The Cartography of My Writing Workflow

When it comes to the many facets of my life, one element is remarkably consistent: I am a planner. While I do also enjoy a fair dose of spontaneity, sometimes to the great surprise of those who are close to me, I confess that I’m most comfortable with structure the majority of the time. I like clear expectations for course assignments. I like meal planning before going grocery shopping. I like deciding on my outfit in advance of a social event.

My planner tendencies most certainly take hold in my academic writing. I believe much of the writing process is about planning and research, and I spend a lot of energy upfront on those tasks before even thinking of opening a fresh Word document. Back in the day, in my early undergrad years, I didn’t spend as much time conceptualizing beforehand and more time free writing. When I started to spend more time planning I found I saved far more time when I actually opened that Word document, and had a better end product.

The conceptualization part of any paper is the hardest part for me, and I like to know what I’m doing before sitting down to write. While it is a challenge, conceptualizing is also an exciting dialogue for me because I’m reading sources and organizing my ideas in tandem.

Liking structure does not make me an orderly thinker, and this really shows up in my conceptualizations. I write out my ideas by hand and not as neat blocks of colour-coded bullet points: I have assorted ideas written out all over whatever sheet of paper I happen to have in front of me at the time, with arrows all over the place!

While likely indecipherable to most, this road map is my essential companion in the journey of paper writing. It contains a solid thesis and the key points I will be making, and I piece together the fine-grained details as I finally turn to that fresh Word document. My road map is my lifesaver; I know where I’m going, but there’s space for detours or adjustments as needed.

While making a road map has made my writing life significantly better, I also believe it to be a coping mechanism to deal with the uncomfortable unknowns of research. I make a map to trouble-shoot in advance all the potential things that can go wrong, because if something goes amiss I may fail to meet a deadline, or at least fail to meet a deadline to my standards.

This is where one of my great snags of writing comes in: the production demands and deadlines. I find the sheer volume of writing and the constant deadlines in the university environment to be daunting, and these pressures can really clamp down on my joy of writing. Perhaps this constant worry is why I find the conceptualization of a paper to be the hardest task; those pressures weigh in the background and prevent a carefree exploration of ideas.

My second great snag comes towards the end of my writing process as I am checking to make sure I have referenced everything that needs to be referenced. The questions come fast and furious: Is this truly my own idea? Did someone else say it? Do I need to cite it?

It has been drilled into me that plagiarism is a great academic offense and committing it, even by accident, will lead to the complete annihilation of one’s academic prospects. This is why I take plagiarism very seriously, to the point it can be stifling. I have been told I have a tendency to over-cite and I feel my own thoughts can sometimes get buried under a mountain of citations. Contrary to what I was taught, knowing when to cite is not always straightforward.

And with that, I embark on my next road trip: a writing course for my Master’s degree. With the key in the ignition, my feet hovering above the clutch and the gas (plus the brake, if need be), and my hand ready to shift into first gear, I look forward to journeying towards an enhanced writing process.