I interrupt this little series of posts on word length to make an announcement.
THIS IS THE 1000TH PATTER POST. In which I look back and reveal a few not so secret secrets.
When I first started this patter blog in July 2011 I wasn’t really sure how long I, or it, would last. At the time, an-anon-academic told me that solo blogs were a thing of the past and that magazine style blogs were the way to go. Solo bloggers usually gave up after a while, they said. Oh, I thought. I did wonder whether I had enough to say to keep a blog going. But I was sufficiently bolshie to give it a go.
Well then, here we now are. 1000 posts. Solo blogger still going. With thanks to my mate the Thesis Whisperer for the encouragement and Mark Carrigan for necessary blog nerdery. And a nod to an-anon-academic raising one eyebrow. It turns out there’s room for all of us in the blog archipelago.
I did have an idea of what I was writing about. Academic writing mainly. With a bit of research and the odd alt. academic topic. And I knew who I was writing to. Doctoral and early academic writers and those who worked with them.
And I had an idea of what I could do in the blog. Because I’d already published two books about academic writing and taught writing courses and run writing workshops, I thought that I’d just try to do the same thing in a blog. Do what I do – and what I do is ‘teach’.
University teaching is always teaching to adults – adults who are there not only for you and the stuff you teach, but also for the grades and awards. However, blogging as teaching isn’t like that – readers are adults who don’t have to be there. Blogging as teaching means acknowledging that readers have agency and they make choices. Blogging teachers offer resources and strategies, knowing that readers will take what suits them, and leave what doesn’t. And if the teaching/writing isn’t useful, readers won’t come back.
So here’s something that you may have figured out if you read this blog. I repeat myself – a lot. In any one blog post I say the same thing at least twice 🙂 And that’s deliberate. And teacherly.
An ex, a journalist, once told me that repeating myself was A Very Bad Thing. He’d been taught by the best and he was taught that you said something only once and in the most straightforward way possible. He couldn’t understand why anyone would read patter given that I often said the same thing in several different ways in a 1000 word post. This was clearly Bad Writing and I claimed to be focused on Good.
Well ex, that kind of gaslighting might have made me feel inadequate when I was a young woman, but not now. I’m much too old to fall for that. You probably noticed I didn’t bite. I just changed the topic. I could have told you – but why waste my breath – that repetition is a teacherly habit. A habit strongly related to trying to make stuff accessible.
You see, when you’re trying to explain something, you often have to repeat yourself. Just because you say something once doesn’t mean that everyone – or indeed anyone – gets it from the way you’ve chosen to explain it. Teacherly repetition is not because readers or listeners are at fault. It’s rather that the teacher probably isn’t going to reach everyone – or indeed anyone – with one go. If teachers say the same thing in a few different ways then they have a better chance of people understanding what they are trying to say. So teachers usually offer variations of the same point, in the hope that they get it right enough. Right enough so that at least one of the repeats makes sense to most people listening/reading.
(Do they teach that in PGCHE? I hope so. It’s on the teacher to try their best to make the stuff accessible for as many as possible. )
And another related point. Patter is deliberately written as if I am talking. It’s my teacher voice in writing. The blog is not the usual academic writing style I write about. Nor is it the way I write when I write a book or paper. I try to make the blog sound, as much as I can, as if I am talking directly to you, the reader. Writing to ‘you’ is the hallmark of advice writing. I am in the business of advice. But I am also trying to make the writing sound conversational. To sound as if I’m running a little workshop. So one of the techniques I use, apart from repetition, is to write in fragments. And the other is to start sentences with And, but, well, so…
As I look back on patter, I’m conscious that the blog used to be more varied. And I used to try to be more amusing, make the occasional jokey post. I think I need to go back to do some more of that. I’ve got a bit too focused on being useful. I’ve got too darn serious.
Maybe I can do a few future posts that are a touch more light-hearted. But not next week, as we’re back to the serious subject of writing more words that your reader can bear. Meanwhile, I’m off on a little celebration.
Photo by Elisha Terada on Unsplash
patter 
Reading your blog has been invaluable to me during my PhD. As a part-time student, your blog has been a lifeline. Thank you and don’t stop!
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Pat, Congratulations on reaching 1,000. Long may you flourish. You were a source of encouragement and inspiration during my PhD journey and you still are as I wrestle with writing. I always recommend you to others.
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Go Pat, what an achievement! Your posts helped me through my PhD, especially the final 6 months. Here’s to many more posts! 🥳🎉
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Dear Pat,
I’m delighted you’ve reached 1000 posts. I started following you when I began my PhD in Aug 2011 – and you and Thesis Whisperer, together with a few others, made it into my acknowledgements when I finally finished in 2019 (yep, looooong journey and story).
I now regularly send your posts to my own students and friends and, of course, revisit many of your teacherly posts for myself.
Thank you – very much – for the time and care you put into your blog over all these years. I have learnt so much, and continue to do so.
Thank you, again, and here’s to the next 1000!
Warmest, fsa
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Thank you for your blog Pat Thomson. It was recommended to me when I started my PhD & I continue to read it after completing. I also never tire of recommending it to others. I love reading your blog, the repetition serves as a helpful reminder. Congrats on the 1000th post. I look forward to continuing to be an avid reader.
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Delightful as always, Pat, and couldn’t agree more about the power of repetition.
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Hi Pat
Iâm sure your inbox will be crammed with congratulatory messages today.
Here is another one, sent with virtual fireworks and a long-armed high five from the southern tip of Africa.
I love your blog posts. I find your advice generous and kind and clever and insightful, and I have found useful nuggets in every one I have read.
Thank you, thank you, thank you and viva – long may you be inspired to continue.
Very best wishes Mary
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Congratulations!! I’m heading into the final stretch of my part-time PhD journey and I just can’t tell you enough how helpful your blog is. Not only for all the technical advice (which btw I LOVE that you repeat in different ways because varied repetition really helps it to sink in) but also because whenever I feel like I can’t write and I was crazy to undertake a PhD, I open one of your blog posts and read it through. This never fails to inspire me and calm me down in equal measure.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this blog.
Elizabeth:-)
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Dear Patter,
I would love to be taught by you, I feel I want to express my gratitude for such effort and consistency, I keep reading every now and then. Always, it enlightens really absolute valuable ideas. As PhD student, I thank you personally for every post you have written, 1001 appreciations from here.
All the best
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“Doctoral and early academic writers”! As an academic and PhD supervisor of >25 years I don’t think I fall into this category… But I still read you, and learn so much. I hope I’ll still be reading when you get to your 2000th, even though we’ll both be retired by then, probably!
That journalist fellow didn’t know what he was talking about. Tell ’em what you are going to tell ’em. Tell ’em. Tell em what you told ’em. That’s my motto.
Congrats Pat!
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As a lecturer and part time PhD student I don’t have time to read blogs much but I subscribe and read yours every week, and often share it with colleagues/friends. It is so clear and straightforward – maybe a lot to do with feeling you are ‘talking to me’ – and it is extremely helpful, interesting and very often weirdly apposite. Thank you and congratulations for keeping on keeping on – please keep doing so 🙂
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Thanks so much.
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Congratulations Prof Thomson from the global south. Personally, I found Patter made such a valuable contribution to my PhD thesis writing that your blog is included in my Acknowledgements. Thank you, Dr Sylvia F. Hammond
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Thank you and congratulations! Your teacherly voice has been a helpful ally to my scholarly journey. And this note about repetition is a helpful one. So thanks again.
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Just wanted to say I love your posts. Thanks Pat for such richness of insight.
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Dear Pat
I just wanted to say: Congratulations! What an achievement!
I am delighted that you started your blog and as a relative newcomer – just a year or so now, I very much welcome your Monday patter and am very pleased you repeat yourself because I know each time to re-read your post, I hear something different because where I am with my doctoral studies has shifted and who I am has shifted, yet again. That glorious process of being and becoming alongside each other.
Hope you have fun celebrating this evening. Onward and onward. Here’s to the next 1000 …!
Kind regards, Sheila
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Warm congratulations on the very round number of 1000 posts. I’ve followed your blog since my Masters (2017-19) with no idea I may do a PhD yet here I am in the 2nd year of research, still subscribed to Patter posts. They’re valuable. I save them. And there’s a magic to them – an intuition, synchronicity, serendipity. Just when an issue with my academic writing becomes apparent, up pops a Patter post with uncanny relevance. The frequency of this shows just how much help my academic writing needs. Thank you for make it better.
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Congratulations! I love reading your blogs.
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Congratulations and thank you so much for all your helpful advice!
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Thank you so much Pat for all you offer : ) Happy 1000th post!
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Thanks and please keep writing so we can benefit from your wise words of wisdom.
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Congratulations! Like Renee’s comment above, I think that you may be psychic! And thank you for taking the time to support a whole bunch of people that you do not know 🙂
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Happy Thousandth! I look forward to emails notifying me of a new Patter post. And your archive of thesis discussion advice has comforted and guided me many times over the last few months as I work to wrap up this 8-year chapter of life. I’m so glad you do what you do, thank you.
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Congratulations Pat, I love your blogposts and share them regularly with others!
Best wishes, Michelle
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Congratulations and many thanks for all your wisdom over the years, much appreciated!
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Congratulations! 1000 is certainly a milestone worth celebrating. I’m a more recent reader, around two years worth and enjoying them. Regards Lorraine
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Dear Fabulous Patter,
You made such a huge difference to my doctoral research, and to me. You brought home to me, in so many different ways, what I was really doing and what doctoral research is really about. Your repetitions made sure that the penny finally dropped! Now all this dynamic understanding carries on in me, as I teach my students, and I hear myself repeating your indispensable words. Keep repeating whatever you like, as often as you like, in the perfect way that you do. You alone know how we truly absorb, learn and journey, as we climb our academic mountains. Your Blog is incredible. Thank you for all that you put in, and looking forward to your next 1000!
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Thank you, Pat and Patter. As a part-time doctoral student on the other side of the world, I find your patterings encouraging, affirming and real. Keep up the good work.
Helen
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Super useful blog, endlessly recommended, many congratulations getting to 1000
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CONGRATULATIONS! And so many high fives and smiles reading that blog. You are a fantastic companion that I can’t imagine not ‘following’. Thank you 🙂
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What an amazing milestone. Congratulations. I love your blog posts. They are very, very helpful, thank you.
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Dear Pat, This is really wonderful! Congratulations for this achievement. Thank you for all the educational moments. To the next 1000 posts!
Sofia
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Wow – I’m approaching 45 posts (twice a month schedule). Thanks for keeping this up!!
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Congrats on the 1000th Pat! Please keep it up. And coincidently this week I’ve had wonderfully thoughtful responses to your Vicki & Thahn semi-fictional tale from your Rustbelt book (yes, I continue to use it – at least with my postgrads, most of whom are working in school and have chosen my course on inclusive ed). Kerry V
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An amazing achievement and an amazing contribution! Congratulations!
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Hi Pat,
On this your 1000th post, I just want to say a really big thank you!
I never respond to posts, or normally engage with bloggers, but as per your endeavour, you speak directly to my heart and my head. I am in my 4th year of a part-time PhD and I work full time so I don’t have much opportunity to go on campus, hang out with fellow students, discuss matters of the day, learn from the wisdom and experience of others.
You make me feel that I am a part of a community of writers, thinkers, and strugglers. Through your blog, I feel like I belong to a large but invisible group of people who are aiming high, failing often, procrastinating regularly, and are sometimes successful – just like me.
Thanks for the camaraderie and the tips, for sharing the ups and downs, for taking time to teach me and have a laugh or whinge with me. Your blog is very real, very sensible, and I love that you are just “talking to me”.
Thank you so so much. Andrea ________________________________
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Happy birthday! I have been following your blog for at least half of the years it has existed and it has been very valuable for me, I have also shared some of your posts with my students as well. So you probably have already a small fan club in Estonia.
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I really enjoyed reading about your writing process and how you approach blogging as teaching. I think it’s great that you’re so intentional about making your writing accessible to your readers. Beautiful!
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