Chapters

Generative Writing

Writing isn’t a summative process. You don’t do all the work and then “write it up”. The act of writing suggests new experiments to run, reveals holes in your argument to fill with literature or analysis, and helps you communicate with your co-authors. Because writing helps you think (perhaps painfully), it is a generative process: it generates ideas.

To take advantage of writing’s generative properties, you need to write all throughout the production of research. You need to write frequently and copiously. If you hold the mindset of writing as a generative process, you will find many opportunities to write in the natural course of your work.

Research interests statement

How to write your statement of research interests

A statement of research interests is a way for you to articulate what you are interested in, your relevant past experience, and your concise future plans for research. You can think of it like a teaching philosophy, but for research; a future-oriented bio statement; or a narrative account of your research activity and plans.

Research process models

How should we conceptualize the processes of doing research? Two models, one productive and one not.

Oftentimes in school, we’re taught how to do research (or science labs) in a linear process that passes through discrete stages in a specific order. At the end of the process, you’re supposed to “write it up” in a lab report or scientific paper. However, this stage model of research is a lie. In this article, I articulate two models for doing research, and explore their implications.