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Mapping a new field of scholarship
One of the first questions I get asked on Twitter (I’m at @raulpacheco) is: “how do I get started on X?” It’s always hard because to be perfectly honest, a lot of things I don’t even realize how I got...
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Write No Matter What: Advice for Academics (Joli Jensen) – my reading notes
Slowly but surely I’ve been amassing a small library of academic writing books. Not because I love dispensing advice, but because a lot of people ask me to recommend books, and others suggest the ones...
View ArticleFrom Dissertation to Book (William Germano) – my reading notes
I’ve been reading a lot of books on academic writing lately, not only because I’m writing my own, but also because they’re recommended to me, and I believe it is really important to situate your own...
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125-250 words, 15 minutes: Setting small writing goals to build an academic...
I have been travelling non-stop since January 2018 even though I had promised myself I would not do this ever again. But my scholarly research takes me to a number of places, including San Francisco...
View ArticleGetting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious About...
Before I left for ISA 2018 and AAG 2018, I purchased a ton of books. I have been doing way more work on waste (not only human manure but also municipal garbage) and while my water library is...
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Thinking Like Your Editor (Rabiner & Fortunato) – my reading notes
One of the things I’ve learned through the years is that there is no single panacea for anything. In the line of research I do (comparative public policy), I always find that there are so many...
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How to write the introduction of a book manuscript
I am a member of the Public Outreach Committee of the International Studies Association’s Environmental Studies Section (ESS of ISA). At ISA 2018, recently held in San Francisco, I participated in a...
View ArticleWriting for Peer Reviewed Journals: Strategies for Getting Published...
While I’ve followed and interacted with Dr. Pat Thomson (University of Nottingham) for a very, very long time (and I really like her), I haven’t read all the books she’s published. She’s someone who...
View ArticleHow to Write a Thesis (Umberto Eco) – my reading notes
I sometimes eschew book recommendations even though I have an intuition that these may actually work for my purposes. A number of scholars had recommended to me that I should check Umberto Eco’s How to...
View ArticleEmpirical Research and Writing: A Political Science Student’s Practical Guide...
I had known of the excellent work of Dr. Leanne C. Powner for a very long time. We are both political scientists, and since I write so much about academic writing, and I have taught research methods,...
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How to write the conclusion of a paper
Whenever I read conclusions of papers, both in my students’ papers as well as in journal articles and book chapters, I find that writers are so tired of writing and doing the research that they end up...
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How to Fix Your Academic Writing Trouble: A Practical Guide (my reading notes)
I had been wanting to transfer my Twitter reading notes about How to Fix Your Academic Writing Trouble: A Practical Guide but because of personal health issues I had not, so I am glad that I am now...
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Writing the dissertation (thesis) I: Structure, timing and content
I find it slightly ironic that I am writing these blog posts to guide my doctoral students when a few of them have already graduated and I have two so close to completing their dissertations. I...
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How Writing Faculty Write: Strategies for Process, Product, and Productivity...
Around 2018, I started reading several books on “how to do a PhD, academic writing, and writing more generally. I did so to help my own doctoral students (by the way, you can read my “Reading Notes of...
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Finishing a dissertation, thesis or book manuscript: A few tips and ideas to...
Because of the COVID-19 lockdown, I have been working from home now basically every day. Since I’m staying at my Mom’s for the duration of the shelter-in-place period, and I have a full-fledged home...
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Staying in touch with your writing: Opening the document on a regular basis
My oldest brother is a tenured, full professor at California State University Los Angeles, in Los Angeles, California (USA). As a result, we frequently talk about the challenges and joys of our lives...
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Writing by memorandums
Thanks to a relatively extended bout of health, I have been writing a lot. Even more exciting than that, I’ve been FINISHING UP a lot of papers. This afternoon, I managed to finish a journal article...
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Writing to understand: A personal tale of my journey to become an academic...
I really love writing. I absolutely do. But hasn’t always been like this. As a child, I actually did not like writing very much. Two factors influenced my enjoyment for the actual process. First, my...
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Writing papers using Initial Outlines and Detailed Outlines
Because of the COVID19 pandemic, I’ve had more time (and concentration) to write despite my heavy teaching load (which I hope will not repeat itself ever in my entire life). This Fall term (and this...
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Expanding Detailed Outlines into Memorandums and those into Full Manuscripts
As most of you all know, I’ve been teaching research methods, research design and academic writing for a while now. My students ALWAYS, literally ALWAYS ask me the question: “How do I go from having...
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