Hello!
As I advance in my doctoral studies, it has become clear that scientific writing is an essential element of research. Regardless of whether I am drafting project descriptions, conference abstracts or manuscripts, the relevant content must be effectively conveyed while obeying specific rules determining the length and structure of the document. Furthermore, as submission deadlines are often imposed on our (already) busy schedules, the ability to produce content in a timely fashion is equally vital. Therefore, over the last year, I aimed at practising my writing skills under similar constraints by drafting a blog post every month. After completing this challenge, I would like to share some of my learnings from this exercise in this post.
1. Greater perception of effort-per-word
2. Identifying textual structures
3. Summarising relevant information
Greater perception of effort-per-word
First, one of the most impactful outcomes was an increased awareness of the amount of “effort-per-word” I had to invest in producing a piece of text. In other words, my ability to estimate the duration and mental energy needed to write became more accurate, which yielded many benefits when planning my schedule, especially for longer writing tasks (such as my literature review) that inevitably had to be broken down into smaller milestones. Still, as I got into the habit of writing monthly, I noticed a decrease in mental friction to start writing, either for leisure or at work, which helped make this task more straightforward and enjoyable.
Interestingly, while I would sometimes be under my self-defined word limit when writing these posts, I would usually exceed the maximum length allowed when writing scientific texts related to my work. Although in the former case, I would resort to brainstorming additional ideas that could be worth sharing, I found the latter much more stimulating as it would become an engaging exercise to pass the same information to the reader using fewer words. Funny enough, one of the scientific conferences our lab often participates in has a strict abstract template with two columns in which I would even have to optimise the words per line to minimise the space between words.
Identifying textual structures
Second, after a few months, I noticed the posts were converging on a self-developed template, essentially comprising the introduction, three to five main points, and a conclusion. As I reflected on this, I noticed how this strategy made the task more realistic as many journal articles or conference abstracts have rigorous guidelines determining the sections of the text. At the same time, it also made it easier to incorporate a flow of ideas more naturally into each section.
Furthermore, as I kept reading journal articles related to my project, I also started to look for their own structural patterns in a detailed manner. Specifically, I would notice how many sentences or paragraphs the authors used to provide a background on the topic, motivate their work or summarise their findings while also paying attention to the flow that connected these elements. Ultimately, this exercise led to a valuable understanding of how articles in some journals also follow similar textual patterns, which can be mimicked to try to produce a comparable impact on readers. And, indeed, I have already had the chance to implement some of these learnings at work and share them with colleagues and students I supervised.
An indirect benefit of this step was gaining a more accurate perception of the size of a piece of text within a given section. Given that some journals also specify the length of individual sections, these learnings truly help manage the extent of a part of the text.
Summarising relevant information
Many of the posts focused on topics that were especially pertinent to my work in that month or referred to events I had participated in. Overall, a target of one post per month was a good compromise that did not interfere with my schedule while giving me enough room to pick a topic to cover. In retrospect, I find these posts an excellent opportunity to keep a collection of exciting highlights of my doctoral studies and likely worth looking back on as I progress in my journey. Furthermore, describing specific tools or events allowed me to step back and identify the most essential details worth sharing, again, as it would be required when drafting a manuscript after finishing an experiment. Moreover, the programming-oriented posts included several commands that I used at work and keeping them organised with simple examples was an excellent resource for every time I needed a quick reminder.
Progress takes time
At last, I firmly believe that many of these learning outcomes were the cumulative result of several posts, which would otherwise be less likely reached with a more spontaneous schedule. In other words, I believe this experience also reinforced my notion that a consistent, progressive effort is needed to achieve something meaningful. Beyond writing scientific papers and my doctoral studies, I think this type of exercise falls under the broader intent of improving my communication skills and, after one year, I feel it has advanced them in the right direction. At the same time, it is one of the “active rest” hobbies that effectively combines entertainment and valuable training.
“You can’t read about push-ups. You gotta do them.” – Gary Vaynerchuk
Conclusion
These were some of my favourite lessons from my blogging experience. As there is still plenty of room to improve my writing skills, I intend to continue writing monthly posts; possibly, I am considering other posts on books I deemed particularly noteworthy and incorporating more practical-oriented tutorials covering specific tools or software that I find especially useful for my work.
Please feel free to share your thoughts about your writing experiments!
Have a great day!