Wednesday, January 23, 2008

[phooooo] [phooooo]

3 hours writing, page count = 173

The subject line is meant to be the sound of blowing glass. Today I continued working on Chapter 1. I've struggled with how to incorporate lit-review material. Not finding a fit, I took a step back and outlined what I wanted to get across in the chapter step-by-step. After a lot of back-and-forth, I think I found a decent way of making the lit-review material flow naturally into the discussion of the comparative framework. The trick then was how to make that combined piece flow logically out of the very first section. I had some luck with a different approach inspired by a fortuitous find.

One of my favorite blogs is Marginal Revolution, by the libertarian economist Tyler Cowen from George Mason University. Part of the post-Freakonomics wave of popularizing economists, he's written Discover Your Inner Economist (which I haven't read), and his trademark is being a cultural omnivore (his take on Cloverfield is spot-on). His blog, while it applies the principles of economics to everything under the sun (there's a running feature called "Markets in Everything"), almost never uses technical jargon beyond what you might read in the Wall Street Journal. As a result, it's consistently interesting. Earlier this week he linked to the interesting-sounding blog of Chris Plattman, a Yale polisci professor, who linked to a 10-point checklist for getting your academic manuscript ready to submit. Hmmm, timely! One of the suggestions was to go through and read aloud just your first sentences, which should on their own flow logically and tell your basic story. I took that advice one further and started mapping out my Chapter 1 topic sentences from the beginning. As a result, I improved the very first section, and think I've found a way to incorporate the lit-review/framework piece. I've begun doing that, and will continue in that vein tomorrow. Onward!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

BOM DIA! Your Ch. 1 strategy sounds spot-on =) to me -- figure out exactly what you want to say, and then work the lit in around that. I think that's the best way to do a "lit review" b/c it's the most interesting for the reader. The lit works in service of what you're saying, rather than the other way around.

I also like the topic sentences idea! I'd add one facet to it. A long time ago, Bob Kagan told me (sorry - I think I mentioned this before) that if you could write out the *concluding* sentence of each of the paragraphs of a chapter, you were ready to write the chapter, and could do so really quickly (because you'd know exactly what point you're trying to make in each para).

So, what if, in addition to mapping the topic sentences, you took a shot at mapping the concluding sentences? Rather than being a flow check (like checking the topic sentences is), this is a mechanism to help you write, so maybe it will be most useful on the parts of ch. 1 that you still have to formulate. Just an idea!

You're doin' great - HLVS!!

Chris said...

I like Bob's and your suggestion - in fact, that's another one of the steps that was recommended on the page where I found the topic sentences idea. Nice!