Pat Thomson
@patthomson.bsky.social
Academic, educator, silversmith. Researching arts ed, school change, leaders work. Patter academic writing blog - Patthomson.net. Semi-retired. Working part-time @ U Nottingham & U South Australia. #FAcSS
This week patter has a writing strategy to integrate reflection and reflexivity. patthomson.net/2026/07/30/r...
reflection and reflexivity: a strategy for academic writing
I wrote recently about the difference between reflection and reflexivity. Reflection looks back at what you have done and asks what you can learn from it. Reflexivity turns the lens on you, the per…
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This week another take on using quotations patthomson.net/2026/07/13/h...
How to use quotations – ask who is carrying the luggage…
“If you’re going to quote other scholars, not as primary sources whose work you mean to analyse, but because they’ve got insights you want to support yours, make sure they’re carr…
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I’ve got a bit tired of hearing that nobody at all will read your thesis. patthomson.net/2026/07/07/p...
people do read your thesis
That tweet is back. You know the one. A PhD thesis, it says, is the only book in the world read cover to cover by exactly three people: the author, the proofreader, and the examiner. The screenshot…
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This week I’m looking at the difference between reflection and reflexivity. patthomson.net/2026/06/30/w...
what’s the difference between reflection and reflexivity?
When you first started postgraduate study, someone probably told you that you had to be reflexive. You may even have been told to include a section on reflexivity in your thesis. No, you don’t have…
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This week I’ve worked on a ROAM strategy for first drafts. It’s a strategy about readers, objectives action and impressions and draws on Bernhoff s Writing without Bullshit. patthomson.net/2026/06/21/r...
ROAM: four questions before you draft
Josh Bernoff, who wrote Writing Without Bullshit, had a suggestion for anyone about to start drafting. Work out your ROAM first. What’s ROAM I hear you ask? Well, it’s a set of ques…
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A playful strategy for reflecting on data analysis decisions patthomson.net/2026/06/15/h...
have a word or two with your data
When we work with our data we have to decide who and what gets to be in the story. A number goes in the table or it doesn’t. A quote earns half a page, a passing mention, or nothing at all. T…
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On the importance of revision and learning with George Saunders patthomson.net/2026/06/07/l...
Love your revisions
George Saunders won the Man Booker prize in 2017 with his novel Lincoln in the Bardo. Earlier that year he wrote about his revising process. My method is: I imagine a meter mounted in my forehead, …
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Thinking about your post thesis plan? These three words can help patthomson.net/2026/05/25/k...
Key words – dissemination communication, sharing
Doctoral researchers are sometimes asked in their viva what their plans for dissemination are. Gulp. But this is a question worth thinking about. It’s not a trick question. Examiners are genu…
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This is a question that’s been bothering me lately patthomson.net/2026/05/18/w...
who should be checking for AI generated references?
Graham Kendall studies academic publishing. He recently ran the numbers on what peer review costs the UK higher education sector. His calculations are worth quoting: “In the UK…
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This week Dr Rachel Lehner-Mehr talks about turning her doctoral thesis into a scholarly book patthomson.net/2026/05/10/f...
From thesis to monograph
This is a guest post written by Dr Rachel Lehner-Mear. She has recently published a book reporting her doctoral research on mothers and primary school homework. There’s nothing quite like holding y…
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This week I’m revisiting coherence But in research design patthomson.net/2026/05/03/k...
key word – coherence in research design
Coherence in research design is not the same as coherence in academic writing, although the two are related. Research design coherence is sometimes described through the metaphor of a red thread, o…
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This week I look at what it means for scholars to write concisely patthomson.net/2026/04/26/k...
key word – coherence in academic writing
Gratuitous pic of my dog Ted. A coherent piece of writing is one where the parts connect to the whole. That sounds obvious, but it can be difficult to achieve. That’s partly because the whole is su…
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This week patter has been reading about knowledge production as place making patthomson.net/2026/04/20/p...
placemaking and the academic writer
I’ve just read a paper about epistemic placemaking. Epistemic placemaking is equipping and arranging places for knowledge work. The paper suggests that students might actively co-design t…
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What does ‘concise’ mean in academic writing? patthomson.net/2026/04/12/k...
key word – concision
Concision is not the same as brevity. A short piece of writing can be wasteful with its words, and a long piece can be meaning-full right to the last sentence. Getting concise is about getting clea…
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Academic writing and procrastination revisited patthomson.net/2026/04/06/i...
in defence of procrastination
Procrastination often gets a bad rap in academic writing advice circles. It’s generally seen as a problem to be managed, a symptom of anxiety or perfectionism. In other words, it’s a pr…
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This week I’m looking at forwarding, a key aspect of working with literatures patthomson.net/2026/03/30/f...
forwarding – writing with other people’s texts
We’ve probably all read papers where the writer has treated the literature as something to be surveyed and reported. the result often takes the shape of the dreaded laundry list, where the writer p…
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Where does the idea of writing as thinking come from and what’s it actually mean … patthomson.net/2026/03/22/t...
the process of writing
People often refer to writing as thinking without necessarily knowing where and how this idea developed. It is in part from Linda Flower and John Hayes who published a paper in 1981 offering a…
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Vale Habermas and academic writing patthomson.net/2026/03/15/w...
what’s Habermas got to do with academic writing?
Jürgen Habermas died on Saturday 14 March, 2026 in Starnberg, near Munich. He was 96. The news has been moving through academic social media in the way these things do, with people sharing half-rem…
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Vale Habermas and academic writing patthomson.net/2026/03/15/w...
what’s Habermas got to do with academic writing?
Jürgen Habermas died on Saturday 14 March, 2026 in Starnberg, near Munich. He was 96. The news has been moving through academic social media in the way these things do, with people sharing half-rem…
patthomson.net
Academic writers often feel uncomfortable but that’s often OK Here’s why patthomson.net/2026/03/08/g...
getting comfortable with being uncomfortable
Good academic writing means sitting with a discomfort that never entirely goes away. It’s not a discomfort that comes from having nothing to say. Most of us have more than enough ideas crowding the…
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Avoid reader déjà vu The difference between abstract and introduction. patthomson.net/2026/03/02/n...
not an echo chamber: abstract v. introduction
Imagine a doctoral researcher finishing their introduction. They’ve carefully crafted the opening pages that situate their research question in the existing literature. Then they turn to write the …
patthomson.net
New blogpost announcing launch of our Sustainable School Leadership report: "Without greater attention to sustainable leadership the White Paper vision might never be fully realised." @patthomson.bsky.social @twperry1.bsky.social @uonsoe.bsky.social sustainableschoolleadership.uk/2026/02/27/s...
Sustainable School Leadership Final Report Published
This week we have launched the final report from the Sustainable School Leadership research project at the end of our 3 year mixed methods study across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, funde…
sustainableschoolleadership.uk
The final report from the Sustainable School Leadership project is out! A 3-year study across England, Northern Ireland & Scotland, funded by #esrc #educationresearchprogramme Available here: www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/gro... @patthomson.bsky.social @twperry1.bsky.social @samfr.bsky.social
nottingham.ac.uk
The final report is now available for the Sustainable School Leadership project led by @tobygreany.bsky.social with @patthomson.bsky.social @twperry1.bsky.social and Mike Collins. sustainableschoolleadership.uk
Riffing as a strategy for academic writing, good for clarifying ideas patthomson.net/2026/02/21/r...
riffing your way to meaning
In blues, jazz, and music that traces its roots to those genres, the riff is a repeated chord progression or set of notes that ties a song together. A guitar riff returns again and again in a song …
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This week patter talks about peer review as cruel optimism patthomson.net/2026/02/16/t...
the cruel optimism of peer review
A relation of cruel optimism exists when something you desire is actually an obstacle to your flourishing. It might involve food, or a kind of love; it might be a fantasy of the good life, or a pol…
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Include a writing retreat in your 2026 plans patthomson.net/2026/02/07/w...
why go on a writing retreat
I’ve been thinking about all the writing that I need to get done this year. There’s three book contracts, yes three, and a host of papers which are undoubtedly going to need revising. Looking…
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I’m often asked if it’s OK to put citations in abstracts. Here’s an answer patthomson.net/2026/01/30/s...
should abstracts have citations?
When you’re deep into writing a journal article, it’s easy to feel that every claim needs immediate validation, every statement must be backed up by a citation. This impulse becomes par…
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It’s important to recognise and celebrate small academic writing successes patthomson.net/2026/01/22/s...
small successes count
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from staring at a word count that’s meant to reach 80,000 or 100,000, knowing you’re only at 12,000. Or from looking at a journa…
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