How to improve your writing: A guide for PhD students and academics

Writing is an essential skill for any PhD student or academic, but it's also a huge source of stress. This is partly due to the scale and complexity of the task, but also due to a general lack of training in writing.

Many of the most common pieces of advice (like, "just get words down and sort it out later") simply do not work. In this lecture given at the University of Tübingen in October 2022 I explain some key principles of structure and process that can be applied to any project.

[mdisrafil]

00:02 Writing is a crucial skill for PhD students and academics.
02:28 Academics lack proper writing training.
07:02 Writing is a skill that requires attention to detail and deliberate decisions.
09:22 Focus on selecting and communicating the most important and relevant information in your writing.
14:12 Addressing broader questions to set up the aim of the project
16:39 Research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions
21:01 Identify causes, responses, and consequences to structure your writing effectively.
23:03 Understanding the narrative structure of literature reviews is essential for effective writing.
27:20 Focus on one section at a time for better writing efficiency
29:22 Separate exploration from presentation
33:14 Introduction sets the focus and structure for the paper.
35:09 Dealing with writer's block and focusing on solving individual problems
38:58 Complete attention and persistence are required to solve writing problems.
41:01 Avoid constant digital distractions for better focus
44:58 Balancing speed and perfectionism in academic writing
46:52 Adjust your writing pace and be flexible
50:57 Consistent practice and prioritization of writing is crucial for long-term success.
52:53 Relax into the writing process
56:56 Focus on research over writing
58:47 Get professional help early on for language challenges
1:02:52 Start with an interesting problem or question.
1:04:51 Keep thesis concise and relevant, prioritize examiner's time
1:08:46 Develop a system to quickly find relevant papers and extract relevant details for writing
1:10:46 Get feedback before formal writing
1:14:49 Get feedback and collaborate with others for improvement
1:16:42 Dealing with conflicting ideas and expectations from your supervisor
1:20:43 Avoid overly rigid timelines in research planning
1:22:41 Setting flexible deadlines is crucial for successful research planning.
1:26:53 Combination of reading papers and writing text is essential for effective writing.
1:29:01 Building knowledge by referencing known papers and researching new ones

[NecroSonic]

Good applicable points. Other than structure I find that tone is also an important yet underrated aspect of academic writing. Of course some disciplines might enjoy more liberty than others but I find that many academics writes in a needlessly boring style. When I began writing my PhD dissertation I would also feel obliged to write in a style where I would distance myself from the writing and strive to make myself invisible as the author of the text in some misunderstood attempt at objectivity. When I read through my dissertation around a 100 pages in I found it to be terribly boring and felt like it could have been written by someone else. So, I decided to scrap the whole thing and start over and write it in a more personal style with humor and excitement and I hoped that it would not be dismissed as being less scientific. It was much more fun to write and edit the new version and at the defense it turned out that the assessment committee really valued the personal style of writing. One even said that it had been such a joy to read and that it would make assessment work much more delightful if more dissertations would feature creative and unique styles of writing.

[fernandocortes]

16:07 Stress among PHD Students 20:00 Structure 9:40 How to show what you know 28:00 The process...use a mind map to guide the writing 48:14 Q&A e índice de lo visto

[Monamie]

Writing up my PhD thesis now. Many thanks.

[asthasharma]

So extensive guidance. Glad to listen to this video. Lots of important tips and the speaker has immense patience.

[shakinatalkah]

I've graduated my PhD last year, I wish I have found this before.. This is a good and practical insights.. Still applicable to academics career though.. Thanks!

[JorgeZiyad]

I want to thank you for posting this video.
It has got many information that I find valuable.

[binyabenson]

Educative. If there is one lesson I've heeded, it is that research and writing are not similar; one cannot do both at a go. Focus on research (gathering data and information) to inform the writing process.

[steevensonrosema]

I am going to start my PhD studies this coming fall. I was worried about writing a thesis, but I have come across your video. I feel more confident about writing in my field. Thank you, Dr. Hayton.

[lawanyaarvind]

Thank you so much, Dr Hayton. I will need to watch this more than once to understand it and implement it..Very useful as.A Ready reckoner

[parishayjahanzeb]

Hi Hayton, I wish, i knew this at the time of my grad school. I was literally struggling with writing at that time .I stuck myself confronting three things
1. Knowledge of particular discipline on given topic.
2. Research methodolgy (worrying about the research principles)
3. How to structure my ideas ( the most frustrating part).
Thank God i saw your videos. it will surely help in my academic career.
May Allah bless you.

[TVWJ]

I always tell them to start constructing the story, without worrying too much about the language. Could be power-point style. Formulate a main message for the entire article, and present the new evidence for that message, and construct the arguments, and put the things in the right order. Once you have done that, then you can focus more on the text.

[akmalbakar]

Im a research scientist in industry and I found this incredibly helpful. Particularly about how other aspects of the research might be causing the issues in writing. Thank you!

[nidaulhasanati]

Very complete guidance. The speaker is very patient in guiding 101 PhD students and aprofessional academics in writing. He really appreciates the efforts of PhD students and knows their problems, difficulties, struggles to achieve their goals to be able to contribute to knowledge. Thank you and blessing you

[sarahof]

Really liked the fundamental problem around 8:10 - made me feel a bit better about the current tangle!

[mkbestmaan]

It is great to witness wisdom in a testimony, masterclass talk. Metacognition talks help a lot. Thank you for the inspiration.

[BrodieGiesbrecht]

Your lectures are extremely helpful, thank you for posting these! Believe it or not, writing has been my favorite part of my undergraduate degree so far. I'm sure these tips will help me improve!

[JensdC]

Found this on my feed. I regret that Youtube didn't recommend this soon when I'm still in uni :(

[mamoako]

14:47 Basic structure for the introduction of any project

[PRIMULA]

Your talks are so good, wow!!! Well done. I am in my first semester of my Master's degree in Genetics and now I am writing my research proposal, this is so helpful. THANK YOU!!