We’ve all attended meetings where there’s been a lot of noise, but very little to show for it at the end. The discussion is dominated by a member with one terrible idea that they’re determined to force upon everyone. The quieter colleagues who actually have something valuable to say slump in defeat and start wondering what they’re going to have for dinner. The only outcome is agreement on the date for the next exhausting meeting. ...
Here are the further resources for my workshop on Boosting Your Writing Productivity. Books 📚 Detox Your Writing: Strategies for Doctoral Researchers by Pat Thomson & Barbara Kamler Writing for Social Scientists by Howard S. Becker Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword Writing Science by Joshua Schimel Worksheets 📝 Writing Audit - Template for tracking the writing stage. Accountability 👀 Focusmate Write or Else Written? Kitten? Resources 🧭 Using the OCAR Structure for Academic Writing How to Use Zotero with Scrivener Time Tracking for Researchers: Improve Your Project Management with Data-Driven Planning Improve Your Flow with Reverse Outlining To Write More, You Need Less Time How to Defeat Your Inner Critic and Keep Writing Overcoming Procrastination and Staying Motivated: Three Strategies for Getting on with your Writing Overcoming Page Fright: Three Techniques for Planning a Piece of Academic Writing How to Become a Healthy Academic Writer
As discussed in the previous post, for each narrative CV, you need to identify your audience and gather relevant examples. Now it’s time to start writing. OCAR (Opening, Challenge, Action, Resolution) provides a framework for turning your achievements into compelling narratives that show how and why, not just what. In this post, we’ll explore a step-by-step method and some examples for the four modules. The Method For each module … Step 1: Choose an achievement Pick something relevant to this specific application. Make sure it demonstrates the right competencies for this module. Step 2: Identify your OCAR elements Use the questions from the OCAR guide as prompts. Make rough notes for each element. Check: Does your Resolution link back to your Opening? Step 3: Draft your narrative Write it out in full sentences. Focus on clarity first, elegance later. Include specific details (numbers, names, outcomes) - a narrative CV is a story, backed up with facts. Step 4: Refine for concision Every word must earn its place. Remove any redundancy (e.g. use “regularly”, rather than “on a regular basis”). Check word count against funder requirements. It’s up to you how many examples you include in each module. The only rules are the word limit set by the funder. For example, if you have a limit of 500 words per module, you might decide to include one detailed contribution, or three shorter contributions, each comprising ~150 words. ...
It’s important to remember that all academic writing is storytelling. Yes, even for scientists. The data don’t speak for themselves - you need to create a narrative that explains how you pursued your research, what happened, who was involved, and why it matters. Humans are wired to respond to stories, so it’s the perfect vehicle for communicating complex ideas. If storytelling feels alien to you, there’s good news: successful stories follow a common structure. There are many different structures you could use, but OCAR is especially helpful for academic writing. ...
The Narrative CV format means thinking about your research in a new way. Rather than creating an exhaustive list of all your achievements, you tell a story that explains why the funding body should give you money. In this post, we’ll consider the audience for your story and also what you might tell them. Thinking about your audience With storytelling, you start by thinking about your audience. In this case, it’s the members of the funding panel. What do they want to know about you when they’re reading your application? Well, they’re almost certainly looking for: ...
Many UK funders are adopting a new approach to academic CVs. In the business world, CVs typically occupy just a few pages, but academic CVs can stretch to more than a hundred pages, especially if you’re a prolific researcher. These monster documents are boring to write and also difficult for the recipient to digest. Also, traditional CVs focus on publications, awards, and successful grants. These are your most visible activities, but might represent only a small proportion of your effort. Under the surface, you’re spending a lot of your time on peer review, committees, building collaborations, public engagement, and mentorship. This vital work doesn’t always count. ...
We’re all familiar with the importance of budgeting our money - tracking what we spend, saving for big occasions, and avoiding that expensive overdraft. Our energy deserves the same careful consideration. Just like financial overspending, regularly exceeding our energy capacity leads to serious consequences: burnout, anxiety, and poor decision-making. This is crucial for neurodivergent people and those managing chronic health conditions. Activities that seem straightforward to others can leave us exhausted. It’s hard both to recognise our own limits and to communicate them clearly to others - especially when we’re already tired. ...
Here are the resources for my workshop on Planning the Final Year of Your PhD. 🎤 You can also hear me talking about avoiding burnout on the PhD Life Raft podcast. Books 📚 The Literature Review by Diana Ridley The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research by Gordon Rugg & Marian Petre How to Write a Thesis by Rowena Murray Websites 🕸️ The PhD Life Raft - Useful resources for doctoral researchers, including an excellent podcast The Thesis Whisperer - Hundreds of thoughtful posts on every aspect of being a doctoral researcher. Thinkwell - Planners and templates for managing your PhD. Resources 🧭 How to Map Your Thesis or Book Creating a Minimum Viable Thesis Preparing for an Online Viva How to Write a Thesis Abstract Who Do You Include in Your Thesis Acknowledgements? Worksheets 📝 Completion Checklist - A systematic approach to deciding whether you're ready to submit your thesis (PDF). Editing Audit - Template for tracking the editing stage. Writing Audit - Template for tracking the writing stage.
Here are the resources for my workshop on Streamlining Your Writing with AI. AI Books 📚 Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell The Alignment Problem: How Can Artificial Intelligence Learn Human Values? by Brian Christian Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman Apps 💻 AudioPen Claude NotebookLM Resources 🧭 Using NotebookLM for Academic Research MacWhisper: a Privacy-Focused Tool for Transcribing Audio Streamline Your Notetaking with Readwise Capturing Research Notes With AudioPen How to Automatically Sync AudioPen Notes with Obsidian Websites 🕸️ The Algorithmic Bridge - Alberto Romero's thought pieces on the wider implications of AI. Cate Denial - Professor Cate Denial's comprehensive list of resources discussing the problems with GenAI. Emily Bender - Linguist and AI sceptic One Useful Thing - Ethan Mollicks's pragmatic but enthusiastic views of AI, with an emphasis on Higher Education. Margaret Mitchell - AI research scientist and ethicist. Courses 👩🏽🏫 AI for Everyone Generative AI for Everyone Writing Books 📚 Detox Your Writing: Strategies for Doctoral Researchers by Pat Thomson & Barbara Kamler Writing for Social Scientists by Howard S. Becker Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword Writing Science by Joshua Schimel Resources 🧭 Using the OCAR Structure for Academic Writing How to Use Zotero with Scrivener Time Tracking for Researchers: Improve Your Project Management with Data-Driven Planning Improve Your Flow with Reverse Outlining To Write More, You Need Less Time How to Defeat Your Inner Critic and Keep Writing Overcoming Procrastination and Staying Motivated: Three Strategies for Getting on with your Writing Overcoming Page Fright: Three Techniques for Planning a Piece of Academic Writing How to Become a Healthy Academic Writer Websites 🕸️ Academic Phrasebank - This extensive resource includes examples to help you understand the mechanics of academic writing. Explorations of Style - Rachael Cayley's thoughtful blog about all aspects of academic writing.
When I run project management workshops, there’s always one problem that everyone struggles with: how on earth do you estimate the time needed for each task? Most of us either overlook the complexities of an apparently straightforward activity, or simply forget that it always takes much longer than we imagine. As researchers, we vow to devise a better data-driven solution, but that’ll be for the next project. Time Tracking One of the best solutions I’ve discovered is time tracking. Working on freelance projects, I sometimes need to track billable hours for clients. With time tracking tools like Toggl, you record the start and end time for activities so you can generate reports on exactly how long you spent on that project. Within the project, you use tags or labels to track specific activities, such as emails, meetings, or researching. I use Toggl1 because it’s easy record everything with the desktop timer, which also supports the Pomodoro Technique. Alternatives include Clockify and RescueTime. ...