Coaching Corner: Reflections & Tips on Academic Writing pt.2

In the previous post I started with some essential pre-amble, namely what drives me to read about writing. In this post I want to talk about some important takeaways I have from Helen Sword's excellent book Air & Light & Time & Space.

There is a lot to love about this book. The first is that Sword is a great writer, making the reading a delight. Her other books on writing are on my to-read list now. Beyond the great writing, the book is a collection and distillation of many academic voices. As you read this book, you are not simply being fed a single person's mode of operation. Rather, it reflects the variety of successful practices by many academics. Because we are all different people, there is no one-size-fits-all regimen. Reading this and finding a collation of different types of practices to foster writing in the book has been great.

I have a ton of takeaways from the book, with lots of notes made in my reference manager. Below I'll highlight a few concrete actions I am going to take, some important insights I've gleaned, and some recommended books I plan to read in the future.

The Writer's BASE (and my weak pillar)

Sword uses the metaphor of BASE for your house of writing, with BASE representing behavioural habits, artisanal habits, social habits, and emotional habits. The book works through each of these spaces. Before that, though, Sword describes them and has the reader self-diagnose their own base. In my estimation, my biggest weakness is social habits (with none of my pillars being particularly strong).

The social habits issue was actually one of my biggest insights and action items. It made me reflect on my own habits and hang-ups. For someone like me who is an introvert, avoids confrontation, and seeks approval – the idea of someone scrutinizing my writing is difficult. But a bigger issue is that the nature of my PhD (part-time and at a distance) did not give me the type of social interaction around my work like other PhD students. I got comfortable in my own echo chamber.

To try and change this, Sword recommends entering into some sort of social writing efforts. This might be co-authoring, but it can also be social gatherings around writing. She has a number of suggestions, and I have already talked to a few of my colleagues about starting some sort of writing group together. I'm excited about this and if it comes to fruition, I'll make sure I share about the experience here on the blog.

Start With Why

It was a simple suggestion, but it sent me immediately to my computer to pound out a bullet list for myself. Sword suggests that academics really need to wrestle with why you want to write. Your list can and should range from the simple (I like the sound of a keyboard) to the grand (I want to see my books listed on Amazon). Keep these in mind, and perhaps even review them when you are about to begin a writing session. I've started my list already, and will continue to refine it.

Help Your Future Self

This was a simple suggestion that I so wish I had during the dissertation process. As you end a writing session, take 2 minutes to write a note to your future self. Quite often during my dissertation writing, it would take an unruly amount of time just to get my head back into the right space. A note to your future self reminding you where you left off, what you were thinking, and where you are heading can help accelerate the re-entry process.

Play Chicken with Teaching

This was a pretty provocative suggestion in the book, and I'm still mulling it over. I'm not sure I fully agree, but it has at least caused me to think. Essentially, the idea is to prioritize your writing time over everything else. This is not the norm for most of us. The priority as a professor goes to teaching (and all the administration that goes with it). The suggestion is that, because of the automatic deadlines, pressure, and rhythm of class time, you will get the work done in time, so you don't need to prioritize it. I'll need to chew on this one!

Outlining

In one writer profile featured, the author talks about outlining and how essential it is to his writing. I found this quite intriguing and it is something I need to seriously consider. Basically, the scholar consistently works on a detailed outline for what becomes a book or article. This gives you something very concrete to do during the research, reading, and note-taking process, without the pressure to produce something polished. It removes the pressure to write good-sounding sentences, but builds the detailed skeleton of your work so that when the writing time comes, you are simply adding flesh to the bones.

Further Reading

Sword has a lot of good reading recommendations through the book, and a couple that really caught my eye and that I've put on my reading list are the following:

• Paul Silvia, How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
• Roy Clark, Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer
• Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
• Richard Louv, The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age

Any comments or suggestions? Let me know in the comments

Coaching Corner: Reflections & Tips on Academic Writing pt.1

Just to be clear, I'm not the coach in this blog post. I'm the one being coached. Like a previous blog post in which I received some career coaching from senior NT scholar Gary Burge, I want to share some coaching I've received by Helen Sword in her wonderful new book Air & Light & Time & Space. I'll share some thoughts and takeaways from the book in my next blog post, but in this one I want to offer some reflections on what is driving me to read a book like this in the first place.

A number of weeks ago the excellent OnScript podcast interviewed Jonathan Pennington about his Sermon on the Mount book. In addition to the excellent interview, Pennington casually mentioned that he frequently taught the research and writing components of the PhD program where he teaches. I took that occasion to email Jonathan in the hopes that he might share some of the book recommendations he makes for his students – both for myself and as recommendations for my own students. He was kind enough to share that information. Two weeks later, I ran into Jonathan at the SBL meeting in Boston at the Baker booth, and during that enjoyable conversation, Jonathan recommended most glowingly Helen Sword's book, Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write. Since I had some Amazon credit, the first thing I did when I returned home was order a copy. Before I get to some of my takeaways from the book, one more story from Boston.

One of the delights of almost every person that goes to SBL is walking through the book display. I spend a lot of time wandering around those displays and drooling over books. But I noticed something a little different about myself this time around. I was, of course, interested in the latest books in NT scholarship and those that may help me in preparing new courses. But my eyes were drawn especially to books on writing, on thinking, on argumentation — perhaps I can categorize them on "coaching the scholarly life" type of books.

Here is the raw truth of it. As a junior scholar, I still feel way in over my head. I walk into most of my classes wondering how I'm going to fill the time, wondering if what I have planned to share will be of any interest, and wondering if I've really truly earned that doctorate of mine. After reading Burge's book, I'm at least happy to know that I'm not alone.

The other reality is that just because I completed a dissertation does not mean I feel like an academic writer, nor have I learned to find the correct rhythm between teaching, administration, and research. Most young scholars are prone to a bit of hero worship. I have my favourite NT scholars, and had Craig Evans as a mentor – someone incredibly productive in publication and who challenged me and trained me with collaborative projects. But I increasingly realize that I'm not any of those people. My interests are sometimes different. My upbringing and background are different, and the communities that want to hear from me are different too. So now, even after published articles, dictionary entries, edited books, and published books — I still feel like I am wading in water seeking a firm footing. I am still trying to find my voice.

My authentic voice as a creator (academic writing, blogging, video making, etc) will be a cocktail mixed with many things. It starts with who I am as a person and all those people and events that shaped me from youth and up to the present, splashes in the best of what I've learned through school, adds a shot of flavour from the mentorship I've received both near and far, and intersects with my present circumstances and interests. The resulting creations will be a word first to me and then to those who choose to listen. I fully recognize that finding my voice is a long process, perhaps a lifetime for someone with my personality, but I take some comfort and encouragement from the fact that I have now at least recognized the process. Like Oscar Wilde said, "Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." Or like my colleague Anna Robbins said to me when I succeeded Craig Evans and moved into the position of Professor of New Testament Studies at Acadia Divinity College, "you're not Craig Evans, and we don't want you to be. We want to hear from you." Now I just need to keep working to figure out who I am.

All of this is essential pre-amble to my next post, which will highlight some takeaways from Sword's book. Stay tuned.

How to Edit Your Own Writing Better

It seems to be a basic law of human nature that we have difficulty seeing the flaws in our own writing. We put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards) and we think that what comes out is perfectly coherent and anyone with half a brain should be able to understand it.

Then someone else reads it.

All of a sudden, we recognize that we aren't as brilliant, insightful, and clear as we thought we were. In this post, I want to offer some tips on how to be more clear when we are writing, as well as how to be better editors of our own writing. While I am for the most talking about academic writing, I think many of the principles apply to more casual writing as well.

1. Get Some Distance. The absolute worst time to edit your own writing is right after you've written it. You will think everything makes perfect sense because you just wrote it! You need to get some distance from your written work. In my book Surviving and Thriving in Seminary I suggest that students complete smaller assignments a day or two before submission, and try and finish major essays a week before submission. This gives you time to get some distance from the work. When you come back to edit it, you want to have had your mind on other things for awhile. This enables you to come with a fresh set of eyes.
2. Change Your Setting. I just finished (and by just I mean just hours ago) submitted my dissertation for defense. Yesterday I spent most of my day doing a proof-read. I initially thought that I wouldn't need to do it, as I've been working for so long on it, and have advisors that have read and commented and suggested corrections already. Boy am I glad I decided to spend one more day on it. In the picture above, you see my red pen, highlighter, and post-its. I went through 1.5 little post-it booklets. What really helped this process was changing my setting. I work almost exclusively on my screen—but for this final edit, I printed all 248 pages out. I do almost all of my work in my office—but for this read-through I took my iPhone for some Focus@Will mood music, and sat in an empty room in the building. This small change of setting abled me to view my writing in a different light, and the result is a much better, cleaner, and easier to read end-product.
3. Be a Jerk to Yourself. Be as hyper-critical as you can muster yourself to be. Read with an eye to details and clarity. Especially in the introductions and conclusions, ask yourself "does this make sense?" Imagine someone you don't know saying "tell me about that section of your essay." Then try and state the explanation as clearly and concisely as possible. Avoid being cute, coy, or round-about. State directly what you are saying as simply as possible.
4. Assume the Reader Knows Nothing. When writing for other academics, or for your professor, we often assume that they know about everything. While it may be true that they know more about your topic than you do, this is bad way to write. As you read through and edit yourself, keep in mind that you should assume no knowledge on the part of the reader. If you are assuming too much, write it better.
5. Find Someone Else. There's no better way to edit an essay than to have someone else read it and point out its flaws. This is how you will become a better writer, by learning from your mistakes. Get a friend, a colleague, a more mature student, or a writing tutor, to edit essays for you.
6. Spell Check. You have zero excuse in misspelling something, especially with modern word processors. If you're a student submitting assignments and don't run spell check, you deserve to lose marks.

Have any more tips for editing yourself? Let me know in the comments!