I have a bad habit of overquoting when I write. I mean, I'd just stack one quote of an author (often a paragraph long) with another one, another one, another one... You probably know what I mean. I try to hide behind the big names and the big words. Hiding my actual argument, making it less clear, sometimes obscure. . I just recently do this: I'd note massive amount of quotes from different authors on specific topic on a table along with the citation details. This will still allow me to 'rely' on the quotes. What I'll do next is synthesize what's on the table. A 9-page-obsessive-quote-everything table would usually turn up as 1 paragraph in my thesis chapter. What's cool is that this paragraph can be direct but also informed. I don't bore the readers with overquoted definitions or statements from OTHER scholars and instead start to present MYSELF as the scholar in charge 😎 (of course my readers (my supervisor and examiners) understand that grad students are allowed to be amateur scholars 😅) . Anyway, this table technique has helped me be more confident about my reading speed (I read for a purpose, to define a term or find a specific argument on a topic) as well as my writing. ❤️ . #phdlyf #phdlife #phd #phdproblems #phddiaries #phdgram #gradstudent #gradschool #thesislife #dissertation #dissertationstation