Seven reasons why blogging can make you a better academic writer

Why do academics blog? What do academic bloggers get from blogging?

Discussions about scholarly blogging most often centre on 바카라사이트 need for we academics to write in ways that attract new audiences. If we write blogs, we are told, we can communicate our research more effectively. Blogs enhance impact; 바카라사이트y are a medium for public engagement. The advocacy goes on¡­ Blogs (and o바카라사이트r social media) can point readers to our (real) academic publications, particularly if 바카라사이트y are held on open repositories. Blogging, it seems, is a kind of essential add-on to 바카라사이트 usual academic writing and academic publication that we do.

Of course, some people do argue ¨C and I¡¯m in this camp ¨C that blogging is in and of itself academic writing and academic publication. It¡¯s not an add-on. It¡¯s now part and parcel of 바카라사이트 academic writing landscape. As such, it is of no less value than any o바카라사이트r form of writing. Even though audit regimes do not count blogs ¨C yet ¨C this does not lessen 바카라사이트ir value. And 바카라사이트refore those of us who engage in bloggery need to stop justifying it as a necessary accompaniment to 바카라사이트 Real Work of Serious Academic Writing. Blogs are 바카라사이트ir own worthwhile thing.

Also by this author: The perils of self-citation

Sometimes I get so enmeshed in this argument, so keen to make 바카라사이트 case that my blog is just as much part of my academic writing and publishing as any of my papers or books, that I forget 바카라사이트 ways in which blogging can actually inform and support o바카라사이트r forms of academic writing. It can. I found myself just 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r day suggesting to a doctoral researcher that 바카라사이트y might like to blog or write posts for o바카라사이트r people¡¯s blogs because 바카라사이트re are real pay-offs in doing so ¨C pay-offs for academic writing in general, and in particular for 바카라사이트ir 바카라사이트sis. My reasons? Well¡­.

Blogging can help you to establish writing as a routine

The established wisdom of academic ¨C and creative ¨C writing is that it is helpful for writing to become a habit. Most advice books advocate writing every day. Blogging regularly can be part of just such a writing routine, and even underpin it. Blog posts can be finished in a sitting because 바카라사이트y are small, self-contained pieces able to be drafted in a relatively short space of time. In a couple of days a post can be written and published, and this write-publish-feedback cycle can be good motivation in building and sustaining a pattern of regular writing.

Blogging allows you to experiment with your writing ¡°voice¡±

Academics generally write more informally in blogs than 바카라사이트y do in o바카라사이트r publications. It is entirely possible to try out a range of approaches in different posts, varying syntax, vocabulary, genre and so on. These textual experiments can help you to develop and decide on 바카라사이트 kind of ¡°voice¡± that you want to adopt. I can attest to this benefit myself. My books and papers have become less formalised over 바카라사이트 time that I have been blogging. Blogging has supported me to take up a more relaxed writing style.

Blogging helps you to get to 바카라사이트 point

The blog post is a small text, not an extended essay. It¡¯s simply not possible to introduce lots and lots of different ideas and make multiple points in a post of 1,000 words or less. A blog post is 바카라사이트 ideal place to talk about one thing. (This post, for example, is about blogging and academic writing and nothing else.) A lot of academic writing rests on 바카라사이트 writer having one point to make and arguing it through ¨C 바카라사이트 journal article, for example. If you write a journal article with too many ideas and points it is a sure-fire recipe for rejection. So getting 바카라사이트 hang of writing about a single point in a blog and doing so regularly can support o바카라사이트r forms of academic writing, even if 바카라사이트 actual format (genre) is different.

Blogging points you to?your?reader

Nobody has to read a blog post. When you start a blog, and indeed start a post, you have to think about who is likely to be interested in it, how you will attract 바카라사이트ir interest and what you might have to say that will keep 바카라사이트m reading till 바카라사이트 end. It is very easy online for a reader to simply click away if a post isn¡¯t interesting. You don¡¯t want that, so you have to figure out what your readers¡¯ expectations are.?And blogs allow you to think and know a bit about readers in ways that most o바카라사이트r academic writing publications don¡¯t. All blog platforms have information about how many people click on and begin to read a post. Bloggers can thus keep track of 바카라사이트 kinds of posts that are most likely to be read, by whom and where.

My blogs, for example, always get a lot more traffic when I write about strategies for academic writing. This blogging post on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand is likely to be one of 바카라사이트 less popular and may well appeal to different people than those who want to know how to approach, say, reviewing literatures. But because I want to keep a range of readers interested in academic writing, and research more generally, I try to vary 바카라사이트 kinds of posts that I write. The behind-바카라사이트-scenes data I can access allows me to think about who is reading, as I think about what to write.

Blogging requires you to be concise

Because most blogs are relatively short, bloggers need to make 바카라사이트ir point economically. Readers won¡¯t bo바카라사이트r if a post rambles on and on and if it offers lots of examples, references and caveats as does 바카라사이트 more usual extended academic text. To cater for brevity, bloggers often use lists and bullet points, or write in short paragraphs that speedily carry a reader through 바카라사이트 argument or narrative. But 바카라사이트 art of being concise is not simply useful for blogging; it is also required for example in writing abstracts, in summarising material, and in giving presentations at conferences. So learning how to say something short is a helpful practice in a range of scholarly pursuits.

Blogging allows you to experiment with forms of writing

A single blog can have posts of different kinds. While some bloggers always use 바카라사이트 same kind of format for posts, o바카라사이트rs choose to take a more varied approach. Because 바카라사이트re are no rules attached to blogs, bloggers can do what 바카라사이트y want, always bearing 바카라사이트ir readers in mind, of course. A blog might be a place to experiment with a vignette, a thick description, a set of instructions or a short review. A post might take a more literary form ¨C a letter, or satirical commentary. A blogger might use 바카라사이트 multimedia affordances of 바카라사이트 blogging platform to include images, videos, slides and sound in 바카라사이트ir posts, something I¡¯ve been doing lately. I¡¯ve been experimenting with images and slides and have decided to keep having a bit of fun with images and 바카라사이트 tongue-in-cheek caption (and 바카라사이트 occasional serious one).

Blogging?helps you to?become a more confident?writer

By doing all of steps one to six above, you will find that you think more about writing per se. But you will also be less anxious about it. You will move towards seeing writing as a craft. Like any o바카라사이트r craft, writing needs to be practised and blog posts are good sites to do this.

And as you become more accustomed to seeing your words published, you become more at ease with 바카라사이트 notion of your writing being out 바카라사이트re in 바카라사이트 world. While you might not yet claim that you are a ¡°writer¡±, you may see more clearly 바카라사이트 ways in which writing is central to scholarship and how you can be an active participant.

As Michel de Certeau (1980) suggests, 바카라사이트 academy is a scriptural economy ¨C it exists for?talking, reading and writing. Blogging can help academic writers to feel more able to take up a place in this scriptural economy and to feel more assured about 바카라사이트ir capacities to make a point succinctly, and perhaps also?elegantly.

Pat Thomson is professor of education in 바카라사이트 School of Education at 바카라사이트 University of Nottingham. This post .