I think people get confused between gap and problem because gaps are problematic—there’s something we don’t know that we want to know.

If you can sort buttons, you can sort your reference library.

As we experiment with AI tools for scholarly writing, the academic community must consider the needs of its emerging members.

Feeling lost in a crowd of articles and books, unsure about how to take effective notes? If that's you, meet the Critical Annotated Bibliography (CAB) – your game-changer. It not only hones your reading focus but also crafts a powerful collection of writing ready to go into your drafts.

In this episode Kate shares how her doctoral writing group was formed and maintained and reflects on her experience of what worked and what was not so useful. She also offers some alternative models for doctoral writing groups and advice for those who would like to try this way of working.

When cooking or baking, you have lots of choices but also some limits; when designing a study, your choices also need to fit with each other and accepted practice.

“Writing is so amazingly resistant to efficiency measures.”

— Rachael Cayley

I’ll be presenting at The Writer’s Workout Conference in March 2024.

Here’s my quick-and-dirty method to discover your answers to the so what? and who cares? questions. Grab a piece of paper and let’s do this!

A new term usually means a shift in the weekly routine. Let’s take advantage of that shift to boost your research and writing process this fall.

Reference management tools abound. But because there are so many different tools, choosing one can feel overwhelming. How do you know which system is right for you? Here, I break down the factors you want to consider.

You’ve read and annotated a collection of articles and books, and it’s time to start drafting a literature review. You need to figure out what you want to say about the stuff you read. Here are my top three strategies for discovering what you want to say.

Summer is finally here! You can finally get back to that research project that has been on hold during the semester or the entire academic year! And you are filled with dread because…where to even start?

I learned this the hard way—by failing to keep any records of database searches, then scrambling to recreate my search process after the fact. Don’t be that researcher. There’s a better way.

Getting feedback on your writing is tough for a lot of people for a lot of reasons. In this post, I walk you through some basic tools for working with that feedback, so you can move your project forward.

Let’s talk about how to ask for friendly feedback, which means feedback on your academic writing from someone whose goal is to help you develop your document before you send it to someone who is a gatekeeper for your writing.

All academic writers need other sources of feedback besides the advisor, committee members, journal editors, and peer reviewers. Let’s call this friendly feedback.

Every professional writer gets feedback as part of the publishing process. And guess what? As an academic, you are also a professional writer!