The Productive Graduate Student Writer: How to Manage Your Time, Process, and Energy to Write Your Research Proposal, Thesis, and Dissertation and Get Published

✍ Scribed by Jan E. Allen, Chris M. Golde

• Publisher: Stylus Publishing
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 230
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book is for graduate students--and others--who want to become more productive writers. It's especially written for those who want to:

• increase their motivation, focus, and persistence to move a project to completion
• overcome procrastination and perfectionistic tendencies
• reduce (or write in spite of) their anxiety and fear of writing
• manage their time, work, energy (and advisor) for greater productivity

The process or craft of sustained writing is not a matter that’s taught to undergraduate or graduate students as part of their studies, leaving most at sea about how to start a practice that is central to a career in academe and vital in many other professional occupations.

This book grew out of conversations Jan Allen has held with her graduate students for over 30 years and reflects the fruit of the writing workshops and boot camps she has conducted at three universities, her own and numerous colleagues’ experiences with writing and advising, as well as the feedback she receives from her popular Productive Writer listserv.

While Jan Allen recognizes that writing is not an innate talent for most of us, she demonstrates that it is a process based on skills which we can identify, learn, practice and refine. She focuses both on the process and habits of writing as well as on helping you uncover what kind of writer are you, and reflect on your challenges and successes. With a light touch and an engaging sense of humor, she proposes strategies to overcome procrastination and distractions, and build a writing practice to enable you to become a more productive and prolific writer.

Jan Allen proposes that you read one of her succinct chapters – each devoted to a specific strategy or writing challenge – each day, or once a week. When you find one that increases your concentration, motivation or endurance, make it a habit. Try it for two weeks, charting the resulting increased productivity. It will become part of your repertoire of writing and productivity tools to which you can progressively add.

✦ Table of Contents

The Productive Graduate Student Writer
COPYRIGHT © 2019
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1 Write Every Day
2 Schedule Your Writing
3 Write Early in the Day
4 Write a Very Bad First Draft
5 Set Writing Goals
6 Chart Your Progress
7 Preparing to Write
8 Write Before You Wake Up (What?)
9 Write With Deadlines
10 Develop and Use an Outline
11 Fill Your Reservoir
12 Avoid Distractions
13 Think Ahead and Plan Backward
14 Getting to Flow
15 Avoid Binge Writing
16 Overcome Perfectionistic Tendencies
17 Stop Procrastinating—Now
18 Staying Motivated
19 The Last Five Minutes of Writing
20
Your Writing Environment
21 Stuck?
22 Revising and Editing
23 Time Management
24 Energy Management
25 Adviser Management
26 Practice Writing
27 Using a Writing Support Group
28 Responsible Writing
29 Writing a Graduate Fellowship Application
30 Writing a Grant Proposal
31 Writing a Research Proposal
32 Writing a Thesis
33 Writing a Dissertation
34 Writing a Journal Article
35 Writing a Book Proposal for an Editor or Agent
36 How to Think and Act Like a Writer
APPENDICES
Appendix A: YOUR WRITING SLOGAN
Appendix B: WRITING GOALSAND JOURNAL
Appendix C: WORD COUNT PROGRESS CHART
Appendix D: TWENTY STEPS TO WRITING YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION PROPOSAL OR PROSPECTUS
Appendix E: THINK AHEAD AND PLAN BACKWARD
Appendix F: SAMPLE SCHEDULE FOR MY NEXT WRITING PROJECT
Appendix G: OBSTACLES TO PRODUCTIVE WRITING
Appendix H: WORKING THROUGH WRITING OBSTACLES
Appendix I: PROPOSAL, THESIS, DISSERTATION PROGRESS MEETING DATE
Appendix J: PEER REVIEW AND CRITIQUE
Appendix K: CHOCOLATE CHIPCAKE RECIPE
Appendix L: WRITING TIPS AND STRATEGIES
Appendix M: RESOURCES FOR ACADEMIC WRITERS
REFERENCES
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Index
Graduate and Doctoral Education books from Stylus Publishing
General Interest books from Stylus Publishing
Also available from Stylus