Academic Writing Journey
An academic text: what´s that and can I eat it?
The very first thing you need to know is, what does it even mean to talk about writing the academic text. It is very specific discipline and it has lots of rules you have to keep in mind. Dartmouth prepared an introduction article with all you need to know. Basically, the academic text comes from one scholar to another one (so the topic should be relevant to your discipline) and the text has to be supported with strong argumentation. Also, writing the academic text is a process – you better set a time schedule, prepare an outline and think your text through before you write.
Tip: If you like complex step-by-step guides, you may find interesting for example Academic Writing Guide.
Yes, it´s a process
As mentioned, the academic text writing is the process which basically consists of defining a topic, finding good resources, making an outline (ideally with a structure and time slots), writing a draft, rewriting, getting a feedback, rewriting again – (hopefully) done. Of course, you can just sit down and write an essay without doing this (and you may succeed if the essay is short or simple enough), but longer and sophisticated works (like a thesis) require thinking about the topic from many perspectives, dealing with big amount of resources and they can consume lot of time, when you do not set some barriers in the beginning.
In almost every article about writing, you will find necessary steps before writing. It is very common, that the process includes maybe six or seven steps, half of them are just a preparation! Because of that, we prepare easy academic text writing journey – if you follow, you won´t lose your... (time, school, stipendium, energy, motivation, head).
STEP ONE → Time is running out
[ ] How much time do I have?
[ ] Do I have my time plan for writing?
Everything starts with setting your goals and priorities. You may consider SMART technique or something similar, but the main point is: know, how much time you want to (can) invest in your activities and duties (including the academic writing). Then you simply divide the amount of time into sections – the preparation, looking for resources, writing, creative breaks; each phase should have its own deadline.
STEP TWO → The hardest part, which still pays off
[ ] I have an outline.
[ ] Each part of my outline has own goals and time schedule.
[ ] I know, what type of text I am writing.
[ ] I have one place where I store my notes.
Making an outline is the most important pre-step. It helps you realize what type of text you should write (and yes, not even an essay is just an essay) and what goals you have with this particular text. You may know the boring kind of outline from high schools, but this one should be way more precise and detailed than an introduction – a state – a conclusion (nevertheless you can build on them).
Many people start with notetaking (they let their thought fly freely and catch just some of them, put them on a paper or into a text editor or into a mind map). You may like Notebloc, an application, which enables you to take pictures of randomly scratched notes in different places. The important is to have all the notes in one place or to be able to find them at least. Also, they could be helpful if you stuck later in writing. (For simple note-taking you can use evergreens like Evernote, OneNote, NimbusNote etc.).
Once you got the idea about the topic, you start making the outline. Again, the mind maps are a great help, because they support convergence; one of the most popular, easy-to-use and free software for MMs is Coggle.
But it does not have to be MM! Simple points are good as well or you can use a nice worksheet or some method (for more scientific researchers it may be IMRAD method, which includes the whole preparation before writing). But: the more it is precise, the better.
STEP THREE – Just be cool
[ ] *missing checks*
Always remember: in this very time, all over the world, students are struggling with their works too. If you have the outline prepared, you have half won already. But even so, anyone can be stuck with his or her work. And many people fight lack of motivation. We prepare a list of tips – some of them might help you just once, the others are based on regularity and self-discipline.
1. You won´t forget ever again
Try to write in Ginkoapp. The app enables you to write in three columns, the first one is for chapter´s names or main ideas (annotations), the second one is for real text and the last one for the notes. It may be easier to write there something easy (an essay, not a thesis) to work the app through.
2. Get relaxed, get stressed – whatever works for you
Some people need to have a hot tea and calm environment, but that can be hard to find. If you want to feel fry and calm, try one of the relaxing apps – we recommend Rainy Mood. If you have to be surrounded by people and their talking, but every time you just end up at a coffee shop posting milkshakes on Instagram instead of writing, try e.g. Coffitivity. No more excuses!
3. The phase when you are tidying your neighbor´s bathroom
It is normal to do not know how to continue writing. Don´t give up – maybe you really need to push forward or to relax. For both scenarios, try Write or Die (it makes super annoying noises when you stop writing, by the way, you can set text self-deleting after inactivity – but that´s kind of dangerous) or Written Kitten (that´s childish version with photos of kittens or puppies for every 100 symbols).
And yes, for someone, the hardest part is even starting to write. You can try the creative techniques (like a freewriting) or help yourself a little with Blind Write where you can´t see what are you typing (for a chosen time period), so you can´t judge yourself and you have to keep writing.
On the other hand, you may want to consider building a writing habit. One way to do so is writing a minimal amount of text every day. (Yes, every day – e.g. 750 Words)
* missing conclusion *