How to write paragraphs

in research texts (articles, books and PhDs)

Top ten questions for the PhD oral exam

A checklist of ‘viva’ issues that always come up

When you have finally finished writing a PhD dissertation or thesis, and submitted it to the university for review, you are at the end of a long period of…

Storyboarding research

How to do smarter, proactive planning-and-realization of projects, reports and…

Doing a Quick Literature Review

Modern practices better exploit digital era capabilities

Doing quicker literature reviews

Four ways to better exploit digital era capabilities

Why do academics and PhDers carefully choose useless titles for articles and chapters?

Six ways to get it wrong, and four steps to get it right

Writing informative abstracts for journal articles

Be substantive and communicate your key findings

Reading the abstracts for academic journal abstracts can be as frustrating as trying to work out what their titles mean. In the same…

What is paragraph re-planning?

Also called ‘reverse outlining’

When you’ve finished a 30 to 40 page article or chapter, the chances are high that you do not really understand what you’ve written. At research level the argument content is normally complex and…

Seven upgrade strategies for a problematic article or chapter

Do one thing well. Flatten the structure. Say it once, say it right. Try paragraph re-planning. Make the motivation clearer. Strengthen the…

Shorter, better, faster, free

Blogging changes the nature of academic research, not just how it is communicated

One of the recurring themes (from many different contributors) on the LSE Impact of Social Science blog is that a…

In a book or PhD, start each chapter cleanly. Never link back 

Do “linking forward” at the ends of chapters instead

In your PhD or large, non-fiction book every chapter needs to do a distinctive job. The ultimate low-energy…