Publish or perish, part 5

How many books on academic writing do you need?

Well, good question :-) I guess I just enjoy reading these. I actually reread some of my books on writing on a fairly regular basis (such as Silva's and Johnson and Mullen's), and I keep others at hand for looking up this fact or that idea (such as Belcher's), but I’m constantly on the outlook for others to add to my collection. For one, I like to learn about the different academic genres and about the writing process more generally. But on top of that I find many of these books highly motivating. Reading about writing makes me want to write even more.

Murray’s book, Writing for academic journals, while serving the first purpose, isn’t really good at the second, at motivating. She seems to assume that people don’t actually want to write, but write because they have to. And while Silva acknowledges the fact that there may be a few things that – at times – may be more enjoyable than fixing your references, she lacks the acute sense of humour that fills Silva’s book. Writing seems to be a dreary duty, imposed by evil outside powers. That’s not what academic writing is to me.

Also, Murray recommends a very structured approach to writing. One that doesn’t just plan texts on the level of chapters or sections or paragraphs, but down to the individual sentence. Reading the chapter on “3rd level outlining” made my toe nails curl. I am willing to acknowledge that outlining is important, but I don’t think I could cope with her system of approaching outlining. Nor do I find writing to prompts, another key method discussed in the book, inspiring.

This is not a bad book. Murray gives lots of solid advice on how to understand reviewer feedback, how to match your text to the journal you are aiming at, or on how to write abstracts. But overall, the negative view of the writing process and her extreme defensiveness about basically all suggestions she makes leave me unmotivated. For purely technical advice, I’d suggest Belcher's book instead, while Silva and Johnson/Mullen would be my best bet for a good kick in the ***.