Individual Writing, Research, and Productivity Resources

GOAL-SETTING & PRODUCTIVITY

Note that many of the resources in the Writing Resources section below also address goal-setting and productivity.

Individual Goal-Setting Sheet for a Writing or Research Session

This Individual Goal-Setting Sheet for a Writing or Research Session document is something you’re welcome to use to structure your writing sessions or to share with your students or advisees for the same purpose.

WRITING & RESEARCH

Your mileage may vary for some of these resources based upon your discipline. If you have recommendations of useful writing resources to share with the MTLE community, please contact Naomi so that we can add your suggestions to this list. 

Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks

Wendy Belcher’s book, Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks (2nd Ed., 2019), provides guidance and structured worksheets for many forms of academic article research. It’s available as an ebook on the University of Chicago Press page (and is also available for slightly less on Amazon).

Wendy Belcher also includes some writing resources and worksheets on her webpage.

The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics and Professionals 

Elizabeth Rankin’s book, The Work of Writing: Insights and Strategies for Academics and Professionals (2001) provides guidance about style as well as writing process. During the COVID-19 crisis, a limited number of digital copies of this book are available for virtual check-out via HathiTrust. (See the right-hand sidebar on the UW-Madison libraries catalog entry for this book.)

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega’s Academic Resource Blog

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega keeps an active list of blog posts aimed at demystifying academic writing at the PhD and faculty researcher level. He also has posts focused on strategies for writing literature reviews, on organization and time management as an academic, and on many different approaches to research notetaking.

Last but not least, Pacheco-Vega has a post in which he highlights some dissertation-related books that may be of interest to faculty and graduate students.

WRITING A GRADUATE THESIS OR DISSERTATION

We have digital access to Lori Blair’s Writing a Graduate Thesis or Dissertation (2016) at the UW-Madison libraries.

Discipline-Specific Writing Resources

As always, we welcome suggestions for this list. What has been helpful for you in your field? 

• The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities (Eric Hayot) – a gem. We have access to it online via the UW-Madison libraries.

PROOFREADING

UW-Madison Proofreaders, Editors, and Tutors list

The UW-Madison English department has a Proofreaders, Editors, and Tutors list. You can find the most current version of this list by navigating to the department webpage (https://english.wisc.edu/), then scrolling down to the bottom of the page until you see the “Resources” section. The page looks like this:

Note that the proofreaders, editors, and tutors on this list are typically PhD candidates in the English department, meaning that some of them are teaching courses of their own or working as a TA while completing their dissertations. This means that it’s useful to contact them earlier rather than later so that you’re able to find someone who is available to work with you. (Some of these folks will, however, accept jobs on a quick turnaround for an extra fee.)

Browser-Based Grammar Checkers

Free (and “freemium”) browser plugins such as Grammarly and ProWritingAid are tools that make grammar and proofreading suggestions as you type. Their feedback is not infallible, so you’ll want to take suggestions with a grain of salt, but they’re often quite helpful.