Writing process for scientific publications

[adel9216]

Hello all

What is your process when you've got an abstract accepted and have a couple of months to write an academic book chapter/article ?

[ergative]

Write your methods and results first. That's the easiest (well, it should be), and then you'll have words and pages written, and the Blank Page will not be so terrifyingly blank.

Outline your introduction really carefully. Think about each paragraph and what purpose it serves. Ideally, each paragraph in the introduction should do two things simultaneously: (1) describe previous research and (2) relate that previous research to your own purposes. Many students can do (1) all day, but it's (2) that gets hard. I really hate the term 'lit review' because it privileges (1) over (2). I try to use the term 'research background' instead.

Don't worry about elegance and word count and transitions until after the ideas are in place. If your ideas hang together and connect--which you've already worked out in the outline--then the next step is to get the paragraphs and citations in order first. Clean up the wording later, on your third pass.

Use a reference manager.

Don't overuse direct quotations. This is more field dependent, and given what you've told us about your accomplishments you may not need this sort of writing guidance, but anyway: I find that students are often much too reliant on direct quotations to say things that don't need to be quoted. If you can paraphrase a statement at all, then do it. Keep as much of the writing in your own voice as possible. The only things that need to be quoted directly are things like definitions, or else really pithy turns of phrase that perfectly capture some sort of argument or perspective that you want to engage with directly.