How to improve your writing: A guide for PhD students and academics

[@mdisrafil5542]

00:02 Writing is a crucial skill for PhD students and academics. 02:28 Academics lack proper writing training. 07:02 Writing is a skill that requires attention to detail and deliberate decisions. 09:22 Focus on selecting and communicating the most important and relevant information in your writing. 14:12 Addressing broader questions to set up the aim of the project 16:39 Research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions 21:01 Identify causes, responses, and consequences to structure your writing effectively. 23:03 Understanding the narrative structure of literature reviews is essential for effective writing. 27:20 Focus on one section at a time for better writing efficiency 29:22 Separate exploration from presentation 33:14 Introduction sets the focus and structure for the paper. 35:09 Dealing with writer's block and focusing on solving individual problems 38:58 Complete attention and persistence are required to solve writing problems. 41:01 Avoid constant digital distractions for better focus 44:58 Balancing speed and perfectionism in academic writing 46:52 Adjust your writing pace and be flexible 50:57 Consistent practice and prioritization of writing is crucial for long-term success. 52:53 Relax into the writing process 56:56 Focus on research over writing 58:47 Get professional help early on for language challenges 1:02:52 Start with an interesting problem or question. 1:04:51 Keep thesis concise and relevant, prioritize examiner's time 1:08:46 Develop a system to quickly find relevant papers and extract relevant details for writing 1:10:46 Get feedback before formal writing 1:14:49 Get feedback and collaborate with others for improvement 1:16:42 Dealing with conflicting ideas and expectations from your supervisor 1:20:43 Avoid overly rigid timelines in research planning 1:22:41 Setting flexible deadlines is crucial for successful research planning. 1:26:53 Combination of reading papers and writing text is essential for effective writing. 1:29:01 Building knowledge by referencing known papers and researching new ones

[@NecroSonic1]

Good applicable points. Other than structure I find that tone is also an important yet underrated aspect of academic writing. Of course some disciplines might enjoy more liberty than others but I find that many academics writes in a needlessly boring style. When I began writing my PhD dissertation I would also feel obliged to write in a style where I would distance myself from the writing and strive to make myself invisible as the author of the text in some misunderstood attempt at objectivity. When I read through my dissertation around a 100 pages in I found it to be terribly boring and felt like it could have been written by someone else. So, I decided to scrap the whole thing and start over and write it in a more personal style with humor and excitement and I hoped that it would not be dismissed as being less scientific. It was much more fun to write and edit the new version and at the defense it turned out that the assessment committee really valued the personal style of writing. One even said that it had been such a joy to read and that it would make assessment work much more delightful if more dissertations would feature creative and unique styles of writing.

[@James_Hayton]

I agree- tone is a little more difficult to coach, so I tend to focus on structure as it's more fundamental to good communication and often I need to prioritize. If people get a good grip on structure and there's enough time, then I might work on getting them to express more of themselves with excitement and humour about the subject

[@thudao7391]

I have this concern though. I also struggle with style and tone in writing. For some reason, every time I tried to incorporate some personal style and humor into my writing, it backfired. My supervisors said that it gave off a lighthearted vibes and that no one would take this seriously. So I gave up doing so.

[@youneschebini5280]

the biggest problem with academics is boring writing style, why they just don’t be direct and simple in their writings? Is it lack of confidence or lack of engagement? Or just trying to layer the simple direct truth?

[@mktsp2]

@@James_Hayton I doubt that

[@James_Hayton]

@@youneschebini5280 I agree. They should be clear and direct. And yes, they do often dress their work in overly complicated language due to a lack of confidence.

[@fernandocortes1187]

16:07 Stress among PHD Students 20:00 Structure 9:40 How to show what you know 28:00 The process...use a mind map to guide the writing 48:14 Q&A e índice de lo visto

[@Monamie44]

Writing up my PhD thesis now. Many thanks.

[@asthasharma8770]

So extensive guidance. Glad to listen to this video. Lots of important tips and the speaker has immense patience.

[@steevensonrosema8125]

I am going to start my PhD studies this coming fall. I was worried about writing a thesis, but I have come across your video. I feel more confident about writing in my field. Thank you, Dr. Hayton.

[@James_Hayton]

Best of luck!

[@JorgeZiyad]

I want to thank you for posting this video. It has got many information that I find valuable.

[@shakinatalkah1380]

I've graduated my PhD last year, I wish I have found this before.. This is a good and practical insights.. Still applicable to academics career though.. Thanks!

[@binyabenson4809]

Educative. If there is one lesson I've heeded, it is that research and writing are not similar; one cannot do both at a go. Focus on research (gathering data and information) to inform the writing process.

[@TVWJ]

I always tell them to start constructing the story, without worrying too much about the language. Could be power-point style. Formulate a main message for the entire article, and present the new evidence for that message, and construct the arguments, and put the things in the right order. Once you have done that, then you can focus more on the text.

[@parishayjahanzeb2578]

Hi Hayton, I wish, i knew this at the time of my grad school. I was literally struggling with writing at that time .I stuck myself confronting three things 1. Knowledge of particular discipline on given topic. 2. Research methodolgy (worrying about the research principles) 3. How to structure my ideas ( the most frustrating part). Thank God i saw your videos. it will surely help in my academic career. May Allah bless you.

[@steevensonrosema8125]

@@parishayjahanzeb2578 Hi, I have been struggling with these three things in my PhD now. That is why this video is useful for me 😁. Thank you for showing that I am not the only one 😭

[@BrodieGiesbrecht]

Your lectures are extremely helpful, thank you for posting these! Believe it or not, writing has been my favorite part of my undergraduate degree so far. I'm sure these tips will help me improve!

[@James_Hayton]

I enjoy writing too! I don't think people should suffer through it

[@akmalbakar5078]

Im a research scientist in industry and I found this incredibly helpful. Particularly about how other aspects of the research might be causing the issues in writing. Thank you!

[@mamoako1521]

14:47 Basic structure for the introduction of any project

[@sarah1of4]

Really liked the fundamental problem around 8:10 - made me feel a bit better about the current tangle!

[@nidaulhasanati6402]

Very complete guidance. The speaker is very patient in guiding 101 PhD students and aprofessional academics in writing. He really appreciates the efforts of PhD students and knows their problems, difficulties, struggles to achieve their goals to be able to contribute to knowledge. Thank you and blessing you

[@PRIMULA567]

Your talks are so good, wow!!! Well done. I am in my first semester of my Master's degree in Genetics and now I am writing my research proposal, this is so helpful. THANK YOU!!

[@mkbestmaan]

It is great to witness wisdom in a testimony, masterclass talk. Metacognition talks help a lot. Thank you for the inspiration.

[@lawanyaarvind2810]

Thanks

[@lawanyaarvind2810]

Thank you so much, Dr Hayton. I will need to watch this more than once to understand it and implement it..Very useful as.A Ready reckoner

[@TVWJ]

For introductions - a way to get around that: Write a sentence: "in this article we present..." ("This research will... " !) and complete the sentence stating what you are going to do in the article. That sentence will contain a number of key words and concepts (these are related to the "situation, problem, current knowledge on the topic, and the approach you have chosen to address it). Find these items, they must be explained in your introduction. This will basically select what you need to explain (avoid irrelevant information), and also force you to put the things in a meaningful order. It is kind of writing your intro "backwards" - but by doing that, you have a clear focus when you write your introduction.

[@James_Hayton]

How does your approach force you to put things in a meaningful order, without addressing the relationship between ideas? I'm sure you can do it, but I've seen countless students use your approach but the writing is a total mess. The challenge in explaining the writing process is understanding those instinctive things we do in a way that someone else can follow. In your other comment, you say to formulate a main message and present evidence for it... but sometimes it's better to put the main message at the end as the argument and evidence leads the reader to the new conclusion... is this what you mean by writing backwards?

[@TVWJ]

@@James_Hayton Hi James. What I mean is that it is easier to select the material you need if you have the main message of your article as a focus point. I tell my students (I am an industrial coach) to write that sentence down. Of course, you have to address the relationship between the ideas and concepts, in the article itself this will be in your argumentation - the results and discussion parts. In introductions, having the final sentence in your head, with all the keywords/concepts in it helps to select what you should actually explain in the introduction and what not. If that one sentence you write down should make sense to a reader, you have to think about in what order you have to go through the keywords in that sentence, and of course explain what the relationship between the points is. That is then the storytelling part. I find this an efficient way to decide what you should put in and what you can leave out. It helps you to stay on the main track, and not get lost in sidetracks, as I often see in manuscripts (as a reviewer) and also in published articles. So my strategy is not to replace the thinking - there is no easy workaround for that ;-), but it is a useful guideline in what you should be thinking about.

[@JensdC]

Found this on my feed. I regret that KZbin didn't recommend this soon when I'm still in uni :(

[@eulissaharvey5640]

Eulissa Harvey I totally agree, one should have details. For me, gathering details gives me the the oportuinity to communicate effectively.

[@zainaraza9585]

Jee thanks , it's a great resource for both phd and undergrad students, pretty helpful in their preparation. Its so thoughtful of you to share the valuable resource using your valuable time, so highly appreciative of your wisdom and generosity. You are educating a whole lot of people encouraging them to study further not just your uni students.

[@ashleynguyen4802]

Thanks for your video, it helps me so much for academic writing skill!

[@lily08799]

Amazing presentations! It is indeed very important to learn to select from numurous evidence to tell a comprehensive story.

[@elalaelasariuinjakarta7548]

Thank you, Dr. Hayton, It's a great video. I will try to apply in Indonesia. Cheers!.

[@FS2024-j6k]

Best presentation on improving writing I've come across - thanks for sharing your lecture

[@FS2024-j6k]

Is it possible to get access to the slides ?

[@ledwinahungwe6001]

Powerful presentations

[@gokulanparthiban9230]

Thank you so much Sir. It's very useful.

[@econshariful]

I am half way to finish this amazing video. Would you please share the PPT?

[@GhalibVlogs]

Good applicable points. Other than structure I find that tone is also an important yet und

[@castalia6778]

I can't get enough of these lectures. Mr. Hayton, thank you so much!

[@0101799]

Thank you so much for your lecture, Dr. Hayton! I will apply the skills you taught us in Portuguese! Greetings from Macau! :)

[@viantiapr]

Educative！Thanks for the video, your video brings me to the way out of the fear of writing. By the way, I am considering to take PhD, but realizing that writing a paper is mandatory, scares me! I was wondering if could I pass the stress and manage everything or not, but I would like to highlight things from you it's about the structure and "Fundamental reason".

[@paulntalo1425]

Prof has simplified the art of writing different sections of the literature review findings. This is human AI on steroids for writing technically. Of all major channels you can think of, nothing comes close the way we taught to explore problems and debates. 🎉 Thank You

[@James_Hayton]

Human AI? That's just "I"!

[@tawfiqezaz3455]

Thanks for your useful tips

[@nilarose4983]

Finally I found this video..Thanks from India

[@AmberSoleil1]

He missed “crying under your desk” in his process section

[@paperclips1306]

Does that work. If it works I will also cry under the desk.

[@marryamakbaar3014]

It's absolutely necessary to cry, that's built in human system to coping mechanism ! It's important for us and normal 😌 don't worry about it !

[@areliousmuckle8249]

😮 so I'm not the only one.

[@AmberSoleil1]

Definitely not! Stay strong! :P @@areliousmuckle8249

[@kalaisai680]

I can't even cry😂😂

[@chitararajeshkumar5934]

Thank You sir for the informative session

[@pH7Programming]

Really good sharing here!

[@httv8677]

Thank you so much. I take notes a lot.

[@dlaminirozay3016]

I can hear what you are saying but it's hard to get the papers for information iam trying to attempt I stuck lot I wish to excel on this.

[@miramot0-origin]

Now is 3:30 am, I am preparing for IELTS, and I found thet may be this lecture will help to improve something

[@James_Hayton]

I'm not sure how helpful it will be for IELTS... I hope you managed to get some sleep and good luck!

[@topromanticsong-trs7528]

Thank you so much for sharing, Sir!

[@James_Hayton]

You're welcome!

[@stern_noon]

Thank you for sharing this, it's so helpful.

[@FredDeGreat]

You are the best! Been a fan since "... Without Going Insane". 👍👍👍

[@rubabanaqvi3774]

Excellent talk . Great insight. Please could you tell me should AI be employed for academic writing

[@James_Hayton]

Short answer is no. You can use it for proofreading, but if you are using it to generate text then that-s a very bad idea. You need to be able to defend everything you write, and if it turns out you don't know what you've said (or don't understand what you cite, or cite invented papers as AI often does), then you will fail.

[@MdJubairpantho]

Hello. Dr.Hayton. Very nice resource. Can i get the slides that you used if possible? Thanks

[@Cloudxxx23]

Do you have shorter version like bullet points?

[@mehnazhossain4632]

Well thank you.

[@tasnimsarker4653]

Thank you so much professor.

[@NHSHEARTTRANSPLANT]

Thanks! A lot

[@MBMestrado2024]

wow! Thank you so much

[@zeeshan5643]

Prof. would you kindly share the slides?

[@nothydropump845]

What do you think of large language models and the possibility for them to 'academicize' our texts for us without altering the contents of the text? Is it possible that writing excellence will lose some value to academia?

[@nothydropump845]

Also you say 'there is no other field in human activity .....and to ignore the details' but you know there is a lot of sports related activities where teachers will tell you that, with science to back it up

[@nothydropump845]

or would you call those teachers coaches...

[@James_Hayton]

If the input is rubbish, AI can't fix it. Academic writing will always be a valuable skill, but AI can be useful for proofreading

[@James_Hayton]

Going quickly without thought only applies once you have a high level of skill (for example in a competition setting, where you rely on the skill development you've done in training). If you want to improve or modify a skill, you have to slow down and pay attention (you can't do this in a competition setting)

[@nothydropump845]

@@James_Hayton Still though, what if the input is logically sound and also objectively valid, but is just said in grammatically incorrect ways or ways not seen as academical? Let's take 2 imaginary people who go to college, are smart, and lets assume they both write a paper which is logically sound and empirically valid, and both writers manage to communicate their ideas in such a way that the reader is able to fully understand. Now let's say that one writes in a perfect academic style and the other writes with vocabulary which a 12 year old would understand. In current academia, the second submission would be failed (even if the contribution the paper makes to the science field it is proposed to is important). I argue that a.i (in the near future) will be able to academicize the second paper, making it on par with the first. Now i am not saying that writing skills are therefore void and useless, but what i am saying is that person 2 does not deserve to be failed for his paper on the grounds of it being written simply. I understand that the second person would and should be failed in all time before now, but in the modern digitalized era, i think it is time to de-value writing as measure of intelligence

[@mavicityrelayson2924]

I need a workaround on that being completely offline thing. Most of my stuff are in the cloud.

[@James_Hayton]

you can block distracting sites and leave essential ones accessible

[@rohinikrishnan7026]

The same approach can apply for social sciences phd ???

[@virenpatelpage]

He took the movie Speed as an example. Now he becomes a brother anyway.

[@SengkhounLim]

Thank you for this video.

[@Gorboduc]

Upvoted the second he said that Just Write™ is trash advice.

[@luisalfonso5205]

Your videos are so enjoyable! I'm currently stuck in the process of submitting my first draft at journals. Do you have any recommendations or videos that could be helpful for this process?

[@James_Hayton]

show the work to your supervisor and get feedback before submitting- also ask your supervisor about the process as they'll be able to guide you

[@PhDsoonish]

You are right Dr. Hayton, I need write 3 papers each ones in a different languages, I do NOT knows where to start. The papers is due buy December 21, 2023. This is old video I hopes you is still alive?

[@studyandworkbuddy]

14:36 Structure

[@RIGTV-nb5jy]

Great

[@mehnazhossain4632]

Aren't the details guided by the science. Research methodology. And methods? I might have missed the point?

[@James_Hayton]

Yes, the details are guided by the science... I don't understand your comment

[@Jesus-Blockchain]

How can I be in touch with you Dr ? I want to write my Thesis in Finance , please let me know to reach you

[@coreymullan9348]

If you write like a phd student as an undergrad, would you still get the highest grades of that level

[@James_Hayton]

Great question! You would hope that a PhD student would score very well on an undergrad assignment... The principles of structure I talk about are universal (I adapted them from principles of narrative structure in storytelling) and can be applied to essays, academic papers, grant proposals... anything. The application may vary slightly, but the principles remain the same

[@mehnazhossain4632]

I start with the introduction which was dissonant with conventional advice. That brought in doubts. On what one should do rather than what have been doing. That was confusing. Past.

[@MadofaA]

9:40 the effect on our writng ability of being educated to pass tests.

[@James_Hayton]

If you like this video, check out this other live talk on The Basic Principles Every PhD Student Needs to Know: 👉 kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKOwqHSFqadsiZY

[@yousefalqurashi777]

When writing a Dissertation in humanities - particularly in philosophy and theory of something (political theory for example), it is a whole other story. you are just flowing in a sea of narratives and trying to fix up something from almost nothing. no data, no problem, no analytics, just philosophy. I hope that you have something on this issue

[@James_Hayton]

most of the students I've worked with have been in the humanities, and I can tell you that my approach evolved from working with those students. You need structure. There is no other way. If you understand how structure works, you don't need to be adrift in a sea of narratives, you can systematically and logically construct an argument in exactly the same way as in the sciences. If you don't have a problem or question to answer, what are you doing?

[@Heyu7her3]

I did my undergraduate studies in Philipsburg and had to do a thesis. While I agree that the theoretical writing is very different from empirical writing, you do still have some sort of problem that you solve or address in some way (through sources, proofs, thought experiment, etc). There's still a structure -- of course, not like an empirical paper, but still there.

[@James_Hayton]

It's not really that different at all. The key is that you can use structured thinking to figure out what you want to say, but to do short, standalone pieces to explore specific aspects of a problem. As you figure out more of the pieces you start to notice connections and patterns, then you can put together a complete document once you've clarified your thoughts and know what you want to say

[@yokkanyanat1532]

@@James_Hayton Thank you so much! This suggestion helps me too.

[@ninirema4532]

Dear prof Dr sir Very sweet good morning 🌄🌄🌞🌞🌞 Thank you very much 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤😅

[@vectoralphaSec]

I thought you were Greg Miller from a distance.

[@EnglishAnahit]

👏👏👏👏👏👍👍👍👍👍

[@diarimachan]

1.5 hours and keeps my attention

[@herbsandflowers8152]

Now someone write their PhD about how to have good writing in your PhD thesis, inception?

[@sumantranray2414]

your videos are on important topics. But why are they soooo lengthy > 1 hour ?

[@James_Hayton]

i do shorter ones too. Take your pick!

[@khansvirtualdiary]

📝📨🖥️

[@user-numnumnum]

Someone is entirely missing the point of “just write”

[@James_Hayton]

so what is the point I've missed?