Innovative approach to writing for academic journal publication

I’ve had a very productive summer of writing and teaching, with a recent high point of teaching on the LIHE 2009 Symposium for Writing for Academic Journal Publication, in Aegina, Greece. The LIHE is The International Academic Association for the Enhancement of Learning in Higher Education


This innovatory symposium is the brainchild of Dr. Claus Nygaard, an executive director of LIHE, and Professor of Management Education and director of research at CBS Learning Lab; Copenhagen Business School. Together with two other professional writing coaches, I worked intensively with participants drawn from many different countries, to help them improve their academic writing skills towards journal publication.

My approach draws on my work both as the author of published papers and articles and as a published poet; currently working on a novel. All writing is about communication, and although one does not need the same skills for writing a novel, in order to produce a well written academic article, so many of the same principles apply.
Managing complex research material, producing an effective structure, keeping hold of your “plot” i.e., your fundamental research question(s), and ensuring these are answered through your thesis. And above all communicating your ideas through energised and accessible language, not encoded jargon. There are many imaginative ways that I use to help people towards honing their writing skills, and the great feedback from the symposium participants shows this works.
The Symposium was an extraordinary week, in a beautiful setting. The peaceful and beautiful island of Aegina is only 50 minutes from the Athens port of Piraeus, and is a fantastic place for academic discussion and collaborative work.
In one of my group teaching sessions I put forward a text written by a man who arguably has been the world’s most seminal influence on scientific research, yet who struggled deeply with writing and publishing his findings.

I have as much difficulty as ever in expressing myself clearly and concisely; and this difficulty has caused me a very great loss of time; but has had the compensating advantage of forcing me to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus I have been often led to see errors in reasoning and in my own observations or those of others. Charles Darwin

LIHE has many promising events forthcoming, including a second Symposium in 2010 on Writing for Journal Publication, which I look forward to participating in.