Do I really need to learn how to write an article?

But I Completed A Graduate Degree!

Ok newly minted PhDs: the following questions may have popped into your mind: why do I need to read about being a more productive writer and the practice of writing writing; shouldn't I be able to write well-enough by now? Hasn’t my work on a thesis or dissertation prepared me sufficiently for the demands of writing academic articles? The simple answer, is probably not. You may have trudged through your dissertation,  hating every minute of it. Or, perhaps you did not hate the process of writing, but realize that it was far more painful than it needed to be. You have learned that writing is hard, and some of your writing habits may be making it harder.

In regard to writing academic articles, which I explore often in this blog, you probably have a sense by now that your dissertation did not prepare you for what you need. Writing a dissertation is like running a marathon; writing an article is like running sprints. Both take great skill, but use a different set of muscles, if you can forgive me the perhaps stretching the analogy a bit slightly thin.  While on the surface both activities seem to be the same, they are in fact very different. Also, many of you also learned a very sad thing from your dissertations: a disdain of writing.

So, I urge new PhDs to consider the ways in which the current writing practices and skills are not congruent with article writing, the bread and butter of academic life.

Read on, or backward if your new to this blog. You may learn a trick or two. Also, feel free to contact me with tricks of your own- I am very open to learning.