Pragmatic Academic Series

The end goal of a PhD is clear: write a book or, say, 4 papers. But how to get there, how to present your work well, and how to get others to read and discuss your work involves many skills. Skills that we can acquire and practice. Although any given strategy might not work for everyone, it is good to know about different strategies. It is also good to know that others sometimes struggle with aspects of academic life and how they cope with it. The pragmatic academic addresses these questions and other practical issues of doing a PhD in philosophy. 

Video - Supervising and Being Supervised: Some Suggestions (Martin Kusch, 20.10.2021)

Resources

Below are some general academic writing guides:

  • Alastair Fowler's How to Write
  • Gary Provost's 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing
  • David Crystal's Rediscover Grammar
  • Jack Hart's A Writer’s Coach: The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies that Work
  • William Zinsser's On Writing Well
  • John Whale's Put it in Writing
  • Clair Kehrwald Cook's Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing
  • William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White's The Elements of Style

For German style and grammar the (many) books by Wolf Schneider may be particularly helpful, e.g.

  • Wolf Schneider's Deutsch für junge Profis

Doctoral researchers might also find parts of the following guide helpful, e.g. the advice in chapter 4 on (co-)authorship issues: