Writing up

This article was originally published for Cambio Ltd. on 17-12-2012. Access it here.

On my official forms it says I have a minimum of 3 years and maximum of 4 years to complete my studies. I would be interested to know what the average time taken to complete a PhD is, because I know people who have had to wait for their 3 year ‘minimum’ in order to submit, and others who still have not submitted after 5 years. I am also a little dispirited by the number of academics who have said to me that you need to be extremely lucky to complete your studies within the 3 years.

For me luck has not been hugely forthcoming, owing to my PCR frustrations. However, ever the optimist, I am hopeful that I will find sufficient funding to sequence the ~1000 strains I have, and thus be well on my way to making my original scientific discovery. I am very aware that data is only part of the story though: I’ve been on enough science communication courses by now to understand that research is only useful if you can tell other people about it. A PhD is nothing without a written thesis.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to go on a GRADSchool course run by Vitae*. Towards the end of the week we did some goal setting, and gave ourselves targets towards getting where we want with our careers. Some people were going to sign up for training courses, some were going to investigate non-academic career options. Me, I was struck by our group leader’s definition of a good PhD thesis, which was simply a finished PhD thesis. With this in mind, and the end of my third year looming, I decided that the most constructive thing I can do, no matter my career choice, is to get the darned thing written. Seventy thousand words ain’t going to happen by magic!

So I’ve set myself a target to have 30,000 words written by my birthday in September, which coincides with the time my funding runs out – an extremely good motivator! This works out at about 700 words a week, and being a very visual learner I have of course set up a spreadsheet to keep me on track. I’ve also moved my working week around so that I have a day just for writing, which suits me much better than fitting it in around lab experiments. So far, so good: I have 7% of a thesis.

My only problem is that I am not a natural in the scientific lingo. Other forms of writing feel quite natural, but I am still getting my head around how scientific language works. It is a fine art, and in my experience there is a thin line between very good and very bad writing. The skill is to be technical and succinct without being grandiloquent or using too much jargon. The most helpful tip I’ve had is to write a sentence, then read the first 10 words: if you’ve not said anything useful, rewrite it.
Obviously the only way to improve at anything is practice, so all the more reason to get writing now – it’s easier to play around with badly written sentences than no sentences. I’ve heard repeatedly that “writing up takes longer than you think!” – so get writing!

* Having spoken to a number of people there (being a gregarious soul) I think I may have been the only person there of my own volition rather than ‘because my supervisor wanted me to go’, but I don’t think I met anyone who felt their time had been wasted. If you are a PhD student and your supervisor suggests you go, do.