Writing Skills

[yeti2213]

Working on my SOP I am realizing the words just don't come as easily or as cleanly as they did when I was writing every week in ugrad. 8 years of mainly making PowerPoint presentations and writing code seems to have knocked the fluidity out of me. Looking forward to grad school where I imagine one does a significant amount of writing, I am wondering what I should do in the six months I have before then to ease back into the habit.

Did you have this problem? Have ideas on what I could be doing?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[deuce22]

Working on my SOP I am realizing the words just don't come as easily or as cleanly as they did when I was writing every week in ugrad. 8 years of mainly making PowerPoint presentations and writing code seems to have knocked the fluidity out of me. Looking forward to grad school where I imagine one does a significant amount of writing, I am wondering what I should do in the six months I have before then to ease back into the habit.

Did you have this problem? Have ideas on what I could be doing?

I mentioned a similar problem to a professor and he recommended that I read "On Writing Well" (I forget the author, but it's available on Amazon). It's just a basic narrative on how to (as the title implies) write well and find a process for writing that works best for you. I've also been trying to read a lot of journal articles, etc., so that I will both be prepared for my upcoming interviews and keep up on the consumption of information in this field that I know will aid in my own process when it becomes necessary down the line. That may not work for you, but so far I feel better prepared than if I had just been working in an unrelated field (substitute teaching) during my time post-graduation.

 

[wigflip]

Working on my SOP I am realizing the words just don't come as easily or as cleanly as they did when I was writing every week in ugrad. 8 years of mainly making PowerPoint presentations and writing code seems to have knocked the fluidity out of me. Looking forward to grad school where I imagine one does a significant amount of writing, I am wondering what I should do in the six months I have before then to ease back into the habit.

Did you have this problem? Have ideas on what I could be doing?

I'm totally, totally not trying to be a wienie, but:

Are you interested in writing well, writing for scholarly publication (i.e. journal articles), or writing to please mentors in grad school? Sometimes they're the same thing, but often they're not.

I'd say for purposes of grad school survival, read your advisor's work and mimic his/her style, regardless of whether it's good or bad. I've had to adapt my style to my advisor's; if I'd just started writing that way initially I would have saved on revisions. As for journal articles, I don't think most scholarly empirical articles have a distinctive authorial voice, but try reading your target journals to see how much leeway you may have with regards to style and "flair." Tailor your work for your audience.

What's made my writing better? Reading fantastic writing (mostly "creative writing") and well as reading terrible writing (undergrad papers). Although grading reams of bad undergrad papers is hellish, it's also helpful because it hones one's precision for word choice and crafting clear arguments ("What is this unintelligible nut trying to say? Oh...I bet s/he was trying to say y, not x!"). Of course you may not be grading that many papers unless you TA outside of psych.

 

[JockNerd]

http://www.bartleby.com/141/

The elements of style

 

[GoPokes]

Just do what every graduate student hopeful loves doing -- study GRE vocab words!

 

[yeti2213]

Just do what every graduate student hopeful loves doing -- study GRE vocab words!

That is hardly the problem. My vocab is sufficient for most writing tasks excluding a literary criticism perhaps.

I think looking at the style guides and reading more papers is a good idea. Soon enough I'm going to be on a motorcycle driving from beach to beach in south india... can't think of a better way to make that trip even more fun than reading styles guides

 

[wigflip]

Soon enough I'm going to be on a motorcycle driving from beach to beach in south india

Wow--that sounds terrific. Have a wonderful trip!

 

[ClinicalPsyPhd]

I always thought journaling helped my writing because it forces you to complete your thoughts to make full sentences. If you're into it, might wanna give it a try.