Research and Deliberate Practice

Dear students,

You might not know this about me, but when I was young I really loved playing water polo. That is not as surprising as might sound given that the sport is very popular in my home country. In fact, Serbia and Croatia—both ex-Yugoslavia countries—have had a stronghold on the world championships and Olympic gold medals for some time now.

However, I am not here to write about the sport but about the training sessions we had to endure. As in other athletic endeavors, we spent most of the time not playing the game or even shooting the ball. We swam, had leg drills, then swam some more, and so on. It was all about fine-tuning our bodies, fine-tuning the underlying skills needed to thrive, or even just survive, in a competitive setting. (The sport is notoriously demanding.)

Of course, that will be nothing unusual to anyone who has been around sports (or music and arts for that matter). The basketball player who drills his free-throws, the soccer player who works on her tactics, the golf player who fine-tunes his swing—these and countless examples can be marshaled to illustrate the importance of deliberate practice (pace Anders Ericsson) for the mastery of any skill.

And so it is with research as well. I believe that the fine-tuning of our writing chops, for instance, should be an essential component of our daily research regiment. (I shared with you earlier the importance of having a ritual where you commit to having daily contact with your project, even if it is just 15 min. or so.) Here is a specific suggestion. Before you start with your writing session, spent at least 10 min. reading a book on writing. I believe that such a practice is beneficial not only for honing our prose, but also to get the juices going, so to speak. Besides, don’t we all need to excise the ponderous fatuousness of most of our academic writing? That passive-voice laden, convoluted, impersonal, disconnected verbiage that seeks to pass as expertise and scholarliness?

In any case, let me recommend you a couple of resources (of the many available) that could be of great help; each one them has been of tremendous benefit to me:

So, why not give it a try? If it doesn’t work for you, fine. Focus on some other aspects of research craftsmanship. If, on the other hand, you find some use for the advice—splendid! Drop me a note! Or better yet, share a trick or resource with me. There is always so much room to grow!

Affectionately yours,

Dr. J.