So through your hard work, dedication, and hours spent pouring over applications, you’ve found yourself in grad school. You’re excited to be here and to finally start focusing on your subfield of choice. There’s a lot of work to be done but come on, you’re ready! You didn’t spend all that time in undergrad expecting grad school to be easy. You do your reading and participate in class. You stay up to date with the short assignments and interact with your professors.
So when the first 20-30 page essay is assigned, you’re researching your topic a month in advance. But as you’re rifling through journal articles and book chapters you start to feel…strange. None of the concepts are really unfamiliar to you. The conclusions the authors draw are fascinating and you’ve always enjoyed this kind of reading. So what’s going on? Why are you starting to feel so nervous? Then it hits you. You’ve never written something of this caliber before and now that you’re in grad school, shouldn’t your writing be as good as theirs?
I’ve been in this exact situation multiple times. We’re grad students who are actively working towards becoming professionals, so it’s only natural that we look to current experts for a guideline of sorts. But this can easily become a comparison game where you see your work as lesser or not good enough. It’s happened to all of us and makes us wonder if we’ll ever get to a point where we feel our writing is that good.
But that’s just it. Our writing is already good! If it wasn’t, we probably wouldn’t be writing papers for grad school. Plus, academic writing is something that is constantly changing and improving. There might be a paper you wrote a year ago that you thought was amazing at the time, but now you look at it and you’re not so sure. Our writing styles aren’t concrete, they’re fluid and always learning new ways to surprise us.
But I know what you’re thinking. Sure, my writing is fine but it’s not as good as theirs. Well, today I want to break down some of the ways in which comparing your writing to others can actually be detrimental to your work. Although, that doesn’t mean that you should stop looking to other writers for guidance or new techniques. So I’ll also be describing some of the positive ways that you can look at the work of others. It’s a fine line between these two approaches, and it’s one that’s tricky to balance on, but knowing some of the tools to use when you start to lose your balance can really help.
- Do look for writing advice.
Not everyone wants advice on how to write, and not all writers want to give advice. But when it comes to the process of academic writing, getting some advice can help you get out of a rut or even establish a routine you’d never thought of. When I find myself completely stuck or dread having to write, I like to search ways that other grad students motivate themselves. Now this might be a method of productive procrastination, but I tend to discover some great techniques for getting back on track. A book recommended to me by a friend, The Elements of Academic Style by Eric Hayot, has a fantastic chapter on writing strategies. Any time that I find myself wanting to compare my work, I think about the strategies offered to me by a published academic. This way I’m not trying to mimic his writing style, but using his tools to supplement my own.
- Don’t lose your voice.
Every writer has a unique voice that brings their work to life. This is true for every type of writing–academic, creative, technical, you name it. A writer’s voice may be the reason you enjoy reading their work instead of someone else’s. Now imagine if everyone had the exact same voice. That is one boring world for the written word. When you try to mimic someone else’s voice, it can negatively affect your own, not to mention that your ideas can get lost in the process. Sticking to your natural voice is always the way to go because if you try to write like someone else, it’s going to feel forced and uncomfortable for you as the writer. It’s like Strunk & White say in The Elements of Style, “write in a way that comes naturally.”
- Do remember that ideas matter.
You could be the best writer in the world, but if you lose focus on your ideas, your writing isn’t going to impact your readers. On the other side of the same coin, you could have the best ideas anyone could imagine but if you don’t write them clearly and effectively your readers aren’t going to be engaged. It’s all about balance. The practice of academic writing is to share and expand upon your ideas, so if you get bogged down by trying to imitate other writers you’re already putting your ideas aside. I know it’s hard to balance great writing and great ideas, but with practice it gets easier.
- Don’t forget where you are.
The people in your field that are publishing pristine articles in some of the top journals have been at this kind of work for a long time. They have written things that they hated. They’ve also written things that have been rejected for publication. And most importantly, they have been exactly where you are. It’s so unfair to yourself to expect perfect, top-level writing when you’re just getting started. Plus, a lot of published scholars probably don’t think their works are perfect or top-level. We all have to accept that our writing reflects the best we can do at the time we’re writing it. You’re going to learn and your writing is going to change. Don’t forget that those things take time.
When it comes to comparing your writing to others, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t admire their work, it just means that you also need to admire your own for what it is and where you are in your academic career. To quote a fictionalized Gertrude Stein from the film Midnight in Paris, “you have a clear and lively voice. Don’t be such a defeatist!”
About the Author
Caetlin McFadden (she/they) is an English research graduate student from Northern Virginia, but likes to think she’s a Richmond native. She’s a notorious slow reader and Bruce Springsteen enthusiast. In their free time, they enjoy watching bad documentaries with their two cats.
Quote: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” -Stephen King
Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash
from the writing center at virginia commonwealth university 