The Graduate Student as Writer: Encouragement for the Budding Scholar

by Shuyi Chua

When is it the best time to publish?What are drafting and freewriting and why are they important?What is the relationship between thinking and writing?How can I write clearly or with clarity?How do I conquer my fear of writing?These are some questions that you will find answers to in "The Graduate Student As Writer: Encouragement for the Budding Scholar." As Undergraduate, Masters or PhD students, you feel the pressure and competition to write and publish. And you want to improve your chances of finding an academic position after graduation. However, the process of academic writing and publishing is not straightforward and seldom discussed amongst college students, leaving many to stumble along and figure things out alone.Whether you're writing your first book review, editorial, grant or research proposal, journal article, dissertation, thesis, conference presentation or proceeding or assignment, if you are looking for some heart-to-heart talk from one graduate student to another on the mindset, skills, and process that are needed for effective and efficient writing and publishing, this book is for you.This book simplifies the writing process into four stages: Drafting, Feedback, Rewriting and Editing. It maintains that a graduate student is not merely training to be an academic, but is also a writer and artist. It also addresses misconceptions about writing that can hinder your progress, such as thinking that you must have it all together before you can begin.This book is written with the university student from the Social Sciences (Education) in mind, but students of all fields, including the Humanities, the Arts, Law, Engineering and Medicine, will find its contents applicable.This book is suitable for any type of research methods or methodologies that you may use, including Qualitative, Quantitative or Mixed-Methods.If you feel discouraged that you're not making progress in your writing and want to excel in graduate school, this book with chapters in bite-sized readings will teach you how to become a productive writer, produce more publications and inspire you to write better.Chapters of the book include: Use Writing as a Tool, Write at Every Stage of Your Graduate Journey, Start Small Where You Are, Copyediting, Use Books as Resources and for Encouragment and Valuing and Enjoying the Process, Not Just the Outcome.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

74 pages, Paperback

Published June 28, 2019

Reviews

[Fulya]

Short book-easy read. It could be useful if I read it at the beginning of the graduate school.

[Balloo]

As a grad student, this was a very very new perspective to me
I speed read the whole book and am planning on re-reading it several more times. I’ve definitely found new motivation and appreciation for getting back to my unfinished drafts!

[Michael Beanland]

Good information, but the writing itself was about as sophisticated as you get from an average college term paper. And I prefer logic, facts, and argumentation as a basis for proving your point rather than citations that support your point of view.

So it was useful; but not particularly inspiring.

[Loladc16]

Great

Truly a pleasure reading this book. It is concise and informative at the same time, it also helps a lot to know that you are not alone through the journey as the author reminds you of this.
Thank you

[Juan Rodriguez]

I enjoyed the book as it was not only a quick read but had some thoughtful recommendations on ways to improve writing and ways to alter your thinking to make the journey of becoming a scholar enjoyable, realistic and fruitful. I do think there are some things that may be less relevant for other disciplines, for example, being that my field of study is Sport Science, I find it hard to implement some of the things about "personalizing" academic writing that were in the book, I do think the idea behind making writing more "fun" or "enjoyable" is important as writing doesn't need to be dull and for literature to evolve we need to question our current "dull" practices.

[Diego]

Shuyi Chua's "The Graduate Student as Writer" is an insightful and encouraging guide for any graduate student looking to improve their academic writing skills. The author emphasizes the importance of taking charge of one's own writing journey and valuing any opportunity to write, even if it doesn't seem high-impact. Chua also stresses the need to practice writing and publishing, even if it means producing non-impactful work. The book provides practical tips for drafting, revising, and submitting academic writing, as well as managing rejection and criticism.