Revise frequently

Metaphorically speaking

The story of your research journey is a complex one. It does not necessarily unfold in a way that it can be told efficiently—you will experience hold-ups, walk in circles a few times, and encounter one or two locked gates. All of those dead ends, the initial disorientation, and the occasional randomness hinder those who are keen to learn about your journey.

Consequently, reporting and writing down this story efficiently and purposefully will likely not happen at the very first go. You will need a few rounds of drafting what happened until you get at the core of what’s worthy reporting. The key here, in every iteration of refining your account of the project, is to trim away those bits that do not add to the report and keep only the passages that cannot be made more efficient in appropriately communicating what the idea was, what others wrote, what you did, what you found, and how you thought about all of it thereafter.

Research means communicating your ideas, procedures, and findings efficiently and transparently. The best way of achieving efficiency and transparency is to draft, revise a few times, have other people read or listen to your report, and work with the responses to revise a few more times. Revising, presenting to others, allowing others to read, and working with their feedback is the central tool for many academic writers.

(This is a preview section. The full chapter on this topic continues with the sections “Rough coordinates”, “Train of thought”, “In essence”, “To reflect”, “Two travellers’ tales”, “Devil’s advocate”, and “How to tackle”.)