How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing,   ISBN:9781591477433

Customer Rating: 

I can't say that this book provided a lot of new information to me - most part of it can be inferred just from common sense and knowledge of some time-management techniques. Probably "How to write a lot" is excellent not because of it contents, but because of references to other "how to write well" books. Also I liked chapter about style a lot - it contains many useful hints in a very small amount of pages. But probably the best insight was the explanation that you do not need a lot of inspiration in scientific writing - it is not like writing novels or poetry. And it's even proved by some statistics!

So, I would highly recommend this book - it is easy to read and techniques given here are easy to use.

Customer Rating: 

This book contains really only one piece of advice: Make a writing schedule and stick to it no matter what.

If you do stick with a writing schedule you will spend X hours writing a week. Off course you will get something written. If you don't stick with the schedule, chances are high that you won't get much done. To write you need to spend the hours writing. So the advice in the book is almost tautological.

Having said this, the advice is not bad. However, I would expected a few more ideas from a book.

Customer Rating: 

Paul J. Silvia's How to Write a Lot is a great practical guide that provides academics with a wealth of advice. Silvia's main point is that writing productivity is a skill that comes from planning; it is not an innate gift. Silvia states that becoming a productive writer is about forcing yourself to adopt the right behaviors (i.e., sitting down to write) as opposed to discovering some abstract philosophy on how to write.

According to Silvia, the basic process for improving one's writing is simple:
1) make a schedule (how many days per week and how many hours per day),
2) set goals for each day,
3) keep track of whether you meet your long- and short-term goals,
and
4) reward yourself for reaching your major goals.

Silvia has a great, breezy style. He includes a few quips that keep the tone light. For instance, in a discussion of why academics should never claim that they have writer's block, he writes: "Novelists and poets are the landscape artists and portrait painters; academic writers are the people with big paint guns who repaint your basement" (page 45).

How to Write a Lot does bog down after the first three chapters. The other chapters are not bad, but they contain information that readers have probably seen elsewhere (e.g., write in the active voice). The chapters on scheduling, however, are terrific. I recommend How to Write a Lot based on those three chapters.

Customer Rating: 

I'm in my PhD thesis writing process, even when I'm a sciences student I found this book encouraging and very useful. You can quickly read it in your free time -- if you have some -- in less than a week and you will certainly find nice ideas to practice your daily writing. Specially useful if you always give you excuses when not writing everyday.

Customer Rating: 

I love this book! (1) It is well-written. (2) It is concise. Yes, the advice is to make a schedule & stick to it--something most of us do not do. The book points out the common traps all of us fall into, and points out how silly they really are. Common sense? Yes. Do most of us need it pointed out to us? Absolutely. It also makes practical suggestions for prioritization of writing projects.

One reviewer makes the inane comment that the book is only for psych, therefore it isn't useful to others. Nonsense! Anywhere Paul says 'psychology,' substitute your field. It works beautifully with 'political science.'