Your academic voice is unique. Don't sacrifice clarity for complexity or personality for formality. The best academic writing is distinctly yours.

Following on from last week I have a few pointers for writing about your researcher positionality patthomson.net/2025/12/07/w...

Scientific writing and writing for the public are very different. As I do both, is that difference eroding for me? And if it is, is that good or bad?

The Shadow Scholars: Academic who travelled to Kenya to meet those ghostwriting university work says practice is ‘completely reshaping our future’. Juliette Rowsell reports #edusky https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/shadow-scholars-inside-essay-mills-serving-western-students

Interested in the history of scientific journals? Or curious why journals became more similar in format over time? We're starting in about 2 hours 👇

My statement on Ai from the mini-comic as syllabus i made for new class I'm teaching that starts tomorrow! It robs you of your decisions & struggles - and the joy of being surprised. We won’t to be robbed of our learning - this is essential. This & the full mini at post: bsky.app/profile/nsou...

"“You can only critically assess the output of an AI chatbot if you have the skills to do so, and you don’t develop these skills by using AI. Before you can be critical of an AI summary, you have to learn to understand a text without having it summarized by an AI tool.”

I've been really enjoying our start to #PACEspace 2025-26. I'm now really looking forward to how your #DoctoralWriting shapes up ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ The Future is in the Now! {JM}

Welcome to all our postgraduate researchers! You are what makes us a University.

When @fadiadk.bsky.social presented some of her research on slow reading in higher education, especailly doctoral education at @srhe.bsky.social conference in december last year, it met with furious approval srheblog.com/2025/06/20/r... Intense head-nodding. Lovely to hear more about it.

Is anybody who is involved in #DoctoralEducation able to point me towards a similar report or study on the UK knowledge society, maybe by #UKCGE or similar? #DoctoralWriting #PhD #GraduateSchool #DoctoralPedagogy This one is on the European context👇🏼 {JM [email protected]} www.eua.eu/publications...

#PACEspace exists to help with exactly this: "There’s often a stigma attached to seeking support [...]. There’s nothing more authentic than wanting to do your best work. Asking for help isn’t a failure of ability — it’s a refusal to be isolated" www.thecanary.co/discovery/fe...

Recordings & slides relating to the 'Future of Doctoral Writing' are under 'Content'. This page is subject to edits but there's enough there for those interested to get a sense of what was discussed. Thank you to those who managed to attend {JM} #PACEspace #PACExtra www.open.edu/openlearncre...

Recordings & other resources on the #FutureOfDoctoralWriting sponsored by @ougradsch.bsky.social & #BAAL will be shared ASAP. > 60 people across at least 10 countries/continents & disciplines attended in-person in #MiltonKeynes & online. Not easy to organise, but we managed. #OpenUniversity {JM}

Winding my way back to the UK by train from Braga (Pt) having made my point: the real politik of #GenAI needs embedding in ALL academic writing pedagogies. It's not enough to teach what-how. It's imperative to teach why this is happening to develop agentic reflexivity and flourish. #CriticalRealism

📢Registration for our event is open until 30 June✅ We warmly welcome in-person attendance on 09 July to ensure discussions are critical & spontaneous♨️ But online places are still available {JM}. #DoctoralWriting #AcademicLiteracies #tleap #AcWri #OpenUniversity www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future...

They say your contribution should "fill a gap" but is it ok if it mostly just widens existing ones

This is totally what we need right now. So many necessary new emotion words in here.

I'll be giving this year's keynote at #EATAW25 - alongside Suresh Canagarajah & Federico Navarro - on: 'AI Realism: Reclaiming the Human in AI-enhanced Academic Literacies' (cf abstract) {JM} 🤞 #PACEspace #AcWri #AcademicLiteracies #GenAI #CriticalRealism #OpenUniversity www.eataw2025.com/keynote

What I love about #PACEspace is the privilege of discussing research writing in progress. Achieving #flow, dealing with #feedback, finding #voice are what we discuss most. But trusting an Other with your writing is hard. PACE provides a safe & brave space to do this {JM}. #DoctoralWriting #PhDLife

For scientific writers: Three things your Methods section shouldn't be - but three things Methods sections often end up being. You can avoid these mistakes! scientistseessquirre...

Taming your perfectionist inner critic patthomson.net/2025/06/03/d...

The @ougradsch.bsky.social 'Position Statement and Guidance on Generative AI and Doctoral Education' is now available: www5.open.ac.uk/students/res... The advice is in the context of a fast-paced changing landscape. It emphasises openness re. #GenAI at all stages of the #thesis. #OpenUniversity

Please email me {JM} for more details. This is a very focused & niche event on the Future of Doctoral Writing given #GenAI but also broader concerns of #EDI in #HigherEducation. It will soon be advertised as a fee ticketed event so please email [email protected] if you have a professional interest.

The Trust continues to support researchers at risk who have come to the UK from across the globe through a grant scheme delivered by @britishacademy.bsky.social and @cara1933.bsky.social. Apply now: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/brit...

To accompany the @openuniversity.bsky.social's collaboration with Radio 4's Word of Mouth with @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social, here's a short quiz about the bewildering world of idioms connect.open.ac.uk/education-de...

"PhDs are awarded individually, but scholarship is [not] alone. Students need people around them to share tips and hunches support and console [...] a PhD remains a unique opportunity to write [...] what you care about most" by @academicdiary.bsky.social www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/too-...

The @ougradsch.bsky.social will soon be sharing its 'Position Statement & Guidance' on #AI in #DoctoralWriting, co-authored by me {JM} & aimed at doctoral researchers, supervisors, and examiners. The guidance will inform our #PACEspace Workshops, Writing Circles, and 1-1 Consultations #AcWri [1/2]

Interested in answers to this: "A friend contacted me about their supervisor possibly using AI to give feedback on their dissertation (feedback shows 100% AI generated on checks + makes very little sense in context)" sciences.social/@kavana@scho... @academic-chatter.bsky.social #AcademicChatter

*Shifting Power in Language Learning & Applied Linguistics with GenAI* The conference is inspired by the Shifting Power project (shiftingpower.kmi.open.ac.uk) and the Radical AI Network (www.nature.com/articles/d41...) #GenAI #EuroCall #CallForProposals #CfP eurocall-languages.org/events/genai...

How to read a paper involving artificial intelligence (AI) Key messages: 1. [...] 2. [...] 3. A preliminary framework and set of questions for appraising a paper [...] are described Insightful for #DoctoralWriting #CriticalReading #AcWri {JM} #PACEspace bmjmedicine.bmj.com/content/4/1/...

Free online workshop on 1st time conference attendance: *Giving a great talk *Getting accepted as a speaker *Networking at conferences *Making the most of a conference as a student 11 March 3pm UK Online <https://ucl.zoom.us/meeting/register/6svwRqkWSv6434QB3JggXA#/registration> #PACEspace

How standardised forms of #AcWri shape knowledge for better & for worse are further developed throughout: - www.bloomsbury.com/uk/what-make... (also #OpenAccess) - www.bloomsbury.com/uk/change-an... #WhatMakesWritingAcademic #DoctoralWriting #ResearchWriting #AcademicWriting #IMRaD #AcademicSky

I'm planning an event on 'The Future of the Doctorate' (will update here asap). In the meantime, what are your views on its future, given all that's happening? #AcWri #DoctoralEducation #DoctoralWriting #PhDLife #Thesis #ResearchWriting #GenAI #GAI #AcademicSky www.bloomsbury.com/uk/change-an...

At start of Feb, we welcomed 23 new PG research students to the @openuniversity.bsky.social. As traditional we welcomed them by inviting them to draw images of their research inspiration, posted here tagged #OUGradSch25. @geologyclare.bsky.social @oulibrary.bsky.social @pacespaceou.bsky.social

Huge thanks to all who travelled & made it, wrote & stretched 😉, and gave feedback on our all-day #PACEspace 'Writing Retreat' last week in #ThePark - the sun streamed and we *all* got tons of writing done ✍️✍️✍️🥳 #DoctoralWriting #PhDLife #ThesisWriting @ougradsch.bsky.social @oulibrary.bsky.social

The @openuniversity.bsky.social campus looking rather lovely in a delicate sunset this evening.

"Asking a dissertation abstract to be unerringly clear is like asking someone to explain complex math in a tweet. Wrong time, wrong place." #AcWri #DoctoralWriting #AcademicJargon #clarity brandy-schillace.medium.com/no-academic-... Worth a read #PACEspace, including thread by Philip Ball, below 👇🏼

Interesting discussion. I hadn't come across the whole debate around Ally Louks' thesis, and it seems odd to me - her abstract didn't seem particularly hard to follow, and the ideas in it seemed quite interesting. There were places where what seemed a fairly straightforward idea was clouded in...

🗣️ Arts and Humanities Scholars: this is for you! 🗣️ We are 👏 thrilled 👏 to announce that ORCID now supports an expanded range of work types, such as 🎼 musical compositions, 🎨 still and 🎞️ moving images, and even 📝 teaching materials!! Learn more on our blog: https://shorturl.at/fiUbQ

Submissions already coming in for this symposium that seeks to bring people to think together and to think otherwise so as to plot critical and creative post-AI educational futures. Please spread the word and come join us: www.hackthiscourse.com/symposium/#/

Call for conference proposals under the theme: *** Multilingual Academic Literacies: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of AI *** Braga, University of Minho, 2, 3, 4 July 2025 Portugal #EATAW2025 #AcademicLiteracies #tleap #GAI #AcWri www.eataw2025.com/submissions www.eataw2025.com/keynote

Call for chapter authors for the new book I'm editing! Abstracts due Feb 28. 'The Untold Stories of International Student Mobilities' Submission form and full book details here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

🗣️ Arts and Humanities Scholars: Are you ready? 🗣️ We are 👏 thrilled 👏 to announce that ORCID now supports an expanded range of work types, such as 🎼 musical compositions, 🎨 still and 🎞️ moving images, and even 📝 teaching materials!! Learn more: https://info.orcid.org/new-work-types/

Shoutout to the people who make PhD life easier

Timely, by Dr Amanda French www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2... #AcWri

Blending quantitative with qualitative assessment. Fair and transparent metrics. Wondering whether all metrics are inevitably doomed to become a target... and our purpose is to perpetually come with innovative ones, as in "what else can we measure?" www.socialsciencespace.com/2025/01/how-...

Interesting video interviews on writing in the academy from literature to science with scholars at the American University of Beirut. Of interest to academics in Lebanon, the MENA region, and beyond {JM} #AcWri #AcademicWriting #AcademicPublishing #PACEspace #tleap www.aub.edu.lb/writers-univ...