Freewriting

1 minute of reading / Writing techniques, Knowledge Hub

What is freewriting?

Freewriting is writing anything that comes to mind; basically capturing your stream of consciousness.

Why is this useful?

It’s a great technique for warming up your ‘writing muscles’, and can be helpful to overcome writer’s block. Freewriting is also useful for brainstorming, such as when trying to understand the outcomes of your research.

Try out this freewriting exercise:

  1. Take a piece of paper and your favourite pen (freewriting works best with physical pen and paper, but a computer screen can also work).
  2. Set a timer for 5 minutes and write.
  3. Don’t stop writing. Don’t go back to correct something.
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Generalising vs. Specifying

1 minute of reading / Knowledge Hub, Writing techniques

What is generalising and what is specifying?

Generalising, or abstracting, is restating a concept in more abstract (general) terms. For example, if you move up along the abstraction ladder1 below, the cow Bessie becomes the more abstract terms cow, livestock, and ultimately wealth. If you move down, the term wealth becomes increasingly more specific (hence, specifying).

abstraction ladder

Why is this useful?

Generalising and specifying help with critical thinking2 and Introduction and Discussion writing. Think of it as zooming in (specifying; which happens in the Introduction, and zooming out (generalising; which happens in the Discussion). For example, generalising allows you to rewrite the results of your study — which are often highly specific — in more general terms:

We found that juvenile Atlantic salmon exposed to 20 µg/L of nitrate had a 12% reduction in growth rate over 8 weeks.

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How to draft fast without writing garbage (a 5-step system for scientists)

3 minutes of reading / How-to write guides
I used to write and write, only to end up with pages of garbage. Or I’d get stuck trying to make every sentence perfect — and produce almost nothing. Turns out, I wasn’t drafting. I was just overthinking. Once I learned what drafting actually means everything changed. Here’s the simple system that helped me write faster and think clearer.

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Why you should focus on the writing process, not just the finished journal article

5 minutes of reading / Newsletter
"Write the abstract first," or "start with the methods". I see this type of advice often in academic writing: it tells you what to do, but not how to do it – leaving you wondering what exactly you’re supposed to do. Here are some pieces of advice I’ve seen a lot, and why they tend to fall short in practice:

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