1.1 Reflection on Article Writing

Summary/Introduction: I have made mistakes in my last three articles. Some I'm aware of and shall display to you today. Others not so much. I am always eager to learn and so implore you to elucidate me should you be so inclined. The following will be a daring account of my exploits at the screen face... Let no one ignorant of their own ignorance enter here.

Before we begin. Let's talk about why I'm doing this. Imposter Syndrome. I have a worry that I might possibly be contributing to misinformation. These articles will hopefully exhibit some sort of self-awareness and serve as a reminder to readers to challenge and question my ideas. It's a confession of my inadequacy. You see almost all topics I might write about will have an expert much better suited to explaining them than I. And so if anything, my articles should serve to pique the interest. An aperitif before devouring food for thought elsewhere.

So for every three articles I publish here on Education, I will follow up with a reflection on the process. I'm going to demonstrate this learning by running you through my journey in article writing. Let us begin:

I will publish four articles on Linkedin this year. Four articles separate from my reflections series...I'm going to continue these reflections, hopefully in a more constructive way. Less explaining and more informing on the iterations I'll be putting in place to improve my writing.

Let's tally my current output: ||| articles so far focused on education. This leaves us with one more to go. I conclude from this that I: 1. lack aspiration 2. am a man of my word!

The main way I've been able to keep up with this is actually the newsletter feature on Linkedin. You have to choose how often you will publish articles. This has allowed me to persevere in my writing. However, has led to lowered quality. I am not happy with:

in particular.

This was not researched well enough nor was it a topic I have accrued enough knowledge in to do justice. Unfortunately, this was resultant of the pressure to write as opposed to the desire to produce good quality. I believe this came about through a lack of understanding of the article pre-writing process. So I didn't account for the time needed here in my timeline before 'publishing'.

Now to give you an indication as to when I'm clearly stumbling around in the dark:

Where are the references?! I'm not exactly submitting these ideas to an academic journal but the least I can do is give you some sort of verification. Even if it's just another singular article.

Now for a mistake that is more cringeworthy than egregious. So you're welcome for the laugh.

...The very first article of this newsletter has an 'example summary'... :)

Since we've covered some points for improvement let's have a brief moment of pats on the back. I feel the Blended Learning article was the best of the bunch. In many ways due to what I failed to do in the misinformation article. Blended Learning is a topic I have learned much about in general and was also researching whilst I wrote it. As such it's filled with hyperlinks and references. I think this was a factor in its success as well. The stats show that it has 316 views and 28 engagements and so tops the newsletter so far. Of course, there are other factors to this too. For example, the mysterious algorithm that decides what we see. But I still believe good content is the key to resonating in a wider sense.

Let's Recap

1. The Linkedin Newsletter feature is a good way to motivate you to write. I recommend this. However, it can lead to quantity over quality if you lose focus.
2. I will be updating my article writing process. Allowing for a lot longer pre-writing process to ensure my articles have more rigour.
3. I endeavour to provide resources for any article that aims to explain or inform.

Before I get into the advice from the armchair. I want to say a massive THANK YOU to those that read my articles. When this Newsletter started I was blown away by having 200 or so subscribers from the outset. I've only published a handful so far, but already we're at 288 and it bolsters my resolve to provide better content knowing that the aggregate time invested into an article will on average be exactly 24 hours. I intend to make the most of the day!

FOR THOSE LOOKING TO WRITE ARTICLES THEMSELVES

So if the above piqued your interest in doing some of your own writing I wanted to share a few things I've come to learn that might help you on your journey.

Before focusing on my writing process I basically wrote with a stream of consciousness. The issue with this is that I'm not James Joyce. However, once you have thought out your idea and you have a structure and review model. When it comes to writing it, there is a little Joyce to it. For instance, it's 23:19 right now and I have to wake up with my nearly 2-year-old daughter in the morning. But I'm in flow so continuing feels easy and the words are coming easy...this is not an opportunity to ignore. Trust me. Capitalise on this. When the flow's not there, writing can be frustrating!

Speaking of structure. This is my current proforma:

TITLE = purpose: To persuade/inform/argue/explain?

Image

Summary: Needs to incorporate the whole article.

Body:

• Include an image/quote minimum

Reference: Not too many, this isn't to prove you have a well-researched Masters article you actually winged and are crossing your fingers you just get a passing grade. You're a busy person, and so is your audience, so only include what you have legitimately analysed not just superficially read.

Image + short summary of you as a writer

Speaking of review. This is my current self-editing process:

1. Edit via negativa. To paraphrase Stephen King: Take out anything that is not the story.
2. Reread and edit for phonetic literary devices you may have missed e.g. alliteration, rhyme, assonance, meter, cacophony, euphony. The key here is not to shoehorn. If it comes naturally and sounds right use it.

How I wish to right...

I want to know the rules so well I can break them intentionally. But that's an ethereal goal I won't know I've achieved till I've done the groundwork. Here's a tangible aspiration. I want my articles to read through their topic sentences so well I can differentiate for the audience.

E.g. you're a rushed reader but find the topic I'm writing about interesting. You want to determine if it's worth a full read. Just read each topic sentence of my paragraphs and you'll already have a strong understanding of whether you want to commit the time to a full read.

I'm in two minds about my summaries currently. In recent articles, they've been written as a hook and so aren't strictly summaries. I could build these from my topic sentences to have the same effect as the previous paragraph suggests...but I'm reluctant to abandon a 'hooky' start. So the topic sentence idea might be able to provide a 'best of both worlds.' However, my audience will need to know that they can read my articles like this.

Further Reading you might like:

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King

About the Author.?Phil works as a consultant for Education Perfect and is always looking to collaborate on educational projects that push for systemic change. Also enjoys recycling images...