A sadly typical student model for writing academic papers is waiting until the last minute, then pulling an all-nighter to get it done. In addition to the needless personal stress such an approach creates, it’s also unlikely to result in high performance.
A good alternative is daily writing. Writing 300 words a day results in an almost thesis-sized paper in a month. If you choose the consistent, incremental approach to writing, you should divide your paper into sections that you can populate at your own convenience. For example, instead of attempting to write sequentially, you can insert your daily 300 words, or whatever the quota might be, into any of five sections of your paper. For example, if your paper is quantitative in nature, you can do some work on the data analysis section when you feel like it, move to the literature review if your brain doesn't feeling like doing statistics, and address the introduction towards the end of the process, when your other sections are done. Dividing your paper into sections, and doing daily work within the sections, is a great way to remain perpetually fresh during writing.
For example, if you’re writing a quantitative paper, you might finding that weekends are a great time for the data sections, as you have no classes and more time to focus them. Looking at the rhythms within your week can allow you to determine if there are sections you should work on at certain times. If, for instance, you’re doing the background reading for the paper at the beginning, you could use that time to write your literature review and background.
Daily writing works. The only question is how to make it work for you. The three steps we recommend are:
- Break your academic papers into sections.
- Work on the sections out of sequence, based on your personal preferences and on your work rhythms.
- Do a little work every day, even if it’s only 100-200 words.
