Guest Author - D. Lynn Byrne, Ph.D.

I've written several articles here about "writing your story." I think we all know how important it is that graduate students frame and write their research in such a way to make it both informative and interesting. Thesis and dissertation work does not have to be dry as dust. It just seems that academic writing--especially works done in an effort to comply with the directives of a supervising committee--too often ends up that way.

As I've wandered down the path from student to academic, I've come across multiple writers who've made the leap from dusty tome to empathic and relevant manuscript. Barbara Abercrombie, author of Courage and Craft: Writing Your Life Into Story, targets her writing tips and hints towards biographers--those who want to tell life stories. But, I think what she has to say is relevant for all of us--even academic writers.

Barbara says we should just sit down and write. Describe things, she says, as if you were looking at what happened through a window. Isn't that fascinating? Be the observer; but, observe as though you are removed.

She tells us to convey what we're seeing with a paintbrush dipped in words. "Write down the ordinary details" she writes, and then make them extraordinary. Your eyes are a lens for the camera that is the brain. Report it, but make it so that the reader feels he or she is part of the photograph you've just taken. How amazing!

Can you imagine if everything we wrote and reported on--everything--was written with this imagery? You'd report the every day details, the numbers, the data, the observations, and then connect it to outcomes in such a way that the average reader--not just the academician, but the average reader--could see the picture you're painting in their own heads as they read?

Billy Mernit, author of Writing the Romantic Comedy, refers to this kind of writing as writing "from the gut, from the soul of your experience." How fantastic would it be if graduate students--the individuals who are so very wrapped up in their studies and research that they become one with the topic--could write their capstone papers this way?

No, Abercrombie's book isn't really intended for graduate students. More's the shame, perhaps. Its not intended for the typical academic at all. But, here's what I take away from Barbara's work. "Find your muse, your mentor.." she says. Find the very heart of your writing. Frame it, craft it, in a way that is real to you and your readers. Pour your heart and soul into it. Turn the stuff of your life--the research, the observations--into a work that has "order, clarity and meaning." Then you'll have it--a wonderous masterpiece.

Want to read more? Check out Courate & Craft: Writing Your Life Into Story by Barbara Abercrombie ($14.95 USD).

Until next time!

Lynn Byrne