{"id":66940,"date":"2014-04-03T07:30:53","date_gmt":"2014-04-03T12:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=66940"},"modified":"2014-04-04T14:12:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T19:12:01","slug":"becoming-the-habitual-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=66940","title":{"rendered":"Becoming the Habitual Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dillon Wackerman,\u00a0Head Editor, INALJ France<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Becoming the Habitual Writer<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"dillon_w_fp\"<\/a>For most professional fields writing is important as an activity in several respects,\u00a0with somewhat clear distinctions being present: at-work administrative (policies,\u00a0reports, guidelines, agendas), at-work professional (presentations, tutorials, workshops,\u00a0colloquiums) and away-from-work professional, which can be connected with the others\u00a0in several respects (articles, books and book chapters, reviews and so on). Potentially\u00a0ambiguous, yes, but it can be assumed that during an average work week quite a lot of\u00a0writing in various formats and with varying purposes will be required. This, of course,\u00a0applies as well to most professional contexts within information science, and for the\u00a0graduate student, job-seeker or new professional, as these are all activities which should\u00a0be expected at some point in a career, developing sound writing habits now can only be\u00a0beneficial.<\/p>\n

HABITS<\/p>\n

Any person would accept that graduate students and professionals (at any stage) possess\u00a0writing habits, yet the proximity of these to \u201csoundness\u201d as described here may differ.\u00a0Following, a sound writing habit is one that maintains and follows a schedule \u2013 day\u00a0and time, namely – and a set of production goals<\/strong>. Much, you could say, is lacking here:\u00a0what of quality, scope or style? Important, yes, in certain respects, but try to push these\u00a0concepts out of mind initially. These are ultimately derivative of maintaining a schedule\u00a0and minding production goals. To improve the quality of writing, to develop a style and\u00a0to properly understand the scope, or what one could adequately approach as a writer, it is\u00a0necessary to have something from which to build, to review, to edit, to present, to submit\u00a0and to rework.<\/p>\n

ADMINISTRATIVE VS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WRITING<\/p>\n

Before continuing on with an explanation of writing schedules and production goals,\u00a0it is necessary to briefly discuss an issue that does confront the new professional and\u00a0will confront the graduate student: the balance between administrative and professional\u00a0development writing. Really, the line on which these two areas of writing could balance\u00a0is vague, as one could and easily does merge into the other, and this is perhaps what\u00a0can produce issues. It may be best, then, to make a personal distinction in respect to the\u00a0intended purpose of what is being written, with one possibly being that of to-be-published\u00a0versus not-to-be-published. This, of course, can also be vague, as the set of guidelines\u00a0you wrote that were only intended for internal department use could eventually lead to or\u00a0influence a publication.<\/p>\n

What is key here is that some sort of distinction is made, one that as stated must be\u00a0persona<\/strong>l. The factors going into this decision are many and may be dictated by context.\u00a0Does your interest in professional development coincide with publishing? If so, is there\u00a0an area in which you may excel or even to which your administrative work may be\u00a0leveraged? Are you currently on a promotion or tenure track, or do you intend or desire\u00a0to be on such? Generally, promotion and tenure would dictate some form of publishing,\u00a0but the respective form may not necessarily be traditional (a best practices statement, or\u00a0even a vision statement, could qualify at some universities towards these goals). For an\u00a0early professional, publishing for professional development apart from the administrative\u00a0may possess more of an appeal: advancement is more self-directed, the audience is much\u00a0larger and of course there is the gained attention. Ultimately, though, a certain amount\u00a0of contingency is present as each is as important as the other and in most cases one may\u00a0positively influence the other.<\/p>\n

WORKLOAD<\/p>\n

Considering writing in either an administrative or a professional development sense,\u00a0the graduate student or early professional should then anticipate quite a large workload<\/strong>.\u00a0To properly confront this some type of plan must be in place, and what is more, this\u00a0plan must have some built-in consistency. One side of the plan as mentioned should be\u00a0to follow a writing schedule. For this, we could come up with a fairly simple course,\u00a0such as always writing on a certain day, and let us say every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Following this schedule will certainly produce results, but production is not only not\u00a0being maximized, but any positive carry over – from one writing session to the next – can\u00a0significantly be diminished by the gap in time.<\/p>\n

MAKE A SCHEDULE<\/p>\n

Ideally, I would say, writing should be scheduled for at least five days a week.<\/strong> The exact\u00a0days on which to write are not essentially important, although I am sure that every person\u00a0has a certain day of the week on which writing, or just work in general, would not be\u00a0desired. For me, the initial writing schedule I came up with was Monday through Friday,\u00a0with Saturday being a wild card. Sunday was at first off-limits. This schedule eventually\u00a0morphed into Monday through Friday, with Saturday and Sunday being wild cards.\u00a0Often, I write nothing on the wild card days, but I sometimes do find myself thinking\u00a0over a topic or mapping it out on a white-board (a necessary purchase for the home, by\u00a0the way). But, the possibility of not having to write on weekends is at times appreciated,\u00a0and the break, whether or not a topic is at the most conceptualized in some manner during\u00a0that time, often seems necessary: creating a distance from a topic, no matter how artificial\u00a0it may be, can greatly benefit subsequent writing efforts.<\/p>\n

PRODUCTIIN GOALS<\/p>\n

So, your schedule is in place but you are still lacking a production goal.<\/strong> While I may\u00a0write Monday through Friday, how much am I writing on each day? Perhaps a paragraph\u00a0one day, one page the next day, two sentences the day after and a sentence after that. As\u00a0we are now writing almost every day, the inconsistency in how much is written may not\u00a0seem terribly significant: carry over from one day to the next is apparent and more is\u00a0ultimately being written. Yet, with no set production goals in place, it is possible to have\u00a0weeks pass by with only a few sentences being produced, or, even worse, only the editing\u00a0or shifting around of previously written material. Let us then combine our Monday\u00a0through Friday writing schedule with a production goal of one page a day. This amount,\u00a0one page a day, may seem high, and initially it may be difficult to write that much in\u00a0certain instances, but this will give way after a week or two of maintaining the schedule.<\/p>\n

BENEFITS<\/p>\n

There are several obvious benefits to following such a writing schedule with the\u00a0accompanying production goals, the main being that you will become a prolific writer<\/strong>, at\u00a0least in respect to words and pages produced: five pages a week, twenty pages a month,\u00a0240 pages a year. These numbers of course represent unedited material, which will need\u00a0to be refined, but having such an amount to edit and rework is definitely a good thing.\u00a0What can also happen is that, over time, most will find themselves exceeding the daily\u00a0production goals several times during the week. It is not uncommon to hear of prolific\u00a0writers producing 15 to 20 pages a day.<\/p>\n

There are other considerations for the habitual writer, such as the minimization of\u00a0distractions and the creation of a writing environment. Social media and visual media\u00a0seem to be some of the more frequent distractions. Yet, the solution here is simple:\u00a0turn them off, or, perhaps better, move the devices into another room (that last sentence\u00a0should seem humorous, but it isn\u2019t, it\u2019s more like practical advice now!). Another\u00a0distraction could be home life, and for this there are a couple options. The best would be\u00a0the ability to schedule writing time at work – very much possible if in an academic library\u00a0or similar setting, and if you are on tenure or promotion track such a tactic may in fact be\u00a0encouraged. And always make sure that your calendar clearly reads \u201cWRITING TIME\u201d\u00a0or even \u201cWRITING TIME – LEAVE ME ALONE!\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For environment, my preference is actually to change it up as much as possible, while\u00a0maintaining the schedule and production goals that I have set for myself. During the work\u00a0week, I like to schedule writing time early in the work day just after morning meetings.\u00a0This seems to be a good time in which I will be left alone long enough to fill at least half\u00a0the schedule. If not at work, then during the week I prefer to write at home, where it is\u00a0written in large letters on a white-board \u201cWRITE NOW\u201d. For whatever reason, if writing\u00a0on the weekend I like to divide the time up between two cafes, one in the morning and\u00a0the other in the afternoon. The exact method or pattern here is not important except for\u00a0this: you need to develop a routine based around the schedule that allows the production\u00a0goals to be met easily. In the end, when following such a routine you might actually\u00a0begin to like to write!<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading<\/p>\n

For the most part, I have reiterated as arrived at through experience what will be\u00a0found in these books – at least concerning a writing schedule and production goals.\u00a0Nevertheless, I would recommend first taking up Silvia (2007), as his approach is\u00a0practically oriented and suitable for a graduate student or new professional. After Silvia,\u00a0definitely take a shot at Furman and Kinn (2012).<\/em><\/p>\n

Behrens, L., Rosen, L.J. (2007) A sequence for academic writing. Pearson Longman,\u00a0New York, NY.<\/p>\n

Furman, R., Kinn, J.T. (2012). Practical tips for publishing scholarly articles. Lyceum\u00a0Books, Chicago, IL.<\/p>\n

Gordon, R.S. (2004). The librarian\u2019s guide to writing for publication. Scarecrow Press,\u00a0Lanham, MD.<\/p>\n

Johnson, W.B., Mullen, C.A. (2007). Write to the top! How to become a prolific\u00a0academic. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY.<\/p>\n

Silvia, P.J. (2007) How to write a lot: A practical guide to productive academic writing.\u00a0American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dillon Wackerman,\u00a0Head Editor, INALJ France Becoming the Habitual Writer For most professional fields writing is important as an activity in several respects,\u00a0with somewhat clear distinctions being present: at-work administrative (policies,\u00a0reports, guidelines, agendas), at-work professional (presentations, tutorials, workshops,\u00a0colloquiums) and away-from-work professional, which can be connected with the others\u00a0in several respects (articles, books and book chapters, reviews…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":65977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,4895,6088,6085,4417,4180,5084],"class_list":["post-66940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-dillon-wackerman","tag-habitual-writing","tag-inalj-france","tag-professional-writing","tag-the-power-of-habit","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/dillon_w_fp.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-hpG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}