Academic writing update

Firstly, apologies for updating my academic writing progress so late. November (Academic Writing Month) ended at least a week ago, and I should have come clean about my progress since then!

So, my goal was to complete a first draft of my 'methods' section. I didn't specify a word count, but I wanted something I could send to my supervisor that was readable, and made some kind of sense.

By the end of November I had written 11,570 words. I tried to write something everyday, and in-keeping with the spirit of Academic Writing Month, I just wrote - without too much thought about structure or whether or not what I was putting to paper was really relevant. On reflection, perhaps I interpreted these guidelines too loosely, but it felt good to write and not over-think the content too much. Writing like this really helped me understand some of the concepts I had been reading about in the previous month, as I was forced to try to put down ideas into my own words. This definitely helped my understanding and I'm so glad I took part. The twitter community was also really helpful - with people posting writing tips, snack tips and I guess, just knowing other people were out there, in different libraries or PhD offices, doing the same thing felt quite comforting.

So this last week has been spent trying to cut down all the unnecessary explanations, and put together the different thoughts and pieces of work that have been written over November. It is nowhere near a methods section, and I'm not sure any of it will make it anywhere near my PhD but it was an interesting exercise. Thank you to twitter and everyone who took part in #AcWriMo - till next year!