WRITING TIPS
Postgraduate Writing Tips
5 essential tips to keep you on track with your postgraduate writing
So, you’ve decided to embark on a postgraduate journey. You’ve been thinking about it for some time and it’s time to take the plunge. Here are a few writing tips to help you get started and hopefully keep you on course till you finish.
#1: Set Your Writing Goals
These can be small daily or weekly goals. The idea is to set word count goals for yourself for each day or week. It can be 300 words or 1000 words. Just make sure that it has to be realistic and achievable within the timeframe you set for yourself. A good place to start is to target between 300 to 500 words a day. But remember, the goal has to be something that works for you. Once you’ve hit this goal, do not forget to treat yourself. It can be as simple as having that chocolate you wanted but denied yourself because you didn’t need the extra calories (sorry diet).
#2 Make Writing A Daily Habit
This is an important tip. Write something every day, even if it’s just a sentence. Consistency is the key. Stick to a schedule. If you are a morning person, then write in the mornings when your mind is clearest. Even if you are only able to write for just half an hour a day, don’t despair. If you write 50 words a day, that’s a paragraph. If you write 400 words a day, that’s a page. Find a system that works for you and STICK TO IT. Make writing your practice every day because the more you write the easier it is for you to express yourself.
#3 Get Regular Comments On Your Writing
Now this can be a tough one, because it’s not always easy getting feedback on something you have spent hours and hours perfecting, only to have someone tell you it’s not up to standard. However, have you ever realised then when you read and reread the same thing over and over again, you tend to overlook spelling mistakes and missing words? This is because we are so familiar with our writing that we read what we expect to see. This happens to all of us. One solution is to ask a friend or colleague you trust to read your work and give you constructive feedback. Now don’t get defensive and try to argue your point when someone is asking for clarification on your work. This is a good thing because it helps you sharpen your writing and present your arguments more convincingly. It’s always good to have another opinion on our work before you send the manuscript over to your supervisor.
#4 DO NOT Over Edit
Perfection is the last thing you should be looking for when writing. I know this sounds odd, but you will never find a graduate student who was 100% satisfied with their writing. There are always mistakes that they missed or sentences they wished they expressed differently. So the key is to keep writing. You can revisit your previous sentence or paragraph later. Remember, it’s easier to throw things out (if it’s irrelevant) than to add. When you stop to edit every sentence, you disrupt your flow of though. Try to make it a habit to write all your thoughts and questions for and from your supervisor. Keep a notebook and a pencil/pen next to your bed. Got an idea? Jot them down. Don’t worry too much about your sentence structure and grammar at the beginning. Just get your thought on the paper first. Once you have them down, then you can move on to the next step of organizing these thoughts into paragraphs, or even subheadings within a chapter.
#5 DO NOT Binge Write
Many of us who have gone through our postgraduate studies are guilty as charged at some point for this. Many students survived graduate school by binge writing. Here’s how that vicious cycle looks like:
Your chapter is not due for another month and you tell yourself, “I’ll be able to work on it over the last weekend and submit it the next day.”
That fated weekend comes and you set aside an entire morning and afternoon to complete a 10,000-word chapter (sound familiar yet?). You write and write and you know you are tired but you keep at it because you tell yourself you are almost there. Your ideas are flowing and you are happy that you are making good progress in your word count.
Then you’re too tired to read what you’ve just wrote so you tell yourself “I’ll read this tomorrow and do the edits then”.
Tomorrow comes and you’re suddenly find yourself deleting and deleting chunks and chunks of information because they don’t make sense.
Now hit repeat.
Many good writers will tell you that binge writing is not the most productive way. It isn’t productive and it gets you nowhere. Work out a good writing plan and stick to it. Consistency is key!!
There are no short cuts for better postgraduate writing but there are definitely ways to make the process manageable, productive and successful. So don’t give up, remember to breathe and make it work! Good luck!
