How To Write A Lot: A Practical Guide To Productive Academic Writing (Lifetools: Books For The General Public)

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All students and professors need to write, and many struggle to finish their stalled dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, or grant proposals. Writing is hard work and can be difficult to wedge into a frenetic academic schedule. In this practical, light-hearted, and encouraging book, Paul Silvia explains that writing productively does not require innate skills or special traits but specific tactics and actions. Drawing examples from his own field of psychology, he shows readers how to overcome motivational roadblocks and become prolific without sacrificing evenings, weekends, and vacations. After describing strategies for writing productively, the author gives detailed advice from the trenches on how to write, submit, revise, and resubmit articles, how to improve writing quality, and how to write and publish academic work.

Series: Lifetools: Books for the General Public

Paperback: 149 pages

Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn; 1 edition (January 15, 2007)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1591477433

ISBN-13: 978-1591477433

Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5 x 8 inches

Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (260 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #4,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #8 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > General #10 in Books > Reference > Encyclopedias & Subject Guides > Medical #12 in Books > Medical Books > Research

This is a mercifully short and amusing book on writing for academic psychologists. I read it in two days, and I enjoyed it--for the most part. I have read a few books that treat the subject of writing in the academic setting in more depth, though, and I would not recommend this book as the only book you should read on writing. It discusses some subjects that I haven't seen addressed in other books, which is great. The chapter on publishing in journals and dealing with reviewers is nice. The discussion of different goals for grad students and faculty is very helpful; I will definitely borrow from it when I teach another professional seminar for grad students. I also enjoyed the opening chapters, which discuss commonly offered excuses for not writing on a schedule. Now, the quibbles.First, I found the discussion of how to make the schedule to be too opaque. If you want more advice on how to actually make an academic work schedule, with realistic examples, I would recommend Eviatar Zerubavel's "Clockwork Muse." He breaks it down so that really any idiot can follow the advice. He also talks about finding your most productive times for writing. Silvia's advice is essentially to write in the morning, but this might not work for everyone. Some people work better at night. Zerubavel discusses methods for finding your most productive times. He also identifies some useful techniques for making writing easy and enjoyable--something that Silvia has not found a way to do yet, judging from what he says repeatedly about how unpleasant writing is.Second, the section on style was very weak, in my opinion. Silvia recommends Strunk and White as the go-to style book, which is kind of bizarre...

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