Author: Sarah Lang
Because I work in Digital Humanities and part of my job is thinking about the ethics behind AI, I get asked a lot how I use AI for academic writing. Today I finally want to publish a brief post about how I do it. All in all, there are three…
How to find a good research question and locate secondary literature as a novice academic writer
Academic writing is challenging to teach—especially when you try to explain it to someone who doesn’t yet have a frame of reference. Reflecting on my own experience, many writing tips I heard early on felt meaningless. It was only through practice—writing articles, submitting them, and receiving feedback—that I really learned.…
Breaking the Binge Writing Cycle: News about my project of becoming a better academic writer
Today’s post is a collection of reflections on writing, research habits, and the messy realities of trying to work sustainably. After another deadline sprint, I’m taking a closer look at what’s working (and what isn’t) in my writing routine—from how I manage reading and citing sources to how I handle…
Breaking the Binge Writing Cycle: News about my project of becoming a better academic writer
Today’s post is a collection of reflections on writing, research habits, and the messy realities of trying to work sustainably. After another deadline sprint, I’m taking a closer look at what’s working (and what isn’t) in my writing routine—from how I manage reading and citing sources to how I handle…
How to teach yourself to become a decent academic writer
Academic writing is a central part of life in Academia, especially when you’re a PhD student. It’s basically the single most important thing that your success is going to depend on. However, at least in the German-speaking context where I did my degree, there was hardly any formal teaching on…
Identify Your Writing Bottlenecks to Become a More Effective Academic Writer
Struggling to finish your academic writing projects? This post explores how identifying and managing writing bottlenecks can help you write more effectively, stay focused, and overcome procrastination. Today, I’m diving into finding and understanding your writing bottlenecks. Even though I’ve made a lot of progress lately, I realized there are…
Three Books That Changed How I Work and Live: Lessons from Essentialism, So Good They Can’t Ignore You, and Make Time
As part of our goal to have more short posts with quick takeaways, today I’m sharing some key insights from a few books that have had a huge impact on my thinking around work, life, and productivity. Here’s a quick roundup of some practical lessons from Essentialism by Greg McKeown…
Getting Writing Done in 15-Minute Increments
In her book on academic writing, Wendy Belcher reminds us how much progress you can make in just 15 minutes. Sitting down for 15 minutes to accomplish something—even a small part of the process—can add up over time. I completely agree, especially for editing in smaller sections. While I do…
Write Often, Write Happy: Academic Writing Lessons from Two Great Books
Today, I’m continuing the reflections I started in my last post. As I revisit my old surf journal from last year, I’m sharing some quick insights from two great books on academic writing, How to Write a Lot and Write No Matter What. If you’re also working on building a…
Back to the Waves, Back to the Academic Writing Project
In today’s post, I’m reflecting a bit on my writing journey over the past year, and what it feels like to revisit old journals and unfinished posts. I’m writing this from my favorite surf spot in Portugal, where I’m also thinking about how much has changed—and stayed the same. If…
Don’t give them reasons to disqualify you by saying this [Applications in Academia 101, A Survival Guide, Part 6]
The last post offered some advice on better understanding academic CVs. Now I’d like to highlight one critical mistake I’ve made in the past and recently observed in others: handing someone a reason not to fund you. I will discuss the general conundrum and why it happens more often than…
Back to Applications in Academia 101 [A Survival Guide, Part 5]: How Academic CVs are different
As you may remember, I did a blog post series about applications in academia roughly one and a half years ago. Now, with stipend committee duties back on my plate, I’ve realized there are a few things I forgot to explain last time. Looking back at the series, I still…
Revising your draft into a publishable journal article in 12 weeks [Book Review]
Another very useful book about academic writing that I want to discuss with you is Wendy Laura Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success (Second Edition, University of Chicago Press, 2009/2019). This book is a practical workbook and has gone through many iterations,…
Does writer’s block exist in academic writing?
We have been talking about academic writing quite a bit recently, so I wanted to discuss another obvious question: Does writer’s block exist in academia? Academic writing isn’t like fiction writing (in my opinion) A common misconception, in my opinion, is that people often mix up academic writing and fiction…
Writing advice for PhD students. Part 4
This is the final part of a mini series on writing advice for PhD students. The tips here aren’t all directly related but mostly, they are about timing. In part 1 I shared some random tips and book recommendations. In part 2, I explained the different stages of academic writing…
Writing advice for PhD students. Part 3
In this series of blog posts (part 1 and part 2), I summarize what writing advice I would recommend my younger self. Although I’m not fully sure nobody ever told me this stuff but I just didn’t listen. Anyway, maybe somewhere in this series is some advice that speaks to…