Tips for those writing architecture reports, papers or dissertations

This post is dedicated to the self-proclaimed president of my fan club who has been waiting for me to post. Hehe. The lies people tell. Unprovoked! 

I've not visited any buildings recently, so, I don't have any reviews to write. Nothing has been dancing around in my brain enough for me to want to write about it lately. No clever musings, I'm afraid. However, I know you're writing your first academic paper and as I am also currently in a season of writing, I will give you tips that should help: 

Image source: wix.com

1. Pick a topic that you can manage within the time frame you have. Your paper won't solve all the world's problems. Your passion is applauded, but it will not. Just focus on a few issues and research those. 

2. Someone has thought of what you're thinking of writing. Before you start, read about the topic you're interested in writing about. A literature review gets a bad rep, but really, there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Trust me. Take the shortcut. 

3. Actually, good grammar is the name of the game. 

4. There's no 'I think...', or 'I discovered...' you have to write in the third person. Remove yourself from the situation, so to speak. 

5. It's a real tragedy that there is no room for personal expression of style and drama in academic writing. Don't try to bias the reader. You're just expected to provide the facts, but if you do a good job, the reader will see what you're finding 'interesting', 'catastrophic' etc.

6. You can't use Wikipedia as a source. Do you know anyone can go on there and just write what they want? Blogs, social media posts, podcasts, etc are just personal opinions of people. Do NOT present them as fact.

7. Use Google Scholar, and Research Gate, to find articles and other published journal articles, books, and newspapers as your sources. 

8. You'll need to scour through like 12 articles before you find one useful one. At first. Eventually, you'll learn how to use useful keywords. 

9. If you can't get access to an article, type the title into Sci-Hub (I'm sorry to promote piracy, but have you seen the price of journal articles?) Or ask a friend who's abroad to use their student email to help you access it. 

10. If you use chatGPT --especially to write parts of your paper, not just help with simple outlines, your work will read like a P7 child's. 

11. When you burn out from writing/editing, you can use Quillbot to help rephrase some things. Don't get carried away. When you're refreshed, make sure you review all ai generated text. Ai always sounds a bit plastic. 

12. Use Zotero to help you format citations. 

13. Otter.ai to transcribe your interviews. 

14. Google Forms for surveys.

15. We want to help, but if your questionnaire is too long, we won't bother with it. 

16. Everyone thinks writing is tedious. Everyone. Soldier through. At some point, you'll have stared at your screen so much, words will lose meaning.

17. Ask a friend to proofread. All the best writers do that.

All the best with your writing!