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The Ultimate Guide to Starting an Academic Blog Today

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Table of Contents

How to Start an Academic Blog Today

Are you a researcher, faculty member, or PhD student considering starting a blog? Good, because the best professor websites are blogs. And this is the post is for you!

There are many reasons why academics should blog. But getting started can be tough. You’ve got a lot on your plate and are probably wondering if blogging is worth the time investment. You may be wondering what to even blog about.

Have no fear! In the below post, I’ve put together my ultimate guide to starting an academic blog, whether you’re a PhD student, a university professor, a post-doc, or other scholar. This guide contains everything you need to start a blog today.

It includes:

Reasons why academics should blog.
Examples of successful academic blogs – both from PhDs and PhD students.
A step-by-step guide for planning a successful academic blog.
Resources for finding a web host and setting up your blog.
WordPress plugins that make blogging easier.

Why Should Academics Blog? Building Your Personal Brands

I always tell people that it has been the number one, most important thing that I have done for my personal brand is start an academic blog. But the truth is, I didn’t get into blogging thinking any of these things would happen.

Here are my top 8 of the many ways this blog has helped my academic career since I started blogging in 2013.

ultimate guide to starting an academic blog

Why start an Academic Blog as a Professor and/or Scholar

Building Your Personal Brand – A blog serves as your professional academic identity. It tells people what you’re about and helps you share your professional passions. Think of your blog as your hub and your social media channels as your spoke. Yes, you want to be active on social media as a way to build your personal brand. But why not let everyone else (the people you don’t interact with on social media) find you too? Search engines are where we go when we want to find something, right? So you want to show up on search engines. In fact, most of my traffic (somewhere around 80%) comes from search traffic and that traffic is from all over the globe. That means, most of the people who I am reaching and helping with my content are likely not people who I already know. Instead, they are searching about a social media teaching problem that my blog helps them solve. Just think about all the ways you can help more people!
Have an Impact On Your Field – A blog helps you establish yourself as a thought leader on a topic. It provides a way to contribute to the field in a way that is more permanent than a Tweet or story post. Blogs also provides a chance for more long-form writing that you cannot do on social media. Many academics complain that their research doesn’t reach a wide enough audience. I agree – I wish more people read the research I’ve spent thousands of hours working on. That’s what makes a blog great. It can be much more widely read than academic journal publications. Plus, that blog post you wrote last week or last year, can still be accessed by your colleagues around the world today. Talk about being able to have an impact across time and space!
Networking and Friendships – I have met more people as a result of this blog than any Tweet or Facebook post I’ve ever sent. Those connections have opened doors for research, service, and speaking opportunities. But, most importantly, they’ve helped me be part of a community of educators. It feels strange to say this, but I’ve been at conferences and people who I did not previously know have told me, “I read your blog.” That is still mind-blowing to me. What a great way to connect with someone.
Research opportunities – Because people have gotten to know my professional interests and find common interests with theirs, I’ve been invited to participate in several research projects. Here’s one such example .
Speaking opportunities – I’ve been invited to speak locally, regionally, and internationally because people have gotten to know my work through my blogging.
Service opportunities – I’ve been given wonderful opportunities to serve on committees for international organizations because of my blog.
Promotion & Tenure – Universities generally don’t consider a blog on par with teaching, service, and research. But as you can see, the doors that a blog opens can be vital to building a strong portfolio.

Why start a PhD Journey blog

Many of the above reasons to start a blog apply to PhD students. And while some of from the above list do not, there are plenty of other reasons that PhD students should start a PhD journey blog. Before we look at them, let’s define a PhD journey blog.

A PhD journey blog documents the first-person experiences of a PhD student through the process of entering graduate school on through defending one’s dissertation. Often, these blogs transition into academic blogs upon the student becoming a faculty member.

Here are a few to start a PhD journey blog while working on your PhD:

A Community of Support – Getting a PhD is really hard. PhD motivation can get low at times. But being part of the PhD blogging community can help you find a community of people facing many of the same challenges that you are. Sharing your thoughts, struggles, and experiences can feel therapeutic. Just keep in mind that what you post is public and the PhD community is a fairly small community.
Pay it Forward for Other PhD Students – Bloggers are sharers. They share tips and ideas to help one another out. PhD bloggers have likely been through what you’re going through. In that same way, by sharing your experiences, you are passing on PhD tips to the students who will come after you. Blogging while working on your PhD is a great way to give back.
Prepare for the Job Market – You can establish yourself as an expert in your field as a PhD student. You are part of the next generation who will bring new ideas, new research, and new innovations to your field. Because academia tends to be focused on areas of specialty, there is a good chance that your readers may be your future colleagues. So this may be an opportunity to show them your knowledge and help them get to know a little about you. The reputation you build can help your future colleagues get to know you when it comes time to apply for faculty jobs.

Academic Blog Examples

Faculty and researcher blog examples.

Your research. Your life. Your Story – a mix of stories by PhD students and academics on the publishing platform Medium.
Linking Learning: The Professional Portfolio of Kay Oddone – The blog of lecturer and researcher, Kay Oddone, at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. The blog sheds light on pedagogy, professional networks, and social technology.
Karen Freberg’s Blog – Karen is a leading voice in social media pedagogy. Her blog covers trends, perspectives, experiences, and advice in the social media, sports communication, and public relations domains.
Sophie Talks Science – What started as a PhD journey blog, is now the blog of Sophie, a science communication officer from Portsmouth, UK.
The Academic Society – This one’s a bit different and I love it. Toyi Alli, a mathematics faculty member at the University of Georgia, focuses on providing tips and resources to help grad students and faculty excel in academia.
Matt Might’s Blog – A popular blog from Matt Might, director of the Hugh Kaul Personalized Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama.
The Thesis Whisperer – Written by Inger Mewburn, the director of research training at the Australian National University. Mewburn shares knowledge for graduate students on completing a PhD.

PhD Journey Blog Examples

A PhD blog, or PhD Journey blog, is a blog written by a graduate student that explores the process of earning a PhD. Here are a few great reasons to start one as well as some example PhD blogs.

How to Write a PhD in a Hundred Steps or More – A former PhD journey blogger, Sherran began documenting her journey as a PhD student, full-time worker, and mom and has continued this journey on into her post-graduate school life.
Dr. Of What – A very popular PhD journey blog that tells the journey of a PhD student from Australia. What’s so great about this blog is that it also provides looks at the lives of other PhD students in various stages of their journey. Dr. Of What has a great series of ‘day in the life of a PhD student’ episodes.
Sophie Talks Science – While Sophie is no longer a PhD student, you can see her archives of her PhD journey posts here .
Waste Free PhD – The journey of Laura, a PhD student in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at Syracuse University. This blog leverages her expertise in waste reduction to inform the public and drive change in how we use… well, everything. I love this blog because it takes Laura’s expertise and focuses on application to the wider public.

[Want more examples? Editage has a list of 40 academic blogs to start reading today .]

Now that we’ve talked about why you should blog and covered several different types of academic and PhD journey blogs, let’s get to the fun stuff: Designing & starting your blog!

There are two steps to this.

Figure out what you want to blog about.
Create the blog

How to Start an Academic Blog – Part 1: Find Your Purpose and Plan Your Blog

In Part 1 below, I’ll talk you through the process of deciding what you want to blog about.

Don’t rush through Part 1. It is important that you think about the WHY of blogging before jumping into the academic blogging world!

How do I decide What My Blog Should be About?

What is the purpose of your blog?

Grab a piece of paper and jot down the first thing that comes to mind. Okay. Now that you got that out. Let’s focus on key things to consider.

What’s the Connection Between my Blog and my Personal Brand?

If you already have a personal brand, then you likely want to tie your blog into your brand. Remember, your blog is your hub and your social media content works as spokes, driving traffic back to your blog.

If you don’t have a personal brand, or aren’t sure about your personal brand, then you may want to develop a personal brand statement. This statement can help ground your online identity into a common thrust or focus. You may find it helpful to write a personal brand statement . A personal brand statement helps identify your core benefit to your audience and helps differentiate you from others. So it makes sense that your blog houses an aspect of what you’re offering your audience – your core benefit – and what makes you unique.

Here’s an example personal brand statement for me:

Matt Kushin is a professor, author, and blogger who specializes in helping social media educators Teach Confident in today’s digital landscape. He help them build engaging classes that prepare students for careers as professional communicators today.

Take time to develop your personal brand statement if you don’t already have one. Establishing this can help clarify what to blog about.

How Do I Pick a Core Topic for My Blog?

Now that we’ve considered your personal brand, we need to decide what your blog is going to be about. This is your core blog topic. You can decide this by focusing on one or a combination of several key areas of your life:

Research Interests – A blog that shares your research and other research emerging in your field.
Teaching Interests – A blog that shares teaching assignments, activities, and advice in your field. Hint: That’s the core focus of this blog.
Lifestyle Interests – A blog that shares your interest in a hobby, passion, or other aspects of your lifestyle.
Identity or Life Stage Interests – A blog that focuses on a unique feature of your identity or stage of life. Often these blogs intersect with another topic of focus, such as your teaching or research. Identity aspects may include culture, gender, race, ethnicity, relationship status, parenting status, among others. A life stage circumstance may be where you live, such as a big city.

The good news is that your blog’s core topic can grow and change as you do. You can also stray and write other blog content and see how your audience reacts to it. For example, I am writing this blog post which is outside of my core focus because I’ve had lots of people ask me about academic blogging. So I figured my audience could benefit from this knowledge.

How Do I Establish A Goal for My Blog?

What are your goals for this blog?

Examples: To establish yourself as a thought leader in your field; To offer advice to other PhD students about earning a PhD while living in a small town; To share your passion for your research topic; To build connections and friendships with fellow students who share your passion for budget-friendly cooking and decor; To discuss the pedagogy of your field; To offer an academic’s perspective on key issues facing your field which are often discussed in the news media.

Jot down 1-3 goals. Remember, a goal is a broad statement of what you want to accomplish. Return to the list “why start an academic blog…” at the top of this post if you need some help.

How Do I Identify My Target Audience for My Blog?

Who is your target audience for your blog?

Likely, it falls into one of the below categories. Of course, you may reach multiple audiences from this list. So start with your primary audiences – the one or two groups that you are most interested in reading. Then, list your secondary audiences – those who would also benefit from your blog.

Other PhD students (for PhD journey bloggers)
Other academics
Educators – both in and outside of higher education. For example, many of the readers of this blog teach outside of the university setting.
The Public – this may be the general public or a part of the public interested in your area of expertise (e.g., if you’re a biologist and you want to reach those in the public who are passionate about sustainability).
The Media – Your area of expertise may be a hot topic in the news. Here’s your chance to establish yourself as a thought leader and potentially earn your way into media coverage.
Potential Clients and Customers – Are you an academic who also does consulting? Are you an academic with something to sell, such as a book? A blog can help you attract clients / customers.

Let’s think a little more about your audience.

What do you want your audience to think, feel, do?

If you are writing an advice-based blog, then you want your audience to take some sort of action. If it’s a cooking blog for academics, for example, you want your fans to try the recipes and share in your love of cooking. You may also want them to have a warm, welcomed feeling when they’re on your blog, giving them a sense of the comfort and warmth that resonates through your personality.

How Do I Succeed at Blogging?

What does success look like for your blog? First, make your blog a success by defining what success means to you. Your blog doesn’t have to compete with any other blog. This is your corner of the Internet. So sit back and think about what you want out of this investment.

Examples: Do you want a lot of web traffic – e.g., readers – and thus possible influence? Do you want to feel part of a community? Do you want to build intimate connections with a small group of readers that can generate conversations and build relationships? Do you feel that success is the opportunity to express your identity?

For me, success is measured a few ways:

Comments, emails, social media and offline conversations that I have with people who have read my blog and have told me anecdotally that I have assisted them in some way. Also, I get requests for materials and questions that offer me opportunities to help.
Traffic – I monitor my Google Analytics and look at various traffic metrics that indicate the number of people I am reaching and thus potentially helping.
Book sales – See below.
Relationships – The relationships and connections I build with others. These are vital to me. They make me happy.
Opportunities – These are opportunities I get to speak or be a part of cool projects because of this blog.

More recently, I’ve thought about book sales. Since my blog is the primary way in which I sell my book, I’ve tracked how the blog generates leads to the Amazon buy page (I cannot track completed sales because Amazon does not offer tracking codes all the way through to sales).

Book Sales – The number of books I sell in a month. These sales help me measure my People Helped because my book helps people teach social media.

Return to your goals. What does achieving those blog goals look like for you? How might your blog advance your personal brand and what would be a measurement of your personal brand being advanced? Jot some things down.

What Should I Write About?

You’ve figured out what you want to blog about and what success looks like for you. You’ve tied your blog into your personal brand. Now, comes the big question: What will you write about?

Be realistic with your answer. Most bloggers suffer burnout. They crank out dozens of posts in the first few months and then struggle to write anything. The reason is that they thought they were passionate about something only to find out, they didn’t have as much to say as they thought they did.

Don’t fall into this trap. Before committing to a blog topic, spend 20 minutes jotting down as many blog topic ideas as you can. Your topic ideas don’t have to be fully formed. Just get the broad idea on paper.

Some great places to start are by reviewing the list of blog topic ideas below, browsing some of the academic blogs listed above in this post, or looking over your own research, teaching, or other areas of interest a bit before sitting down to come up with your list.

If you can’t come up with 20 topic ideas that you are passionate about writing, then maybe it is time to consider a different topic.

I keep a running list of blog topic ideas on my to-do-list app. I jot them down as the idea comes to me. Then, when it is time to write, I always have a few good ideas to work from.

Blog Topic Ideas

In my experience, the two big reasons academics don’t blog are 1) A perceived lack of time, and 2) The “I don’t know what to write about” reason.

Matt Might provides a great list of 6 different blog posts that academics can write. They are:

The lecture post
The “reply to public” post
The advice post
The vented steam post
Blog as code repository (for those who teach coding. But, this could be expanded to other disciplines. The idea is sharing your work).
The post as long-term memory

To Matt’s great list, I would like to add a few additional types of academic blog posts:

The Pedagogy Post – The pedagogy post talks about the teaching of your field of expertise. It be philosophical or reflective in nature. It may discuss issues or trends your field is facing in terms of pedagogy. It may discuss challenges in preparing your students for success in the field.
The Assignment Post – This is a form of pedagogy post. It focuses specifically on an activity or assignment that you use to teach your subject expertise. By writing this type of post (which is the type of post I mostly write), you can help others dedicated to teaching your subject area. Here’s an example assignment post I wrote.
The Announcement Post – This post shares your upcoming activities with your readers. It may let them know about an upcoming presentation you are giving at a conference. It may announce a recent publication that may be of interest to your readers. Here’s an example announcement post I wrote .
The Takeaway Post – This post shares with your readers key takeaways from a conference or other attended event. Here’s an example of a takeaway post I wrote.
The Book, Article, Software (or other Tool) Review Post – A great way to contribute to the field is to write reviews of article, books, or tools that are pertinent to your field.

How Often Should I Publish?

There is no right answer here. But keep in mind blogger burnout. Rather than publishing a ton and running out of gas, space your posts out.

Be realistic with your expectations of yourself. Publishing more than twice a month may not be realistic with all the demands you have on your plate.

When I started, I published every 2 weeks during the academic year. Over time, I have slowed that down to my squishy self-requirement: At least once a month during the academic year. I try to publish more often if possible. But I do not expect myself to, and that’s an important distinction. I rarely publish during the summer because I’ve noticed my readership falls off during those months, as academics have their time and attention focused elsewhere.

A related question is: When should I publish?

I’ve experimented with this for my audience. I’ve found that Monday mornings work best for me. Academics are eager to get back into the fold as the week starts. But experiment and try what works for you. I believe that being consistent about the day of the week you publish helps set expectations for yourself and your readers.

How to Start an Academic Blog: Part 2 – Building the Blog

Now that you have a core blog topic, blog goals, a defined target audience(s), a list of topics to write about, and a posting plan and schedule, it is for the fun part! It is time to build your blog!

What Do I Need to Get Started?

The great news is that it’s easy and inexpensive to start a blog.

You will need:

A blogging content management platform – e.g., WordPress, Blogger.
A domain name

When it comes to content management platforms, I am personally a fan of WordPress and have run sites on both WordPress.com and WordPress.org – more below. So that’s what I will focus on. But keep in mind that there there are other platforms out there, such as Blogger and Typepad .

If you go with WordPress, there are two options. Below are some pros and cons to each.

Option 1: WordPress.org

The open-source self-hosted version of WordPress.

The software is open-source and free
Customizable URL. Example: https://myawesomeacademicblog.com
Fully customizable website with plugins and custom themes
The data and the website belong to you
Build storefronts for selling products
Run ads and earn a percentage of revenue
Free of ads run by WordPress
Google Analytics can be added via plugins
Need to buy a domain and pay for hosting. As a starting point, this generally costs somewhere between $3 – $10 a month. Discussed further below.
Responsibility for backing up website is on you.
Responsible for updates to WordPress (which often is done by your host) and your plugins and themes (which is generally done by a push of the button when logged into WordPress)

Option 2: WordPress.com

The hosted version of WordPress by the WordPress team.

Free (up to 3GB of space)
Easy to set up and use
Website is hosted for you
No domain or URL purchases needed
Paid upgrade options
Domain is not fully customizable with the free version. That is, you’re stuck with something like https://myawesomeacademicblog. wordpress .com
No plugins, which allow you to customize your blog
No custom themes
Ads placed all over your site that you have no control over
Limited access to web traffic metrics

With that said, there are paid plans to have WordPress.com host your site for you with different pricing options. This makes things easy, and the plans offer custom domains.

Building Your Academic Blog on a WordPress.org Site

If you go with WordPress.org, you will need a host to host the WordPress software and a domain where users can find your site (like how you are on MattKushin.com right now). It may be easiest to buy the domain and the hosting from the same company. But I’ve put options for both below.

Picking a Domain

When you get started, you will want to decide on a website domain (that is, what your URL is for your site).

A lot of academics use their names as their domains – like me! – and others use titles related to their blog topic. Think about what people might be searching on the Internet that will lead them to your blog. NameMesh offers a free tool that will generate domain name ideas for you.

Website Hosting

Web hosts generally allow you to bring your own domain (purchased elsewhere) or easily and efficiently purchase a domain as part of your hosting package. They sometimes offer a free domain as a part of your purchase. Here are a few popular options (note: Both are affiliate links):

SiteGround – Host your WordPress site on Siteground. They have different pricing options and often run deals.
BlueHost – Host your website on BlueHost. Like Siteground, tehy offer different pricing options and promotions depending on when you sign up.

Each web host has its own way of installing WordPress. They generally make them as simple as possible to help you get started. You’ll just want to follow their instructions and they offer support if needed.

WordPress Plugins

Plugins are one major reason to host your own WordPress site. Plugins are not required but they are desired because they allow you to customize your site and really boost what your site can do. A quick look at the WordPress plugin page shows that there are plugins for seemingly anything you would want to do with a website from email marketing to page builders to form builders to data backups to SEO and beyond. You can add a Facebook pixel to track traffic to your website for remarketing purposes. Many plugins are free, and some are paid, while others are freemium. I’ve linked to a few popular plugins below for you to research. Most of them are free, but some are freemium:

Google Analytics – There are a few ways to add Google Analytics to a WordPress site. Plugins are one of them. There are several popular plugins for connecting your Google Analytics to your WordPress site.
SEO – Yoast SEO Plugin is certainly a popular SEO plugin with a free option that provides a lot of functionality. Table of Contents plugins such as the Easy Table of Contents Plugin can also offer some SEO boosts because, the argument goes, they help readers see what’s on your site while offering some signals to Google. Adding Google Search Console to your website is a great way to help with SEO efforts. One way to add search console is through Yoast .
GDPR Cookie Consent – Given GDPR laws, you probably see GDPR cookie consent popups on many of the websites you visit. GDPR Cookie plugins or Complianz , among others, can help you inform your readers about information you are collecting through Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, etc.
Website Speed – Slow load times hurt search results ranking and thus traffic and SEO. There are a number of plugins out there that attempt to speed up your site load time. A few include WP Super Cache , SG Optimizer (for those using SiteGround as a host), Hummingbird , and others .
Website Security – Security is definitely an issue when it comes to any website. Plugins. These sorts of plugins also have premium (paid) versions that may very well be worth the investment. A few popular security plugins include JetPack , All In One , Wordfence Security.
Site Backups – Backing up your website provides peace of mind. As before, you’ve got options – both free and paid – including JetPack , UpDraft , BackWPup , among many others.
Academics – If you will be discussing research on your blog, a handy plugin is the Academic Blogger’s Toolkit.

Alright, time to get started on building your blog!

If you do start an academic blog, please post the URL to your blog in the comments below with a brief description of your blog. That way, other readers will be able to see them.

I first had the idea to write this post in fall 2019 when I realized I was getting a lot of questions about academic blogging and how to start an academic blog. The post took on a life of its own, growing and growing as I worked on it. I hope it offered some help and motivation. I hope to update this post in time with more resources and information. So bookmark it so you can come back to it.

– Cheers!

2 thoughts on “The Ultimate Guide to Starting an Academic Blog Today”

I am graduating with my masters in December and am just starting out with my blog. My first post goes live soon. What is considered acceptable citation practice? Do I just provide the title, author, with a link attached? Some of my sources are not available online. I’ve read several blogs and I don’t see hardly any with an actual reference list (like you would in a paper). I guess it’s my library background and citation training that has me overthinking it. Would love some feedback. Thanks.

Jayme, thanks for your comment. I apologize for the delayed reply. It sounds like your blog is focused on sharing and discussing research? In that case, I would use your field’s citation norms. For example, in my field we tend to use APA. You can cite directly out to the source with a reference list at the bottom or use internal bookmarks so that a person can click on a link and be taken down to your reference list. Here is an example of how internal links work: https://www.yourhtmlsource.com/text/internallinks.html .

That said, often in blogging, authors are less formal. They will often just hyperlink directly to the source. Another idea is to keep a running list of references on a separate page in addition to your posts. That way, your readers can also be referred to your running list of sources if you plan to discuss an area of research in several posts over a long period of time.

My biggest piece of advice would be consistency: Find what works for you and make it the format of your blog. Your readers will come to understand your approach and get comfortable with it. Happy blogging!

A Social Media Education Blog by Matthew J. Kushin, Ph.D.

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A Happy PhD

A blog about doctoral productivity, supervision and wellbeing..

Looking for tips, tricks and advice to finish your doctoral thesis on time and with high spirits? Baffled by how little information is out there about how to support PhD students to become independent researchers? As an ex-doctoral student now co-supervising five students , I feel your pain.

“A Happy PhD” is a blog where I distil what has worked for me, as well as recent research in doctoral education, psychology and many other fields. Join our newsletter , or follow the blog on Twitter , Facebook , or via RSS .

New to the blog? Start here.

Are you looking for…

Common problems and challenges in doing the PhD, from mental health (e.g., depression or anxiety) or productivity challenges , to writing or dropping out of your PhD .

Mental health and wellbeing tips and advice : common mental health symptoms in the PhD , tips to avoid dropping out of the doctorate , the importance of sleep , holidays or advice from positive psychology to keep yourself motivated during the PhD.

PhD productivity tips and advice : from the classic Pomodoro technique , to avoiding to-do list overwhelm , dealing with multiple projects and priorities , staying productive and motivated , how I manage my daily tasks or how I do my weekly reviews .

PhD-specific tools , like the CQOCE diagram to conceptualize your PhD, the NABC method to structure your research presentations, or the process I use to write scientific papers or make big career decisions .

Supervision tips and advice , about giving feedback on student papers , or supporting a sense of progress in your doctoral students .

What (else) do I write about?

Two Hundred Weeks: Productivity for Mortal PhD Students (book extract)

Is there a way to be productive in our PhD without falling into all-out work obsession and burnout? What habits and systems could help us make good use of our (inherently limited) time and effort, taking into account that we could die tomorrow? In this second part of our Four Thousand Weeks book summary, we look at some of the tactical and strategic advice stemming from the productivity mindset shifts the book suggests – filtered and contextualized for doctoral students aware of their finitude.

Productivity as Avoidance, or How Not to Think about Doctoral Productivity (book extract)

If you are a doctoral student struggling to move your dissertation forward, especially in the face of additional jobs, teaching, family, or other obligations, the thought of becoming more productive can be very appealing – to the point of becoming a sort of obsession. After our review of (somewhat caricaturesque) doctoral productivity and anti-productivity arguments , in this post I summarize some of the ideas in Oliver Burkeman’s recent book, Four thousand weeks , which I have found very helpful to reach a balance between my own productivity obsessions and the abandoning of all hope of being any good at my daily research activities.

Is Doctoral Productivity Bad?

In this blog I have written a lot about doctoral productivity tools and advice. Yet, many doctoral students out there may also think that the focus on productivity is exploitative, dehumanizing, and counter to the very spirit of the scientific endeavor. Should we reject the quest for being productive altogether? Should we “quiet quit” our PhDs? This post tries to clarify what I mean by (doctoral) productivity, which may not be the “narrow productivity” view you find in certain research policy or journalistic articles about the topic. That way, you can decide whether it makes sense for you to follow my advice, or get it elsewhere.

Tiny idea: To-do lists are menus

Overwhelmed by your endless to-do list? Stressed because of the many PhD-related tasks you need to “go through”? As we discussed previously in the blog , you are not alone (and ask any already-doctors whether this feeling goes away after graduation). Lately, as I struggle with not-so-new-parenthood-unproductivity in my own research, I have been reminded several times of a mental reframe I first encountered in productivity writer Oliver Burkeman ’s work. This simple metaphor helped me change my relationship with my to-do list, without hurting my productivity (more probably, the opposite).

Tiny practice: Beating procrastination with The Right Now List

One of the top barriers to PhD productivity is procrastination. Have you ever found yourself with a big ugly task getting stale in your to-do list, repeatedly postponed because it is too big, too abstract, or makes you somehow uncomfortable? This tiny practice post gives you an simple trick to beat this sort of procrastination.

ChatGPT's doctoral productivity advice... and four ideas the algorithm will (probably) not give you

We know that making progress is a critical motivational factor in finishing a PhD and maintaining good mental health while we do it. In turn, our productivity plays a big role in whether we make progress on our dissertation or not. As the first post in a series on doctoral productivity, I could not help but fall into one of the thèmes du jour : whether ChatGPT and similar artificial intelligence (AI) tools can write a good piece about this topic. In this post, I go over a couple of iterations of (pretty good) computationally-generated advice, and finally give you a few ideas that I think are overlooked by the algorithm.

Tiny idea: Use the Regret Test for daily decision-making

Breathing through the phd: breathwork in the doctorate, tiny practice: boost your workday happiness with natural spaces, tiny idea: subtraction.

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In The Media

10 Essential Dissertation Blogs for Ph.D. Students

If you are anything like me, then having a few blogs and podcasts to follow is essential to every project – and dissertation blogs are no exception.

In this post, I’ll share ten of my favorite research blogs for dissertation students, including academic, writing, and humorous options. (Don’t worry – we’ll get to podcasts another day!)

Dissertation blogs are great, because you can get everything from instructional tips on research and writing to motivational daydreaming and validation for your frustrations. I think these ten blogs offer a good range of what you need to survive the dissertation research and writing process – but let me know what you think!

(And yes – the ReadWritePerfect Dissertation Advice blog also offers these things – but it’s nice to have options, right?)

The Thesis Whisperer

This blog offers ten years of humorous and supportive content from professor inger mewburn..

Director of Researcher Development at The Australian National University, Professor Mewburn writes The Thesis Whisperer with candor, humor, and more than a little bit of inside knowledge. her tips on writing, surviving the dissertation process, and staying motivated are user-friendly and filled with empathy.

Nick Hopwood

Associate professor at the university of technology, sydney, hopwood shares insight on research, academic work, writing, and more..

More formal and authoritative than the Thesis Whisperer, Nick Hopwood is a site for readers who prefer an all-business approach to academia. As well as the blogs, readers can find podcasts and instructional videos on the site.

Get a life, PhD

Although the last post was in 2021, this dissertation blog offers years of blogs on everything from how to find a life-work balance to general tips on academic writing..

Get A Life, PhD is all about finding the balance between letting your PhD fall to the wayside and letting your PhD consume you, mind, body, and soul. I especially love the practical, realistic tips on time management.

Research to Action

This collaborative site offers a synthesis of instructive blogging, online community, and academic debate, all focused on improving research strategies..

The Research to Action site is a pretty comprehensive one-stop-shop for researchers at all levels, from PhD candidate to seasoned researcher. The site itself is well-designed, as as well as instruction, readers can find reading lists, calls for submissions, and even job opportunities.

The Professor Is In

This dissertation blog offers guidance and resources for graduate students and academics from a range of contributors..

Slightly more commercial than some of the other blogs listed here, the key strength of The Professor is In lies in the range of contributors lending their voices and expertise to the content, from a productivity coach to a graduate director to an editor to several professors and assistant professors. Between them, they know everything there is to know about thriving in academia.

The Research Whisperer

This research blog is similar to the thesis whisperer, but more recent and more funding-focused..

The bloggers at The Research Whisperer address topics related to all aspects of academic research. While they “don’t just talk about funding,” there is a real emphasis in the content on the business side of research (such as getting grants and being a union member), as their tag line suggests: “Just like the Thesis Whisperer – but with more money.”

From PhD to Life

This dissertation blog covers topics that help phd students prepare for and transition into life after academia..

Even if you’re not quite ph(inishe)d yet, From PhD to Life will definitely give you something to look forward to – and tips to help you plan practically for it. I particularly like the light, conversational style – it’s a nice break from academia-speak.

Writing for Research

In this research blog, professor patrick dunleavy writes about academia, offering some higher-level insight into the processes and culture of higher education institutions..

Writing for Research does offer some basic writing and research advice, but what really helps it stand out from other sites is the focus on how academia ticks. There are posts on everything from university organization (why exactly is an academic discipline called a “discipline”?) to open-access and fair reviewing practices – really interesting stuff, in other words.

Tress Academic

Aimed at beginners and dedicated to simplifying things and getting you through the job, this site provides various resources for researchers and phd students..

Not every dissertation student is interested in a lifetime devotes to academia – some just want to get on and get done. Tress Academic offers easy-to-digest advice posts broken down into manageable steps, as well as useful worksheets, checklists, and free training videos. Again, this one has a commercial feel, but it’s still got a wealth of useful material if you need to get the job done quickly.

Supervising PhDs

This is a community research blog from various professors and academics. topics cover doctoral supervision relationships and pedagogies..

Admittedly, a lot of the really useful stuff on Supervising PhDs is aimed at professors and supervisors. However, there’s nothing to say you can’t gift some of the useful checklists, guides, and articles to your supervisor the next time they’re being particularly frustrating…

Need More Help?

Dissertation blogs and forums not your thing? Instead of relying on online communities, get personable and personalized help with dissertation coaching services .

How to write a PhD in a hundred steps (or more)

A workingmumscholar's journey through her phd and beyond, a bit about me.

I kept a research journal as a chronicle of my own PhD journey as a full-time working mom and academic and some of these musings and scribbles will appear here. I found that many ‘how to write your PhD’ books didn’t speak to me, because they seemed to be written for students who are not like me: full time students, or single people, or people with lots of research leave and funding. This blog is my small contribution to the field of writing about writing a PhD that fills some of these gaps. Although most of these posts, especially since the beginning of 2015, are written with PhD scholars and post-doctoral researchers in mind, there are also posts here that apply to Masters-level studies as well.

The title of this blog is slightly cheeky – it’s a play on a ‘how to do XYZ in 5 easy steps’ type theme – and it hopefully captures the spirit of the blog, which is lighthearted, funny, helpful and fun to write and read. I hope you enjoy reading and find yourself in some of these posts if these gaps are there for you too.

All of my posts are licensed with a Creative Commons BY-SA licence , which means you are welcome to share them for free, with attribution.

Dissertating Like a Distance Runner: Ten Tips for Finishing Your PhD

The above photo is of Sir Mo Farah running past Buckingham Palace into the home stretch of the London Marathon. I took the photo two days after my viva, in which I defended my PhD dissertation. Farah become a British hero when he and his training partner, Galen Rupp, won the gold and silver medals in the 10k at the London Olympic Games.

I had the honor of racing against Rupp at Nike’s Boarder Clash meet between the fastest high school distance runners in my home state of Washington and Rupp’s home state of Oregon. I’m happy to provide a link to the results and photos of our teenage selves since I beat Galen and Washington won the meet. (Note: In the results, ‘Owen’ is misspelled with the commonly added s , which I, as a fan of Jesse Owens, feel is an honor.) By the time we were running in college—Rupp for the University of Oregon and myself for the University of Washington—he was on an entirely different level. I never achieved anything close to the kind of running success Rupp has had. Yet, for most of us mortals, the real value in athletics is the character traits and principles that sports instill in us, and how those principles carry over to other aspects of life. Here I want to share ten principles that the sport of distance running teaches, which I found to be quite transferrable to writing my doctoral dissertation.

To provide some personal context, I began as a doctoral researcher at the University of Birmingham in 2014. At that time my grandparents, who helped my single father raise my sister and me, continued their ongoing struggle with my Grandfather’s Alzheimer’s. It was becoming increasingly apparent that they would benefit from having my wife and I nearby. So, in 2015 we moved to my hometown of Yakima, Washington. That fall I began a 2/2 teaching load at a small university on the Yakama Nation Reservation as I continued to write my dissertation. Since finishing my PhD four years ago, in 2018, I have published one book , five research articles , and two edited volume chapters related in various ways to my dissertation. As someone living in rural Eastern Washington, who is a first-gen college grad, I had to find ways to stay self-motivated and to keep chipping away at my academic work. I found the following principles that I learned through distance running very helpful.

(1) Establish community . There are various explanations, some of which border on superstitious, for why Kenyan distance runners have been so dominant. Yet one factor is certainly the running community great Kenyan distance runners benefit from at their elite training camps, as discussed in Train Hard, Win Easy: The Kenyan Way . Having a community that values distance running can compel each member of the community to pursue athletic excellence over a long period of time. The same can be said for academic work. Many doctoral researchers have built-in community in their university departments, but for various reasons this is not true for everyone. Thankfully, alternative ways to establish community have never been easier, predominantly due to technology.

Since my dissertation applied Aristotelian causation and neo-Thomistic hylomorphism to mental causation and neural correlates of consciousness, I found it immensely helpful to meet consistently with neuroscientist, Christof Koch, and philosopher of mind, Mihretu Guta. Mihretu does work on the philosophy of consciousness and Christof propelled the dawn of the neurobiology of consciousness with Francis Crick . Though Mihretu lives in Southern California, we met monthly through Skype, and I would drive over the Cascade Mountains once a month to meet with Christof in Seattle. As my dissertation examiner, Anna Marmodoro, once reminded me: the world is small—it’s easier than ever before to connect with other researchers.

It can also be helpful to keep in mind that your community can be large or small. As some athletes train in large camps consisting of many runners, others have small training groups, such as the three Ingebrigtsen brothers . Likewise, your community could be a whole philosophy department or several close friends. You can also mix it up. As an introvert, I enjoyed my relatively small consistent community, but I also benefitted from attending annual regional philosophy conferences where I could see the same folks each year. And I especially enjoyed developing relationships with other international researchers interested in Aristotelian philosophy of mind at a summer school hosted by the University of Oxford in Naples, which Marmodoro directed. For a brief period, we all stayed in a small villa and talked about hylomorphism all day, each day, while enjoying delicious Italian food.

Whatever your community looks like, whatever shape it takes, what matters is that you’re encouraged toward accomplishing your academic goal.

(2) Know your goal. Like writing a dissertation, becoming a good distance runner requires a lot of tedious and monotonous work. If you don’t have a clear goal of what you want to achieve, you won’t get up early, lace up your running shoes, and enter the frosty morning air as you take the first of many steps in your morning run. There are, after all, more enticing and perhaps even more pressing things to do. Similarly, if you don’t have a clear goal of when you want to finish your dissertation, it is easy to put off your daily writing for another day, which can easily become more distant into the future.

(3) Be realistic about your goal . While it is important to have a clear goal as a distance runner and as a doctoral researcher, it is important for your goal to be realistic. This means your goal should take into account the fact that you are human and therefore have both particular strengths and limitations. Everyone enters the sport of distance running with different strengths and weaknesses. When Diddy ran the city it would have been unrealistic for him to try to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon, as Eliud Kipchoge did . If Diddy made that his goal, he probably would have lost all hope in the first mile of the marathon and never finished. Because he set a more realistic goal of breaking four hours, not two hours, he paced himself accordingly and actually finished.

The parent of two young children who is teaching part-time can certainly finish a dissertation. But the parent will have a greater likelihood of doing so with a reasonable goal that fits that individual’s strengths and limitations. If the parent expects to finish on the same timescale as someone who is single with no children nor teaching responsibilities, this will likely lead to disappointment and less motivation in the middle of the process. Motivation will remain higher, and correspondingly so will productivity that is fueled by motivation, if one’s goal is realistic and achievable.

Another element of having a realistic goal is being willing to adapt the goal as your circumstances change. Sometimes a runner might enter a race expecting to place in the top five and midway through the race realize that she has a great chance of winning (consider, for example, Des Linden’s victory at the Boston Marathon ). At that point, it would be wise to revise one’s goal to be ‘win the race’ rather than simply placing in the top five. At other times, a runner might expect to win the race or be on the podium and midway realize that is no longer possible. Yet, if she is nevertheless within striking distance of placing in the top five, then she can make that her new goal, which is realistic given her current situation and will therefore sustain her motivation to the finish line. Sara Hall, who could have and wanted to crack the top three, held on for fifth at the World Championships marathon because she adjusted her goal midrace.

The PhD candidate who initially plans to finish her dissertation in three years but then finds herself in the midst of a pandemic or dealing with a medical issue or a family crisis may not need to give up on her goal of finishing her dissertation. Perhaps, she only needs to revise her goal so that it allows more time, so she finishes in five years rather than three. A PhD finished in five years is certainly more valuable than no PhD.

(4) Know why you want to achieve your goal . My high school cross-country coach, Mr. Steiner, once gave me a book about distance running entitled “Motivation is the Name of the Game.” It is one of those books you don’t really need to read because the main takeaway is in the title. Distance running requires much-delayed gratification—you must do many things that are not intrinsically enjoyable (such as running itself, ice baths, going to bed early, etc.) in order to achieve success. If you don’t have a solid reason for why you want to achieve your running goal, you won’t do the numerous things you do not want to do but must do to achieve your goal. The same is true for finishing a PhD. Therefore, it is important to know the reason(s) why you want to finish your dissertation and why you want a PhD.

As a side note, it can also be immensely helpful to choose a dissertation topic that you are personally very interested in, rather than a topic that will simply make you more employable. Of course, being employable is something many of us must consider. Yet, if you pick a topic that is so boring to you that you have significant difficulty finding the motivation to finish your dissertation, then picking an “employable dissertation topic” will be anything but employable.

(5) Prioritize your goal . “Be selfish” were the words of exhortation my college cross-country team heard from our coaches before we returned home for Christmas break. As someone who teaches ethics courses, I feel compelled to clarify that “be selfish” is not typically good advice. However, to be fair to my coaches, the realistic point they were trying to convey was that at home we would be surrounded by family and friends who may not fully understand our running goals and what it takes to accomplish them. For example, during my first Christmas break home from college, I was trying to run eighty miles per week. Because I was trying to fit these miles into my social schedule without much compromise, many of these miles were run in freezing temps, in the dark, on concrete sidewalks with streetlights, rather than dirt trails. After returning to campus following the holidays, I raced my first indoor track race with a terribly sore groin, which an MRI scan soon revealed was due to a stress fracture in my femur. I learned the hard way that I have limits to what I can do, which entails I must say “no thanks” to some invitations, even though that may appear selfish to some.

A PhD researcher writing a dissertation has a substantial goal before her. Yet, many people writing a dissertation have additional responsibilities, such as teaching, being a loving spouse, a faithful friend, or a present parent. As I was teaching while writing my dissertation, I often heard the mantra “put students first.” Yet, I knew if I prioritized my current students over and above finishing my dissertation, I would, like many, never finish my dissertation. However, I knew it would be best for my future students to be taught by an expert who has earned a PhD. So, I put my future students first by prioritizing finishing my PhD . This meant that I had to limit the teaching responsibilities I took on. Now, my current students are benefitting from my decision, as they are taught by an expert in my field.

While prioritizing your dissertation can mean putting it above some things in life, it also means putting it below other things. A friend once told me he would fail in a lot of areas in life before he fails as a father, which is often what it means to practically prioritize one goal above another. Prioritizing family and close friendships need not mean that you say ‘yes’ to every request, but that you intentionally build consistent time into your schedule to foster relationships with the people closest to you. For me, this practically meant not working past 6:00pm on weekdays and taking weekends off to hang out with family and friends. This relieved pressure, because I knew that if something went eschew with my plan to finish my PhD, I would still have the people in my life who I care most about. I could then work toward my goal without undue anxiety about the possibility of failing and the loss that would entail. I was positively motivated by the likely prospect that I would, in time, finish my PhD, and be able to celebrate it with others who supported me along the way.

(6) Just start writing . Yesterday morning, it was five degrees below freezing when I did my morning run. I wanted to skip my run and go straight to my heated office. So, I employed a veteran distance running trick to successfully finish my run. I went out the door and just started running. That is the hardest part, and once I do it, 99.9% of the time I finish my run.

You may not know what exactly you think about a specific topic in the chapter you need to write, nor what you are going to write each day. But perhaps the most simple and helpful dissertation advice I ever received was from David Horner, who earned his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oxford. He told me: “just start writing.” Sometimes PhD researchers think they must have all their ideas solidified in their mind before they start writing their dissertation. In fact, writing your dissertation can actually help clarify what you think. So “just start writing” is not only simple but also sage advice.

(7) Never write a dissertation . No great marathoner focuses on running 26.2 miles. Great distance runners are masters of breaking up major goals into smaller goals and then focusing on accomplishing one small goal at a time, until they have achieved the major goal. Philosophers can understand this easily, as we take small, calculated steps through minor premises that support major premises to arrive at an overall conclusion in an argument.

Contained within each chapter of a dissertation is a premise(s) in an overall argument and individual sections can contain sub-premises supporting the major premise of each chapter. When you first start out as a doctoral researcher working on your dissertation, you have to construct an outline of your dissertation that maps out the various chapters and how they will relate to your overall conclusion. Once you have that outline in place, keep it in the back of your mind. But do not focus on writing the whole, which would be overwhelming and discouraging. Rather, focus on writing whichever chapter you are working on. The fastest American marathoner, Ryan Hall, wrote a book that sums up the only way to run long distances in the title Run the Mile You’re In . And Galen Rupp discusses in this interview how he mentally breaks up a marathon into segments and focuses on just finishing one segment at a time. Whatever chapter you’re writing, make it your goal to write that chapter. Once you’ve accomplished that goal, set a new goal: write the next chapter. Repeat that process several times and you will be halfway through your dissertation. Repeat the process a few more times, and you will be done.

By the time you have finished a master’s degree, you have written many chapter-length papers. To finish a dissertation, you essentially write about eight interconnected papers, one at a time, just as you have done many times before. If you just write the chapter (which you could call a “paper” if that feels like a lighter load) you’re writing, before you know it, you will have written a dissertation.

(8) Harness the power of habits . Becoming a great distance runner requires running an inordinate number of miles, which no one has the willpower to do. The best marathoners in the world regularly run well over one hundred miles a week, in addition to stretching, lifting weights, taking ice baths, and eating healthy. Not even the most tough-minded distance runner has the gumption to make all the individual decisions that would be required in order to get out the door for every run and climb into every ice bath apart from the development of habits. The most reliable way around each distance runner’s weakness of will, or akrasia , is developing and employing habits. The same can be true for writing.

If you simply try to write a little bit each weekday around the same time, you will develop a habit of writing at that time each day. Once you have that habit, the decision to write each weekday at that time will require less and less willpower over time. Eventually, it will take some willpower to not write at that time. I have found it helpful to develop the routine of freewriting for a few minutes just before starting my daily writing session of thirty minutes during which I write new content, before working on editing or revising existing content for about thirty minutes. My routine helped me develop the daily habit of writing, which removes the daily decision to write, as I “just do it” (to use Nike’s famous line) each day.

I have also found it helpful to divide my days up according to routines. As a morning person, I do well writing and researching in the morning, doing teaching prep and teaching during the middle of the day, and then doing mundane tasks such as email at the end of the day.

(9) Write for today and for tomorrow . Successful distance runners train for two reasons. One reason—to win upcoming races—is obvious. However, in addition to training for upcoming races, the successful distance runner trains today for the training that they want to be capable of months and years ahead. You cannot simply jump into running eighty, ninety, or one-hundred-mile weeks. It takes time to condition your body to sustain the stress of running high mileage weeks. A runner must have a long-term perspective and plan ahead as she works toward her immediate goals on the way to achieving her long-term goals. Similarly, for the PhD researcher, writing a dissertation lays the groundwork for future success.

For one, if the PhD candidate develops healthy, sustainable, productive habits while writing a dissertation, these habits can be continued once they land an academic job. It is no secret that the initial years on the job market, or in a new academic position, can be just as (or more) challenging than finishing a PhD. Effective habits developed while writing a dissertation can be invaluable during such seasons, allowing one to continue researching and writing even with more responsibilities and less time.

It is also worth noting that there is a sense in which research writing becomes easier, as one becomes accustomed to the work. A distance runner who has been running for decades, logging thousands of miles throughout their career, can run relatively fast without much effort. For example, my college roommate, Travis Boyd, decided to set the world record for running a half marathon pushing a baby stroller nearly a decade after we ran for the University of Washington. His training was no longer what it once was during our collegiate days. Nevertheless, his past training made it much easier for him to set the record, even though his focus had shifted to his full-time business career and being a present husband and father of two. I once asked my doctoral supervisors, Nikk Effingham and Jussi Suikkanen, how they were able to publish so much. They basically said it gets easier, as the work you have done in the past contributes to your future publications. Granted, not everyone is going to finish their PhD and then become a research super human like Liz Jackson , who finished her PhD in 2019, and published four articles that same year, three the next, and six the following year. Nevertheless, writing and publishing does become easier as you gain years of experience.

(10) Go running . As Cal Newport discusses in Deep Work , having solid boundaries around the time we work is conducive for highly effective academic work. And there is nothing more refreshing while dissertating than an athletic hobby with cognitive benefits . So, perhaps the best way to dissertate like a distance runner is to stop writing and go for a run.

Acknowledgments : Thanks are due to Aryn Owen and Jaden Anderson for their constructive feedback on a prior draft of this post.

Matthew Owen

Matthew Owen (PhD, University of Birmingham) is a faculty member in the philosophy department at Yakima Valley College in Washington State. He is also an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan. Matthew’s latest book is Measuring the Immeasurable Mind: Where Contemporary Neuroscience Meets the Aristotelian Tradition .

Dissertating
Finishing your PhD
graduate students
Sabrina D. MisirHiralall

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Tips for writing a PhD dissertation: FAQs answered

From how to choose a topic to writing the abstract and managing work-life balance through the years it takes to complete a doctorate, here we collect expert advice to get you through the PhD writing process

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Embarking on a PhD is “probably the most challenging task that a young scholar attempts to do”, write Mark Stephan Felix and Ian Smith in their practical guide to dissertation and thesis writing. After years of reading and research to answer a specific question or proposition, the candidate will submit about 80,000 words that explain their methods and results and demonstrate their unique contribution to knowledge. Here are the answers to frequently asked questions about writing a doctoral thesis or dissertation.

What’s the difference between a dissertation and a thesis?

Whatever the genre of the doctorate, a PhD must offer an original contribution to knowledge. The terms “dissertation” and “thesis” both refer to the long-form piece of work produced at the end of a research project and are often used interchangeably. Which one is used might depend on the country, discipline or university. In the UK, “thesis” is generally used for the work done for a PhD, while a “dissertation” is written for a master’s degree. The US did the same until the 1960s, says Oxbridge Essays, when the convention switched, and references appeared to a “master’s thesis” and “doctoral dissertation”. To complicate matters further, undergraduate long essays are also sometimes referred to as a thesis or dissertation.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines “thesis” as “a dissertation, especially by a candidate for a degree” and “dissertation” as “a detailed discourse on a subject, especially one submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a degree or diploma”.

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The title “doctor of philosophy”, incidentally, comes from the degree’s origins, write Dr Felix, an associate professor at Mahidol University in Thailand, and Dr Smith, retired associate professor of education at the University of Sydney , whose co-authored guide focuses on the social sciences. The PhD was first awarded in the 19th century by the philosophy departments of German universities, which at that time taught science, social science and liberal arts.

How long should a PhD thesis be?

A PhD thesis (or dissertation) is typically 60,000 to 120,000 words ( 100 to 300 pages in length ) organised into chapters, divisions and subdivisions (with roughly 10,000 words per chapter) – from introduction (with clear aims and objectives) to conclusion.

The structure of a dissertation will vary depending on discipline (humanities, social sciences and STEM all have their own conventions), location and institution. Examples and guides to structure proliferate online. The University of Salford , for example, lists: title page, declaration, acknowledgements, abstract, table of contents, lists of figures, tables and abbreviations (where needed), chapters, appendices and references.

A scientific-style thesis will likely need: introduction, literature review, materials and methods, results, discussion, bibliography and references.

As well as checking the overall criteria and expectations of your institution for your research, consult your school handbook for the required length and format (font, layout conventions and so on) for your dissertation.

A PhD takes three to four years to complete; this might extend to six to eight years for a part-time doctorate.

What are the steps for completing a PhD?

Before you get started in earnest , you’ll likely have found a potential supervisor, who will guide your PhD journey, and done a research proposal (which outlines what you plan to research and how) as part of your application, as well as a literature review of existing scholarship in the field, which may form part of your final submission.

In the UK, PhD candidates undertake original research and write the results in a thesis or dissertation, says author and vlogger Simon Clark , who posted videos to YouTube throughout his own PhD journey . Then they submit the thesis in hard copy and attend the viva voce (which is Latin for “living voice” and is also called an oral defence or doctoral defence) to convince the examiners that their work is original, understood and all their own. Afterwards, if necessary, they make changes and resubmit. If the changes are approved, the degree is awarded.

The steps are similar in Australia , although candidates are mostly assessed on their thesis only; some universities may include taught courses, and some use a viva voce. A PhD in Australia usually takes three years full time.

In the US, the PhD process begins with taught classes (similar to a taught master’s) and a comprehensive exam (called a “field exam” or “dissertation qualifying exam”) before the candidate embarks on their original research. The whole journey takes four to six years.

A PhD candidate will need three skills and attitudes to get through their doctoral studies, says Tara Brabazon , professor of cultural studies at Flinders University in Australia who has written extensively about the PhD journey :

master the academic foundational skills (research, writing, ability to navigate different modalities)
time-management skills and the ability to focus on reading and writing
determined motivation to do a PhD.

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How do I choose the topic for my PhD dissertation or thesis?

It’s important to find a topic that will sustain your interest for the years it will take to complete a PhD. “Finding a sustainable topic is the most important thing you [as a PhD student] would do,” says Dr Brabazon in a video for Times Higher Education . “Write down on a big piece of paper all the topics, all the ideas, all the questions that really interest you, and start to cross out all the ones that might just be a passing interest.” Also, she says, impose the “Who cares? Who gives a damn?” question to decide if the topic will be useful in a future academic career.

The availability of funding and scholarships is also often an important factor in this decision, says veteran PhD supervisor Richard Godwin, from Harper Adams University .

Define a gap in knowledge – and one that can be questioned, explored, researched and written about in the time available to you, says Gina Wisker, head of the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Brighton. “Set some boundaries,” she advises. “Don’t try to ask everything related to your topic in every way.”

James Hartley, research professor in psychology at Keele University, says it can also be useful to think about topics that spark general interest. If you do pick something that taps into the zeitgeist, your findings are more likely to be noticed.

You also need to find someone else who is interested in it, too. For STEM candidates , this will probably be a case of joining a team of people working in a similar area where, ideally, scholarship funding is available. A centre for doctoral training (CDT) or doctoral training partnership (DTP) will advertise research projects. For those in the liberal arts and social sciences, it will be a matter of identifying a suitable supervisor .

Avoid topics that are too broad (hunger across a whole country, for example) or too narrow (hunger in a single street) to yield useful solutions of academic significance, write Mark Stephan Felix and Ian Smith. And ensure that you’re not repeating previous research or trying to solve a problem that has already been answered. A PhD thesis must be original.

What is a thesis proposal?

After you have read widely to refine your topic and ensure that it and your research methods are original, and discussed your project with a (potential) supervisor, you’re ready to write a thesis proposal , a document of 1,500 to 3,000 words that sets out the proposed direction of your research. In the UK, a research proposal is usually part of the application process for admission to a research degree. As with the final dissertation itself, format varies among disciplines, institutions and countries but will usually contain title page, aims, literature review, methodology, timetable and bibliography. Examples of research proposals are available online.

How to write an abstract for a dissertation or thesis

The abstract presents your thesis to the wider world – and as such may be its most important element , says the NUI Galway writing guide. It outlines the why, how, what and so what of the thesis . Unlike the introduction, which provides background but not research findings, the abstract summarises all sections of the dissertation in a concise, thorough, focused way and demonstrates how well the writer understands their material. Check word-length limits with your university – and stick to them. About 300 to 500 words is a rough guide – but it can be up to 1,000 words.

The abstract is also important for selection and indexing of your thesis, according to the University of Melbourne guide , so be sure to include searchable keywords.

It is the first thing to be read but the last element you should write. However, Pat Thomson , professor of education at the University of Nottingham , advises that it is not something to be tackled at the last minute.

How to write a stellar conclusion

As well as chapter conclusions, a thesis often has an overall conclusion to draw together the key points covered and to reflect on the unique contribution to knowledge. It can comment on future implications of the research and open up new ideas emanating from the work. It is shorter and more general than the discussion chapter , says online editing site Scribbr, and reiterates how the work answers the main question posed at the beginning of the thesis. The conclusion chapter also often discusses the limitations of the research (time, scope, word limit, access) in a constructive manner.

It can be useful to keep a collection of ideas as you go – in the online forum DoctoralWriting SIG , academic developer Claire Aitchison, of the University of South Australia , suggests using a “conclusions bank” for themes and inspirations, and using free-writing to keep this final section fresh. (Just when you feel you’ve run out of steam.) Avoid aggrandising or exaggerating the impact of your work. It should remind the reader what has been done, and why it matters.

How to format a bibliography (or where to find a reliable model)

Most universities use a preferred style of references , writes THE associate editor Ingrid Curl. Make sure you know what this is and follow it. “One of the most common errors in academic writing is to cite papers in the text that do not then appear in the bibliography. All references in your thesis need to be cross-checked with the bibliography before submission. Using a database during your research can save a great deal of time in the writing-up process.”

A bibliography contains not only works cited explicitly but also those that have informed or contributed to the research – and as such illustrates its scope; works are not limited to written publications but include sources such as film or visual art.

Examiners can start marking from the back of the script, writes Dr Brabazon. “Just as cooks are judged by their ingredients and implements, we judge doctoral students by the calibre of their sources,” she advises. She also says that candidates should be prepared to speak in an oral examination of the PhD about any texts included in their bibliography, especially if there is a disconnect between the thesis and the texts listed.

Can I use informal language in my PhD?

Don’t write like a stereotypical academic , say Kevin Haggerty, professor of sociology at the University of Alberta , and Aaron Doyle, associate professor in sociology at Carleton University , in their tongue-in-cheek guide to the PhD journey. “If you cannot write clearly and persuasively, everything about PhD study becomes harder.” Avoid jargon, exotic words, passive voice and long, convoluted sentences – and work on it consistently. “Writing is like playing guitar; it can improve only through consistent, concerted effort.”

Be deliberate and take care with your writing . “Write your first draft, leave it and then come back to it with a critical eye. Look objectively at the writing and read it closely for style and sense,” advises THE ’s Ms Curl. “Look out for common errors such as dangling modifiers, subject-verb disagreement and inconsistency. If you are too involved with the text to be able to take a step back and do this, then ask a friend or colleague to read it with a critical eye. Remember Hemingway’s advice: ‘Prose is architecture, not interior decoration.’ Clarity is key.”

How often should a PhD candidate meet with their supervisor?

Since the PhD supervisor provides a range of support and advice – including on research techniques, planning and submission – regular formal supervisions are essential, as is establishing a line of contact such as email if the candidate needs help or advice outside arranged times. The frequency varies according to university, discipline and individual scholars.

Once a week is ideal, says Dr Brabazon. She also advocates a two-hour initial meeting to establish the foundations of the candidate-supervisor relationship .

The University of Edinburgh guide to writing a thesis suggests that creating a timetable of supervisor meetings right at the beginning of the research process will allow candidates to ensure that their work stays on track throughout. The meetings are also the place to get regular feedback on draft chapters.

“A clear structure and a solid framework are vital for research,” writes Dr Godwin on THE Campus . Use your supervisor to establish this and provide a realistic view of what can be achieved. “It is vital to help students identify the true scientific merit, the practical significance of their work and its value to society.”

How to proofread your dissertation (what to look for)

Proofreading is the final step before printing and submission. Give yourself time to ensure that your work is the best it can be . Don’t leave proofreading to the last minute; ideally, break it up into a few close-reading sessions. Find a quiet place without distractions. A checklist can help ensure that all aspects are covered.

Proofing is often helped by a change of format – so it can be easier to read a printout rather than working off the screen – or by reading sections out of order. Fresh eyes are better at spotting typographical errors and inconsistencies, so leave time between writing and proofreading. Check with your university’s policies before asking another person to proofread your thesis for you.

As well as close details such as spelling and grammar, check that all sections are complete, all required elements are included , and nothing is repeated or redundant. Don’t forget to check headings and subheadings. Does the text flow from one section to another? Is the structure clear? Is the work a coherent whole with a clear line throughout?

Ensure consistency in, for example, UK v US spellings, capitalisation, format, numbers (digits or words, commas, units of measurement), contractions, italics and hyphenation. Spellchecks and online plagiarism checkers are also your friend.

Image of students being support to cross a gap in their learning

How do you manage your time to complete a PhD dissertation?

Treat your PhD like a full-time job, that is, with an eight-hour working day. Within that, you’ll need to plan your time in a way that gives a sense of progress . Setbacks and periods where it feels as if you are treading water are all but inevitable, so keeping track of small wins is important, writes A Happy PhD blogger Luis P. Prieto.

Be specific with your goals – use the SMART acronym (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely).

And it’s never too soon to start writing – even if early drafts are overwritten and discarded.

“ Write little and write often . Many of us make the mistake of taking to writing as one would take to a sprint, in other words, with relatively short bursts of intense activity. Whilst this can prove productive, generally speaking it is not sustainable…In addition to sustaining your activity, writing little bits on a frequent basis ensures that you progress with your thinking. The comfort of remaining in abstract thought is common; writing forces us to concretise our thinking,” says Christian Gilliam, AHSS researcher developer at the University of Cambridge ’s Centre for Teaching and Learning.

Make time to write. “If you are more alert early in the day, find times that suit you in the morning; if you are a ‘night person’, block out some writing sessions in the evenings,” advises NUI Galway’s Dermot Burns, a lecturer in English and creative arts. Set targets, keep daily notes of experiment details that you will need in your thesis, don’t confuse writing with editing or revising – and always back up your work.

What work-life balance tips should I follow to complete my dissertation?

During your PhD programme, you may have opportunities to take part in professional development activities, such as teaching, attending academic conferences and publishing your work. Your research may include residencies, field trips or archive visits. This will require time-management skills as well as prioritising where you devote your energy and factoring in rest and relaxation. Organise your routine to suit your needs , and plan for steady and regular progress.

How to deal with setbacks while writing a thesis or dissertation

Have a contingency plan for delays or roadblocks such as unexpected results.

Accept that writing is messy, first drafts are imperfect, and writer’s block is inevitable, says Dr Burns. His tips for breaking it include relaxation to free your mind from clutter, writing a plan and drawing a mind map of key points for clarity. He also advises feedback, reflection and revision: “Progressing from a rough version of your thoughts to a superior and workable text takes time, effort, different perspectives and some expertise.”

“Academia can be a relentlessly brutal merry-go-round of rejection, rebuttal and failure,” writes Lorraine Hope , professor of applied cognitive psychology at the University of Portsmouth, on THE Campus. Resilience is important. Ensure that you and your supervisor have a relationship that supports open, frank, judgement-free communication.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter .

Authoring a PhD Thesis: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Dissertation (2003), by Patrick Dunleavy

Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis (1998), by Joan Balker

Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping with the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles (2015), by Noelle Sterne

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PhD Thesis First Draft: 8 Practical Writing Tips for PhD Students

Many early career researchers will agree that the most difficult step in writing a PhD thesis is getting started. Students often find themselves mentally unprepared to take on this challenge as most formal training revolves around conducting research with little focus on how to write a PhD thesis. Uncertainty about the guidelines for PhD thesis writing and how to present their study in an engaging, impactful way often results in procrastination, self-doubt, and anxiety among otherwise confident researchers. The fact is students need to write a PhD thesis to complete their doctoral degree, and as ironic as it seems, the only remedy to this inertia is to meet this challenge head-on.

This article provides young researchers with practical tips to help them deliver a successful first draft when writing a PhD thesis.

Create an outline and structure: A good way to start writing a PhD thesis is to first create a draft outline or structure of your thesis. Like journal articles, a PhD thesis must have an introduction that presents the key points of your study in a compelling way, a body section that contains the main aspects of your research along with supporting data and evidence, and a conclusion that summarizes the thesis and provides additional insights or suggestions for further research. This first step is important because once you have the right structure in place, summarizing your thesis can happen more easily.
Adhere to university or institutional guidelines: A common mistake that many students make while creating an outline and structure is not keeping in mind the guidelines for PhD thesis writing set by your university or institute. It’s important to adhere to the university or institute’s guidelines, for example the preferred structure or style of references, when writing a PhD thesis. Be sure to check with your supervisor to ensure that the word count, structure, citation style and other key elements of your thesis meet the recommended guidelines for PhD thesis writing.
Use active voice and avoid grammatical and spelling errors: It is important to focus on using simple language that’s free of complicated jargon when writing a PhD thesis. To ensure better readability, use active voice instead of passive voice and avoid long winding sentences. Be aware of and avoid spelling and grammar errors such as dangling modifiers, subject-verb disagreement, and parallelism in your work. You can use AI tools like Paperpal for Word , which offers real-time suggestions to help you improve your language right from the first draft itself.
Maintain consistency in your writing style: One of the most useful writing tips for PhD students is referring to the preferred style guide to ensure consistency in spellings, proper punctuation, correct hyphenation, and the right use of technical terms and phrases. Also check for consistency when it comes mentioning organizations and institutions, affiliations, references, legends and other key elements when writing a PhD thesis.
Be careful when citing or quoting text: With the sheer quantum of research reading required when writing a PhD thesis, it can be difficult to keep track of sources of information. It is also quite possible for students to inadvertently introduce plagiarism in their writing by using chunks of well-written text as is or quoting information without citing it correctly. So be sure to properly cite any sources of data that you’re using in your thesis, including text, images and figures to avoid any ethical misconduct.
Set a target deadline for completion : Another top writing tip for PhD students is to set a delivery date and stay committed to it. You can also share this goal with a broader set of people (peers, supervisor, friends, etc.), who will act as catalysts on the journey of writing your PhD thesis first draft and in the time you’ve set for yourself. It is critical however that the final deadline be realistic and take into account challenges that may come in the way of you achieving your goals.

Write your PhD thesis confidently with Paperpal’s AI writing assistant

Take time to make revisions and proofread before submission: This is one of the most important writing tips for PhD students, but one that often takes the back seat. Remember that no matter how clear your first draft seems about your research findings, argumentation and flow, there will always be room for improvement and especially to your first draft. Once you’re done with your first draft, be sure to revisit each chapter and make the necessary edits before sharing it ahead with your mentor for feedback. When planning your work, make sure to factor in ample time for editing and proofreading, so that all the work you put into writing a PhD thesis is polished before submission.
Remember it’s a first draft and not the final version: If you’re getting stuck with your writing, move on and start work on a different section; you don’t need to write in chronological order as long as you follow the structure you’ve created for yourself. Remember the cardinal rule when wondering how to write a PhD thesis – No one gets it right in the first draft itself. Capture your thoughts and findings as clearly and engagingly as possible in your first draft, don’t waste too much time striving for perfection at this stage. You can always fine-tune your writing and repeat this process as you go along, which can help you reach your writing goals faster.

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Dangling Modifiers and How to Avoid Them in Your Writing

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Top Tips for Academic Writing from PhD Candidates

20 Mar, 2024 | Blog Articles , Get the Edge

University student writing in a notebook

Faissal, DPhil Clinical Neurosciences

“When it comes to writing for your academic project, remember that staying organised is super important! You’ll have to record, research and cite your sources, which you definitely don’t want to do in one go at the end. Using a reference manager like Paperpile or Zotero will help you keep track of your sources and cite them properly in your papers.

Instead of trying to write perfect sentences right away, you might find it useful to start by making a rough outline with bullet points. Then, add in facts, quotes and other information from your research to build your paper.

Also, don’t forget to separate the writing process from editing. Focus on getting your ideas down on paper first, and you can work on making your writing sound better and fixing any mistakes later.

Good luck with your writing!”

Alejandro, DPhil International Relations

“My number one tip for academic writing, whatever your level? Be concise .

Very often, students are led to think that good academic writing means using the most sophisticated, advanced vocabulary they can find. To make a piece of work more professional, it can be tempting to look for elaborate synonyms and use them in place of simple words.

However, doing this can actually prevent your reader from understanding the arguments and ideas you’re trying to put forward, and you might even get lost in your own sentences! Try to go for the simplest language, and the fewest words needed, to express an idea. Use short sentences, don’t be vague, and avoid overly complex language. Remember that academic writing is not about sounding a certain way, but about expressing your ideas clearly. Being concise, for me, is the essential first step to good academic writing.

P.S.: Don’t forget to proofread your work.”

Student sitting at a desk writing in a notebook

Academic writing is always a work in progress, and your style and voice will develop and evolve throughout your studies. It also won’t be possible to apply all of these tips, all of the time, but experiment with those that appeal to you, and use them as you develop your own writing.

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There is a very important distinction that needs to be made between the empirical and discussion sections/chapters. It is a common misconception that the empirical chapters are the place for your analysis. Often this confuses the reader.

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Regardless of what stage of the writing process you are at, there are five overarching tips you need to keep in mind if you want to improve your PhD thesis.

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How long does it take the person reading your thesis to understand what you’re doing and how you’re doing it? If the answer is anything other than ’in the the opening lines of the thesis’, keep reading.

Learn how to write a PhD proposal that will stand out from the rest

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Easily understand how to write a PhD thesis introduction

Get the introduction right and the rest of your dissertation will follow. Mess it up and you’ll be struggling to catch up. The introduction is the place to factually recount what it is you will be discussing in the thesis. Learn more in this detailed guide.

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How to stay motivated and productive

Techniques to improve your writing and fluency

Advice on maintaining good mental health

Resources designed for non-native English speakers

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The Thesis Whisperer is written by Professor Inger Mewburn, director of researcher development at The Australian National University . New posts on the first Wednesday of the month. Subscribe by email below. Visit the About page to find out more about me, my podcasts and books. I'm on most social media platforms as @thesiswhisperer. The best places to talk to me are LinkedIn , Mastodon and Threads.

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Phd applicants: writing your statement of purpose.

January 11, 2022

I’ve read a lot of personal statements for PhD applications. I sat on admissions at UChicago, Columbia, and Yale, mostly in economics, political science, and public policy. Here’s the advice I’ve given my own students and research assistants to craft their statements. I give it because, sadly, I don’t find most statements helpful. This means they are not helping you, the applicant.

As with all my advice posts, it’s important that students outside elite colleges get this information, so here are some personal thoughts.

[Note: You can now subscribe by email to receive posts to your inbox.]

First, let’s clarify your number one job as an applicant: Send the best, clearest signal of your abilities as a future researcher, and minimize the noise around that signal. I explain why in a longer post on whether and how you should apply to PhD programs (including the other elements of an application packet):

the fundamental problems in graduate admissions are “information overload” and “noise”. For every slot in a PhD program, there are probably 30 to 50 applicants. A department that plans to have a class of 20 students may receive 1000 applications. Meanwhile, most departments delegate admissions to a small committee of two to six faculty. They don’t have time to read 1000 applications in detail. And the committee may change every year. Thus, their experience may be limited. And you never know who will be on the committee or what they care about. This adds further randomness. These faculty want to admit the most talented and creative young researchers who will push the field ahead. And they also want you to pass all the most technical classes, because they hate kicking students out. So the admissions committee are looking for strong signals of intelligence, creativity, determination, and other proclivities for research. But this is hard . There are too many applications. Applicants don’t have many good ways to signal quality. All applicants are trying to send the same signals. And there is a ton of uncertainty around each signal. Hence: Information overload and noise.

Yet most schools as for a written statement of some kind. Sometimes they ask for both a biographical statement and a research statement. What do they want and what should you write?

Don’t tell your life story. This statement is not an undergrad entry essay where you describe your life’s trials and tribulations, or your journey to wanting to do a PhD. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s just that it’s probably not relevant to judging your ability as a researcher. If it is, then weave that into the narrative around your research interests and plans. We have hundreds of these things to read and so you only want to focus on the most important information.
Don’t be cliché. Do not start your with your epiphany—the day the scales fell from your eyes and you realized you wanted to be a professor, or were inspired tackle big questions and social issues. Especially if it involves a child in a poor country. This approach is overused and unoriginal, and the information does not help us judge whether you will be a great researcher (see point 1).
Platitudes about wanting to be a professor or researcher
Generic or flattering statements about being excited to join a program, your admiration for the faculty, etc.
Unspecific interests in a research subject or field
Routine information such as “I am graduating in May…”
Filler sentences like “Please find enclosed…”
Start with your broad fields of interest (e.g. “I am principally interested in labor and development economics” or “I want to work at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations”)
Then give 2-3 examples of broad topics and questions that interest you. (“I’m interested in studying inefficiencies in labor markets, especially market power and monopsony. I’m also interested in…”)
Are tenure or tenure-track faculty
Have their primary appointment in the department you are applying to
Are actually there and take students (i.e. they didn’t retire last year, etc.)
You could discuss two ideas in moderate depth, or one idea in greater depth. Either way, I recommend this research discussion be 40-60% of your entire statement.
Ideally this is a question or topic of current interest in the field. One thing I often see is that students are focussed on the research frontier 10 years ago (because those are the papers they read in their classes) and are not clued in to some of the current puzzled and priorities. This is hard to avoid, but some reading and your advisors should be able to help you avoid this.
The best discussions will (if empirical) identify interesting data and discuss plausible empirical strategies. This is difficult, which is why it is a good signal if you do it well.
It’s important to locate your question in the literature without overdoing that discussion. Try to motivate the question with reference to recent and recognizable research papers and agendas. If you are mainly citing articles with few citations, in lower-ranked journals, this is a sign that you need to link your idea to bigger debates in the field, or perhaps rethink the question you are proposing.
This is (in my experience) the most crucial section for most social science departments. Except possibly economics. It’s not clear how seriously many departments take your statement in economics, and some of my colleagues profess to never look at the statement. That may be true, but some will look, and you have to have a statement, so I suggest following this advice to make it a research proposal.
Why you studied physics but now are doing political science
What happened in that single bad semester on your transcript
How to interpret your foreign GPA, and where you ranked in your class
Clarify your classes if they have off names (e.g. “My class called XX was a Real Analysis class using textbook X, and so I have all the mathematical requirements for entry.”
Get help. Your letter writers, professors you work for, or PhD student you know can read and give feedback on your statements. Ask them for their advice. Do this early–a couple months before the application, ideally. they can help you frame your question in a more interesting way, decide what papers to mention, or what is or is not frontier.
Don’t be repetitive. This is not the place to restate your CV (“First I worked for Professor… and then I worked for…”). They have your CV. Use this document to do something no other in your application can do. Only mention work or other experience if you can add essential, high-density information the reader cannot get elsewhere in the application packet. Maybe you picked up specific technical skills working on a project that relate to the research proposal you just described? If not, you don’t have to say anything at all about your past. Just let the research proposal speak for itself.
I recommend using the Hemingway Editor as a tool to write more clearly. Some long and complex sentences are ok, but sparingly. And they can often be improved. Aim for a grade 10 reading level.
Use active voice
Omit needless material and words (see points 3 and 9)
Limit jargon
Each paragraph should be a distinct idea
Paragraphs should have a hierarchical structure, with the big idea or general point as the first topic sentence, and the rest of the paragraph elaborates. Someone should be able to get an “executive summary” but simply reading the first line in every paragraph. they should make sense as a story/summary.
Use subheadings if possible, to delineate sections such as your broad fields of interest (point 4), your research proposal (point 5), and other key information (point 6)

This is just my view. Other professors will have different preferences and advice here. So ask them. Get more opinions. Or put your advice in the comments below.

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May 15, 2024

Tips and Resources for a Successful Summer of Dissertation Writing

By Yana Zlochistaya

Summer can be a strange time for graduate students. Gone are the seminars and workshops, the student clubs, and the working group, that structured the semester and provided us with a sense of community. Instead, we’re faced with a three-month expanse of time that can feel equal parts liberating and intimidating. This double-edged freedom is only exacerbated for those of us in the writing stage of our dissertation, when isolation and a lack of discipline can have a particularly big impact. For those hoping not to enter another summer with lofty plans, only to blink and find ourselves in August disappointed with our progress, we’ve compiled some tips and resources that can help.

According to Graduate Writing Center Director Sabrina Soracco, the most important thing you can do to set yourself up for writing success is to clarify your goals. She recommends starting this process by looking at departmental requirements for a completed dissertation. Consider when you would like to file and work backwards from that point, determining what you have to get done in order to hit that target. Next, check in with your dissertation committee members to set up an accountability structure. Would they prefer an end-of-summer update to the whole committee? A monthly check-in with your chair or one of your readers? Setting up explicit expectations that work for you and your committee can cut through the aimlessness that comes with a major writing project.

For those early on in their dissertation-writing process, a committee meeting is also a valuable opportunity to set parameters. “One of the problems with the excitement for the discipline that happens post-quals is that it results in too many ideas,” says Director Soracco. Your committee members should give you input on productive research directions so that you can begin to hone in on your project. It is also important to remember that your dissertation does not have to be the end-all-and-be-all of your academic research. Ideas that do not fit into its scope can end up becoming conference papers or even book chapters.

Once you have a clear goal that you have discussed with your committee, the hard part begins: you have to actually write. The Graduate Writing Center offers several resources to make that process easier:

The Graduate Writing Community. This is a totally remote, two-month program that is based on a model of “gentle accountability.” When you sign up, you are added to a bCourses site moderated by a Graduate Writing Consultant. At the beginning of the week, everyone sets their goals in a discussion post, and by the end of the week, everyone checks in with progress updates. During the week, the writing consultants offer nine hours of remote synchronous writing sessions. As a writing community member, you can attend whichever sessions work best for your schedule. All that’s required is that you show up, set a goal for that hour, and work towards that goal for the length of two 25-minute Pomodoro sessions . This year’s summer writing community will begin in June. Keep your eye on your email for the registration link!
Writing Consultations : As a graduate student, you can sign up for an individual meeting with a Graduate Writing Consultant. They can give you feedback on your work, help you figure out the structure of a chapter, or just talk through how to get started on a writing project.
Independent Writing Groups: If you would prefer to write with specific friends or colleagues, you can contact Graduate Writing Center Director Sabrina Soracco at [email protected] so that she can help you set up your own writing group. The structure and length of these groups can differ; often, members will send each other one to five pages of writing weekly and meet the next day for two hours to provide feedback and get advice. Sometimes, groups will meet up not only to share writing, but to work in a common space before coming together to debrief. Regardless of what the groups look like, the important thing is to create a guilt-free space. Some weeks, you might submit an outline; other weeks, it might be the roughest of rough drafts; sometimes, you might come to a session without having submitted anything. As long as we continue to make progress (and show up even when we don’t), we’re doing what we need to. As Director Soracco puts it, “it often takes slogging through a lot of stuff to get to that great epiphany.”

Yana Zlochistaya is a fifth-year graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature and a Professional Development Liaison with the Graduate Division. She previously served as a co-director for Beyond Academia.

The One Method That Changes Your—and All Students’—Writing

Science-based writing methods can achieve dramatic results..

Posted May 14, 2024 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

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A systematic writing framework offers a method for dramatically improving the teaching of writing.
This method received only limited uptake, despite high-profile research publications and textbooks.
A focus on writing style might have limited the method's impacts.

I remember spending hours commenting painstakingly on my students’ papers when I was a graduate student teaching in the Expository Writing Program at New York University. My students loved our classes, and they filled my sections and gave me terrific course evaluations. Yet I could see that their writing failed to change significantly over the course of the semester. I ended up feeling as if I should refund their money, haunted by the blunt instruments we had to teach writing.

As I’ve learned from directing five writing programs at three different universities, methods matter. When I reviewed comments on papers from instructors who taught in my programs, I discovered that the quantity and quality of comments on students’ papers made only a slight impact on writing outcomes. For instance, one notoriously lazy instructor took several weeks to return assignments and only used spelling and grammar checkers to automate comments. But his conscientious colleague made dozens of sharp observations about students’ arguments, paragraphs, and sentences. However, Mr. Conscientious’ students improved perhaps only 10% over Mr. Minimalist’s students. Even then, the differences stemmed from basic guidelines Mr. Conscientious insisted his students write to, which included providing context sentences at the outset of their essay introductions.

Educators have also poured resources into teaching writing, with increasing numbers of hours dedicated to teaching writing across primary, secondary, and higher education . Yet studies continue to find writing skills inadequate . In higher education, most universities require at least a year of writing-intensive courses, with many universities also requiring writing across the curriculum or writing in the disciplines to help preserve students’ writing skills. However, writing outcomes have remained mostly unchanged .

While pursuing my doctorate, I dedicated my research to figuring out how writing worked. As a graduate student also teaching part-time, I was an early convert to process writing. I also taught those ancient principles of logos, ethos, and pathos, as well as grammar and punctuation. Nevertheless, these frameworks only created a canvas for students’ writing. What was missing: how writers should handle words, sentence structure, and relationships between sentences.

Yet researchers published the beginnings of a science-based writing method over 30 years ago. George Gopen, Gregory Colomb, and Joseph Williams created a framework for identifying how to maximize the clarity, coherence, and continuity of writing. In particular, Gopen and Swan (1990) created a methodology for making scientific writing readable . This work should have been a revelation to anyone teaching in or directing a writing program. But, weirdly, comparatively few writing programs or faculty embraced this work, despite Williams, Colomb, and Gopen publishing both research and textbooks outlining the method and process.

Peculiarly, this framework—represented by Williams’ Style series of textbooks and Gopen’s reader expectation approach—failed to become standard in writing courses, likely because of two limitations. First, both Gopen and Williams hewed to a relativistic stance on writing methods, noting that rule-flouting often creates a memorable style. This stance created a raft of often-contradictory principles for writing. For example, Williams demonstrated that beginning sentences with There is or There are openings hijacked the clarity of sentences, then argued writers should use There is or There are to shunt important content into sentence emphasis positions, where readers recall content best. Second, these researchers failed to tie this writing framework to the wealth of data in psycholinguistics, cognitive neuroscience , or cognitive psychology on how our reading brains process written English. For instance, textbooks written by these three principal researchers avoid any mention of why emphasis positions exist at the ends of sentences and paragraphs—despite the concept clearly originating in the recency effect. This limitation may stem from the humanities’ long-held antipathy to the idea that writing is a product, rather than a process. Or even that science-based methods can help teachers and programs measure the effectiveness of writing, one reason why university First-Year Writing programs have failed to improve students’ writing in any measurable way.

Nevertheless, when you teach students how our reading brains work, you create a powerful method for rapidly improving their writing—in any course that requires writing and at all levels of education. Students can grasp how writing works as a system and assess the costs and benefits of decisions writers face, even as they choose their first words. This method also works powerfully to help students immediately understand how, for instance, paragraph heads leverage priming effects to shape readers’ understanding of paragraph content.

Using this method, I and my colleagues have helped students use a single writing assignment to secure hundreds of jobs, win millions in grant funding, and advance through the ranks in academia. However, we’ve also used the same method without modifications in elementary and secondary classrooms to bolster students’ writing by as much as three grade levels in a single year.

Perhaps the time has arrived for this well-kept secret to revolutionizing student writing outcomes to begin making inroads into more writing classrooms.

Gopen, G. D. and J. A. Swan (1990). "The Science of Scientific Writing." American Scientist 78(6): 550-558.

Gopen, George. The Sense of Structure: Writing from the Reader’s Perspective . Pearson, 2004.

Gopen, George. Expectations: Teaching Writing from the Reader’s Perspective . Pearson, 2004.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Toward Clarity and Grace . University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace . Harper Collins, 1994.

Williams, Joseph. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace . Longman, 2002.

Jane Yellowlees Douglas, Ph.D. , is a consultant on writing and organizations. She is also the author, with Maria B. Grant, MD, of The Biomedical Writer: What You Need to Succeed in Academic Medicine .

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Sacrifice Zone: A Wild, Wonderful, and Honest Zine of West Virginia

Sacrifice zone zine wvu mfa creative writing matthew powney

Zines are making a comeback in the creative writing world.

If you open Etsy on your web browser and simply type “zine” in the search bar, you’ll discover a wonderland of beautifully crafted, pocket-sized art/writing made by genuine artists and creatives. A zine exists for any niche interest now: ranging from fanzines about the 90s TV show Frasier, to literary analyses on the cross-cultural implications of fan fiction in the literary world, to carefully curated handbooks for thrift shopping, among so many others. Chances are, if you’ve ever browsed an indie bookstore or explored a local art fair, you’ve probably come across a zine in the wild!

And if you’ve never heard of a “zine” before, you might be wondering what exactly this art form is. As defined by Purdue University, “A zine (pronounced ZEEN) is short for ‘fanzine’ and is usually a small-batch, independently published work that circulates less than 1,000 copies. Anyone can be a zinester (aka ‘someone who creates a zine’), and most people make zines for the love of creating rather than for seeking a profit. In general, a zine is a pamphlet-like publication that can include text, images, artwork, found objects, or any other creative material that helps to express the author's message” ( Purdue ).

Matt Powney, a recent graduate of West Virginia University’s MFA program in the Poetry track, has spent the last year designing and creating a zine of his own making with his partner, Kay, aptly titled Sacrifice Zone . As a creative with a deep respect for the honest nature of writing, and the importance of producing work that deconstructs the extractive nature of corporate, economical culture in West Virginia society today, producing a zine tailored to Matt’s own interests seemed like the natural way to share his work with others.

After purchasing a copy of the first issue of Sacrifice Zone in fall 2023, I knew that Matt had found a metaphorical creative goldmine for himself. The collage artwork within the first issue of Sacrifice Zone features a fractured urban/rural landscape of our West Virginia that has been literally and metaphorically gutted by Big Pharma, corporate greed, incarceration, and predatory coal companies. The kaleidoscope-esque imagery is haunting and powerful, and pairs beautifully with the crisp poetry and painfully tender creative nonfiction on the page. I had the pleasure of learning more about Sacrifice Zone from Matt in the following Q&A:

You talk a lot about your intention for creating Sacrifice Zone in the first installment, and what it means to you and your readers – would you care to share any more insight about your intention for creating this zine, and what you hope to get out of it with each installment?

Mostly, I just hope to create some level of community and discussion about prison in Appalachia, and making art in Appalachia. I just want to give people a voice and platform for their art. Both Appalachians in general and people in prison are a silenced group of people, so the more amplification they can get, the better in my eyes. My main goal for this zine is to undo stereotypes, and sharing stories is a great way to do that.

Sacrifice Zone seems like a really collaborative project! How did you go about choosing pieces for the zine, arranging them in the order they’re in, as well as the art/images that were used in the zine? Did you and Kay work together in the making of Sacrifice Zone?

Sacrifice Zone is a collaborative project. I relied on a lot of friends and mentors to have this project come together. For this first installment, I just asked a bunch of my friends for submissions - people from all over Appalachia, with different relationships to the prison system. I got the inspiration for the art and for the general vibe of the zine from Thomas Martin’s zine , Martha Stewart Mixtapes, which Kay contributes to regularly. Their zine feels alive. It is what I wanted for Sacrifice Zone, so naturally, it became a model of what I wanted the zine to look like. Knowing that Thomas uses collage art from Martha Stewart Magazine to make Martha Stewart’s Mixtapes, I started thinking about what I could use for our magazine and realized I’d thrifted stacks of the perfect magazine already - old copies of Wonderful West Virginia.

As for selection of the specific art we used, Kay and I spent an evening going through all of the magazines and matching them to our submissions. We had a lot of fun doing it, and found images we loved that weren’t right for this issue that we are excited to use for future volumes.

You mentioned that Thomas Martin, a previous MFA student, was an influence for Sacrifice Zone . Are there any other zines or forms of media that inspired you to create your zine?

Yes! I read Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration around the time I began working on this project. It is a book of art made by people in prison. It was also a huge inspiration. One of the poems I included in the zine, also called “Marking Time,” was inspired by this book.

Do you have an idea of what themes you want to cover in future installments for the zine?

Right now, we are open to any art that fits the project. Maybe in the future, we will think about themed volumes, but right now, we’d like to make as many connections as we can.

Do you have a current submission window for the next installment of Sacrifice Zone ? Or a future pub date?

I have already received some submissions for the next installment and am still open to receiving more. We are hoping to put another one out in May, but with Kay and my first child due in early May, there could be some delay. [As of this blog post, Matt and Kay are officially parents!]

How can people purchase this zine and future zines in the series, and for how much?

Right now, I am personally selling copies. The easiest way would be to contact the instagram page, @sacrifice.zone , and a copy can be mailed to you. In the future, we hope to have an online store and to sell them through local vendors.

If you want to support Matt Powney and Sacrifice Zone , you can stay up to date by following the zine’s official Instagram page: @sacrifice.zone

Stay tuned for more news, events, and happenings among WVU’s Creative Writing program!

Most crime has fallen by 90% in 30 years – so why does the public think it’s increased?

Associate Professor in Criminal Justice Data Analytics, University of Leeds

Professor of Crime Science, University of Leeds

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Toby Davies has received funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the UK Home Office.

Graham Farrell has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

University of Leeds provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK.

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Seventy-eight per cent of people in England and Wales think that crime has gone up in the last few years, according to the latest survey . But the data on actual crime shows the exact opposite.

As of 2024, violence, burglary and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) – our best indicator of true crime levels. Unlike police data , the CSEW is not subject to variations in reporting and recording.

The drop in violence includes domestic violence and other violence against women. Anti-social behaviour has similarly declined. While increased fraud and computer misuse now make up half of crime , this mainly reflects how far the rates of other crimes have fallen.

All high-income countries have experienced similar trends, and there is scientific consensus that the decline in crime is a real phenomenon .

Graph showing that violence, burglary and car crime has steadily and dramatically declined from a peak in the mid to late 1990s

There is strong research evidence that security improvements were responsible for the drop. This is most obvious with vehicle electronic immobilisers and door deadlocks, and better household security – stronger door frames, double glazed windows and security fittings – along with an avalanche of security in shopping centres, sports stadiums, schools, businesses and elsewhere. Quite simply, it became more difficult to commit crimes.

Decreases in crimes often committed by teenagers, such as joyriding or burglary, had a multiplying effect: when teenagers could no longer commit these easy “debut crimes” they did not progress to longer criminal careers.

There are, of course, exceptions. Some places, times and crime types had a less pronounced decline or even an increase. For many years, phone theft was an exception to the general decline in theft. Cybercrime, measured by the CSEW as fraud and computer misuse, has increased and is the most prominent exception.

But this increase was not due to thwarted burglars and car thieves switching targets: the skillset, resources and rewards for cybercrime are very different . Rather, it reflects new crime opportunities facilitated by the internet. Preventive policy and practice is slowly getting better at closing off opportunities for computer misuse, but work is needed to accelerate those prevention efforts.

The perception gap

So why is there such a gulf between public perception and the reality of crime trends? A regular YouGov poll asks respondents for their top three concerns from a broad set of issues. Concern about crime went from a low in 2016 (when people were more concerned with Brexit), quadrupled by 2019 and plummeted during the pandemic when people had other worries. But in the last year, the public’s concern about crime has risen again.

Proportion of people naming crime as a top three issue facing the country:

Graph showing fluctuations in public perception of crime since 2012

There are many possible explanations for this, of which the first is poor information. A study published in 1998 found that “people who watch a lot of television or who read a lot of newspapers will be exposed to a steady diet of crime stories” that does not reflect official statistics.

The old news media adage “if it bleeds, it leads” reflects how violent news stories, including crime increases and serious crimes, capture public attention. Knife crime grabs headlines in the UK, but our shock at individual incidents is testament to their rarity and our relative success in controlling violence – many gun crimes do not make the news in the US.

Most recent terrorist attacks in the UK have featured knives (plus a thwarted Liverpool bomber ), but there is little discussion of how this indicates that measures to restrict guns and bomb-making resources are effective.

Political rhetoric can also skew perceptions, particularly in the run-up to elections. During the recent local elections, the Conservatives were widely criticised for an advert portraying London as “a crime capital of the world” (using a video of New York), while Labour has also made reference to high levels of crime under the current government.

There are also some “crime drop deniers”, who have vested interests in crime not declining due to, for example, fear of budget cuts. One of us (Graham) worked with a former police chief who routinely denied the existence of declining crime.

Close up of someone typing on a computer with a screen full of code

Despite the evidence of crime rates dropping, some concerns are justified. Victims, along with their families and friends, have legitimate concerns, particularly as crime is more likely to recur against the same people and at the same places.

And, while the trend is clear, there are nevertheless localised increases in some types of offending. When these relate to harmful and emotive issues like knife crime in London , for example, it is natural that this might have a substantial influence.

We are unlikely to be able to change political agendas or journalists’ approach to reporting. But governments should be taking a more rational approach to crime that is based on evidence, not public perception.

Local governments need to keep on top of their local crime hotspots: problem bars and clubs where crime occurs, shops where shoplifting is concentrated, local road traffic offence hotspots and so on. The common theme here is how crime concentrates.

National government, meanwhile, should lead on reducing crime opportunities via national-level levers. Only national government can influence social media platforms and websites that host online crime and encourage larger businesses to improve manufacturing, retailing and service industry practices.

The positive story around crime rarely makes headlines, but this should not put us off from learning the lessons borne out in the data. We know this can work from past success, but it took decades to get car makers to improve vehicle security and to get secure-by-design ideas in building regulations. Society needs to move more quickly.

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How To Write a LinkedIn Summary (With Examples)

Smodin Editorial Team
Published: May 14, 2024

Are you one of the hundreds of job seekers looking to make a lasting impression on recruiters and potential employers? It can be disheartening to feel like you’re just another number in a sea of graduates who are ready to start their careers.

But you don’t have to feel that way anymore!

Writing a compelling LinkedIn summary can make all the difference in how potential employers and connections see you. It’s not just about listing your job titles and responsibilities, it’s also about crafting a narrative that showcases your personality, achievements, and aspirations.

With a compelling LinkedIn summary, you can make yourself stand out. And crafting them can be really fun – especially with the help of a good writing tool like Smodin AI Writer !

Before you get started, though, there are a few things to remember:

Always start with a good opening line or ‘hook.’
You can relax and have fun with your summary! It doesn’t have to be overly formal.
Always write in the first person and write as you would speak.
Try to avoid blocks of text by breaking your summary up into paragraphs or sections.

Think you’re ready? Great! Then, it’s time to get typing and have the perfect summary on your LinkedIn profile with these tips below.

1. Express Your Passion

You can start your LinkedIn summary by expressing what it is that drives you in a professional context. Share what excites you the most about your work and the impact you want to make through it.

Whether you want to solve complex problems, foster innovation, or help others succeed – you should make sure to let your passion shine.

This is a great way to open your summary since it shows who you are in a professional context – and where you could potentially fit within a company. For employers, this also helps them to see whether you would be an asset to their particular organization.

2. Define Your Current Role

Next, you’ll want to define your current role and responsibilities. Just be sure to do this as simply as possible without too much technical jargon. In this context, simple is always best.

For example, you can explain exactly who you’re helping, what type of problems you’re solving, and the overall impact of your work. This will help hiring managers understand where your strengths lie and decide whether you would be a good fit for a specific role in their company.

You can also use this to highlight relevant skills you may have for the industry you’re working in – or the one you want to work in.

3. Describe Your Professional History

As you’re writing your summary, you’re going to want to take your readers on a journey through your professional background. Of course, this should highlight your achievements, important transitions, and significant milestones. Basically, anything that could potentially make you stand out against the ‘average Joe.’

It’s also a good idea to connect the dots between your past experiences with your current role and how they have shaped where you are now. A proven track record of your skills and value within a specific role or industry highlights your worth to employers.

If you have any unrelated roles or have been through a few career pivots, you can also frame these as valuable learning experiences.

4. Talk About Your Achievements

So now it’s time to brag (just a little) about what you’ve achieved in a professional context in your LinkedIn summary. Although it’s important not to come across as arrogant, you don’t want to diminish your accomplishments! Instead, you’re going to want to list your achievements clearly and directly.

Perhaps you’ve surpassed your sales targets or led a successful project. If you have, then you’re going to want to include that in your LinkedIn summary! If you’ve been given any awards or recognition for your work, this is a good time to mention them.

5. Show off Your Personality

Authenticity is key for a good LinkedIn summary. You want people to get to know who you are – not just what you do. By sharing things like anecdotes, personal stories, or even some humor, you can show off your personality and your voice.

By staying true to who you are, you can set yourself apart from the crowd. After all, nobody wants to read a LinkedIn summary that is just a repeat of someone else’s! Although there is a formula you can follow to write your summary, you don’t want to lose who you are in a generic post.

So, no matter what you do, just remember to be yourself and have fun with it!

6. Explain What You Like Outside of Work

So, you’ve spoken about your professional journey thus far. But that’s only one aspect of who you are! This is just another component of showing off your personality. And it gives potential employers a glimpse into who you are outside of the workplace.

Share a few personal details about your hobbies and interests, for example. Plus, if you do any volunteer work, then you can share about that, too!

If you can relate these to your professional strengths – even better! It will show how your hobbies enrich your personal perspective and contribute to your professional success.

7. Issue a Call to Action

You should always end your LinkedIn summary with a call to action. With this, you can invite readers to connect with you, explore job opportunities, or learn more about your work. You can also make it easier for them to follow up on this. You can do this by linking to relevant resources or providing them with the necessary contact information.

When you’re done, you’ll be left with a LinkedIn summary full of passion. Not only that but it will also be filled with authenticity and compelling storytelling. Remember, the story is all about you ! And by using this guide and a great writing tool like Smodin Writer , you can create a powerful narrative that attracts attention and opens doors for new opportunities.

LinkedIn Summary Examples for Recent Graduates

If you have recently graduated and you don’t have much (or any) professional experience, then don’t panic! There are plenty of ways to work around your lack of experience and still write an amazing summary!

1. Software Engineer LinkedIn Summary

As a recent graduate with a degree in Computer Science, I am passionate about leveraging technology to solve real-world problems.

My coursework focused on software development, algorithms, and database management. This has provided me with a strong foundation in coding and problem-solving.

During my internships, I contributed to developing scalable web applications and learned more about the importance of collaboration in agile professional environments.

Now, I’m eager to start a new career where I can apply my technical skills to innovate and create incredibly impactful solutions.

2. Graphic Designer LinkedIn Summary

Armed with a degree in Graphic Design and a creative mindset, I am really driven by the power of visual storytelling.

Through my coursework and freelance projects, I learned to master design principles, typography, and Adobe Creative Suite.

My internship experiences helped to expose me to client collaboration and project management. In turn, this refined my ability to transform everyday concepts into compelling visuals and works of art.

I’m excited to join a dynamic team where I can bring my ideas to life and make more meaningful connections through visual communication.

3. Data Science and Analytics LinkedIn Summary

I am a recent graduate with a degree in Statistics from Cornell University and an innate fascination for data-driven insights.

I’m extremely passionate about finding patterns and trends that encourage decision-making in today’s data-driven world.

During my studies, I specialized in data visualization and predictive modeling techniques. I also gained valuable hands-on experience with statistical software like R and Python.

Ultimately, my goal is to use my analytical skills to my advantage. I’m ready to solve complex problems to help drive business success through actionable insights.

4. Social Media Strategist LinkedIn Summary

Creative communications graduate with a knack for crafting compelling narratives and super-engaging content.

Through my studies and several internship roles, I’ve honed my skills in social media marketing, content creation, and community engagement for multiple brands.

I thrive in fast-paced environments where I can blend my creativity with data-driven strategies to boost brand awareness and improve audience engagement.

I’m excited to join a team of like-minded individuals and bring fresh ideas, unique perspectives, and approaches to the world of digital marketing.

5. Human Resources Professional LinkedIn Summary

Human resources graduate who is passionate about fostering a more inclusive workplace and supporting employee growth and development.

With a strong foundation in HR principles and labor laws, I’m eager to apply my knowledge to help your business recruit top talent, streamline HR processes, and drive your overall organizational success.

During my internship with Business X, I gained practical experience in multiple facets of HR. These include employee relations, performance management, and implementing strategies like diversity initiatives.

I am fully committed to promoting diversity, equity, and, above all else, inclusion in all aspects of HR practices.

6. Financial Analyst LinkedIn Summary

I am a recent cum laude finance graduate with a keen interest in financial markets and investment analysis.

I am equipped with strong quantitative skills and a solid understanding of financial principles. This enables me to analyze data, evaluate investment opportunities, and provide strategic financial recommendations based on performance.

During my studies, I became proficient in financial modeling, portfolio management, data analysis, and risk assessment. Now, I’m ready to start a new journey within a career where I can contribute to informed decision-making and help businesses achieve financial success.

LinkedIn Summary Examples for Attracting Recruiters

For some of you, having job experience isn’t a problem. Instead, you want to attract hiring managers and get them to notice your LinkedIn profile above all the other candidates so you can secure your dream job.

Well, if that’s the case, then here are a couple of examples that you can draw inspiration from to make sure you stand head and shoulders above the rest.

7. Experienced Marketing Manager LinkedIn Summary

Seasoned marketing professional with a track record of driving brand awareness and boosting customer engagement.

My expertise spans digital marketing, content strategy, campaign management, and social media management with a focus on data-driven decision-making.

Within my role, I have successfully led cross-functional teams to execute unique integrated marketing initiatives and optimize overall performance metrics.

I am known for my strategic mindset and creative problem-solving, and I thrive in fast-paced environments where I can drive results and inspire teams to go above and beyond. I am all about exceeding expectations.

8. Professional Sales Executive LinkedIn Summary

Hi! I’m John, and I’m an accomplished sales leader with over two years of experience in improving revenue growth and building better client relationships.

I excel in developing strategic sales plans and negotiating complex contracts, and I can easily identify market opportunities for brands and businesses.

I have a natural ability to understand client needs and tailor individual solutions to unique problems. This has resulted in consistently exceeding sales targets and fostering long-term partnerships for businesses.

As a passionate advocate for incredible customer service and success, I’m seeking new opportunities to utilize my expertise and boost business growth.

LinkedIn Summary Examples for Career Transitions

So you’ve managed to graduate and secure yourself a position. But that doesn’t always guarantee you’re going to be happy in the role you’ve chosen! For example, if you studied finance, you may not want to be an accountant, right? Rather, you might want to work in financial planning for a business or show off your skills as an investment banker.

When you’re trying to make a switch, you can use these two handy examples below to get you started:

9. Transitioning Project Manager LinkedIn Summary

Professional project manager transitioning from the finance sector to renewable energy.

With a background in leading cross-functional teams and managing complex projects, I bring a wealth of transferable skills in stakeholder management, as well as budgeting and planning.

I have been inspired by the potential for sustainable innovation. Now, I’m excited to apply my strategic mindset and problem-solving abilities. I’m excited to use them to implement impactful initiatives in the renewable energy sector.

I am committed to continuous learning and growth, which translates into my eagerness to embark on this new career path.

10. Changing Careers to a UX Designer LinkedIn Summary

Experienced educator transitioning to a career in User Experience (UX) design.

With a background in instructional design and a passion for human-centered solutions, I believe I bring a unique perspective to the field of UX.

Through coursework and self-directed learning, I have achieved proficiency in wireframing and prototyping. I also have a good understanding of user research methodologies.

My ability to empathize with diverse user groups and translate insights into intuitive design sets me apart. This is why I’m keen to combine my creative skills with my analytical mindset to create more impactful user experiences.

What If I Don’t Have Much Work Experience?

Don’t worry if you’re light on experience! You can still put your best foot forward in your LinkedIn summary by highlighting your academic achievements. You can also mention any cool projects and internships you’ve tackled.

Consider any relevant skills you’ve gained in those experiences, like problem-solving or teamwork.

Here’s another tip: Try to sprinkle in some keywords from job descriptions related to your dream job. It will help your profile pop up in search results!

How Can I Make My Summary Stand out From Other Fresh Graduates?

To make your LinkedIn bio stand out from other job seekers, personalize it with your unique experiences and aspirations. You can also share specific examples of projects, internships, or coursework that will show off your skills and passion for your field.

Of course, you should always use engaging language and storytelling to grab your reader’s attention. As we mentioned above, including keywords related to your industry in your LinkedIn summary can optimize your searchability. So, don’t forget to add a few!

Should I Include Personal Interests or Hobbies in My Summary?

You should absolutely include your personal interests or hobbies in your LinkedIn summaries. This can jazz up your profile and give folks a peek into your life outside work, which can help to ‘humanize’ your profile. Just remember to only include hobbies that are relevant and add some ‘pizzazz’ to your professional image.

So, if your interests align with your career goals or show off cool traits like your creativity, then go ahead and add them in. It’s all about adding that personal touch!

How Long Should My LinkedIn Summary Be?

LinkedIn summaries should always be short and to the point. But what do we mean by a concise summary? Well, it should be around three to five small paragraphs that have around three sentences each.

By keeping your summary short, you can avoid waffling or having walls of text for recruiters to read. It will also force you to include only the most relevant information!

Final Thoughts

Crafting a LinkedIn summary that stands out can be trickier than it seems. That’s because it’s more than just listing job titles. It’s also about creating a narrative that shows off your personality and achievements.

Luckily, by following a few simple guidelines, you can create an interesting LinkedIn summary that sets you apart from your peers. Just don’t forget to add in a few personal interests and a call to action to wrap it all up! So, what are you waiting for?

It’s time to get typing with the help of Smodin.

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