The Pain of Writing

Writing is painful. Sorry, that tends to be everyone's reality. It is hard work to think through complex ideas and find the best way to present them so that someone else can understand them. I am not going to go into a lot of detail about writing specifics; Walden has an amazing writing center that is very happy to help you! 

A few general things though, first if you find it very hard to write, I recommend this book: 

Saltzman, J. (1993). If You Can Talk, You Can Write. Grand Central Publishing. 

As you can see, it is an older book, so it is available very cheaply on the internet. It will reduce your anxiety and will help you get something down on paper. I strongly recommend reading your paper aloud; you will catch many errors. If nothing else, read to your dog or cat, they will find you fascinating! You will reduce the number of needed corrections by simply rereading your paper carefully. 

Be prepared and open to many revisions. Your committee has much more experience in writing at this level, trust their guidance. At a doctoral level, revisions are simply part of the writing process. Professionals also have to rewrite their papers many times, keep in mind that the final article you see in the journal has little resemblance to where it started. As an example, a recent article that I wrote with colleagues went through 25 revisions (yes, I counted!). 

Next time, I will discuss revising. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Send me an email with your ideas. leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu