Seven reasons why blogging can make you a better academic writer (pat thomson - THE)

Saw this post over on #AcWriMo today, and I feel like it justifies my focus on blogging on academic topics (none are posted yet, still working on them!) this November. I know I'm not ready to write anything formal yet, but I know that making a habit of consistently writing and blogging will help immensely. Especially with brevity and clarity! And, you know, actually sitting down and doing the writing itself. All things I very much need to work on!

Seven reasons why blogging can make you a better academic writer (pat thomson - Times Higher Education)

My first #AcWriMo!

#AcWriMo starts tomorrow! I am participating, though I don't think I will be truly writing academically. I'm not quite there yet in my #homegradschooling, though I'm pretty close.

So, I think this November will be, for me, about writing my academic subject/interest(s), but aimed at this here blog, as well as a bit for my Unitarian Universalist church's newsletter (I just joined the archives team & volunteered to start a 'column' on UU history.)

I've been out of school for 3 years now, and my writing is extremely rusty (and by that I mean it sucks), not to mention that I have no habit of writing or time built into my schedule for it anymore, so I'm hoping this will help me really gear up and grease the mental wheels before I attempt to dive in to journal article writing (and hopefully I'll be able to turn some of my blog writings into a more formal piece of writing down the road.)

Here are just a few of the articles I have been reading to prepare myself:

literature review step one, scoping. #acwrimo work in progress (patter)
not all literature ‘reviews’ are the same (patter)
doing the literature review – thinking about patterns and groups (patter)
mapping your literatures (patter)
dealing with the space between literatures (patter)
literature know-how – beware too much naming, not enough framing (patter)
History Resources (University of Mary Washington)
Thesis Whisperer's Top Tips

I'm going to be coming into work about an hour early to take advantage of the nicer computer & the fact that I can't do anything while sitting at home (and I have no laptop!), and possibly stay a bit later, we'll see. Good luck to everyone else who is participating in any of the WriMos!