My Workflow for Writing a Research Paper
I am working as the Teaching Assistant for the Tibetan Buddhism course and next weekend, a midterm paper will be due. I felt very sympathetic with the students and wanted to help, so I wrote some advice that I hope could be helpful:
Dear students,
The weekend just began and I hope so has your preparation for writing the mid-term paper. In this announcement, I want to give a few advice that, I hope, can make this assignment less intimidating:
Step One (Automatic Writing): After having preliminary ideas of a topic, I would resist the impulse to start writing right away. Instead, I would casually jot down, on a notepad, whatever phrases and sentences, ideas and questions that come into my mind. Writing is messy so let it be messy for now. At this stage, the goal is to know what interests you the most and what you want to write about.
Step Two (Second Bout of Research): With questions and ideas generated from the previous step, I would re-enter the research phase: this time with more targeted goals of finding out certain information.
Step Three: Repeat the steps above until I can lay out the central argument and the structure of the essay.
(All scholars know this pitfall: one spends so much time reading that he never starts to write. This, however, may just be an excuse for procrastination. Start writing down your ideas as early as even before the research. Writing helps you delineate the current scope of your knowledge; it would help you see what you know, what you think you know and what you don't know. Then you can strategically stretch the boundary of your knowledge.
3. Step Four (Writing): After I am very clear with one or two ideas in mind, I would sit down and write effusively a draft of the essay, without censoring the outpouring of my ideas and words. At one setting, I write only two or three paragraphs.
4. Step Five: Repeat the previous steps; two or three paragraphs at a time until a draft is completed.
5. Step Six: Let what I wrote sit for a few hours. Then come back and revise it. (Usually, the introduction requires the most revision because your understanding of a topic is likely to have changed by the time you finish the entire draft).
Invent your own "ritual" or “work flow” that suits you.
Dear students,
The weekend just began and I hope so has your preparation for writing the mid-term paper. In this announcement, I want to give a few advice that, I hope, can make this assignment less intimidating:
- Help yourself to the writing guidebooks (Personally, I like to read parts of a writing guide just before starting to write; reading about writing reminds me of the fun and the challenges that I am about to have).
- Most guides can only help you with the technical aspects of the writing (style, grammar, structure, etc). And it really depends on you to create your own "writing ritual". What do I mean by "writing ritual"? I will mention my own— not to say that mine is the model to follow (by no means!) but to show that there is a "ritual" or a "workflow" that could make the messy process of writing more manageable:
Step One (Automatic Writing): After having preliminary ideas of a topic, I would resist the impulse to start writing right away. Instead, I would casually jot down, on a notepad, whatever phrases and sentences, ideas and questions that come into my mind. Writing is messy so let it be messy for now. At this stage, the goal is to know what interests you the most and what you want to write about.
Step Two (Second Bout of Research): With questions and ideas generated from the previous step, I would re-enter the research phase: this time with more targeted goals of finding out certain information.
Step Three: Repeat the steps above until I can lay out the central argument and the structure of the essay.
(All scholars know this pitfall: one spends so much time reading that he never starts to write. This, however, may just be an excuse for procrastination. Start writing down your ideas as early as even before the research. Writing helps you delineate the current scope of your knowledge; it would help you see what you know, what you think you know and what you don't know. Then you can strategically stretch the boundary of your knowledge.
3. Step Four (Writing): After I am very clear with one or two ideas in mind, I would sit down and write effusively a draft of the essay, without censoring the outpouring of my ideas and words. At one setting, I write only two or three paragraphs.
4. Step Five: Repeat the previous steps; two or three paragraphs at a time until a draft is completed.
5. Step Six: Let what I wrote sit for a few hours. Then come back and revise it. (Usually, the introduction requires the most revision because your understanding of a topic is likely to have changed by the time you finish the entire draft).
Invent your own "ritual" or “work flow” that suits you.
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