"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"*

In her book, How Writing Works*, Petelin observes that the process of writing connects thinking and learning, and uses the above quote (attributed to the English novelist E. M. Forster) to highlight just how much we write to find out what we know.

Good writers realise that they figure out what they mean, understand it better, and work out what they want to say when they write—not when they sit staring at a blank page or mashing their metaphoric heads into the brick wall of their ever-approaching end goals.

Keep a journal

Petelin recommends that writers use the activity of journalling to activate their writing–thinking–learning process, and provides a list of its benefits, which include the internal conversation one can have with one’s own thoughts in a way that structurally allows for reflection and thus provides an avenue for clarity to emerge from thought without a fixed timeframe (because you can go back and read it later).

Journalling allows a writer to “think out–write out” the clamour of their thoughts while abandoning the fear of forgetting anything, or of getting things “right”.

Leave space to reflect on your thinking

Petelin advocates considering the “double entry” style journal, where only the right-hand page is used, leaving the left blank for comments or reflection. This is a method I’ve found very useful, as I was always cramming my notebooks margin to margin and having bother finding space to make legible alterations or additions to my notes. The extra space of the double entry journal allows me to scrawl out whatever I need to say with plenty of space left around it to make notes or add connections later.

Instead of using a ruled exercise book and leaving the left page blank for reflection (in the regular double entry style), I use a blank/unruled A4 drawing book, which I get for $4.00 from Kmart in the kids’ stationery section, and use it like a scrapbook. I have a template I made myself and with it I rule a block of lines in the middle of each page, leaving a wide margin around the text space so that I have plenty of room to alter or add things in when I reread.

When I write in my journal (or journals—I have different ones for different work), which are my private idea-spaces, I maintain a really informal, conversational style, even if I’m working on academic ideas; I leave out all but the most essential punctuation (which is really helpful if I’m making a mad dash to remember an idea in the midst of life chaos); I make little attempt to get things into any particular order, or sound like I know what I’m talking about, or keep on the topic, because I can sort all that out later; and I address myself as “dearie” when I need to roll my eyes at something that I've written that exasperates me.

So, all you research-weary HDR people, I challenge you to consider keeping a journal as a safe idea-space for all your thesis work.

Imagine:

Never forget an idea. Rediscover a gem of literature you didn’t know was connected. Be able to track how your ideas have progressed. See how far you’ve come.

How will you know what you think unless you see what you say?

*Cited from pages 5–9 of Petelin, R. (2016). How writing works: A field guide to effective writing. Allen & Unwin.