designing a plan for your writing

1. Lesson: Designing Your Plan For
Writing
September 19, 2016
Rilee Acrey

2. Understanding
Feelings on
Writing
What feelings come up when you
think about writing?
Positive or Negative?
Negative:Terror, Boredom,
Discouraged.
Positive: excited about new ideas,
impressed about reading own
writing

3. Successful Academic Writers
● Make a plan for writing every day and stick to it
● Make writing social
○ Write more public and less private, more social and less solitary
● Share your work, avoid waiting until it’s done show rough drafts and get
critiques.
Pursue your passion
Write about something that you are genuinely interested in.

4. Day 1: Reading the
assignment.
Jot down any ideas which spring
to mind right off the bat.
Once you read the question then
build upon those ideas.

5. Day 2: Selecting a text
for revision.
You do not have to start from
scratch
Some old texts may present
challenges

6. When Considering Old Texts
Praise, Pleasure, Relevance, Research, Findings, Conference Paper, Thesis,
and/or Rejected Article
Things to consider when selecting an old text for revision.
Broad Surveys, theoretical, out-dated, outside discipline, similarity, language, etc.

7. ● Really consider professor recommendations
○ Professors rarely have students that visit them for help
● Consider papers that are sitting for revision or resubmission
Prioritizing Paper Choices

8. Day 3: Choosing your
writing style.
Forming a habit of writing
regularly

9. Get into the Habit of Writing!
Finding a habitual writing spot to help with writing daily
Sometimes one place just doesn’t cut it
Cafes, libraries, bedroom, etc.

10. Day 4: Design Writing
Schedules
“I’ll only be miserable for 8 hours”
Students believe it will REDUCE
the painfulness but it actually
PRODUCES it.

11. Writing daily works, writing in binges does not.
● The reason students think they need so much time is because it takes so
long to silence their inner critic.
● Writing everyday eliminates this issue.

12. Establish a Deadline and set realistic writing goals!
Have a schedule of when you want to complete each section of your writing.
Understand you will not be able to finish your writing all at once, set short-term
writing goals that will put you in a position to succeed.
Create a deadline for when you want to have completed a first draft, leaving
yourself time to critique and make changes to your paper.

13. ● I’m too busy.
● I’ll write just as soon as i [insert
excuse here].
● I just can’t get started.
● I’m not in the mood right now.
● I can’t start because my idea
sucks.
I write so slow i never seem to get
stuff done.
I have other assignments due.
Don’t be afraid to ask someone to
read and comment.
I get distracted.
Anticipated Writing Obstacles

14. Day 5: Documenting
how you spent your
time.
Graph how much time you would
like to spend writing, then
document how much time you
actually spent.
Graph what you did during the
day (e.g cleaning, laundry,
cooking) to see where your time
goes.
At the end of the week look back
and be proud of your
accomplishments!

15. Thank you for your undivided attention!
Any questions or concerns?