Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Like many of my students, I'm often guilty of writing in a rush. Doing that leads to three bad habits that appear in my writing. The first is omitting words that should be in a sentence. The second is repeating words in a sentence when I try to revise a sentence midstream. And the third bad habit is using the same phrases and sentence structures too frequently. To change my habits I'm trying to slow down. I've also enlisted the help of a neat Chrome extension called Wordtune. 

What’s the secret to a productive spell of writing? Chris Smith shares insights gleaned from interviews with a diverse group of academics, from which a number of common academic writing habits stood out. These range from the simple acts of scheduling and setting self-imposed deadlines, to both formal and informal accountability partnerships and the use of “freewriting” techniques which help authors write their way out of blocks.

Many academics use the summer holidays as a time to relax, unwind and finally get that writing project done. However, is setting aside large chunks of time over the holidays the best way to approach academic writing? Chris Smith argues that writing over the holidays can be effective, but should be approached thoughtfully. Whereas, the holidays may seem to present a large spell of unbroken time in which to write, the way in which you approach and manage this time is just as important as its duration.