Any concept that has a history, philosopher Michel Foucault tells us, cannot have a fixed definition. Plagiarism is a concept with a history, as the subtitle of Roger Kreuz’s Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots reminds us. But it might be close to perennial. As a term describing literary, artistic or intellectual […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
Plagiarism is a kind of theft, but it is also a question of honour
Major revisions? don’t tinker…
The email arrives. Major revisions. Your heart sinks, and then you feel slightly better because you haven’t been rejected. The editor thinks there’s a paper in there. And the reviewers have taken the time to say what they think you need to do to get the paper to publishable. That’s win – you get to […] … learn more→
The lightbulb test
I’ve got a soft spot for academic writing jokes. Here’s one. How many academics does it take to change a lightbulb? The hedger: “This paper tentatively suggests that, within the limits of a small-scale study, one academic may possibly contribute to what might be understood as a change in the lightbulb, although further research is needed.” […] … learn more→
You have an idea for a paper… now what?
You have an idea for a paper. Maybe it arrived in the shower, or listening to a speaker at a conference, or halfway through reading somebody else’s article. Maybe you woke up with it. Yay!!! It feels good. Maybe it is A Something. You want to play with your idea for a bit to see […] … learn more→
When you hit the page wall
Academic writers can spend a lot of time being stuck. Quite often they see stuckness as a thinking problem. So they go back to the sources, re-read the theory, work out what they could say next. And quite often that is exactly what is needed. But there is a different kind of stuck that more […] … learn more→
Write with the criticism you’re afraid of
What do you do if you have a bit of a writing block? Sometimes not being able to generate a sentence is the problem. But just as often it’s not – you have the ideas but something else is stopping you getting them on the page. And sometimes that something else is a person. Not a […] … learn more→
A writing-without-fear game
Doctoral researchers sometimes suffer from lack of confidence about their writing. They can construct a sentence, a paragraph and a whole chapter. But they have difficulty when they imagine a supervisor, a reviewer, or an examiner reading over their shoulder as they type. Every clause gets checked against an invisible judge before it’s finished, and half […] … learn more→
Reflection and reflexivity: a strategy for academic writing
I wrote recently about the difference between reflection and reflexivity. Reflection looks back at what you have done and asks what you can learn from it. Reflexivity turns the lens on you, the person doing the work, and on the conditions under which you are making knowledge. What do you actually do with this distinction when you […] … learn more→
How to use quotations – ask who is carrying the luggage…
“If you’re going to quote other scholars, not as primary sources whose work you mean to analyse, but because they’ve got insights you want to support yours, make sure they’re carrying your luggage and not the other way around.” Cassuto, 2024, p. 40 Here’s what that luggage metaphor is saying. A quotation you use as evidence is meant to be working […] … learn more→
What’s the difference between reflection and reflexivity?
When you first started postgraduate study, someone probably told you that you had to be reflexive. You may even have been told to include a section on reflexivity in your thesis. No, you don’t have to have a specific section called reflexivity in your thesis. But you probably do need to say something about it. […] … learn more→
