PhD Progress

Here are the further resources for my workshop on Getting Writing Done. Books 📚 Detox Your Writing: Strategies for Doctoral Researchers by Pat Thomson & Barbara Kamler Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks by Wendy Belcher 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 🧭 Working in Sprints Visual Planning with Trello How to Use the Research Folder in Scrivener How to Use Scrivener Snapshots How to Use the Scratchpad in Scrivener The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Tomatoes: The Pomodoro Technique Revisited Wearing Your Writing Hat Building a Writing Fortress 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

Here are the resources for my workshop on Turning Your Thesis into a Monograph. 🎤 You can also hear me talking about publishing your thesis on the PhD Life Raft podcast. Books 📚 How to Publish Your PhD by Catherine Pope Thinking Like Your Editor – How to Write Serious Nonfiction & Get it Published by Susan Rabiner & Alfred Fortunato - not specifically for academics, but useful for considering your project from the publisher’s perspective. Writing Science by Joshua Schimel - despite the title, the excellent advice applies to writers in all disciplines and is also applicable to book proposals. Websites 🕸️ Open Access Knowledge Unlatched - repository of OA books. Open Book Publishers - OA publishers Contractual Support Society of Authors – will check contracts Textbook and Academic Authors Association – US-centric, but lots of resources and guidance. Web Presence Reclaim Hosting – affordable hosting for academics. Offers WordPress, Omeka, MediaWiki and more. Knowledge Commons – not-for-profit alternative to Academia.edu. Also offers free WordPress hosting. Omeka – create online exhibitions. Podcasting Pod Academy – directory of research-based podcasts H-Podcast – lots of discussion and podcasts in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Publishing support Bookvault - publish, print, and sell books globally. Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading - directory of qualified editors and proofreaders across many fields. Reedsy – marketplace for finding reputable publishing professionals. Society of Indexers - find a qualified book indexer, or even train to become an indexer! Indexing: A Guide for Academic Authors - comprehensive blog post explaining the process.

Here are the resources for my workshop on Making Progress 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 Time Tracking for Researchers Managing Your Energy Budget The Human Function Curve Worksheets 📝 Writing Audit - Template for tracking the writing stage.

This is a fictitious narrative CV created to demonstrate the OCAR structure in response to an equally fictitious funding call. It’s designed to help you understand how the R4RI format works, not to provide a template to copy. Any resemblance to real research is coincidental. Use this example for understanding the approach, then make it your own. Click the arrows for commentary on how the OCAR framework was applied in each section. ...

Your Personal Statement is possibly the most challenging part of a narrative CV. In just 2-3 sentences,1 you need to convey your research identity, your approach, and why you’re the right person for the funding 😳 It’s not a mini-biography or a list of achievements — you’re distilling your overarching research narrative. How on earth do you compress your entire career into a few sentences? In this post, I’ll guide you through the process of clarifying your research identity and crafting a Personal Statement that accurately and authentically represents who you are as an academic researcher. ...

This is a fictitious narrative CV created to demonstrate the OCAR structure in response to an equally fictitious funding call. It’s designed to help you understand how the R4RI format works, not to provide a template to copy. Use this example for understanding the approach, then make it your own. Any resemblance to real research is coincidental. Click the arrows for commentary on how the OCAR framework was applied in each section. ...

If you’ve read How to Write a Narrative CV, you’ve seen the step-by-step process for drafting individual examples using OCAR. In this post, we’ll explore a more complex aspect: how OCAR works at three nested levels within your narrative CV, and how to avoid common pitfalls when using this structure. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the OCAR framework (Opening, Challenge, Action, Resolution) is effective in most types of academic writing. It’s also helpful for developing an narrative CV. This storytelling approach: ...

Here are the resources for my workshop on Accelerating Your Research with 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 🧭 Local Speech-to-Text with Ratschn 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. AI Chatbots Benchmarking Report: An Independent Assessment - The first in a series of reports on the work of Full Fact’s Public Interest AI Trust Benchmark. Margaret Mitchell - AI research scientist and ethicist. Courses 👩🏽‍🏫 AI for Everyone Generative AI for Everyone

When I talk to academics about LinkedIn, the most common word I hear is “grubby,” swiftly followed by “timesink”. Although networking is vital for most of us, these platforms are designed to keep us clicking like eejits all day long. You don’t get funding for reaching an impressive number of likes, and it’s easy to lose half a day when you intended to spend just five minutes. In this post, I’ll explain some tactics for making the most of LinkedIn without letting it gobble up your precious time or your soul. ...

One of the great advantages of LinkedIn is that it allows you to widen your network, especially beyond academia. Unless you’re careful, though, it can quickly turn into another Facebook. You don’t want a feed full of self-promoting posts from people you’re never likely to meet or work with. In this guide, I’ll suggest a strategy for thinking about who should connect with and how you’ll engage with them. 1. What are you offering? The first step is to create a strong LinkedIn profile. If you’re asking people to connect and read your content, you need to explain why that’s a good use of their time. Your profile should explain who you are, your research interests, and what you’re currently working on. ...