Writing effectively during your PhD

 Writing effectively during your PhD

 

Trying to cover everything will make your work seem diluted and the point you are trying to make will not be as strong as it needs to be. Sitting on the fence, or writing passively will make your work seem less convincing and actually, pretty descriptive. Descriptive is not the point. 

 

Position and perspective is the basis of the argument. It does not mean you are biased. Your opinion should reflect your engagement with, and embeddedness within the academic literature of the field 

 

The take-home message, or outcome, is the most important thing of all when you are writing a thesis. If you know the end destination, you can walk the reader through the points you are making. It often helps to imagine who your target audience is, or what the reader is like. You can go as far as to create a complete profile for this person, to make your message clearer. Give them a name, age, description, what their background is and what they want to gain from reading your paper. 

 

If you find that writing a chapter might be unclear in your mind, the structure is often the problem. Mind maps are good for getting ideas out of your head and onto the page, but when you are aiming for a plan, draw a starting point, and endpoint and fill the blanks linearly. Easier and clearer for you and therefore, your reader. Aim for the endpoint. What is your endpoint? What is your ‘so what?’