{"id":6879,"date":"2018-11-01T10:45:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T21:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=6879"},"modified":"2018-11-01T10:45:21","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T21:45:21","slug":"throwback-thursday-writing-for-your-discipline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=6879","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: Writing for your Discipline"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post first appeared on Thesislink in March 2015. We’ve chosen a post about writing for today’s Throwback Thursday in honour of those of you starting your November #acwrimo challenge today. Good luck!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We talk about academic writing a lot here at Thesislink, yet it feels like there might be an elephant in the room.<\/p>\n

Sense it?<\/p>\n

Yes, there it is\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the Elephant of Disciplinarity!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an old story about how, if a group of vision-deprived people each examine a different part of the same elephant, they\u2019ll come to very different conclusions about what they are examining. Oliver Marsh over at Sideways Look at Science<\/a> uses that story as a metaphor for disciplinarity.* He writes about how, in an academic discipline, you study your own little piece of the elephant. You analyse it, you draw conclusions about what it is, and you get to know it really, really well. If you take an interdisciplinary perspective, you might ask others in different disciplines what they\u2019ve found out about other parts of the elephant. But generally, you stick with your disciplinary subject.<\/p>\n

The same can be said of disciplinary writing styles. I could wax lyrical about writing conventions in English (my field) until the cows come home. I could tell you how literary scholars hate cliches like \u201celephant in the room,\u201d \u201cwax lyrical,\u201d and \u201cuntil the cows come home.\u201d But if you want to know how to write as a materials engineer? I\u2019ll be no help at all.<\/p>\n

Academic disciplines can have totally<\/em> different approaches to written research, even when dealing with the same broad object of analysis. My way of writing about the elephant\u2019s tail might be totally different to your way of writing about its ears.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mind if we switch?<\/p>\n

So how do you learn the writing conventions in your discipline?<\/p>\n

Read within your field<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been in your field for awhile, you\u2019ve probably absorbed most of its writing conventions by osmosis. Reading others\u2019 work within your disciplinary boundaries is not only a key part of doing research, but also a great way to learn what\u2019s expected of academic writing in your field. In other words, if you research the trunk, read about the trunk.<\/p>\n

Read outside your field<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes it\u2019s hard to identify what\u2019s unique to your field without comparing it to others. Try reading an article from a different discipline. Or, for a quick comparison, explore Duke University\u2019s series of short guides for writing in different disciplines<\/a>. (They are aimed mainly at undergraduates, but can be useful if you want to quickly introduce yourself to another discipline\u2019s writing style.) In other words, if you research the trunk, try reading about the toenails.<\/p>\n

Read a style guide or two<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re relatively new to academic writing, or you\u2019ve recently changed fields, it may help to read some guides on how to write for your discipline. There are lots of books out there \u2013 ask around in your School \/ Department for recommendations, or talk to the Liaison Librarian<\/a> for your subject.<\/p>\n

Peer-review with other research students<\/strong><\/p>\n

Set up a review group of research students in your School or Department. Meet once a fortnight to peer-review a member\u2019s latest chunk of writing. You\u2019ll get a good sense of how others in your discipline are writing, and when it\u2019s your turn, you\u2019ll get multiple perspectives on your style.<\/p>\n

Keep a vocab list<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a list of buzzwords that are frequently used in my field. Heuristic. Ontology. Autodiegesis. Writing them in my notebook feels a little like going back to primary school, only the words are bigger than I was back then. I love my list, though, because it helps me to locate technical terms when I need them. I also find it helpful to keep tabs on which words are trendy in my field, so that I can choose strategically in any given instance whether I want to use a field-specific buzzword, or explain my ideas in a more widely accessible way.<\/p>\n

These are just a few ideas, but I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve got more. Tell us, postgrads \u2013 what has helped you to learn the writing conventions of your field?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Thanks to Oliver Marsh for giving permission to discuss his metaphor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post first appeared on Thesislink in March 2015. We’ve chosen a post about writing for today’s Throwback Thursday in honour of those of you starting your November #acwrimo challenge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6725,"featured_media":3858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1],"tags":[86,88,89,78],"class_list":["post-6879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-throwback-thursday","category-category-5","tag-creative-arts","tag-humanities","tag-sciences","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/Academic-elephant.gif?fit=720%2C529&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p83npQ-1MX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6879"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6880,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6879\/revisions\/6880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}