Precise writing

Here I would like to share two references that will benefit PhD students in their writting-up period, especially useful for non-native speakers

Williams, Joseph M. 1988. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Scott, Foresman, & Co.

William Strunk, Jr., 1918, The Elements of Style

These are good tools to help you structuring your writing more accuretaly. Beyond reminding you about generic rules, they provide very useful vocabulary lists/examples.

Writing a thesis

As some of us are entering the writting-up phase of our PhD, I would like to share with you some references about how to write a thesis. This is far from being an easy task and a bit of help is very welcome, though, one can easily be lost in the plethora of such literature, especially as no so many references deals with the specificity of writing a practice-based PhD.

I have lately discover How to write a better thesis by David Evans and Paul Gruba, and I have found it immensely valuable at this stage of the research as it is a very synthetic book focusing on the structuring of the thesis, providing very clearly and efficient guidelines and basic tips about using word appropriately for such a task. Not especially dedicated to practice-based and design-led PhD, one of the co-author is an architect, which make it very accessible.

How to write a thesis by Rowena Murray will also be a good friend, particularly useful in respect to writting schedule and how to engage with writting at different stages of the research.

As a starter, I would warmly recommand Visualizing Research: a guide to the research process in art and design by Caroline Gray. The book is not especially dedicated to the writing process but rather deals with different ways to handle a practice-based PhD, from the very first stages up to completion. It is an excellent introduction to the implications of PhD research. Comments are more than welcome to continue the discussion.

Writing a thesis abstract: tips

A practice-based PhD is still very much about writing. I would like to share a little tip with you regarding how to write an abstract, in particular a thesis abstract. This link is just a good recap to make up your mind before kick starting writing ;)