A post from my Research Degree Voodoo blog was republished in the Times Higher Education online.

Read the article here:

Often we think that we learned to read by the time we were about 8. We know that we have to continue to learn to write and that the thesis is a major writing task that we have to learn how to succeed in – and there’s a lot of books, advice and workshops out there on improving doctoral writing.

But a lot of the difficulties that doctoral students have in getting started, in powering through the shitty middle, and in getting to completion, are actually caused by reading. And why? Because, and I hate to tell you this, you’re probably reading wrong.

The five biggest reading mistakes and how to avoid them:
Katherine Firth on why you should approach texts less like a Victorian maiden and more like a pirate hero