I'm trying to work on a second draft of a chapter which I'll be submitting on Monday or so for upgrade. I'm not trying to do a complete overhaul but my supervisor wants it to be more punchy and confident, making every word count, and has suggested I re-read it, decide what it is I'm trying to say and then say it. The trouble is I've been looking at this thing every day and now I can't think of it looking any way other than how it does. I've changed lots of little bits and clarified some things but the majority I just can't seem to rethink at all. Any recommendations on how to distance myself from it? I find it easy to see what's wrong with something when I return to it after a few weeks, but not a few hours. Sadly I don't have a few weeks... :$

Hi Megara,

You say you've changed lots of little bits but have you tried reviewing the overall structure? I find it helps to write down a sentence for each paragraph explaining what I want it to do, then see if they match up. That helps me to move things around, cut unnecessary bits out.

I know how hard it is though, you have my sympathies!

Could you maybe give it to have a look through someone who isn't in academia? I always give my assignments to my boyfriend to read through, because although he has done a BA, it was in a completely different discipline to me and he's now just in a normal job. I find that when things aren't clear, he picks up on them straight away. Also, when I waffle on and use far too many words to expplain something, he'll tell me. I think when you're so absorbed in your work it's easy presume that everything is clear and nothing needs to be cut out or changed- this is always how I feel, but then giving my work to my boyfriend always shows that it isn't the case!

Hope this helps,

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Also, just to add, could you maybe leave it a few days and then look at it again, maybe on Friday? Then you'd have the weekend to revise anything. I understand that you have a short time-scale, but looking at it everyday it's no wonder you're finding it hard to get a clear head on it!

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I am in a similar situation at the moment - writing/rewriting a draft paper and I have just been looking at it for too long... Unfortunately I have found no good alternative than to just not read it for a while in order to seeing things more clearly. What I am going to do later today is to have a tea break and then imagine and pretend that this is the first time I am reading it. I will be checking that the structure is logical, all info is absolutely necessary (I am bad with redundant or not absolute essential material) and my discussion & conclusions are supported by the data. I am trying to be strict, but it is obviously hard when looking at one's own work. Anyway, best of luck with it (and the upgrade!)..(sprout)

I agree with the advice to leave it for a couple of days, then pick it up and look at it with fresh eyes. That's the only way I find I can get any proper distance from what I've done.

Thanks all - I will now feel justified leaving it for a bit. I shall have a look again on Friday! I hope it will not then prove to be as terrible as I fear. I'll also try and convince my other half to have a look (although I'm not sure he'll be up for all 25 pages). Now I have to decide whether to stop for the day or get on with one of the many other things on my list... Sometimes I wish I had a job that stopped with snow!

Hey! I also have problems with this- sometimes I re-read stuff again and again, yet miss spelling mistakes, missed out words etc. I even submitted a paper to a journal with a missing word in the abstract which only got picked up in the proof stages- I couldn't believe both me and my supervisor missed it so many times, but that's what happens! I would try leaving it for a few days, as the others have suggested, and when you do read it, just do it a section at a time and then do something else in between, so that you don't get into the 'scanning but not really reading' stages- it's so easy to end up doing that and not really take anything in. Good luck! KB