Writing process

From the initial outline to the final proofreading: these techniques will help you get into the flow of writing and steadily improve the quality of your work.

Structuring

If you want to give your academic work more structure, you should differentiate between structuring your work process and structuring the actual text. You should discuss both with your supervisor. You will find important information on structuring your thesis in the guidelines provided by the institutes.

1. the five-step writing process model

The academic writing process can be divided into five phases, each of which has different requirements and demands a specific approach.

"Writing process model modified"

2. typical text structure: IMRaD

The classic way to structure your research report is the IMRaD method: You systematically describe your approach and discuss your results transparently. Your text is divided into Introduction (state of research/technology, relevance of the phenomenon, research gap), Methods (chronological procedure, survey and analysis instruments, laboratory equipment, programs, etc.), Results (overview of all results including figures and tables) and Discussion (summary of the results, relationship of the results to other studies, suggestions for further studies)

The IMRaD method, explained by the Writing Center of the TU Dresden

Flow

1. freewriting
If you find it difficult to start writing or constantly change your last sentences, you should try freewriting: Think of a topic as a heading, set a timer (initially for 3 to 5 minutes) – and start writing! Try to write something down continuously until the time is up. Do not read through what you are writing during this time, but keep the pen or keyboard moving at all times. Only after the time is up can you revise the text or start a second freewriting session on new thoughts.

An English-language tutorial is available here

2. writing raw texts
To produce a first draft of a text, it helps not to start writing too late. Once you have a so-called raw text, it is much easier to continue working with it.