In this month’s blog Emma Robinson (a final year undergraduate student) shares her experience of using twitter to support her learning. She has used twitter to help to develop her:
“Top Tips for Cutting out Words when Writing up Your Assignments”
As any student can tell you, writing up an assignment, particularly something as big as a dissertation, is an emotional rollercoaster. For me, it began with scepticism as I questioned “can I really write 5000 words about social media?!”.
Four months later, a week before the deadline, I was pasting my finished sections into the final document. I was in disbelief what a broad and interesting area it had turned out to be, and euphoric that I had time to proof read. This quickly turned to horror as I realised that my final draft was 6300 words. I had 1300 words to cut, and after painstakingly managing 300 I was at a loss. It all seemed too relevant.
My dissertation reinforced what I already knew, that social media can be a valuable source of support and advice, so I took to Twitter to seek the help of the global network of students, academics and professionals. After sharing my dilemma, I received so much valuable advice that an OT lecturer at York St John University suggested that I collate and share it.
Without further ado (as you’re aware I’m enjoying the absence of a word count for this blog), here are my 6 top tips for reducing the word count of a piece of work:
1. Read each sentence critically Ask each time:
-is the point clear?
-can this be more concise?
-does this add value to the paragraph/piece?
2. Take out superfluous words
How much value do the words “certainly”, “therefore” and “particularly” really add? Does the sentence make sense without them?
3. Check for repetition
You would be surprised how easy it is to unnecessarily repeat words, phrases and ideas throughout your work. You are very familiar with it too, ask somebody that knows nothing about the topic to check for this.
4. Use abbreviations
This can be appropriate as long as your first mention is written out in full. For example, I used five year forward view (FYFV) and social media (SM).
5. Active and assertive citing, rather than passive
For example, “Robinson (2018) argues…” (3 words) versus “It can be argued that …. (Robinson 2018)” (8 words)
6. Can a table or figure relay the information clearly?
This saved me a lot of words. Although it is not always appropriate, it is worth considering as these often do not apply to the word count.
Four days and copious changes of scenery and cups of coffee later, I was down to 4998 words. I cannot advocate social media enough as a space for collaboration, idea sharing, support and learning. To avoid writing too much, it is better to plan and write succinctly from the onset, although as a student still developing an academic writing style this is not always easy. On a practical note, I found that editing in short stints was more effective, together with moving to different rooms in my house, the library, a coffee shop, helped me to look at my work with a fresh perspective each time.
It may seem painful and impossible, but meeting the word count is always achievable. Whether you have 150 or 1,500 words to cut good luck, and I hope these tips are useful.
Here are some resources that I found useful:
Pat Thompson: Cut the Bloat
Josh Bernoff’s 10 top writing tips
Thank you to everyone that tweeted words of advice and encouragement, Emma