Getting stuff done;

WHEN TO WRITE

Write as you go…take lots of notes, review them every once in a while, colour code them, start thinking
in terms of how you can find a hierarchy within them

The best readers re-read, and the best writers re-write. Good thinking involves a bit of spiralling around.
Good news and bad news. Bad news because you are busy. But good news because if you thought that
you should be able to do things in a sequence…don't feel inadequate. Nobody can write like that.
Professional writers don’t/ Your professors don’t/ Reading, researchign, writing, require lots of RE-
VISION, processing.

Is your motivation to perform, or to process?

First draft - For the Writer: you challenge yoruself to see what you understand,
Second draft - you imagine the reader - is he/she along for your trip here? Are you communicating *to*
the reader? That is, in terms of the whole argument, the flow of ideas. Is it coherent, persuasive, does it
build interest? In second to third draft, you become an advocate for your future reader
Third draft - at the sentence level, am I doing the work, or leaving the reader to make inferences, to fill
in blanks, to interpret vague wording?
Four or five drafts is not unreasonble.

Thinkign of the conversation, what others have said about yoru topic adds urgency…your writing is a
response to others, Writing is like being an 8 armed superhuman of some sort…reaching out and
drawing in from sources, your reader, your self in your previous and future chapters…there is a lot going
on. It's like being the moderator of a big, and hopefully boisterous and talkative, discussion panel.
Lit review - to marshall all the ideas of previous conversations on the topic, put it in an order that you
can then respond to, process the back and forth of any points of contention, clarify what questions have
found consensus and what have been left open

Tips:
Print your paper…sometimes, seeing it on a diferent plane can really help

Calendar even your reading and section-writing.

Make social commitments to help you stay on track - if you get a section done on this date, you and
yoru fellow get to go to a movie. And/or, make a pact with a fellow students to do your reverse outlien
by a certain date and talk it through with one another.

Pomodoro technique - set a timer for 25 minutes, then 5 minute break…better yet, pomodoro in a
group

Use Scrivener or OneNote to organize

Write the intro and conclusion last:

Just sit down and ask yourself, writing for yourself alone…what was my original interest? What was the
core part, the thing I thought was important, noteworthy, confusing, useful, misunderstood,
oversimplified in practice, under-researched…? Then, so what? Why does it matter? Who cares? Just
writing to yourself, try to summarize your motivations and your conclusions. This may be just a warm
up, and you hsould not have any further expectation -- the goal is to put aside your writing "judge", and
just think from the bottom. But, you may find that you've turned a good phrase, discouverd a good
order of ideas, or managed to better label a central theme, and thereby use the writing directly in a first
draft.
After that, you can again try to write for a reader, and that is what determines the difference between
an introduction dn a conclusion, of course. The introduction tells a reader who is not yet convinced or
informed what your topic is, and what it's context is, and why the question is a good question - your
motive.
The conclusion now tries to fully persuade your now educated reader what has been the most
important parts of your study, and how certain details come together, what further implications have
been shown? and again, why they should care.

Reverse Outlining
Step 1.

Describe what is actually there.

Looks like a before-the-draft outline – Identifies topics paragraph by paragraph, in bullet-point form

Outline not what *ought* to be there, but what really is there. What theme/topic/argument have you
focussed on? In what order?

Step 2.

Identify transitions – now this can be what *ought* to be there, even if it’s not. By what logic do you
connect topic 1b with 1c, or 1c with 2a? Sum it up in just a few words, bullet-point style.

See Step 3 (see other side also)

Try out this template: 1) I am studying … 2)because I want to find out…3) in order to help my reader
understand…

That is:

1. I am working on Lincoln’s beliefs about predestination in his

early speeches . . .
2. because I want to find out how his belief in destiny and God’s
will influenced his understanding of the causes of the Civil
War . . .
3. in order to help my reader understand how his religious beliefs
may have influenced his military decisions.

That is:

0. Topic 2. Your research question 3. Your Rationale

(Example from Booth, Colomb and Williams, page 51):

Step 4.

Revise your outline and map it back onto your essay. Make sure that you now explicitly state your topic
in each section or paragraph, if your outline reveals that it was only implied. Move sections around,
depending on what success you have in locating sensible connections between adjacent paragraphs and
sections. This will create some style problems, and you will need to re-knead the dangling and
mismatched minor transitions back in to place. That’s okay.

Step 3.

Does it all add up? Does it address the main problem you identify at the outset? Does everything
support and build up to the ‘solution’ to that problem? Make sure you have a solid, adequately complex
overall thesis. This is the time to double check that your overall thesis is what you thought it was.
(Booth, W., Colomb, G., & Williams, J. (1995). The Craft of Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

P.44)

Have you asked the right questions? The questions that, looking at the strong, medium-narrow claim
that you've identified, would be necessary to fully "prove" or develop your point?