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Struggling with writing?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I'm a grad student struggling with writing philosophy. No one in my department has explicitly discouraged me from pursuing this path, but many have pointed out that my writing isn’t where it needs to be, without offering much help in improving it. They engage with the philosophical ideas in my work, which is valuable, but they don’t help with the writing itself.

I’ve tried various strategies (reading writing guides, books on writing, and even creative writing textbooks), but nothing seems to translate into better philosophical prose. I worry that this is a sign I’m not cut out for this profession.

Has anyone faced similar struggles and managed to overcome them? Or do those who struggle with writing ultimately not make it in academia? Given how tough the job market is, I wonder if it would be better to accept that and move on.

Obviously, I don't know much about the OP's situation other than what they wrote here, but their writing here seems fine! So, perhaps they are just being hard on themselves. Or perhaps they should stop trying to "write like a philosopher" and instead write just like they do above (this is more or less what I do!). But regardless, I'll say this: I think struggling with philosophical prose is normal. When I recall my undergraduate and early graduate days, I recall spending an ungodly amount of time just trying to write a decent paragraph or page–and when I look back at what I actually produced in those days, I wince. In my experience, writing simply takes practice … a lot of it. The only way to do is to keep doing it. Write more, not less. You will get better over time. Or so my experience has been.

What about other readers? Do you have any helpful tips/experiences to share with the OP?

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21 responses to “Struggling with writing?”

  1. TTprof

    Have you gone to a writing center on your campus? The university I work at has a branch devoted specifically to graduate writing and my department (various supervisors) has referred several students there. My understanding is that the students found it very helpful.
    Barring that, it might help to write things then have your computer read them aloud to you. It is easier to hear awkward phrasing, etc from someone else – we know what we mean to say so sometimes our brains fill in the gaps/smooth out weirdness in phrasing before it can register.

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  2. Tenured now

    If this is a matter of style, then I think Marcus is right. It takes practice.
    I, though, have had graduate students who have good ideas, but struggle with writing in the sense that they just don’t see when what they say is just assertion without argument to back it up, or when terms aren’t clearly defined, or when there are inconsistencies, etc. If it’s this kind of thing, then I genuinely don’t know what to do, beyond pointing these features out over and over. And honestly, I am sort of starting to fear for these students – I simply am not willing to keep doing the work of pointing this out for them in their writing when they are no longer in my PhD program, and if they can’t internalize how to do this better, I’m not sure what they will do.

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  3. fellow grad

    It depends on what the specific ailment is. I think reading novels is a good way to learn how to write well (insofar as good novelists are able to convey ideas to the reader, and not in the torturous way of philosophical prose). Not only does it expose you to good writing in general, it can help one with having examples to help elucidate one’s ideas.
    Another tip I received is to find a philosopher whose writing one finds good, and sit with it and try to figure out exactly what it is about it that one finds good. Then, use that as a model in one’s own writing.

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  4. Hermias

    There are plenty of atrocious writers. I mean, if Hegel submitted a paper these days it would be desk rejected as incomprehensible (fairly, IMO). It’s hard to offer general advice. One thing I encounter a lot as a reviewer/reader is people trying to effect a certain style that involves: (i) giving italicized names and acronyms for principles or ‘views’, (ii) weird hypotheticals that are also given italicized names, (iii) front loading of endless qualifications before the meat of the argument is given, (iv) engaging the minutiae of Big Professor X rather than the real topic.
    I guess my personal advice would be to focus on meeting with the muse, and worry less about the writing style. It’ll probably be more natural then. Meeting the muse instructions: (i) Aquinas’s scholars prayer, (ii) 100mg caffeine over your regular dose, (iii) active contempt for the norms and expectations of your contemporaries, (iv) be outside. Just be self-critical and always try to encounter help your reader encounter the thing itself rather than the verbal bocage.

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  5. hh

    You can learn to be a better writer, but it takes practice, not just knowledge. I think you may start by nailing down what you need to work on most on your writing: Is it the phrasing of sentences? The organization of ideas? Bad grammar? Clarity? Then try experimenting to improve that one thing.

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  6. similar boat

    I see @Tenured now’s response as one reason the brilliance myth gets pushed – because profs and philosophers as a whole aren’t taught how to teach these skills. It’s not any one’s person fault but I have seen in many cases people get pushed out because of inadequate guidance around this.
    Transparently, I am in a similar situation to the OP and I sometimes have asked if my advisors can say when I have done one of these things well and understand. They usually don’t and I don’t think it’s because I never do it well, based on other feedback I’ve received. It is true that many times philosophers do have to simply assert or take some things for granted to be able to argue for other things – and I think figuring this out is a both an art and a science. I’d welcome more thoughts on this for my sake and OP’s sake.

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  7. southerner

    I am a good enough writer that people e-mail me out of the blue to say so, and I think the reason I am good is that I find aesthetic pleasure in writing. I really enjoy editing (of course, I also hate it). If you can find out how to aesthetically appreciate writing, I think this helps make yours better.
    Being a bad writer, though, is not a death knell for professional success. There are a lot of contemporary philosophers whose work is a slog. (As there a plenty of other death knells, I don’t think this is a reason to celebrate.)
    That said, I recognize the issue Tenured now is talking about with my own students and have the same concern.
    Okay, here is my actionable advice: ask for a meeting where you get feedback on the writing, not the philosophy. This doesn’t have to be from the professor, and in fact, it might be good to swap work with a fellow student.

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  8. a story

    Sadly, OP and other strugglers might need more help from advisors.
    I heard about a conversation between two advisors after many many rounds of a student revising a paper, and one of the advisors said “I will just write the paper for [the student], since the idea is there and I know what is needed to be said”. Of course, this advisor did not “just write the paper” except in the form of extensive feedback. The other advisor found it to be really helpful. The point is that this student needed this kind of help. Maybe OP is in a similar situation. Writing can be really hard at the beginning.

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  9. Same boat as well

    I am also a bad writer, I have strengths elsewhere but the “not as good at writing” has never quite gone away. As in I will never be a beautiful writer, but now I am at the least a competent writer (I have a number of publications deemed well written enough to be included in journals.) And advisors have told me that my writing when I defended was much better than when I started grad school.
    3.5 suggestions:
    1) Not a short cut, but as a bad writer, in the rewriting stage of a paper you’re just going to have to overcompensate. The time it takes from first draft to submission is maybe longer than most because of the number of rewrites I do. I rewrite quite a bit and get feedback from friends and colleagues, the hardest part is that, getting honest feedback. Like any craft unfortunately it’s just grinding away for 10,000 hrs and getting feedback and working on your weaknesses
    2) Can’t get friends feedback for every draft? I quite like this tool, it’s not AI and it can give you feedback on the complexity of your sentences, if you’re writing in passive voice, avg. words per sentence etc. I write long complicated sentences to think through concepts so this tool has been invaluable to turn unreadable first drafts into readable, publishable work. https://www.expresso-app.org/
    3) For 3 years I was roped into teaching 1st year philosophy students how to write. This helped me unbelievably. Articulating and teaching what I think good writing looks like and being able to listen to colleagues about their strategies on how to teach writing was a nice virtuous feedback loop on my own writing process. I may have even discovered my own “voice” through this process. I completely agree with “similar boat” we really do our grad students and even undergrads who go to big public universities a disservice by not teaching them how to write.
    3a) Because I hate writing I used to procrastinate and not write until deadlines loomed, if this is an ailment, freewriting has really helped me let go of the anxiety of being a bad writer. Just some thoughts.
    Good luck!

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  10. still learning, too

    I’ve learned a lot about writing the hard way (doing it poorly and having others tell me about how poorly I’m doing it). I think I’ve come a long way, so I’ll just offer a few small points:
    If you don’t already, make writing regularly a habit. Set writing goals for yourself (e.g., write 500 words today) and find some satisfaction in meeting those goals even if, say, the 500 words you wrote will need to be trashed and replaced with better ones. (For really great practical tips, ‘How to Write a Lot’ by Paul J. Silvia)
    Relatedly: don’t treat anything you put to writing as too precious to be seriously and substantively revised.
    Obsess over sentences. Find creative ways to replace five-word phrases with one word (and, always, ways to replace the passive voice with active).
    I’ve also gotten into the habit of testing myself in this way: for each paragraph of my own writing, can say clearly and concisely what its point is? (If not, the idea of the paragraph might just be confused.) Very often, this appears in my writing “The point is that…” (and I don’t think that’s a bad thing).
    I’ll also second what ‘fellow grad’ says–read (well-written) novels, or other good writing, and try to appreciate what makes the writing so good. To this end, if you haven’t already, I’d recommend reading anything (everything) by E. B. White (i.e., of the classic, ‘The Elements of Style’ by Strunk and White).
    Also just be patient with yourself, forgive yourself for not being a great writer yet. If you care about the ideas you want to commit to writing, don’t give up because your writing isn’t yet where it should be!

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  11. Grant

    I am also not a good write, and English is my second language. The feedback from my advisor and my friends was not as detailed as I wanted. The most helpful experience for me was working with professional editors. There are many professional editors who hold PhDs in humanities and are ideal readers for our papers. I hired them twice to work with me on some writing. They can be expensive, so I only had two sessions (2 hours each). But let me say that if we only talk about writing skills, those four hours helped me more than my four years in grad school.

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  12. anon

    One good way of providing feedback for someone who needs the kind of help you think you do looks like this:
    1- The commenter points out a problem with the writing
    2- The commenter explains why the problem is a problem
    3- The commenter concretely writes down something else that doesn’t have that problem
    4 – The commenter explains why the better version is better
    It takes a lot of work to provide this kind of feedback. And it’s sometimes hard to get busy people to provide this kind of feedback to you.
    But the faculty working in your department ought to be willing to give this kind of feedback – at least sometimes – and I’d recommend asking them for this kind of feedback. Their failure to do their jobs is not a sign that you’re not cut out for philosophy. (I just spent my day providing this kind of feedback to a student.)

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  13. ask for what you need

    I would strongly recommend asking faculty (and also peers etc. who you think are decent or good writers) specifically for writing feedback, and suggesting that they only give it on 1-2 pages of a paper. So approach someone and say “hey I am working on my writing and I was wondering if you could read 1-2 pages of a paper and focus JUST on writing and not on content–and feel free to just utterly destroy me”.
    Often, faculty just don’t know what you feel like you need feedback on. They may be mainly focusing on content because that comes more naturally to them or they don’t think the ideas are yet in a place where the writing should be addressed. (Or because they aren’t trained to give writing feedback, but in my view that’s not an impediment to them giving useful writing feedback.) Take matters into your own hands and ask for writing-specific help. And it takes a long time to harshly edit (and ideally suggest reformulations) an entire paper, but very little time to do this for 1-2 pages, so you will be much more likely to get it this way.
    By the way, there’s a more general principle here. Maybe you’ve already done this. But in general, grad students can direct faculty towards what is more helpful to them–I think faculty will typically be grateful for this if it is done respectfully, since we also have no training in how to advise grad students and typically very little training in how to teach them either. If there’s something you’re working on, tell people and ask for help. The worst that can happen is that they won’t give it to you.

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  14. Young SLAC Prof

    I have been successful publishing, have been told my writing is good, and enjoy writing. Here’s my story.
    Emulate the writing of people you enjoy to read. My advisor’s writing is wonderful: clear, non-technical, natural, and casual. It also has some panache! When I write, I look down at my imaginary wrist band that says ‘How would [NAME] write this?’
    Over time, and with feedback from friends, you’re writing will improve. My writing used to be poor. Now it is much better.
    I also follow a very simply formula when writing. (1) Introduce a problem or question with sufficient motivation. This can be quite simple: ‘Here is a puzzle. Here are some things others have said. But these views are problematic because x’
    (2) Say what you’ll do to solve the puzzle without the problems that others’ views encounter. (3) Lay out, in the simplest and most linearly progressive way possible, the reasons behind your view. (4) Make clear that/how your view solves the problem. (5) Make clear that/how your view avoids problem in other views.
    Boom. You’ve written a good philosophy paper.

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  15. Writing is hard

    I think there are two different ways you can struggle with writing.
    The first is sort of mechanical– your sentences are too long or awkward, your examples are florid, your word choice is clunky, you ramble.
    The second is a cover for clear thinking– there isn’t actually a structure that holds up because there isn’t an argument that is fully thought through. Each piece is not really necessary for the claim to advance, and suchlike.
    Its helpful to figure out which is more of the issue (you have to be brave and ask) and then see if some advisors will sit with you and go through a piece of writing paragraph by paragraph (if the first is the issue, ask them to rewrite a paragraph in front of you and then let you practice one, back and forth, if the latter, propose a structure to a paper in an outline and have them say how they would structure it and suchlike.)

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  16. the “novelist”

    To add to the discussion so far, there is also the possibility that your idea is inherently more complicated and/or novel such that it demands higher level of clarity to make sense. Easy and familiar ideas are much easier to express well.
    Add that to the condition that you haven’t had training in writing before. And accent due to ESL.
    I have personally suffered through this. And it really helped that someone who could understand the ideas and can write really well helped me figure out what to say.
    So I guess one more question to ask yourself is whether you think your ideas are unique and unfamiliar.

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  17. Noah

    There is a lot of good advice here, but I’ll sound a slightly more negative note; hopefully it will be taken in the spirit it is intended to be.
    Writing is one of two central skills for philosophers (the other being teaching, of course). Yes, you should work to improve your writing before giving up. And yes, you should get honest outside perspectives and be sure that you aren’t being too hard on yourself.
    But if, at the end of the day, your honest conclusion is that you don’t quite cut it as a writer compared to the average professional philosopher, then yes, I believe you should probably move to a different career that better suits your skillset or is less competitive.

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  18. trying to help

    OP, if you want to discuss your writing, let me know. I’m an experienced academic writing coach. I’d be happy to spend a few pro bono hours working with you.
    I became a writing coach because as a philosophy student, I was surrounded by faculty like Tenured. Writing is the single most important skill for us, yet none of my teachers seemed interested in teaching it directly. The underlying attitude seemed to be “That’s not our job: we’re philosophers. If you want to learn how to write, go to the English department or something.” Even if my teachers had wanted to help, moreover, they didn’t really have the right pedagogical skillset.
    I don’t think ALL philosophers need to be experts on teaching writing – but I do think SOME of us need to. And I’ve embraced that role.
    Without knowing more about your writing, it’s hard to give advice… But I second the comments from Ask For What You Need and Writing Is Hard. I also think that, if you find the right ones, books on writing can be helpful. Here are my favorites.
    For macro-editing, I recommend Wendy Belcher’s “Writing Your Journal in 12 Weeks.” That book taught me so much about positing my work in the literature, crafting claims for significance, etc.
    For micro-editing, I recommend Helen Sword’s “Stylish Academic Writing.” It’s full of sharp examples, and it’s a fun read. (Books about writing tend to be well written.)
    Good luck, and please do feel free to reach out.

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  19. Not OP

    I’m not the OP, but if anyone have recommendations for good philosophy writing coaches, I’d appreciate them. (I have noted your website, @trying to help.)

    Reply
  20. Postdoc

    I’m a non-native English speaker and I struggled with finding an appropriate tone and style in English back in early grad school (especially during my MA, but I got increasingly better during my PhD). I think my writing has come to improve over time to be rather nice now: I am in the double digits in terms of published papers in English (plus a monograph dissertation) and often get feedback saying my papers are nice to read, even though I don’t deliberately try to do much with my writing other than to convey ideas.
    I guess a major stepping stone for me came with organization. I typically plan out my arguemnts in detail before putting them down in words. Often, I even formalize arguments with premises and conclusions before drafting papers, so I have the structure and steps of the paper based on the formalized arguments ready before I start to write them down. This means that I’m clear – even to myself – about what exactly I want to convey with what I say. With that in place, I find that the prose, in a way, organizes itself around the ideas.
    This stands in some contrast to my recent experience when I’ve started to co-write with less organized writers. For example, I’m currently wrapping up a piece with another non-native English speaker who is much less organized than I am, and frankly I have had to rewrite my colleague’s parts almost from scratch to make them work. Sentence structures are all over the place, examples are unclear or too abstract, there are bits and pieces referring back to what authors in the literature supposedly say that are not made explicit… And a big part of this, I think, is that the colleague is not thinking through what they aim to write before putting it down on paper. They have some vague idea about what they want to convey, but no clear vision of what particular sentences or paragraphs are supposed to do.
    Hence, I guess I am a bit sceptical about the piece of advice that you should aim to write this or that many words per day. That may help with writer’s block, but it won’t necessarily help you express philosophical ideas to an audience. Instead, at least for me, it is having a paper structure in mind that is key. In fact, to me, coming up with a paper plan is more than half of the work necessary to conclude a paper: once I have that in place, I can easily write up a full-length article in a few days. But the real work has already gone into the organization.
    PS. Also, you don’t have to bother trying to sound eloquent or grandiose or literary with what you convey. Just try to get ideas across. It is much better to say points A and B in simple and plain language than trying to be evocative. This can maybe be a bit boring for readers who care about aesthetics, but we’re writing philosophy here, not poetry. It’s nice if you can have some additional flair, but absolutely not necessary.

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  21. don’t bother

    Write like you would advise an a first year undergraduate to write their essay: signpost laboriously, keep the sentences short, don’t try anything fancy with your written work, avoid style at all costs. It’s better to be painfully clear and utilitarian than “well written” and less clear. Perhaps, at a later stage, you’ll figure out how to write very clearly, whilst keeping it engaging too…..but until then, best to keep things simple.

    Reply

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