Supercharge your writing journey with these 3 tips! (used in my thesis writing)

I defended my second Master’s thesis on November 13th. These 3 pieces of advice saved me a lot of time and energy.

1 Don’t edit when you are in the flow

I first heard this advice in the book How to Write Copy That Sells: The Step-By-Step System For More Sales, to More Customers, More Often by Ray Edwards. I read that book after seeing an ad on YouTube about how a copywriter can make a six-figure income! I had no idea what a copywriter is. This book really gave me a lot of information about writing in general and not only copywriting. The idea is simple. There are times we feel more into writing, and have a lot to say. Don’t edit on those times, let the words flow from your hand and mind. Don’t think twice about what you are going to write, just write it down. Of course, you should make sure to learn the topic first before writing about it. I had my reading notes on the thesis templates and I built my paragraphs from the notes. There are times when we feel really critical about everything, we see what is wrong or what does not work in any area we do not even think of. That is when we should edit our work.

2 Use blah when you don’t know what to write yet

This second piece of advice is from my advisor. When you are writing and there is a word you don’t know (you forgot or a new word), just replace it with blah and continue writing. You may leave a note to yourself to look it up in the dictionary later but don’t do that while you are writing. You can also write it in another language if you happen to know the translation. When critical you will do the edit, they can look that up in the dictionary. Let creative you focus on creating and writing.

3 Structure matters

Whether you have great ideas or world-changing ideas, the way you present them to the world really matters. You need a structure for your work. Here are some questions that help you build a structure.

In one sentence, what is your essay/thesis about?

Why people should care about your essay?

What are you going to cover in your essay?

What are you not going to cover in your essay?

What is the background on this subject?

What have you done and have you not done?

What are the key findings?

Are there any future work?

To get an idea of what structure is good for your paper, I recommend you read published books/papers in your field. Identify what makes you like or not like them. What kinds of vocabulary do they use? Do they put historical background, how are the figures presented? Do not only read papers/books directly related, to your research. Open yourself to the field at large and read tons of papers. By tons, I definitely mean as many as your time allows you!

Wait a minute! Have we met before? I’m Antsa. In my academic success YouTube channel and Facebook page, top-notch professionals and students from around the globe share their stories to help and inspire students like you. You can start watching today on YouTube or Facebook.