About this blog. Which, coincidentally is a word I despise.
I will get straight to the point. I am a PhD student in Food and Nutritional Sciences; I have got to this stage by largely ignoring writing as a skill. I felt as if my skills within science (maths, physics, etc.) were the most important aspect to improve, so I spent most of my time working on science-related skills. As a consequence my writing skills are very low relative to my other skills, hence this blog.
My idea of this blog is to journal my progress through a Ph.D., as it is probably one of the most interesting things I will ever do. But mostly, it is to practice writing and eventually get good at it.
As I am writing, this I have already written several months worth of posts; originally, I was not planning on posting them, but I think that there is no downside to me publishing these posts, as the worst thing that can happen is that I get bad feedback. In this instance, it still helps me improve my writing, so it is win-win as far as I can tell.
As I have previously mentioned, I am several months ahead of this initial post and only plan to release one a week. Becuase of this, my writing has already improved massively, and I am embarrassed to release some of the earlier posts. However, I believe that the journey is much more important than the end so I will release all my posts un-edited.
I intend on writing about more than just my thoughts on being a PhD student such as nutrition, finance, books I’m reading and general thoughts on life. So, if you would like to help me out and provide some feedback, I would greatly appreciate it.
I will remain anonymous for now.
Go here for an example of my first attempt at a blog post and here for the most recent.
Good for you wanting to learn writing skills. This is often overlooked in a more electronic age, when folks expect their computer to ‘fix’ it for them. Likely by now you know that computers can only work with what they are given. In speaking, if what we say isn’t clear, we get feedback from others and can immediately clarify. But with writing, if what you say is confusing or misleading, you simply have confused readers – or worse, readers thinking you are saying something different than you are. Science, math, and even art still need to be well communicated for them to be effective. Someone had to write everything you read, and if that’s where you learned your science or math, you need it to be accurate and clear for you to understand and use the information.
Bravo to your efforts!
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Thank you! I am enjoying the new challenge of being a better writer.
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I’m glad that you like my poems…all the best with your writing and the PhD
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Hello ljphd,
Just to say I don’t like the word ” blog” either. It sounds ugly to me, like a combination of the words ” blah” and ” log”.
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Yes! Also, the connotations that come with the word.
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