{"id":888,"date":"2021-10-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/?p=888"},"modified":"2022-03-18T19:59:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-18T19:59:05","slug":"tool-1-dear-mom-scientific-writing-part-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/2021\/10\/19\/tool-1-dear-mom-scientific-writing-part-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Tool #1: Dear Mom \u2013 Scientific Writing \u2013 Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dear Mom, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m writing a paper about how to write a paper. It\u2019s a really cool topic because when you learn how to write effectively, people engage your ideas and data more; ideas and data can change the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
From left: my sister, mom, and me! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As I said in previous blogs in this series\u2014blogs that cover what scientific writing is<\/a>, two characteristics of good writers<\/a>, the structure of a scientific paper<\/a>, and the oh-so-important literature review<\/a>\u2014writing well involves understanding some big picture issues (e.g., why write and how to approach the task of writing) but big pictures don\u2019t always translate into words-on-paper. So, in this blog, I want to share some tangible \u201cthis is what I do\u201d nuts and bolts of the writing process.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My point in sharing is not to say \u201cthis is the correct way to write,\u201d but to show you some tools that you might find useful (in whole or in part, or even just to inspire you to come up with an even better method). As I share bits of my process, I am mindful that there are likely inefficiencies and weird things I do that might not actually improve my thinking. As I continue to grow in my writing skill, my process will probably change. The whole point of this blog is to provide potential scaffolds that invite you into that same process of growth. I\u2019m going to do that by showing you my actual notes and some drafts with commentary for a recent literature review I wrote, a paper that published in September 2021. This paper is titled A tale of two perspectives: How psychology and neuroscience contribute to understanding personhood<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start, I want to address the opening of this blog: Dear Mom. Why, you might be wondering, do I have this random letter to my mother at the beginning of this blog? To answer that question, I will turn to the first tool in my writing process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo by Aaron Burden<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tool #1: Start writing. Break through any writers blocks by telling your mother about your paper\u2026in your paper. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mom is a wonderful human being. She is a longtime educator and creator of things. In my educational adventure through high school, I\u2019m certain that my mom read each and every paper I wrote. And each and every paper was returned decorated with red ink (the marks and critiques of a loving mother helping her daughter think better and reminding her that sometimes spell check doesn\u2019t catch homophones-doh!). With this as a background, I picked up a habit in graduate school (origin unknown) to break writer\u2019s block with what I call a dear mom <\/em>draft. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I find that sometimes the most challenging part of writing is just starting. You stare at a blank word document on your computer, suddenly remembering that you haven\u2019t organized your cheese drawer in the fridge or that you don\u2019t remember when you dusted your ceiling fan last or that you\u2019ve always been meaning to sort the paper clips in your desk drawer (you know, to make your work\u2014like writing this paper\u2014easier in the future). And gosh, you\u2019re hungry now. Let\u2019s take a break. All of these (suddenly important) tasks pop into your mind because they seem somehow easier than the unknown answer to \u201cwhat am I going to write in this paper?!\u201d So, the trick that I learned to get going was to start a paper with a salutation (I chose my mom, you can choose anyone you like) and a few sentences about what you think this paper might be about.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2021, I was in that exact position I described above (the answer is that I have never dusted my ceiling fans. For shame.) I had agreed to write a paper with the general parameters of \u201ca paper about how psychology can advance philosophy\/theology around topics of personhood.\u201d I was a bit paralyzed. How could I take such a broad topic and turn it into a paper that someone might want to read (and, importantly, a paper that someone may find useful)? I don\u2019t suffer the illusion that my<\/em> paper will change the world, but it\u2019s possible that someone who reads it might have ideas that can<\/em> change the world. Words and ideas matter\u2014but we have to start by, well, starting. But how? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me show you an example of how I got started: the dear mom draft. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

None of this actually<\/em> made it into my paper. That wasn\u2019t really the point. But my first drafts started with this narrative. The point wasn\u2019t that these words were going to be final words; the point was to think about what I might want to say in this paper in a way that I could communicate it to an educated other (my intended audience). These few sentences served two primary purposes: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. They got words on paper. It\u2019s easier to edit when there is something there. And sometimes, once you start, you get momentum (and thus more words to edit and help you think). <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    1. They helped me start the process of clarifying what the purpose of my paper was. What did I want my reader to know? You can already start to see some outlines here: I want to tell them about research in developmental psychology and I want to tell them about research in neuroscience. I didn\u2019t have <\/em>all that research found and organized yet, but by having this protracted (unedited, stream of conscious) idea on paper, I could start my search for the research that I would use in my paper. (Remember, in science writing, citations are evidence<\/a>.) <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Importantly, at the point of my dear mom <\/em>draft, I was already vaguely familiar with the research I intended to search for; I knew a bit about what the research in developmental psychology and neuroscience would say. (Though, rest assured, I absolutely learned some new things that shaped the direction of my paper, too!) If you know nothing<\/em> about anything that might be relevant to your topic, you need to do some reading before you can even start to tell your mom what you want to talk about. For a class, this pre-work might be re-reading the textbook and the assigned reading. Re-reading the assigned material on the broad topic you will be exploring will serve as the foundation of your thinking about what you might<\/em> want to say. It will be enough to get your dear mom draft going, which is the beginning of your real research (i.e., finding, reading, and synthesizing original research into your paper).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Stay tuned for our next blog, where I show you how I move from dear mom to first draft. In the meantime, have you ever written something like a dear mom draft? What do you think of the idea? I\u2019d love to know!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      If you found this blog helpful, check out the overview of the whole series\u00a0here<\/a>, so that you can find more useful information to develop your writing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Dear Mom,  I\u2019m writing a paper about how to write a paper. It\u2019s a really cool topic because when you learn how to write effectively, people engage your ideas and data more; ideas and data can change the world.  As I said in previous blogs in this series\u2014blogs that cover what scientific writing is, two characteristics of good writers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,125,145,126,144,11],"tags":[12,29,18],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1222,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/1222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.calbaptist.edu\/cshb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}