Writing Tips to Get Your Manuscript Out

Some tips that I gave during my talk at the Public Management Research Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, June 23rd, 2016.

Transcript

1. 1 Writing Tips for Doctoral Students, Early Career Scholars and Busy Professors: Getting Your Manuscript Out Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega Public Administration Division Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) Public Management Research Conference 2016 Aarhus, Denmark, June 23, 2016
2. Challenges facing most academics… Images: © Jorge Cham, PhDComics
3. Writing more vs. Writing smart My suggestions to my own doctoral students are predicated around three main topics: 1. Writing as discipline 2. Writing as method 3. Writing as self-reflection and self-care
4. Who am I?
5. My Top 10 Academic Writing Tips (1/2) 1. Be disciplined and write every day. 2. Give yourself the best tools to write. 3. Write as you would speak (aka read aloud what you just wrote). 4. Have other people read your pieces to provide you with feedback. 5. Read a lot, and read across different disciplines.
6. My Top 10 Academic Writing Tips (2/2) 6. Write for your audience. 7. Write without interruptions 8. Take care of yourself. 9. Practice your writing. Write a lot. 10. When stuck, write by hand.
7. Reading will help you write… • Reading a journal article in the morning (with your coffee?)  • Read-as-you-write (summarize your readings)
8. Write to explain things • Answer questions (each paragraph/section answers a question) • Reverse outlines help
9. Write around your data • Paragraph before the graph: • What will the data table/graph tell you? • Why is it important? • Paragraph after the graph • What the data • What are the most important elements of dataset? • Limitations of analysis
10. Helpful links from my own blog Responding to reviewer comments http://www.raulpacheco.org/2016/06/how-to-respond-to-reviewer- comments-the-drafts-review-matrix/ Synthesizing different bodies of literature http://www.raulpacheco.org/2016/06/synthesizing-different-bodies-of- work-in-your-literature-review-the-conceptual-synthesis-excel-dump- technique/ Searching for the literature http://www.raulpacheco.org/2016/06/how-to-do-a-literature-review- citation-tracing-concept-saturation-and-results-mind-mapping/ Writing a full paper in 8 steps http://www.raulpacheco.org/2016/04/8-tips-to-write-a-research-paper- from-start-to-finish-relatively-quick-and-easy/
11. Raul.Pacheco-Vega@cide.edu http://www.raulpacheco.org @raulpacheco (Twitter) Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega