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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