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Click into this compendium of writing-related videos, articles, interviews, and book reviews by or about Helen Sword.
Videos | Articles by Helen Sword | Websites | Interviews | Reviews
Videos
Sword, Helen. Zombie Nouns. YouTube video & Ted Ed lesson (2012)
Sword, Helen. Stylish Academic Writing. Harvard Faculty Club presentation (2013)
Sword, Helen. Writing to the Heights and from the Heart. Plenary address at the 2017 conference of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) on 14 October 2017 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Introduction by Karen Manarin).
Sword, Helen. Gathering to Write. Plenary address at the First Online Academic Writing Conference on "Blurring the Boundaries: Academic, Professional, and Personal Writing" on 7 July 2020, sponsored by the Mofet Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Introduction by Dr Tzipora Rakenzon).
Sword, Helen and Thomas, Margy. The Secrets of Structure.
What makes some academic books and articles so fascinating and engaging to read, while others leave you feeling exhausted and confused? And what’s the secret to arranging all the pieces of a manuscript into a single cohesive whole?
Helen Sword and Margy Thomas in discussion (2020).
Websites and Blogs
WritersDiet Test - Submit a sample of your own writing
The Writing Base - Diagnose you writing habits
The Stoneflower Path - digital poetry
Interviews
Gessler, Christina. Stylish Academic Writing: A Discussion with Helen Sword. New Books Network The Academic Life podcast series, March, 2024.
Yildiz, Armanc. Helen Sword Writing with Pleasure. Academics Write series, 17 May, 2023.
Shea, Daniel. Helen Sword Writing with Pleasure. New Books Network, 3 May, 2023.
Shea, Daniel. Helen Sword Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write. New Books Network, 29 April, 2021.
Montgomery, Denise. Helen Sword devises a new writing tool to sharpen your prose. UniNews, 1 December 2020.
Shea, Daniel. Helen Sword: Stylish Academic Writing. New Books Network podcast, 18 November 2020.
Helen Sword: Where Is the Va? South Phoenix Oral History Project “Teaching in the COVID-19 Era,” 30 April 2020.
Mulligan, Jesse. Dr Helen Sword on Writing. Radio New Zealand, 6 November 2017.
Butler, Amy Woods. Tone Up Your Writing with Helen Sword of The Writer’s Diet. The Life Story Coach blog and podcast, 2018.
Smith, Chris. How successful academic writers stay productive. Prolifiko blog, 12 June 2018.
Sword, Helen. Writing in Academia. Edge for Scholars Blog, 24 August 2017.
Toor, Rachel. Scholars Talk Writing: Helen Sword. Chronicle of Higher Education, 31 July 2017.
Smithies, Grant. Putting Sentences to the Sword. New Zealand Sunday Star-Times, 9 August 2015.
Green, Paula. New Territory: An Interview with Digital Poet Helen Sword. Ka Mate Ka Ora: A New Zealand Journal of Poetry and Poetics, 10 (2012).
Reisz, Matthew. “My Readers? I Buried Them!” Times Higher Education, 26 April 2012.
Reviews
Writing with Pleasure (2023)
Roulston, Kathryn. Writing with Pleasure: A Review. The Qualitative Report 2023 Volume 28, Number 5, 1564-1566. May 2023.
Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write (2017)
Palo, Caitlin. Reading Recommendation: Helen Sword’s Air & Light & Time & Space. Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities blog (University of Washington), April 2020.
Ruef, Jennifer. Air & light & time & space: How successful academics write. Education Review, April 2019.
Gump, Steven E. Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write. Journal of Scholarly Publishing 49: 3 (April 2018): 366-370.
Reid, Helene. How to become a productive writer. eSense 46, July-Sept 2017.
Mazanderani, Fawzia Haeri. Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write. London School of Economics Review of Books, 16 June 2017.
Herr, Melody. Review of Air & light & time & space: How successful academics write. International Journal for Academic Development, June 2017.
Alvarez, Maximillian. Writing Well Won’t Cure Your Academic Woes. Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 April 2017.
Bell, Amani. How Successful Academics Write. The Thesis Whisperer blog, 18 October 2017.
Sanson, Ian. Do you stew or marinate? Times Literary Supplement, 6 October 2017.
The Writer’s Diet (2015, 2016)
Shook, Karen. New & Noteworthy:The Writer’s Diet. Times Higher Education, 5 May 2016.
Steven E. Gump. The Writer’s Diet. Journal of Scholarly Publishing 48:1 (October 2016): 68-71.
Stylish Academic Writing (2012)
Winterton, Bradley. Stylish Academic Writing. Taipei Times, 26 Feb 2013.
Howard, Jennifer. Missing Ears. The Times Literary Supplement, 21 December 2012.
Toor, Rachel. Becoming a “Stylish” Writer. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1 July 2012.
Yeoman, William. “Stylish Academic Writing.” The West Australian, 19 June 2012.
Todd, Douglas. Can Higher Education Rediscover its ‘Soul’? Vancouver Sun, 9 June 2012.
Matchett, Stephen. So What Counts as Quality? The Australian (Higher Education), 7 June 2012.
Gofton, Les. Stylish Academic Writing: Prose to Die For, by the Spade-ful. Times Higher Education, 3 May 2012.
Bell, Amani. Five ways to improve your writing. Teaching@Sydney e-newsletter, July 2012.
Swaim, Barton. Smart Writing. The Weekly Standard, 3 Sept 2012.
Avramovic, Aleksandar. Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword. Working Papers in Higher Education Studies 2:1 (2016).
Clifford, Valerie. Stylish Academic Writing. Higher Education Research & Development 32:5 (2013): 866-867.
Mole, Kevin. Stylish Academic Writing. International Small Business Journal 30:7 (2012): 806-808
Donovan, Stephen K. Stylish Academic Writing. Journal of Scholarly Publishing 44:3 (2013): 299-310.
Zombie Nouns (2012)
Simpson, Paul. “We need an army of academic zombie hunters.” The British Medical Journal blog. 31 October 2019.
Doll, Jen. “Zombie Words Are Coming for Your Brains.” The Atlantic Wire. 24 July 2012.
Lynn Gaertner-Johnston. “Helen Sword’s ‘Zombie Nouns.’” Business Writing. 24 July 2012.
Articles by Helen Sword
2019
Sword, Helen. How Can Academics Keep Up with the Literature? Times Higher Education, 22 August 2019.
Sword, Helen. The First Person. Teaching and Learning Inquiry 7:1 (2019): 182-190. Republished in the Good Writing Gazette, 2020.
Sword, Helen., Peter Sorrenson & Madeleine Ballard. BASE Pleasures: The Behavioural, Artisanal, Social and Emotional Dimensions of Academic Writing. Studies in Higher Education (2019).
Sword, Helen. Snowflakes, Splinters, and Cobblestones: Metaphors for Writing. In S. Farquhar and E. Fitzpatrick (Eds.), Narrative and Metaphor: Innovative Methodologies and Practice (pp. 39-55). Singapore: Springer, 2019.
2018
Sword, Helen, Evija Trofimova & Madeleine Ballard. Frustrated Academic Writers. Higher Education Research and Development, 37:4 (2018): 852-867. Runner-up for the 2018 HERD ‘Article of the Year’ award.
Sword, Helen., Marion Blumenstein, Alistair Kwan, Louisa Shen & Evija Trofimova. Seven Ways of Looking at a Data Set. Qualitative Inquiry, 27:4 (2018): 499-508.
Sword, Helen, Evija Trofimova & Madeleine Ballard. Understanding the Frustration of Academic Writers. London School of Economics Impact of Social Sciences blog, 8 May 2018.
2017
Sword, Helen. Academic Writing: How to Stay Afloat. Times Higher Education, 20 July 2017.
Sword, Helen. Processing the Writing Process. Modernism/Modernity ‘Print Plus’ Blog, 12 April 2017.
Sword, Helen. “Giving Feedback on Style.” In S. Carter & D. Laurs (Eds.), Giving Feedback on Research Writing: A Handbook for Supervisors and Advisors (pp. 65-70). London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
2016
Sword, Helen. “Write Every Day”: A Mantra Dismantled. International Journal for Academic Development, 21:4 (2016): 312-322. Runner-up for the 2016 IJAD ‘Article of the Year’ award.
2014
Sword, Helen. Dancing on the Bottom Line: An Unruly Cost-benefit Analysis of Three Academic Development Initiatives. Higher Education Research and Development, 33:4 (2014): 783-793.
2012
Sword, Helen. Mutant Verbs. New York Times Opinionator blog, 27 October 2012.
Sword, Helen. Narrative Trust. Times Higher Education, 5 Sept 2012.
Sword, Helen. Recognise Academic Writing as a Craft... and When You’re 80 Per Cent Happy, Kick It Out the Door! London School of Economics Impact of Social Sciences Blog, 4 Sept 2012.
Sword, Helen. Zombie Nouns. New York Times Opinionator blog, 23 August 2012.
Sword, Helen. Seven Secrets of Stylish Academic Writing. The Conversation, 13 July 2012.
Sword, Helen. Inoculating against Jargonitis. Chronicle of Higher Education, 3 June 2012.
Sword, Helen. The Road to Academic Success Is Paved with Stylish Writing. London School of Economics Impact of Social Sciences Blog, 14 May 2012.
Sword, Helen. My Daily Read. Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 May 2012.
Sword, Helen. Yes, Even Professors Can Write Stylishly. The Wall Street Journal “Word Craft” Column, 7 April 2012.
Sword, Helen. Defuzzification. New Zealand Books, 22:3 (2012): 11.
2011
Sword, Helen. Thinking Outside the Box. MAI (Maori and Indigenous) Review, 2011:1 (April 2011).
2010
Sword, Helen. Becoming a More Productive Writer. MAI (Maori and Indigenous) Review, 2010:2 (August 2010).
2009
Sword, Helen. (Editor). MSA Teaching Forum Cluster. Making It New: Innovative Approaches to Teaching Modernism. Modernism/Modernity, 16:3 (September 2009): 471-495.
Sword, Helen. Writing an Engaging Title. MAI (Maori and Indigenous) Review 2009:2 (August 2009). http://www.review.mai.ac.nz/index.php/TK/article/view/260
Sword, Helen. Writing Higher Education Differently: A Manifesto on Style. Studies in Higher Education, 34:3 (May 2009): 319-336.
2008
Sword, Helen. Academic Style. MAI (Maori and Indigenous) Review, 2008:3 (December 2008).
Sword. Helen. Shaping up Your Sentences. MAI (Maori and Indigenous) Review, 2008:2 (August 2008).
Main image credit - Artist: unknown, Chile