Try to keep your audience in mind as you write. Keep asking yourself: who is this for? What will the readers already know about the subject What will interest them? And finally. try to make sure you enjoy t as you go along. If you find it all too painful it can make rather painful reading. I find one solution for writer's block is simply to move all books and papers away from my desk and write from the heart. It may be messy and need lots of rewriting, but at least for a while you will get something on paper and will allow space for your creativity to come through There is a standard format for presentation which single articles and even books tend to adhere to, a shown below. You don't have to stick to this if the convention does not fit what you have to say, but too much flexibility in the structure as well as style can be daunting thing and you may benefit from realising how standardised many academic works actually are (Berg 2004, Gilbert 1993). The best advice I can give you is to read, read, read. Only by reading other authors' books, articles, reports and theses can you learn about formats, styles and techniques, and decide which approach suits you best A standard format for presentation Introduction. This is often written in rough and then polished up later. Most people will tell you the introduction is the last thing they actually write, but think it makes sense to draft it out early on. The introduction introduces themes, tells the reader what to expect, and locates your topic in some scholarly tradi- tion, be it theories, a substantive field or conceptual issues This is the place to say something about where you fit theoreti- cally, your intellectual puzzle, and how your work fits in to an overall scheme, and perhaps to discuss concepts you are going to analyse or contribute to later. continued on facing page