Being an academic means, among other things, being a writer. Sounds simple, but key in this sentence is 'among other things', and it’s those other things that can so easily prevent us from prioritising our writing. To be a writer means creating and maintaining a habit of writing. In this workshop we discuss ways of doing this, while still managing to do those 'other things'.
Prioritising your writing can require considerable behaviour change, similar to the changes involved in stopping smoking or getting fit. The Transtheoretical Model (TTM), designed in 1983 to understand how people stop smoking, has since been used to understand behavioural change in many areas, including academic writing. In the second part of this workshop, we will be looking at a practical way a partner or buddy can support you in changing writing behaviours, rather like how a personal trainer can help you get and keep fit. Using a template based on TTM theory and adapted for academic writing (Murray and Thow, 2014), you will be discussing your writing behaviours with a partner.