Thread by @scientistswrite

As an academic writing coach, here are the 7 mistakes I see supervisors and PIs make in the process of co-writing a paper with their PhD students or mentees.

A thread. 🧵

#AcademicTwitter #PIchat #newPI

#1 Not teaching your students the steps that are part of the writing process

🙆 The main reason novice writers procrastinate on the task to write a paper is that they don’t know how to get started and break this huge and overwhelming project into manageable chunks.

#2: Only editing the grammar, punctuation and syntax of your mentees’ work

📋 First drafts usually benefit the most from structural comments to make sure the paper tells a single and compelling story. Do that before you spend hours on moving commas.

#3: Telling your mentees that they should tell a story in their paper without defining what that is

🎬 I see this alllll the time. “Story” means everything and nothing if you don’t specify which exact elements the paper needs to include to tell said story.

#4: Not setting internal deadlines throughout the writing process

📆 You may think that enforcing deadlines comes across as pushy but a clear timeline helps everyone! Do include your student in the process of creating the timeline.

#5: Not explaining what you didn’t like about their writing

💬 Whenever you revise your students’ writing, provide reasons for your edits. If writing the comments takes too much time, record a video walking your student through your edits.

#6: Having your mentee write a complete draft before you discuss what the story and flow of your paper will be

📝 It’s is demoralising for anyone to get a draft completely ripped apart. It’s also a waste of time. Give feedback throughout the writing process instead!

#7: Thinking reading the literature will teach writing

👩‍🏫 Most students don’t know what good and bad writing looks like and “the literature” contains both. Provide your mentees with quality writing training instead -- whether facilitated by you or someone else.

Bonus #8: Not checking in with your mentee about what they may need

👩‍🎓 Everyone has a different working style so while it’s your job to guide your student through the process of writing a paper, do check in with them about what kind of help would be most beneficial to them.

TL;DR: 8 mistakes PIs make in the co-writing process (1/2)

#1 Not teaching the steps of the writing process

#2 Only editing for language, not structure

#3 Not defining what a story is

#4 Not setting internal deadlines

TL;DR: 8 mistakes PIs make in the co-writing process (2/2)

#5 Not providing reasons for your edits

#6 Having your student write a complete draft first thing

#7 Thinking reading the literature teaches writing

#8 Not checking in with your student about what they may need

Whether you are an (aspiring) PI or PhD student:

If you found this thread helpful and would like to learn a *streamlined* system to co-write papers from start to finish, this free training will be ideal! 👇✨

annaclemens.com/training?utm_s…