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A blog from the Research Culture and Researcher Development team at University of Glasgow, as part of a blog series during WriteFest:

https://theauditorium.blog/2025/11/06/the-power-and-joy-of-writing-in-company/

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Blog post from University of Glasgow

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The Auditorium: a research culture and researcher development blog

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By Dr Rachel Chin, Researcher Development Specialist (Writing and Communication) Sometimes the hardest part of writing is getting started. When I began thinking about this blog post, I was struggli…

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Writing Blogs from the Institute for Academic Development, with guest blogs included.

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Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.

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Call for Abstracts - Journal of Imaginary Research Volume 10

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Call for Abstracts - Journal of Imaginary Research Volume 10

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The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Global Academic Writing Month.

We publish imaginary research abstracts, and all our volumes are available as free downloads.

Deadline 5pm on Friday 6th December, 2024

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Call for Abstracts – Journal Of Imaginary Research Volume 10

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The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Global Academic Writing Month. We publish imag…

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The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network - WriteFest Write-Along and Writing Community of practice group (for AHSS ECRs)

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The British Academy Early Career Researcher Network - WriteFest Write-Along and Writing Community of practice group (for AHSS ECRs)

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WriteFest Write-Along are zoom retreats, meeting Thursday and Friday all month. If you are a ECR currently working in the Humanities and Social Sciences this network and Write-Along is for you!

Write -Along Info and registration here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/earlycareerresearchernetwork/1048380

Sign up for the writing community of practice group here: https://thebritishacademyecrn.com/groups/36/feed

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the british academy early career researcher network

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Network: The Academy in partnership with the Wolfson Foundation is piloting for two years an Early Career Researcher Network for Early Career Researchers in the humanities and social sciences. Aims: The Academy aims for the network to be a researcher-led and an inclusive humanities and social sciences network, accessible to all researchers regardless of their funding source or background.

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The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Academic Writing Month.

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The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Academic Writing Month. We publish imaginary research abstracts, and all our volumes are available as free downloads here.
What do we mean imaginary research abstracts?
We mean short works of fiction, that take a format that is familiar to us as researchers and academics. An abstract is the summary of an academic paper, that gives us a succinct overview of the research that has been done, and the new outcomes or ideas that the research has generated.
The 2023 theme

Deal (and dealings) is our theme this year. It's Old English and means to divide, to portion out, so that everyone has their due share. There's a fairness to dealing: everyone gets their portion (unless, of course, the dealer cheats). To deal can mean inclusion, of bringing someone into an undertaking, giving them a share or a part. It can be a request: deal me in, I deserve it. But not all deals are equal. We heard a lot of that through Brexit, about getting a good deal, one that suited and was advantageous. Many of the nation's recent strikes have been part of the process of bargaining for a deal. The recently announced themes heralding a 'New Deal for Postgraduate Research' have entered a process of sector consultation. This references the fuzzy logic of dealing, the approximations and negotiations that come with 'striking' a deal. Sometimes this can take a while to prepare, in other cases the deal is something that happens quickly. It's made and it is done. Just like violence; a blow is dealt and punishment doled out, whether it is deserved or not. We deal with various things: papers, inboxes, even the dinner, where we might 'deal with the vegetables' in preparing a dish. So to deal with something means also to sort it out, to get it done, to administer. Sometimes there is something hard-nosed and efficient about it. Other times it's a way of coping, of dealing with something, of processing it. While there might still be justice in dealings, too often justice is obscured, hidden or deferred, as the practical 'horse trading' takes place underground. Deals are often hidden away. As such it's a euphemism for sex, 'they had some dealings with someone in Southampton, if you know what I mean.'

What dealings do we make in research?

What deals do researchers strike?

What do disciplines deal with? How do disciplines deal with other disciplines? With knowledge and understanding?

What are the consequences of deals and dealings that people have to come to terms with, and how might our research investigate them?

We'd like you to interpret the theme in your own way so that your submission relates somehow to deals and dealings. You don't need to explain this to us or within your piece; it's fine to take the theme literally and write about fair treatment and card games, but it's also fine to use the theme as a mood, a way to enter your imagination. Trade. Fairness. Power. Violence. Justice. Games. Sex. Where will your imaginary research go to? What will your imaginary research deal with? What deals will you broker with your imagination this time?

Keep reading to find out how to get started and how to submit your writing...

Why do we publish fictional research?
We publish imagined research abstracts as works of fiction firstly because writing for enjoyment is a good thing to encourage. We spend a lot of time trying to reduce our anxiety about writing, and so writing imaginatively is a good way to reshape our relationship with writing into something creative and enjoyable.

Secondly, writing fiction in a familiar format, helps us to reflect on how we can creatively communicate our other research projects, and how we can find the joy of creativity within the grind of productivity. Creativity is a property of all writers and the privilege of all researchers. It allows us to dream and hope.
Can I see examples?
The imaginary abstracts we have published in Volumes 1-8 and our summer 2020 Special Issue were written by real academic staff, research staff, and research students. These volumes of our Journal-zine provide plenty of examples of the different approaches and styles, some funny, some serious, all completely made up.
How to get started with your submission
How you approach your imaginary Abstract is open to you. We'd like you to use an image as writing prompt, and accompaniment to your finished piece. Start with an image; any copyright free image or photograph you choose. Use this as a prompt for your writing. Perhaps begin by noting down observable facts about the image, then add some invented facts from your imagination. Combine the observed and the imagined and think about other notions, words, and concepts you associate with your developing ideas. What imaginary research project could help you articulate, investigate, or explain what you see and what you imagine from the starting point offered to you by the image? You can deviate quite strongly from the literal image in the photograph, it's just a starting point for your creativity.

Consider your imagined abstract and imagined researcher biography as a piece, together. Who is the researcher who would do this work? What are they like? Where do they work? What have they achieved in their career?
To have your creative work considered for inclusion, please submit, in one MS Word file:

1. A title for your fictional study

2. A 200-word imagined (fictional) research abstract

3. A 100-word imagined (fictional) researcher biography

4. A high resolution copy of the copyright free image which accompanies your written abstract - by all means take a photo specifically for this purpose or see these resources if you don't have a stash of your own:
https://pixabay.com
https://unsplash.com
https://broadlygenderphotos.vice.com (gender inclusive photo set) https://affecttheverb.com/collection/ (disabled, Black, Indigenous people, People of Color in work and home lives)
https://obesitycanada.ca/resources/image-bank/ (positive portrayals of individuals with obesity)
https://ageingbetter.resourcespace.com/pages/home.php (positive portrayals of older people)

Submit these four things for consideration to kay.guccione@glasgow.ac.uk Editorial process by 5pm on Friday 1st December, 2023
Remember, have a look at Volumes 1-8 and our summer 2020 Special Issue to get an idea of the sort of work we publish.

Due to the volume of submissions we are now receiving, we have a fast and simple editorial process. When we receive your submission, we will do one of the following:

1. accept and publish your submission without edits,

2. make minor edits to your work and publish it in the current issue, or

3. send your submission back to you with some suggestions on how to resubmit it for the next issue.

That means that your piece may be published with minor edits that you have not seen. If you would prefer that this doesn't happen, then let us know when you submit. We haven't had disappointed any writers yet, but we want you to be aware of our editorial processes so you can make an informed decision. In all cases you maintain the copyright on your submission, and no money is made by the sale of your writing.
Enjoy it!
We commonly return submissions unpublished, when:

They are not submitted in the Abstract genre - as in, they are not discernibly written in the style of a Research Abstract.

There are a large number of typographical errors or it is difficult to follow the logic and flow of the piece.

They express discrimination or use hate speech or derogatory language against a group of people.

They contain a lot of crude or toilet humour.

They are very close in theme/topic to another piece within the same volume (pieces where the Imagined Researcher is a dog, cat, or robot are very commonly submitted)

A key aim of our journal-zine is to encourage academic colleagues to embrace writing simply for enjoyment, as an act of care, or as a reflective act. We also hope that reading and writing our imagined works, will bring an enjoyable diversion into your work lives.

Editors: Kay Guccione (@kayguccione) and Matthew Cheeseman (@eine)

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View all posts by journalofimaginaryresearch

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Call for Abstracts - Journal Of Imaginary Research Volume 9

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The Journal of Imaginary Research is now accepting submissions of new short fictional pieces for our annual volume produced each November to celebrate Academic Writing Month. We publish imaginary research abstracts, and all our volumes are available as free downloads here. What do we mean imaginary research abstracts?

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Improve your academic writing by working with the University of Edinburgh's Royal Literary Fund Fellow - Mary Paulson-Ellis.

Whatever your subject or level of study, Mary is offering one-to-one practical sessions to help you improve your writing.

This could mean support with planning and structure, advice on clarity and working to a word limit, help with editing, grammar and punctuation, or any other issue you want to bring.

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Improve your academic writing by working with a Fellow from the Royal Literary Fund

The Royal Literary Fund Fellowship scheme was set up to place professional writers in higher education institutions to offer writing support to all students. The principal aim of the Fellow's work is to foster good writing practice across all disciplines and media.

Do you want help with your writing skills?

Edinburgh University has a Royal Literary Fund Fellow - Mary Paulson-Ellis.

Whatever your subject or level of study, Mary is offering one-to-one practical sessions to help you improve your writing.

This could mean support with planning and structure, advice on clarity and working to a word limit, help with editing, grammar and punctuation, or any other issue you want to bring.

All academic writing is covered including essays, reports, theses, dissertations, book chapters, posters etc. Advice is based on your writing and tailored to your needs and aims.

Please note that due to funding restrictions this service is only available to students in the UK (you cannot have an online session when you are abroad).

This service is:

Mary is available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during term time. She is based on the third floor of the Main Library, which is located on the south side of George Square.
Main Library on Campus Maps
Each session lasts 50 minutes. To book an appointment please email Mary on mary.paulson-ellis@rlfeducation.org.uk.

What we don't do:

Learn more: RLF Fellowship Scheme

Our RLF Fellow: Mary Paulson-Ellis

Mary Paulson-Ellis is an award-winning novelist writing across the genres of crime, historical and literary fiction. Her critically acclaimed debut, The Other Mrs Walker was a Times bestseller and Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year. The Inheritance of Solomon Farthing was longlisted for the McIlvanney prize for best Scottish crime novel and a Historical Writers Association Gold Crown.

In 2023 Mary was awarded the Dr Gavin Wallace Fellowship by Edinburgh City of Literature Trust to write a multilayered novel about her home city of Edinburgh. Author Liz Jensen describes her as having 'the verve and panache of a true storyteller'.

Mary's short fiction and nonfiction have featured in The Guardian, various anthologies and on BBC Radio 4. In 2019 Val McDermid selected her as one of ten exciting LGBTQ+ writers working today.

Mary has been a writing mentor, workshop leader, tutor and writer-in-residence for many organisations including the National Centre for Writing, the National Galleries of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival. She regularly reviews what's current in the arts for BBC Radio Scotland. As a committee member for the Society of Authors in Scotland, Mary believes in solidarity and connection amongst authors everywhere.

To find out more about Mary, please visit her website:
Mary Paulson-Ellis homepage
To make an appointment with Mary, please contact her by email:
Email Mary Paulson-Ellis
BSL users

Related Links
Academic Support Librarians by Subject Area Book a one-to-one librarian consultation

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Improve your academic writing by working with a Fellow from the Royal Literary Fund

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The UoE Library's Dissertation and Thesis Festival brings together the support that the Library, Digital Skills and IAD provides for students undertaking their dissertations and theses.

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The Library's Dissertation and Thesis Festival brings together the support that the Library, Digital Skills and IAD provides for students undertaking their dissertations and theses.

Want to find out more about the digital library resources available to support your research question? Interested in learning how to manage the bibliographic and research data you've found? Thought about making your dissertation something special by using the fantastic collections available at the Centre for Research Collections?

Join us for a programme of online and in-person events and learn what the Library can do for you to help you succeed with your dissertation or thesis. Our programme will include sessions by University teams and external suppliers.

More resources can be found in the Library dissertation guide.
Save the Dates: Academic Year 2023-24
Semester 1: Autumn Dissertation and Thesis Festival, 30 October - 10 November 2023.

Online sessions will be recorded and sent to registrants.

Semester 2: Spring Dissertation and Thesis Festival, 11 - 15 March 2024

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The Library's Dissertation and Thesis Festival brings together the support that the Library, Digital Skills and IAD provides for students undertaking their dissertations and theses.

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We have a number of writing blogs at the IAD!

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Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.

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Stick this on your earbuds and turn up just enough to suppress those noisy people. Good for deep focus -- feels a bit like the overnight cruise bit on a long haul flight.

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432hz Deep Brown Noise in HD Stereo ( 12 Hours )

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Abstract works of fiction

Journal of Imaginary Research Volume Seven (2022)

https://journalofimaginaryresearch.home.blog/category/volumes/

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Posts about Volumes written by Dr Kay Guccione and journalofimaginaryresearch

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How to write a blogpost from your journal article in eleven easy steps

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How to write a blogpost from your journal article in eleven easy steps

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https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/01/25/how-to-write-a-blogpost-from-your-journal-article/

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You've just published a research article - why should you bother writing a blog post about it? Patrick Dunleavy argues that if you've devoted months to writing the paper, dealing with comments, doing rewrites and hacking through the publishing process, why would you not spend the extra couple of hours crafting an accessible blogpost? Here he breaks down in eleven easy steps how to generate a short-form version of your research article.
One of the oddest things that people in academic life regularly say to me is: 'I'm not paid to write blogposts, only research articles. If my department or the grant-funder wants to start paying me for doing posts, then that would be a different matter'. Or alternatively, the argument goes: 'I just don't have the time to do blogging'. Or finally, the clinching rebuttal is: 'Your blogpost just won't get cited, and in today's research environment, only citations count'.

Apparently then a lot of folk suffer from some serious misconceptions about what writing a blogpost entails:

They think it takes days, weeks, or even months to produce that difficult bit of text - it doesn't, it takes two or three hours at most.

They believe that time devoted to a blogpost is time away from your main research - it's not. Your post is done after you've finished and published your journal article - it is just a more readable and hopefully more popular version of that article, with key messages summarized in about 1,000 words.

Perhaps they also think that publishing a blogpost takes the time and hassle involved in submitting to journals, trekking through box after box of obscure electronic publishing bureaucracy, and then waiting weeks or months before seeing a proof, and months more for publication. But publishing a post is not like that at all. You get your 1,000 words finished in Word or equivalent. Include a table or a chart or two, being scrupulous to present them well. Then send it to a multi-author blog with a big readership in your field and a couple of days later your text is online at the blog.

If you thought all blogs are solo blogs, you could find the previous paragraph puzzling. You might well think: 'Don't I have to set up my own blog and then learn WordPress to get blogging? And unless I can assemble an audience all on my own, won't my solo blog languish unread with the tens of thousands of others online?' Of course, you can do a solo blog (or publish stuff on your individual website, an even less fruitful use of your time). But with modern blogging packages like Medium.com (where this was originally published) you need to learn nothing at all before starting. Their 'how to use' instructions are just: 'Bang out some text!' But increasingly, blogging is a collective form of short-form digital publishing. In the multi-author LSE blogs or other outlets mentioned above, it is rather like writing for any short-form magazine. (Indeed, we may soon leave the 'blogging' description behind for something that better captures modern realities - perhaps 'short-form digital publishing').

Finally, of course a blogpost may well not be cited itself (although now reputable multi-author blogs increasingly are) - but if not, this is because its job is different. Academically a blogpost boosts citations for the core article itself. It advertises your journal article in ways that can get it far more widely read than just pushing the article out into the ether to sink or swim on its own. A post reaches other researchers in your discipline (those who are not digital hermits). And because it's accessibly written, it travels well, goes overseas, gets re-tweeted and re-liked. It takes the 'memes' key to your research into a limited viral spread. It also gets read by academics outside your immediate sub-field and discipline, potentially pulling new audiences to your work.

A post on the right kind of blog, one with a big ready-made audience, also often communicates your key messages to a far wider groups beyond academia itself. Thus it helps to create external impact for your work amongst practitioners in government or business or the professions as well. An LSE colleague's article in an academic journal has been read and downloaded less than 100 times. But his post about it came out on the LSE Impact blog (and got re-published on LSE's British politics blog), and was retweeted multiple times. In six months the post was read 42,000 times - quite a difference, even if this is an outlier case.

In the digital world, academic authors now get multiple chances to create their own accessible messages. Without having to accommodate to the limited expertise or limiting agendas of journalists and broadcasters, researchers can explain directly and clearly. The logic here goes like this. First get the eyeballs on your text (i.e don't [just] solo blog). Then make your case as briefly, clearly and accessibly as you can. If the work is good, it could be retweeted, read and favourited by the right people in your research community. And from that cites will flow. If you can really do communication in an accessible way, your writing may also circulate widely in other disciplines and in the external world outside universities, enhancing your reputation there.

So having explained all this to blogging sceptics, the question I ask is - 'You've put eighteen months or two years of your life into doing the research in your article. You've devoted months more to writing the paper and sending it to journals, dealing with comments, doing rewrites and hacking through the publishing process. Why would you not spend the extra couple of hours needed now to pull out from your journal article the key bits needed for a good blogpost?'

And yet we know a huge fraction of research is still being churned out only in obscure outlets read by very few people. It's made available only as hard-boiled, jargon-prone and inaccessible text. It's illustrated with mounds of 'dead on arrival' data that no one will ever look at again. In this guise alone it must stand or fall. Little wonder that (inaccurate) folklore has it that 90% of journal articles go uncited, even by the original author. Clearly thousands of intelligent academics and researchers are still not taking the extra few hours needed to do a blog version of their work, or tweet its publication to their networks and contacts.

Getting to a blogpost - it's easy if you try

So I hope it will help to offer a brief guide here on generating a short-form digital version of your research article.

1. Let's assume your journal article is 8,000 words long. Your task is to get a decent version of it in 1,000 words (or somewhat less), as quickly and painlessly as possible.

2. Begin by cutting out the whole of the methodology section - it matters a lot to you, but most readers won't care. If your methods are innovative, people will probably need to read the the original article to make detailed sense of them. So briefly sum up your methods innovation in intuitive terms within the post (and even then more towards the end)- and then link to the article, using an open access version whenever you can. On the other hand, if your methods are bog-standard, any expert reader will know them already, and any lay readers will be happy to accept the standard approach.

3. Next get rid of the long literature review at the beginning - in the blog context, no one cares about academic credentializing or point-scoring. Also cut out most of any closing discussion of how your results agree with or diverge from other people's work. A line or two somewhere near the start, and then 2 lines of closing thoughts or pointers at the end of the post, normally suffices.

4. Next, write a narrative heading that gives your essential message substantively. Try to tell readers very clearly and simply what you found out. You need something meaningful, but in less than 140 characters - that way the blog title can also be the tweet. Don't try just one heading - experiment with six to 10 different variants to find one that really works. If your academic diffidence, or the complexity of the content, stops you achieving a full narrative heading, at the least make sure that there are clear narrative cues in the blog title.

5. Also, try to always include in your blog post a 'trailer' paragraph that spells out in no more than 3 or 4 lines, why the post is interesting and gives another take on what the key message is (without repeating the title wording). Your task here is to evoke interest, and give readers a good narrative steer that attracts them into the post, and assures them that they will understand it. The format is well developed in the major LSE blogs, in the Conversation and it's used in a very brief way at the top of E conomist articles. (Not all multi-author blogs are yet geared up for this approach though, especially in America where there is a long tradition of lengthy, journalistic articles [often over 4,000 words], presented in great wodges of unheadlined text, organized only by paragraphing).

6. Now comes the part where you take the key findings and arguments out of your journal article so as to form the main (or body) text of the blog post. At root, what did your research efforts discover or conclude? What do you make of your key findings or conclusions? If you are instead making an argument, integrating ideas, or developing a theme, you still need to have a crystal clear and substantive summation of the central message. Most academic writing actually shies away from these questions, taking refuge instead in formal wording, vacuous discussions, 'heuristic insights', banal statements, or multiple hedged qualifications. Make your blogpost very different.

It is vital here to front-load the material, putting it into a quite different sequence from the conventional article (which is end-loaded):

Start off in a high impact way, ideally trying to begin with something motivating for readers - either a startling fact, a paradox resolved, a key summary statistic, or a great quote. For blog readers something topical linking to a recent development is often a good start. Alternatively promising readers a change in our knowledge, or other new things, is a great motivator. Once readers are hooked in, it's OK to have a smallamount of context here (3-4 lines) that draws out the salience of the issue. It is worth writing your high impact start carefully and trying to keep it punchy.

Next explain early on in your body text the core of your finding or argument from the journal version. Try to rigorously avoid the normal academic tendency to do a 'dance of the seven veils' in which layers of low-relevance or low-interest material are progressively peeled aside to reveal a tiny kernel of new findings at the end of a long screed of text. Instead, move straight to what worked in your research or experiment or archive search, etc. and tell readers clearly what you found or concluded. In a blogpost the best bits arrive early on, not just at the end. Cut out any text from your article covering intermediate stages, or earlier models, or avenues taken that did not lead to results.

Once that's done, you can unpack the message a little - perhaps highlighting no more than three specific aspects - ideally the aspects with the widest interest or appeal to readers, or the greatest claim to advance our knowledge.

7. Exhibits. Wherever possible include at least one table or chart, maybe two or three - but try to avoid ever having more than four exhibits.

Explain tables or charts properly, label them very clearly, and simplify them if they are too complex. Include a short explanatory note under each chart or table that explains what is being shown and helps readers to understand it. Make sure column or row headings in tables, and both the axis labels in charts, are crystal clear.

Look carefully at any chart or table that you'll include, and ask yourself ifall its components are really needed - e.g. do you need all the columns of the table, or could you cut out some intermediate ones and just show the final results column(s)? Similarly try to have simple charts, where every bar or line shown is needed because it actively helps build readers' understanding - otherwise it gets cut out.

The acid test for any exhibit is: What do readers really need to know?

Any modern blog comes in full color - so always colorize your dull black and white journal artwork. You also deliver the final charts or artwork to the blog yourself, in a straightforward picture format (that is, saved as . png or .jpeg files). So what you send is what you'll get. No difficult negotiations will be needed with outsourced journal designers in low-cost, faraway places, who don't understand your text.

8. Level, style and tone. Don't assume that readers know what you mean without explanation.

If you must use specialist vocabulary ('jargon') - and in academic work, sometimes you must - keep it to a minimum, and explain all terms likely to be unfamiliar when you first use them.

Be especially careful with acronyms and initials and formulae. Don't explain once, use 20 or 50 times. Explain once, then use the full label (or refresh the explanation) every 5 or 6 times the acronym or formula is subsequently deployed. Always re-label or re-explain if you stop using an acronym or formula for 200 words or a page, but now are going to restart.

Write shorter paragraphs than in a journal - say 150 words. But don't write bitty text where every sentence is its own paragraph - that style may work for press releases, but ordinary readers will quickly find it disorganizing. Proper paragraphs are units of thought - they give your text a subtle sub-structure that makes it far more understandable, when done well.

In blogposts all references are unobtrusive hyperlinks - the URL sits behind a relevant highlighted term or short phrase. Of course, digital links go just to the top of the source cited. So if you need readers to find a particular section within it, weave into your own text a quote of five or six words from the source that are distinctive to the passage involved. That way readers can go to the source and use Control+F to find the relevant passage exactly.

I thank Chris Gilson and Stuart Brown of LSE for helpful ideas incorporated here. To follow up these ideas in more detail see my book: Patrick Dunleavy, 'This piece originally appeared on the author's Writing for Research blog and is reposted with permission. Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of the Impact of Social Science blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please review our Comments Policy if you have any concerns on posting a comment below. About the Author Authoring a PhD ' (Palgrave, 2003) or the Kindle edition, where Chapter 5 covers 'Writing clearly' and Chapter 6 'Developing as a Writer'.
9. Try to end the blogpost in a decisive and interesting fashion, one that sums up and encapsulates your argument in a new and neat way, perhaps opening out to next steps or future developments. Again try for a very well-written finish, that leaves a good lasting impression with readers.

10. Below the post, give the title of your long article and a clear link to it, ideally a hyperlink to an open access, full text version.

11. Lastly, include a few (4-5) lines of 'bio' about yourself. Ideally this should give your organizational position, link to your Twitter, Facebook or email accounts, and perhaps briefly mention recent books (hyperlink the titles) or other key works.

Writing a blogpost is a great digital networking opportunity, and these elements all help maximize readers' ability to find out more about you and your work. They are also greatly appreciated by readers. It must always be clear that you have authored the post, and how to digitally reach the full text of your article. Unfortunately some other multi-author or group blogs will still drastically prune or omit these elements, but at least you'll have tried.

Patrick Dunleavy is Professor of Political Science at the LSE and is Chair of the LSE Public Policy Group. He is well known for his book Authoring a PhD: How to plan, draft, write and finish a doctoral dissertation or thesis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

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How to write a blogpost from your journal article in eleven easy steps.

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You've just published a research article - why should you bother writing a blog post about it? Patrick Dunleavy argues that if you've devoted months to writing the paper, dealing with comments, doing rewrites and hacking through the publishing process, why would you not spend the extra couple of hours crafting an accessible blogpost?

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Thought this was interesting this morning: https://twitter.com/ithinkwellHugh/status/1490958633131286530/photo/1

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The Readiness Myth:
I'll write when I feel ready and I'm not ready yet
Reality: 
You will never feel ready. Start writing now.
From: #TurbochargeYourWriting https://t.co/QZ1DsIXRN2
#AcWri #phdchat #phdforum #ecrchat #postdoc

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The Readiness Myth:
I'll write when I feel ready and I'm not ready yet
Reality: 
You will never feel ready. Start writing now.
From: #TurbochargeYourWriting https://t.co/QZ1DsIXRN2
#AcWri #phdchat #phdforum #ecrchat #postdoc https://t.co/UkdfsTQkWn

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The Readiness Myth:
I'll write when I feel ready and I'm not ready yet
Reality:
You will never feel ready. Start writing now.
From: #TurbochargeYourWriting https://t.co/QZ1DsIXRN2#AcWri #phdchat #phdforum #ecrchat #postdoc pic.twitter.com/UkdfsTQkWn
— Hugh Kearns (@ithinkwellHugh) February 8, 2022

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The Readiness Myth:
I'll write when I feel ready and I'm not ready yet
Reality: 
You will never feel ready. Start writing now.
From: #TurbochargeYourWriting https://t.co/QZ1DsIXRN2
#AcWri #phdchat #phdforum #ecrchat #postdoc https://t.co/UkdfsTQkWn

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The Readiness Myth:
I'll write when I feel ready and I'm not ready yet
Reality: 
You will never feel ready. Start writing now.
From: #TurbochargeYourWriting https://t.co/QZ1DsIXRN2
#AcWri #phdchat #phdforum #ecrchat #postdoc https://t.co/UkdfsTQkWn

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The Readiness Myth:
I'll write when I feel ready and I'm not ready yet
Reality: 
You will never feel ready. Start writing now.
From: #TurbochargeYourWriting https://t.co/QZ1DsIXRN2
#AcWri #phdchat #phdforum #ecrchat #postdoc

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Advice from someone who used to frequently get stuck while writing

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Advice from someone who used to frequently get stuck while writing

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I start writing by first creating an outline with everything I want to talk about. Once I have the first draft of the structure and I'm ready to begin writing, I go back to the beginning of the outline and start fleshing out the bullet points by adding detail and making the points into sentences. I keep telling myself that 'I'm just making bullet points' so that I don't feel pressured or get stuck. Usually the bullet points become so coherent and clear that I can simply copy each point over into a full paragraph. Minimal editing and done! Onwards to the next section of bullet points.

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It's hard to switch your critical editor off when you're doing these writing sessions, and I certainly struggled to do so, but it really helps to push it to the side. Carve out 1 or 2 2hr writing sessions in your day if you can where you put your phone on silent, click out of your emails, and maybe even tell your family/housemates that you're doing a writing session so they don't disturb you for that time. Then just write. If it sounds clumsy or awkward or even silly, that's ok! You can then take a break after the writing session and return to it after a while for an 'editing' session. I think this method will really help lessen writer's block and also improve the coherency, consistency, and quality of our work.

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Writing can be hard! It's also quite a solitary process.

Let's help each other with our writing, provide some peer support, tips for writing and share our achievements!

This could be around keeping the momentum going, tips for writing from home, or just tips on getting that writing project started!

Or do you just have some writing achievement to celebrate 'I finished that paper!' If you have anything you'd like to share, please post on the wall!

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4 Short Videos focussed on writing from University of Bath 

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4 Short Videos focussed on writing from University of Bath 

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https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn0O5Ijni4TQvcOlNuMg1wJzX9LLOyF4B

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Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

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A conversation with Rowena Murray where she talks about the writing retreats for both the importance of learning behaviours around how to write, and for the value of the academic friendships that arise from such writing groups - http://www.changingacademiclife.com/blog/2018/7/11/rowena-murray

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Rowena Murray on writing retreats, academic friendships and dealing with discrimination — Changing Academic Life

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Rowena Murray is a Professor of Education, Director of Research, in the School of Education at the University of the West of Scotland. She is an internationally recognised expert and author on academic writing and on running writing retreats . In this conversation she talks about the writing ret

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I found a good exercise as well is to re-word what you've written with the aim that any literate primary 7 pupil will understand it. I find such exercises remove unnecessary erudition and make my prose more coherent.

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I found a good exercise as well is to re-word what you've written with the aim that any literate primary 7 pupil will understand it. I find such exercises remove unnecessary erudition and make my prose more coherent.

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I often start with a quote on a blank page if I am struggling to get going with what I want to write. Not an 'inspirational' quote, but something tangibly related to the topic of my intended discussion. Often these quotes come from the literature surrounding my topic, or a passage from a book I'm engaging with. I find that 'words on a page', even a quote, get me moving towards my own reflections and what I want to say.

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I often start with a quote on a blank page if I am struggling to get going with what I want to write. Not an 'inspirational' quote, but something tangibly related to the topic of my intended discussion. Often these quotes come from the literature surrounding my topic, or a passage from a book I'm engaging with. I find that 'words on a page', even a quote, get me moving towards my own reflections and what I want to say.

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•Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style (2015) chapter 'Arcs of Coherence' helped me immensely.

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•Steven Pinker's The Sense of Style (2015) chapter 'Arcs of Coherence' helped me immensely.

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If I am getting stuck, I do 10 minutes of free writing (no notes or stopping) by hand to get some ideas down

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If I am getting stuck, I do 10 minutes of free writing (no notes or stopping) by hand to get some ideas down

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It's difficult to feel like you've achieved much when you're on revision 7452 of your paper! Even if I only change a few words in one hour's work, I change the colour of the font of the paragraph I've just worked on to show to myself that, no, it doesn't look as impressive as writing 500 new words, but yes, it was important work!

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It's difficult to feel like you've achieved much when you're on revision 7452 of your paper! Even if I only change a few words in one hour's work, I change the colour of the font of the paragraph I've just worked on to show to myself that, no, it doesn't look as impressive as writing 500 new words, but yes, it was important work!

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Taking part in the iAD writing session kick-started my paper editing process, and now I'm actually pretty excited to continue! As a tip, I would recommend trying to find your best times of the day to work on writing. I can concentrate the best before noon and after 5pm, and usually putting on a 'study-with-me' -youtube video helps too!

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Taking part in the iAD writing session kick-started my paper editing process, and now I'm actually pretty excited to continue! As a tip, I would recommend trying to find your best times of the day to work on writing. I can concentrate the best before noon and after 5pm, and usually putting on a 'study-with-me' -youtube video helps too!

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Getting started can often be the hardest part, and if I just let myself write unhindered and avoid the temptation of editing as I write it become much easier to then figure out what I want to say and then get those thoughts down on paper. A bit like building, start with the rough structure and then edit it later for the smooth completed look!

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Just write as it comes! Editing will be for later and it feels great to see how much we can write when we put aside stylistic or grammatical considerations! Good luck everyone !

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During a writing retreat, don't be too precious about your writing style. Just make sure you put some words on the page and edit later.

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During a writing retreat, don't be too precious about your writing style. Just make sure you put some words on the page and edit later.

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To continue writing whilst working from home, make sure to block out at least one hour in your diary each week as 'Writing Hour'.  This will ensure you have that dedicated time set aside which will make you do it, and avoids colleagues putting something in your diary when you were 'thinking' of doing some writing.

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To continue writing whilst working from home, make sure to block out at least one hour in your diary each week as 'Writing Hour'.  This will ensure you have that dedicated time set aside which will make you do it, and avoids colleagues putting something in your diary when you were 'thinking' of doing some writing.

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Avoid distractions!  It sounds simple but to make sure this happens for the time you've set aside for writing switch of emails, social media and other distractions and focus solely on writing.

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Avoid distractions!  It sounds simple but to make sure this happens for the time you've set aside for writing switch of emails, social media and other distractions and focus solely on writing.