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#EmptyShelf17 No.44: Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write, by Helen Sword

So, now I want to get hold of my copy of Stylish Academic Writing, and read that!

Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics WriteAir & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write by Helen Sword
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There’s a lot of inspiring bits in this book. I’m trying to decide if I like the long lists of what others do/quote extracts which make it very rich, but I got a little lost in some of them! I definitely like her live-working of writing demonstrated in one chapter where she illustrates it with the various false starts she’d had as ideas for that chapter. The thoughts on thinking through metaphors are really helpful – is writing a ‘battle’ or a ‘passion’, and how does that impact how you approach writing – being energised or fatigued by it.

The friend who gave it to me likes my ‘journalistic style’ of writing and knows I struggle with not feeling like my writing is ‘academic enough’ (aka dry/dull/full of heavy content), so I’ve been encouraged by the emphasis on communication – knowing your audience and allowing your passion and energy to infuse the writing. It’s certainly not a magic book of instruction – as Sword had originally set out to write, but her research demonstrated that we need to experiment with different ways of writing, not wait for months off/the perfect writing space, and those multiple quotes give lots of different ideas of things to try. Also gives encouragement that some of the things I do, make sense within an academic context!

I underlined quite a lot of bits, and made a particular note of p175, where the four habits of those who seem to be “lucky” are laid out:

1) Notice and act on change opportunities, create strong social networks, hold themselves open to new experiences.
2) Trust their intuition – following paths without huge expectations of what’s at the end, but serendipitous opportunities arise
3) They persevere in the face of criticism and rejection.
4) See the positive side of unlucky events – negative feedback strengthens the next piece of writing!

Very dip in-and-out of for academic writers, and encouraging for those who are a bit stuck!

View all my reviews

By admin

Dr Bex Lewis is passionate about helping people engage with the digital world in a positive way, where she has more than 20 years’ experience. She is Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University and Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College, Durham University, with a particular interest in digital culture, persuasion and attitudinal change, especially how this affects the third sector, including faith organisations, and, after her breast cancer diagnosis in 2017, has started to research social media and cancer. Trained as a mass communications historian, she has written the original history of the poster Keep Calm and Carry On: The Truth Behind the Poster (Imperial War Museum, 2017), drawing upon her PhD research. She is Director of social media consultancy Digital Fingerprint, and author of Raising Children in a Digital Age: Enjoying the Best, Avoiding the Worst  (Lion Hudson, 2014; second edition in process) as well as a number of book chapters, and regularly judges digital awards. She has a strong media presence, with her expertise featured in a wide range of publications and programmes, including national, international and specialist TV, radio and press, and can be found all over social media, typically as @drbexl.

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