I shall be achieving this on April 2011:

Monday 21 January 2008

I need to Plan my Writing.. but how?!?!

I need to plan my writing... for conference paper.. but how? where do i start? how to go about it? any ideas anybody?

i just do not know where to start at the moment.. and i need to present them tomorrow?!?!? huhuuu....

anyways, i'm looking at several website, giving tips:

1. writing your thesis

Some points from the website above:

People's experiences/problems/issues when writing

The practice of writing:
  • It's hard to get started, especially if you're out of practice in academic writing: writing doesn't seem to flow as well as it did as an undergraduate. [did it ever flow??]
  • even if you have experience in other areas, academic writing is different
  • you feel capable of producing an acceptable end product, with adequate prose, but the process of getting there is painful
  • feeling inadequate when your writing doesn't come up to your (or others') expectations
  • [putting off writing, for fear of writing badly]

Handling the information that you gather:

  • feelings of drowning in the literature, in the detail
  • how to structure the ideas that are developing
  • how you record and process the information
    • hand-written notes, or typed into the computer
    • write up papers as you read them.

Communicating your ideas:

  • If your writing is too terse: possibly you're not explaining what you mean sufficiently for a reader to understand?
    - [perhaps the therapy for this is to show your writing to peers, or even better to undergraduates, and ask if they can understand it (and then to revise it until they can)]
  • If your writing is too verbose: possibly you're not being clear about what you want to say?
    - [the therapy for those of us who are too long-winded is to show your writing to knowledgeable colleagues, and prune it until they are no longer too bored to finish it. Steve's personal ideal (not achieved) is to write such that I'm interesting enough to hold the attention of other researchers, but clear and simple enough that undergraduates can understand it]
  • problems in structuring the argument.

Time management:

  • when is the right time to write?
  • should you carry out experiments for two years, then write up in the third?
  • how should you structure your work?
and yes!!! I am drowned in my literature reading materials... to much of them.. to many infos.. and i am cracking my head trying to extract out the important points for my work.. woah!!!

2. 10 Tips for a Stress-Free Thesis

  1. Don’t save data analysis to the very last minute. Plan ahead.
  2. Confirm your table of contents with your supervisor.
  3. Write an outline, and stick to it as you write.
  4. Don’t reinvent the wheel: Transform your published articles into thesis chapters.
  5. Create deadlines for yourself and stick to them.
  6. Find a quiet place to write where you will be free from distractions. The lab is usually not a good place to write a thesis. Work from home or in a quiet place like the library.
  7. Assign yourself a number of pages to write each day and stop when you are done. This will prevent you from spending 24 hours a day at the computer, agonizing over your progress. When you’ve written your assigned four or five pages, then you’re finished for the day. Turn off the computer and do something else.
  8. Take plenty of breaks, and be sure to spend time with friends and family.
  9. Get some exercise, eat well, and take care of your health.
  10. Don’t work in utter solitude. This is not the time to turn into a hermit. If other Ph.D. students in your lab or department are writing their theses at the same time, consider creating an informal support group in which you can share the stresses of writing a thesis and have people at hand who are willing to review certain sections or even the entire manuscript.
A very good TIPS!

and 1 more:

3. Writing a Thesis



okay.. got to focus now...

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