A productive writer writes regularly, produces goal-directed written work and enjoys the process. Productive writing addresses the problem of why some people publish with ease and others struggle, and seeks to take the non-productive writer and turn him or her into a prolific one.
Important themes in the book are dealing with writer's block, procrastination and making time to write. An array of explanations, research and activities is presented to encourage exploring, thinking, speculating, testing, documenting, questioning and developing authority. Crafting the document itself is just one part of the writing spectrum.
The increasing focus on research and publishing at universities and universities of technology makes this book an important contribution to the available literature on research. Addressing throughput for postgraduate students and output for academic staff, the book is aimed at both these categories.
Productive writing complements two earlier research books by Cecile Badenhorst, Research writing and Dissertation writing, and focuses on important aspects of research that are not covered in those books.
Cecile Badenhorst is a research fellow at the School of Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand. For many years she ran the PhD programme and taught courses such as Qualitative Research Methodology and Research Report Writing. She holds a PhD in Geography from Queen?s University, Kingston, Ontario; a Postgraduate Diploma in English Language Education from Wits; and a Certificate in Qualitative Research from the University of Georgia, United States. She has published articles in peer-reviewed accredited journals, as well as works of fiction and various non-fiction publications for children.
PART 1 INTRODUCTION: DREAMS OF WRITING
1 Why read this book?
2 Dreamers dreaming: my story
3 Castles-in-the-air: a dream metaphor
4 Thinking in colour
5 Publish or perish: academics writing
6 Fear and fantasy: students writing
7 What productive writers do tacitly
8 Beliefs about writing
9 Stock footage: the writing process
10 The shadow world of peer review
11 Fast forward: changing time
12 Why is writing so difficult?
PART 2 ON THE NIGHTMARE
13 Trapped in the dark: writer’s block
14 Blurred shapes: thinking, acting, feeling
15 Thinking and writing
16 Writing and emotions
17 Actions and writing
18 Paralysed: procrastination
19 Paralysed and screaming: academics and procrastination
20 The vertigo effect
21 The procrastinator returns
22 What type of procrastinator are you?
23 The scorpion’s tail: disabling ourselves
24 Pointing fingers: criticism
25 The monster in the mirror: internal criticism
26 Watching the critic
27 Threatening mists – self-deception
PART 3 SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES
28 Meta-cognition
29 Lucid dreaming: what makes us work at writing?
30 Because I want to: motivation
31 Locked down: self-control
32 Self-regulation and writing
33 Falling: when self-regulation lapses
34 The writing machine: developing self-regulation
35 Deep focus: believing in yourself
36 Self-belief and writing
37 A writing story
38 Discovering new rooms
39 Seeing the monster: overcoming the urge to delay
40 The open gate: handling criticism
41 Close-up: working with referees’ reports
42 Voices from the periphery
43 Collaboration
44 Dreaming big: book writing
PART 4 BEYOND WORDS: WRITING THE DREAM
45 Patting the wolf: lack of time
46 The value of time
47 Time to write
48 Spirals and cycles: writing careers
49 Catching the runaway train: setting goals
50 Smoke and mirrors: reflection
51 Wild dreaming: the writer’s
52 Walking on air: thinking
53 Calypso moods: feeling
54 Animated writing: actions
55 An unfixed destiny: possibilities
56 Walking the high road: academic thinking
57 The dreamer or the dreamed: identity
58 Writing in the flow
59 The waking dream: a meaning-filled life
