Welcome to the course!

Welcome to Cite to Write!

Welcome to Cite to Write - I'm thrilled you joined, I can't wait to teach you how to build a rock-solid process that takes you through reading, thinking and writing in an academic setting.

Now, I know a little bit about this, because when I started my PhD I took a close look at how my process looked like and I noticed my process wasn't even close to ready for what I would need to finish the PhD.

All the things that I had learned during undergrad and the Master's program that I went through, my workflows, habits and tools...applying them within one big research project over long periods of time would be a whole new challenge. And that became even more clear as I worked towards my first big deadline in the PhD program and was diagnosed with ADHD - I needed to find even better, more flexible ways to work and still maintain focus over long periods of time.

I had a pretty tough time keeping track of the literature I was reading and integrating it in a way that supported coherent thinking. I jumped from one paper and literature to the next and accumulated a very large stack of papers - I actually printed them out in hopes that would help me make time to read them... But I still struggled to feel like I was on top of what I was supposed to read and make sense of it in a way that would help me do my research.

But I also had made it into the PhD program and gotten good grades before, so I decided to pay attention and I decided to build myself a process that would help me finish the PhD despite my challenges. I decided to really dig deep and learn everything I could about decreasing friction in the process of research - eliminating tedious busywork as much as possible so I could focus the limited attention I have available on learning and thinking about the problems in my field and then write about what I find in my research.

I bought books about how to read and think better, I read papers on research workflows and how to make consistent progress, I tried and tested every tool I could get my hands on that promised to free up time and attention to do the work that really matters - the research itself.

Over time, I came to discover the things that really worked in getting to know my field in depth and get traction on writing while keeping up with everything else going on.

And so what we're here to talk about is how to build a process that

  • keeps you on top of the literature in your field
  • helps you understand the different perspectives and shows you connections between them
  • has your thoughts and references at your fingertips when you write
  • and ultimately helps you do your best research

Now, let's talk about the structure of this program and then we're going to get right into the material.

In the first two modules, I'll guide you through setting up a reference manager and Roam Research. These two tools are the foundation for the process that I show you and I'll explain how and why to use them in more detail in each module.

In the third module I'll teach you about reading - something you certainly know how to do, but where I want to share some concepts and approaches that have made a big difference in how I work.

In the fourth module, we'll do a quick interstitial on processing the notes you take during reading, and in the fifth module we'll dive into processes for thinking deeply about your work.

In the sixth module, we'll talk about writing - taking all the notes you took, all the information you collected, and synthesising it into a coherent work. We'll also talk about exporting it out of Roam and creating nicely compiled PDFs, with references and bibliography included, that you can send around as drafts.

So, if you have any questions you can email me for support, but for now I want to remind you of one thing: this course is about doing things, not just passively consuming. I'll show you a very useful and encompassing template for an academic workflow, but you won't benefit from it unless you put it into action and then adjust it to your needs. Your research is different from my research, your circumstances are different – what I show you will not, and cannot work 100% for you. You'll need to experiment and adjust...you'll need to do the work. But if you do that, I think you'll get a ton out of this course, and I'm looking forward to hearing your feedback and see you publish awesome papers. Let's get started, see you in the next video!


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