Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Most graduate writers who are struggling with their writing are actually struggling with their thinking. It isn’t a psychological block, but rather the intellectual confusions endemic to the process of communicating sophisticated research. To Rachael Cayley, these confusions are real and can have deleterious consequences for writing, but when we treat these problems as conceptual problems in our thinking we create the space to use writing as a strategy to solve them. The writer’s block label may just be further alienating us from our own writing; write your way out.

Writing is not as easy as many think. It’s more than just sitting down and typing. The very process takes concentration and inspiration, but not all days are motivational that way. Sometimes, writing is like pushing a mountain to move. It won’t budge no matter how hard you try or effort you put into it. However, instead of trying to move the mountain, why not just take a nice walk and climb over it?

What’s the secret to a productive spell of writing? Chris Smith shares insights gleaned from interviews with a diverse group of academics, from which a number of common academic writing habits stood out. These range from the simple acts of scheduling and setting self-imposed deadlines, to both formal and informal accountability partnerships and the use of “freewriting” techniques which help authors write their way out of blocks.