1.1 Writing Is Hard
“Writing well is impossibly difficult” – Ernest Hemingway, Paris Review, 1958
If you or I asked successful writers to describe the process of writing, what would we hear? You or I would likely hear writing described as ‘hard’.
Consider some example quotes from famous writers (Jacobs & Hjalmarsson, 1999). Emile Zola complains “Giving birth to a book is always an abominable torture for me.” Thomas Mann declares “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” James Joyce asserts “Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives.” George Orwell warns “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” Writing seems hard – if not worse!
Because writing is challenging, you can find many books which provide advice to improve writing. Some books, called style guides, recommend rules for making writing clear and effective (Bierce & Freeman, 2009; Flaherty, 2009; Gordon, 1984; Messenger & Taylor, 1984; Pinker, 2014; Plotnik, 1982; Quiller-Couch, 1916; Shertzer, 1986; Strunk & White, 1959).
Some books provide conventions for citing references or structuring articles (American Psychological Association, 2020; Modern Language Association of America, 2021; University of Chicago Press., 2017). Different disciplines adopt different conventions. For example, psychologists follow the American Psychological Association’s conventions.
Some books focus on practices to improve writing (Baker & Zinsser, 1987; Barzun, 1985; Bradbury, 1990; Cameron, 2022; Clark, 2008b, 2014; Elbow, 1981; Flower, 1989; Gardner & O’Nan, 1994; Germano, 2013, 2021; Hall, 2003; Hawker, 2015; Hoermann-Elliott, 2021; Kidder & Todd, 2013; Koch, 2003; Leith, 2018; Martin & Kroitor, 1979; McPhee, 2017; Pallant & Price, 2015; Rhodes, 1995; Salesses, 2021; Sargent & Paraskevas, 2005; Sawers, 2002; Wheelan, 2022; Williams & Bizup, 2017; Zinsser, 2006). I find such books particularly helpful; I constantly return to my favorites.
Some books appeal to cognitive science or to neuroscience for ideas about improving writing (Cron, 2012, 2016, 2021; Janzer, 2016; Prentiss & Walker, 2020; Storr, 2020). Such books claim better writing requires authors to understand the readers’ mental operations.
In some books accomplished authors write about their craft to inspire struggling writers (Becker, 2020; Block, 2021; Brande, 1934; Dillard, 1989; Goldberg, 1986; Heighton, 2011; Hemingway, 1964; King, 2000; Lamott, 1995; Marche, 2023; Orwell, 2005; Ueland, 1938; Wiebe, 2016). Such books often combine writing advice with memoirs about the writing life.
My book aims to improve academic writing. Academic writing must be particularly hard, because many books are written to guide specific writers: university researchers (Becker, 2020; Carpenter, 2020; Greene, 2013; Heard, 2022; Kail, 2019; Kumar, 2020; Rosnow & Rosnow, 1998; Sarnecka, 2019; Schimel, 2012; Silvia, 2007; Sword, 2012, 2016, 2017).
Why is academic writing hard? Academics rarely receive explicit training about how to write (Kail, 2019; Sarnecka, 2019; Silvia, 2007). As a result, academics rely upon conventional assumptions about the writing process. I believe conventional assumptions make academic writing more difficult. The current chapter explores some conventional ideas, describes why they make writing more difficult, and introduces alternative ideas which will help make academic writing easier.
My alternative ideas emerge from embodied cognition. A core theme unites these ideas: cognitive scaffolding. When you use a cognitive scaffold, you move your thinking from inside your mind to outside in your world. My book describes how cognitive scaffolds make writing easier; when I use writing scaffolds, I often feel I complete most of my work – by using my world – before I start ‘writing proper’. My book describes writing scaffolds to offer you a similar experience.
