Work on your writing and figure preparation as if you were getting paid to do so. A regular schedule is critical, but remember to exclude unproductive activities like chatting in the office or surfing the web from your "time sheet". Your first professional position probably will require that you work over 60 hours per week, so you can use the writing exercise to tune up for the "real world".

Set a realistic, but ambitious, schedule and stick to it. Share the schedule with your committee, and revise it frequently as needed. Be more realistic in your revised schedules.

Schedule recreation and relaxation activities, but don't allow personal time to get out of hand.

Unproductive days are par for the course. Work through them. It is just as important to get those days behind you as it is to have the productive days. Often a day that starts badly turns out to be productive.

Most people work best by striving to meet many short-to-intermediate goals.

Remember that the writing process will take 2 to 3 times longer than you think it should.

Obtain the tiny paperback book Elements of Style by Strunk and White, one of the ten most important books in the English language. This entertaining book makes writing so simple that you will wonder why you had to take English courses for so many years (and yet retained so little!)

Carefully read Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Carefully read Elements of Style by Strunk and White again.

Try to remember all that grammar you learned and forgot form English or foreign language classes… Diagram a sentence or two just for fun!

Familiarize yourself with the style of literature for the field in which you are working. Emulate that style. (My least favorite author, Dickens, published in a verbose style would not cut it in scientific writing; he would have to change style to publish in the Geosciences! The same is true for writers for USA Today!)

Make a concise outline. Discuss the outline with your adviser.

Look at the outline each day before you write, and modify it as needed.

Be considerate of your readers on all issues.

Obey basic rules of grammar. Use common sense.

Be consistent in wording.

Be consistent in structure.

Be consistent in verb tense.

Learn the basic rules of comma usage and be consistent in how you use them!

Just be consistent!

Use active voice! (Strunk and White)

Say what you mean in clear direct statements. The goal of writing is clear communication, not vocabulary display and grammatical gymnastics.

Understand the difference between commonly confused word pairs: its vs. it's; that vs. which (and how to punctuate which), effect vs. affect; datum vs. data; there vs. their; …

Words or abbreviations in a foreign language must be italicized: i.e., et al., in situ, etc.

Use standard international symbols and abbreviations in a standard format.

Follow conventions in use of numerals vs. numbers written out as words.

Always strive to use exactly the right wording. Precise language is a key to good communication.

Remember your outline.

Use your grammar check. Understand what it is telling you about your writing style.

Run a spell check. Proofread carefully for the many misspellings that can't be caught by spell check software.

Indefinite pronouns should be avoided as sentence subjects. They* must refer to the subject of the previous sentence… but why make the reader reread the previous sentence to find the subject? * Note that I did use the indefinite pronoun "they" correctly!

Parallel construction of compared items are much easier to follow than nonparallel constructions.

Put the subject noun near the beginning of a sentence unless there is a reason to do otherwise. Avoid starting sentences with prepositions unless that construction if really needed to communicate complex ideas.

Avoid time terms (like often, varying, while, and then) to describe abundance, spatial distribution or other relationships unrelated to time (try commonly, various, because, and next).

Write to that which is most important. What exists is more important than what you found or saw!

Yes, the references cited are part of the paper!

Double space every draft, including figure and table captions and the abstract.

Proofread, again!

Remember that a lack of proofreading shows a lack of consideration for your reader.

Be considerate of your readers on all issues.

Often-Overlooked but Important Parts of the Document

Put a title page that includes the date on every draft.

Every Draft should have an abstract.  Doubles space the abstract for papers and all but the very last, committee-approved version of theses and disssertations that are submitted to the ETD office.

Rules of grammar and composition must be exercises in the acknowledgements.  Remember that you want people to read this sections, so do not let your references become too obscure.

The headings for the text must match the wording and form of the entries in  the table of contents.

The list of figures and list of tables must mtch the title to each table and figure verbatim.  The title of each table or figure is the string of text that begins after the term Figure # and ends with the first period in the caption.   (e.g. Given a figure caption that reads "Figure 529: Map of Mennonite communities in the Virginia. Map not to scale. Map modified after Simons, 2009."  The entry in list of figures should read ""Figure 529: Map of Mennonite communities in the Virginia.")

Learn to read and edit your work as if someone else had written it.

Proof-read.

Proof-read again.

Park excessive ego and pride-of-authorship before taking the next steps.

Have a serious critical colleague proof-read and edit your work or at least part of your work.

Proof-read and edit your work again.

Don't call anything your first draft that is less than a well-edited draft. complete with figures, captions, tables and references. Rough drafts should never be shown to anyone except when seeking assistance in writing short sections that are particularly difficult.