Helen Sword - Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write

When I first set out to write a book about the writing habits of successful academics, I had no real idea what I would findor even what I was trying to find out. I had already published two books on academic writing: one outlining the key principles of fit and trim prose (The Writers Diet), the other asserting that stylish academic writing is not an oxymoron power dynamics (Id like to write in a more personal voice, but my PhD supervisor wont let me) or emotion (I love to write poetry and stories, but I find academic writing to be unpleasant and stressful). Gradually, my scholarly gaze began to lift from the words on the page to the people who put them there, and I realized that my next book would have to focus not on writing but on writers.

Over the next four years, I conducted in-depth, on-the-record interviews with one hundred exemplary academic writers and editors from across the disciplines and around the worldwith exemplary writ large to encompass a wide range of criteria beyond conventional markers of academic success. Alongside scholarly superstars with distinguished career tracks and prolific publication rates, I sought out other kinds of exemplars: for example, lesser-known academics from underrepresented cultural, ethnic, and gender minorities who have survived and even thrived in academe; scholars who have followed nontraditional paths into and through their disciplines; successful international researchers for whom English is not their first language; pathbreaking thinkers whose writing has taken the scholarship of their field in new directions; academic risk takers who have subverted or challenged disciplinary conventions; effective communicators who have engaged with audiences beyond academe; inspiring teachers and generous mentors who have devoted time and energy to helping their colleagues and students become better writers; and early- to midcareer faculty who contentedly balance their work and family commitments, without the agony, angst, and uncertainty that characterize the writing lives of so many of their peers. (If thats not academic success, what is?) Along the way, I also collected anonymous questionnaire data from 1,223 faculty members, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and independent scholars who attended my writing workshops at more than fifty universities and scholarly conferences in fifteen countries. Although they are not the main players in the book, their voices provide the chorus.

At first, I expected that the interviews and questionnaires would provide me with robust comparative data about two clearly demarcated sets of informants: successful writers (the handpicked interview subjects) and struggling writers (the faculty and graduate students who signed up for my workshops on how to become a more productive writer). Before long, however, I came to recognize the folly of my assumption. Not only did the two cohorts overlap significantly, but pitting successful writers against struggling writers turned out to be a false opposition. Many of the academics I interviewed, including tenured faculty members who had been recommended to me by their own discipline-based peers, responded to my initial approach by protesting, I dont know why you would want to talk to me; Im not a particularly prolific writer or Im not a very stylish writer, if thats what youre looking for or To be honest, I really struggle with my writing. Conversely, just about every person who attended one of my writing workshops and filled out my data questionnaire could be labeled exemplary according to at least one of my interview criteria. Indeed, I hope that all readers of this book will recognize themselves somewhere in my commodious definitions of