jumping ship mid-program to Google Drive, which provided larger storage capacities at a much lower cost. Google Drive also was the preferred cloud for many of my colleagues and professors, which meant it was easier to share and collaborate on research together.

Don’t use your personal data to get through your graduate studies. Upload and store to a cloud system and sleep easy knowing your work is secure!

How to Write Better by Not Writing: Setting Boundaries in Your Personal Writing Process

By Reilly Fitzpatrick, Consultant

Wouldn’t it be magical if your paper could write itself? I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly dreamed of walking away from my laptop after hours of struggling over a Google Doc and coming back an later to find an eloquent, polished, complete draft. Unfortunately, I have yet to discover the technology or magic that will turn my jumbled thoughts into articulate writing. One way that I have become better at this challenging writing process, however, is by learning to set boundaries with myself as I write. For me, these boundaries range from allowing myself to write badly at first to taking intentional breaks as I write. Essentially, we’re talking about writing better by not giving yourself space to not write at all—which itself seems kind of magical. 

It might seem a little counterintuitive that my recommendation for becoming a better writer is to focus on not writing. As graduate students or faculty, most of us probably feel like paper-producing machines, required to constantly spit out brilliantly written articles/seminar papers/studies/grants/insert whatever project makes you the most stressed here. These kinds of academic and career expectations can—and do—take a toll on you, not only as a scholar and a writer but also as a human being. This is where the not writing part comes in. By intentionally setting boundaries for yourself in your writing process and releasing yourself from the expectations of perfection and production, you’ll actually become a better writer and, more importantly, a healthier person.

This sounds great in theory, but how do I set those boundaries for myself in practice? I’m so glad you asked! Here are some ways I work to cultivate boundaries in my writing process. Think of them as inspirational bullet points that you can adapt and rethink based on your personality and your process.

  • When you sit down to start writing (or brainstorming, editing, etc.), set a limit for how long you will work. My brain functions best in hour-long increments, but it could be anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours for you! Telling yourself that you will write for a set amount of time instead of just working until you’re exhausted or done allows you to see this writing project as a manageable task rather than a daunting multi-step process.
  • Let yourself write badly. Whether you throw some key ideas into a rough outline or you handwrite stream-of-consciousness thoughts about your project into a journal, release yourself from the expectation of writing something brilliant and just write something. Anne Lamott refers to a crappy first draft, others call it word vomit. As mildly unpleasant as all these metaphors may be, the practice of writing badly does several helpful things. First, it frees you up to just get your thoughts out of your head without worrying about details like syntax, organization, or word choice. Second, it allows you to see the big picture of your writing without getting bogged down in sentence-level concerns. Lastly, it gets something on the page that you (and your GWC consultant, of course) can reword, rethink, and revise.
  • If you’re feeling overwhelmed in your writing process it may seem like an obvious recommendation to take a break, but our impulse is often to push through and get the thing done instead of honoring the ways that our minds and bodies are telling us to rest. This can look like anything from going for a 10-minute walk (you have to un-hunch yourself from your desk eventually!), taking a shower to reset your nervous system, stretching, eating a snack, cuddling your cat, texting a friend, or setting aside your project for the day and going to bed.
  • Whatever you choose to do as a break, resist the urge to think of it as slacking off, procrastinating, or wasting time. Letting your brain relax after a period of hard writing work will actually help you write better when you return to your project, so it is just as important of a step in the writing process as research or revision is! Even more importantly, rest in your writing process reiterates to yourself that you aren’t a good person because you write a good paper: your value is in who you are and not what you do.

If the list seems overwhelming, try implementing one practice at a time the next time you sit down to write. Reflect on what is or isn’t generative for you and think about how you might tailor the practice to your individual needs. Writing is hard! Don’t make it harder by forcing yourself to do something that isn’t helping you. Ultimately, these are meant to be liberating practices, not confining checklists—the goal is not only to be a better, more competent writer, but also a more rested, well-rounded, and whole person.

Formatting Resources for Graduate Students

By Becky Presnall

Maybe you’ve finished your paper, and this is the final step that remains between you and turning it in, or perhaps you haven’t been able to start yet, daunted by the prospect of what awaits. Either way, at some point in the composition process, you are faced with the time-consuming, detail-oriented task of formatting.

Now, I could give a list of reasons why formatting is incredibly important, whether it has to do with discipline-specific priorities and needs, professionalism, avoiding plagiarism, or a host of other causes. But the fact of the mater remains that, especially if it’s a style that you are unfamiliar with, this can easily become a part of the writing process that bogs you down. So on that note, this week’s article is about making that step a bit less intimidating by offering some resources that can help you in your quest for formatting knowledge.

Zotero

Zotero is an incredibly helpful program which can save data from your source material and then use that to generate and insert either citations or even entire bibliographies (in a variety of styles) into your document. It is free to access through Baylor University and can prove a time-saving resource, especially when working on longer projects. You can find a helpful tutorial for how to access and use it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i24iDJ4A5c.

Purdue OWL

Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a host of resources for formatting papers and creating citations in MLA, APA, Chicago, and many other styles. Something that I’ve personally found helpful many times in the past is the examples it provides for formatting each kind of resource, showing what type of information about source material should be noted for future bibliographic entry.

Style-Specific Manuals

When in doubt, go to the manual. Many disciplines have specific styles that they use, so investing in a style manual for the particular method of your field can often be worthwhile. However, as you look for this, do make sure to find the most recently-updated version, since most styles tend to release a new edition every few years.

Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines Page

If you are writing your dissertation or thesis for Baylor University, these documents have a formatting style all their own. As a result, you’ll want to take advantage of the resources offered by the Dissertation and Thesis Office on their “Formatting Resources” page: https://graduate.baylor.edu/formatting. There you can find PDF guidelines for both Dissertations and Theses, as well as videos on front matter, headings, and triple spacing. They also offer formatting workshops at the beginning of each semester, so keep an eye out for when those become available for registration.

Baylor Libguides

The Baylor Library offers many helpful guides that are accessible 24/7 to students and can be found here: https://libguides.baylor.edu/. Under “Citing, Writing, and Publication,” you can find their formatting guides, as well as a list of citation managers with their compatible browsers and more resources on installing and using Zotero. You can also reach out to the library to inquire about the resources they offer and where to find them through their “Ask Us” page (https://libanswers.baylor.edu/ask).

University Writing Center

On the University Writing Center’s (UWC) “Resources For Writers” page (https://uwc.artsandsciences.baylor.edu/resources-writers), you can find links to information on MLA and APA formatting, as well as some strategies for integrating source material once you have crafted your citations. These are available 24/7 for student access, and are helpful references in the writing process.

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Now, when you look at these resources, don’t just pick a random one off the list and commit to that resource and that resource alone for the rest of your life. Take your time, investigate them thoroughly, try things out and see what works best for you. Because at the end of the day, the best way to go about formatting is the way that gets the job done, and that method can differ from person to person. So use this article as a starting place for learning more about yourself and your writing process, and you might just discover something helpful along the way.

Book Review: Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers by Jacques Barzun

By Kristin Huggins

Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers by Jacques Barzun is a beautifully written ballad for writers and English educators everywhere. It manages to present advanced concepts of the English language in a way that feels lyrical throughout and wholly approachable to the wayward interdisciplinary writer.

It should be noted that I am not an English major. Despite English being my native language, I was never privy to the complex workings of the language until entering my doctorate program, which thrust me into academic writing like a child thrown into a lake who cannot swim. You figure it out quickly, or you drown.

Regardless of my ignorance of partitives and modifiers (which sounded like armor upgrades from a certain mass multi-player online role-playing game), Barzun managed to pull me through to the end of his text relatively unscathed. His unique writing voice throughout the text feels shaded with tones of creative writing, which made digesting the meaning of “malaprop” palatable rather than pedantic.

Four main themes emerged while reading Barzun’s work:

  1. Writing extends beyond the act of putting words on a page.
  2. Writers must discover the appropriate connections for each phrase.
  3. Meaning and Intent are the gatekeepers for good writing.
  4. Active revision requires self-reflection through guided questions.

Writing Extends Beyond the Act of Putting Words to the Page

It is not enough to simply “pay attention to words only when you face the task of writing-that is like playing the violin only on the night of the concert. You must attend to words when you read, when you speak, when others speak” (p. 9).

In this, Barzun challenges the reader to find natural instances of communication, which is the broader landscape of rhetoric, encompassing the spoken word and collaborative experiences of exchanged communication.

I found this to be reminiscent of the recent piece I worked on about how reading and writing feed into one another to enhance our understanding of rhetoric.

If one simply considers the act of writing only when sitting in front of a blank word document, they are working with a mere portion of potential compared to the observations and discoveries made when reading articles within one’s field, when discussing various theories with one’s professor or dissertation chair, or when bouncing ideas off of colleagues when one struggles with a particularly difficult study result that contrasts with pre-existing assumptions. These are all examples of where acts of non-writing can lead to stronger, clearer acts of writing.

Writers Must Discover the Appropriate Connections for Each Phrase.

In II. Linking: What to Put Next, Barzun dispels the idea that concise academic writing is built from simple sentence structures. He posits that we should not think of a complete, well-written sentence as “a house made of building blocks. Rather, it resembles a skeleton, in which the joints, the balance, the fit of the parts and their inner solidity combine to make up a well-knit frame” (p. 58).

This mental image suggests that the process of writing is much more nuanced than a simple subject-verb agreement. Each piece of the writing skeleton may operate in a singularly unique way apart from other pieces, despite their similarity in appearance or meaning. Barzun attempts to alleviate potential tears and frustration for early-career writers by revealing the hidden complexities of the English language that are more nuanced than one may suspect.

Meaning and Intent are the Gatekeepers to Good Writing

Perhaps Barzun’s most impactful chapter for the graduate student readership is IV. Meaning: What Do I Want To Say? Ask any doctoral student who is neck-deep in formulating their research prospectus: clear communication of meaning through a well-crafted thesis statement is doggedly difficult on a good day.

Half of my time as a graduate writing consultant is spent asking clients what they want to communicate with their audience, then working backwards to ensure that their writing matches their intent. It’s not an easy task. Barzun (and many of my doctoral professors) argue that the task of writing is the act of critical thought frozen at a singular moment of conception. Writers rarely begin a clearly defined argument, but rather come to their point after laborious hours of drafting, brainstorming, revising, and rewriting.

I liken this process to the act of sculpting statues from marble. Michelangelo spoke on this, saying that “the sculpture is already complete in the marble block, before I start my work. It’s already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”

Is this not akin to the act of writing?

Guiding Questions for the Active Reviser

According to Barzun, revision is the difference between good writing and inspirational writing. While the act of writing in itself can serve the purpose of sorting one’s thoughts or arguments to a degree, revision is where these concepts are polished to perfection until they are blinding.

He provides readers with a series of questions meant to guide writers through the act of revision. For the sake of brevity, I’ve selected the five most impactful questions (in my humble opinion). The rest can be reviewed at leisure in VI. Revision: What Have I Actually Said (pp. 247-248).

  1. Is the movement of my prose satisfactory to the mind AND the ear?
  2. Have I indulged myself in language that is toplofty, patronizing, technical for mere showing off? Or have I been simple and direct throughout… always sincere and respectful of the reader?
  3. Can I say, looking at single words, that every one of them means and connotes what I think it does?  Or has my diction been spoiled by threadbare clichés, pseudo-technical jargon, unthinking metaphors, and that excess of abstract words known as the noun plague?
  4. Has my theme(s) been set down fully through a series of ideas presented in consecutive order? Or have I again relied on my understanding of the subject to bridge over gaps in thought and to disentangle snarls in description?
  5. In the layout of my paper, have I devoted space and furnished detail in proportion to the importance of each topic? Or have I concentrated on what interested me and skimped on the rest, whether owing to a poor outline or the neglect of a good one?

These questions can be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No”, but Barzun challenges the reader to look beyond these responses and dig deeper into the root issues presented by each. For example, I can assert that the order of topics presented in my literature review is ideal for reader comprehension, and yet still discover that I have neglected an in-depth review of specific processes or terminologies based on my lack of comfort or content knowledge in that particular sub-area of expertise.

Be sure to add Simple and Direct to your library of writing aides! To read more and purchase this text, please visit Amazon via this link https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Direct-Jacques-Barzun/dp/0060937238/ref=asc_df_0060937238/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312126061109&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13871129474782864257&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027095&hvtargid=pla-297768715338&psc=1

End-of-Semester Creative Habits for Writers

By Dr. Kristin Huggins, Consultant

Photo by Ryan Snaadt on Unsplash

Listen, I get it. May rolls around, and you are exhausted with a capital “E.” The end of the semester is anything but easy for students and professors alike to traverse. Between finals, term papers, capstone projects, and applications to the next program, next fellowship, or next career, you have very little mental space to consider continuing a sustainable writing routine through the last day of the semester. Despite the insanity of the end-of-term season, a glimmer of hope remains: your everyday routine will be disrupted.

“Exactly – I have too much to do in too little time, Kristin!”

Hear me out. During finals, you no longer have daily classes to attend. Your to-do list that has accumulated over four months is now being whittled down slowly but surely with every completed paper and submitted final exam. Suddenly, you find yourself outside your regular routine. This is referred to as positive disruption. Whether we consciously recognize this disruption or not, our brains certainly do. Creativity thrives on taking risks, not settling into complacency. After all, if you do the same thing you’ve always done, you’ll get the same results, n’est ce pas?

In his book Yes to the Mess, organizational behavior researcher Frank Barrett speaks to this phenomenon. He observes that dislodging routines allows people to pay attention in ways that they weren’t able to before. Our synchronized calendars and Pomodoro timers for productivity power hours unwittingly stifle the creative process into stagnancy. Seasons of change (such as the end-of-term) provide the ideal setting for new innovative thinking, critical self-reflection, and breaking bad habits established during periods of routine.

Positive disruption can be highly productive for writers of all ilk. Arguably, this very deviation from “normal” provides you – dear writer – with the ideal space to reflect, explore, and plan for the new year ahead. As you prepare for the Great Closing of your Spring 2023 term, I highly encourage you to consider trying the writing practices provided below. You will not find word sprints, word count goals, or drafting ideas here. Instead, these end-of-term practices are more abstract in nature and are meant to help you lean into this idea of positive disruption while preparing for the summer break and the fall semester that will be here before you know it.

Reflection: Take time to look back and consider your writing accomplishments from the last four months. For those who equate productivity with a quantifiable measurement of assessment, you can look at the overall page count or word count written for the spring semester. For those who prefer a more holistic perspective, consider which papers meant the most to you and your work. Ask yourself the following:

  1. Which papers presented the most significant challenge? How did you face this challenge and overcome it? 
  2. What was your biggest writing takeaway (or “aha” moment) this semester? 
  3. Did you learn new techniques for drafting, revising, crafting, communicating, or emoting? 
  4. Now that you’ve reached the end, would you do anything differently with your writing? Why or why not?
  5. Most importantly, how do you feel about your writing abilities as of now? Compare this to how you felt at the beginning of the semester.

Creative Brainstorming: Many of us have kernels of ideas that collect dust in the recesses of our minds. These ideas can be stifled by the mundane daily grind, giving way to deadlines of the semester. Now that you have three weeks of reprieve, what would it look like to storyboard some of these ideas?

For example, I’ve been interested in developing my professional website for several months but haven’t had the mental space or energy to brainstorm copy for web pages. While this project wouldn’t require the same skillset as a journal article, creating online copy would still stretch my writing abilities in a way that I usually wouldn’t experience. Now that my responsibilities are winding down as I finish grading term papers and final exams, I can finally carve out that brainstorming space without guilt or pressure.

Perhaps you are interested in a similar non-academic project. Or perhaps you have an idea for new research that requires brainstorming through journaling or storyboarding. Permit yourself to explore these kernels without the pressure of developing a fully-fledged project. 

Goal-Mapping, and Identifying the Highs and Lows of Next Season: Look ahead to your upcoming summer and fall semester. What obligations/responsibilities will you be juggling? What projects are you already aware of that will require your attention? Before you create goals, map out the semester as best you can with a calendar so you can clearly see your semester’s mountains and valleys (i.e., weeks of high stress and low stress). This will help you calculate appropriate goals for your writing.

Next, prioritize writing projects. Which items have to be completed by next semester? Which items directly impact your ability to graduate, receive funding, or be considered for a new position? Those automatically must be placed as top priority!

Everyone’s goal map will look different depending on personal and professional circumstances. Give yourself grace and develop attainable goals that are relevant and exciting!

The end of a term will always be a whirlwind of activity. I want to encourage you – dear reader – to take advantage of the disruption to your regular schedule. Give yourself space to consider how much you’ve accomplished with your writing this semester, explore new creative ideas, and prepare yourself for the season ahead.