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I am posting this as a benchmark, not because I think I'm playing very well yet.  The idea would be post a video every month for a ye...

Friday, August 13, 2021

How to Write and article in Six Days (day 6)

 The goal will be to have a document of 6,000 words by the end of the day.  

Alas, the article will not be done!  You will simply have a document about as long as the final version needs to be. 

On the 7th, 8th, and 9th days, I propose the following: take the first 2,000 word chunk, and clean it up. Make sure all references are complete, all footnotes done. All sentences are complete. 

Then do the same for the next 2,000 word chunks. The document might decrease in the number of words, or increase. That doesn't really matter on any particular day. 

Now, on day 10, repeat the process, but with the first 3,000 or 3,500 words. Now make sure all the transitions are smooth, all the paragraphs well formed.

On day 11, do the same with the second 3,000 or 3,500 words. Now you have the "first draft." It's ready to show someone else now, but I would sleep on if for a day (or week) and then do a final reading of the whole thing.  

It's not really a "first draft" because a lot of it will have been rewritten. It is far from a "shitty first draft," or a "rough draft," concepts I despise.  I view it as an antepenultimate draft, or next to next to the last. You have two more times to revise it: before submitting it (based on feedback of your research buddies) and after receiving comments from a blind reviewer (or from any editor involved in the process).  

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