Setting yourself up for successful academic writing (October 18, 2022)

The objective of this workshop was for participants to discover the BASE habits of successful writers: behavioural, artisanal, social, and emotional, and to develop their own customized blueprint for building a productive writing practice from the ground up.

• Irrespective of the type of writer you are, Dr. Sword offered a “smorgasbord of solutions” to compose engaging academic written pieces as productivity in writing looks different for everyone.
• Mapping out your writing base is a diagnostic measure of self-confidence about your writing practice.
• Key questions of each dimension of the Writing BASE to ask yourself:
  • Behavioural: Do you feel productive as a writer (in terms of self-discipline regarding consistency, meeting deadlines etc.)?
    • Establishing a routine or setting a daily writing goal can greatly impact this dimension of your writing base.
  • Artisanal: Do you think of yourself as a skillful writer?
    • Your attitude towards learning/improving upon your “word-craft” determines your trajectory for growth as a writer.
  • Social: To what extent are other people a positive part of your writing practice? How often do you have constructive conversations about your writing practice?
    • Social support is valuable for your growth, development and success as a writer.
  • Emotional: What are your main emotions towards writing?
    • The way we feel about writing is extremely impactful on our writing practice.
• After establishing your current writing base, look for your strengths and think about how you can utilize them to reinforce your writing base from there to set yourself up for fruitful writing practice.
• Keep track of your writing “pluses” and “minuses” and experiment with both!

Discover your Writing Base!

• Dr. Sword’s 10 strategies for becoming a more productive academic writer:
  • Write everyday
  • Write to think
  • Write first, edit later
  • Schedule your writing time – honour this time as any other important appointment
  • Monitor your progress – keep track of how much time you spent writing/how much writing you accomplished in a given time
  • Snack Write – take advantage of short moments within the day to write
  • Binge Write (“a writing feast”)
  • Retreat –an escape from your space to nourish your writing and mood (can be done alone or with a company)
  • Reflect
  • Experiment and play – making space for other forms of writing that will “cross-train” you and build up your writing skills overall.

Date modified:

2022-12-12