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Mumford Method

The Mumford method is an efficient way to write academic papers and books. It separates the thinking and argument development process from the writing. Key aspects include: 1. Creating an "abstract" by writing down ideas in two columns without worrying about structure or style. This allows all points to be seen and organized. 2. Using the abstract as a lecture handout so the audience need not take notes. It also serves as the outline for the paper. 3. Getting feedback by presenting the material multiple times and incorporating new ideas. This refines the argument over many drafts of the handout. 4. Writing is focused on presentation once the thinking is complete, resulting in a clear, polished

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338 views3 pages

Mumford Method

The Mumford method is an efficient way to write academic papers and books. It separates the thinking and argument development process from the writing. Key aspects include: 1. Creating an "abstract" by writing down ideas in two columns without worrying about structure or style. This allows all points to be seen and organized. 2. Using the abstract as a lecture handout so the audience need not take notes. It also serves as the outline for the paper. 3. Getting feedback by presenting the material multiple times and incorporating new ideas. This refines the argument over many drafts of the handout. 4. Writing is focused on presentation once the thinking is complete, resulting in a clear, polished

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m
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Academic Writing in the Arts the Mumford Way

Stephen Mumford (@SDMumford)

1. Why a writing method?


I dont claim to be a brilliant academic writer. But I am
productive. I get things finished and to deadline. This
has been possible only because I found a way of
writing. It may not be for everyone but could be of
use to those who finds academic writing a stressful, or
difficult or labour-intensive process.
The method is designed to be efficient: to minimize the
time spent writing a paper and also to reduce the
amount of discarded material that gets left to rot.
It is designed to be efficient in a second sense: to ensure
that the paper includes all the points, arguments and
evidence you want it to include and that the material
is structured in the best way.
Im a philosopher but I dont see why this method
couldnt be used for any Arts subject: anything that is
essay based. Academic writing in the sciences may be
a bit different so much of the method may not apply
there.

2. What if you dont have a method?


Earlier in my career, I used to simply start writing on a
topic and see where it would lead. I often had no idea,
when I began, where I would end and what my
conclusions would be. I wanted simply to follow the
argument.
I thought this a valuable process. I would discover new
things and finish with a conclusion that surprised
even the author, me. It felt genuine and authentic
rather than contrived. Writing was a process of
discovery.
Like a number of new academic writers, I thought that I
could only think on the page: as I wrote. Only when
deep in such concentration did I really understand the
issues, I believed.
However, the drafts produced were almost always
entirely useless. The start of the paper didnt match
up with the end, which is not surprising since the end
was informed by a realization that occurred during
writing.
And it was virtually impossible to tinker with the draft I
had. The order of the paragraphs and all their
connecting phrases was dictated by the line of
reasoning, which was all work-in-progress.
So my next step was to produce another complete draft
from the start. And then I was again thinking on the
page, pursuing the thought wherever it led me,
sometimes chasing rabbits down holes. I was simply
repeating what I now take to be a flawed process.

I still have early (handwritten) multiple drafts of some of


my first papers. One paper I drafted about five times.
That was a lot of time spent in a rather unpleasant
process of writing. And I still think there are places in
the finished version where it doesnt hang together.
I often say to students when advising them on writing
their essays that they should know their conclusion
before they start writing and preferably they should
state it at the very start of the essay as well as at the
end. To do that, you have to know exactly where you
are going right from the start.
Finding this whole process painful, I thought I needed to
do something completely and radically different. The
method what my friends have called the Mumford
method evolved over a year or so but I found it
incredibly useful once it was up and running. I have
used it ever since.
The method is based on a separation of the thinking and
the argument from the writing process. I will now
describe that method.

3. The abstract
First: the thinking. I find it helps to note my thoughts
down quickly and in a way that I dont have to worry
about style or, at least to begin with, structure.
I want to be able to see all the points I have and then
think later about organizing them. I use a small font
and find it looks much better if I divide the page into
two columns, looking exactly like the document you
are now reading.
I write down the points as briefly as possible. I just want
to have them stated so that I can see what I believe,
what follows from what, what connects with what, and
so on.
Once I have some ideas down, I can start to see how
they might form a structure because of their
interconnections. As the material grows, I can
introduce sub-headings that make the structure clear.

4. The handout
My abstract, I found, can also double as a very useful
handout. It contains all the main points of a lecture
such that the student or audience member need take
no notes and can concentrate just on understanding
what is said. It helps them and that helps me: I get
better questions at the end.
My abstract is thus also my lecture handout and I find it
works really well. I can keep eye-contact with my

audience throughout because they arent scribbling


away writing things down. And the whole argument is
there for me as well. I can lecture from the handout
and need no additional notes. I just turn up with a
bunch of handouts and retain one for myself before
passing them round.
It is best to keep the handout to two sides, which can
then be printed back-to-back on a single sheet of
paper. Occasionally the argument gets so detailed
and involved that it has to go over on to more sheets
but I try to avoid this.
Dont forget to include your email address or twitter
name on the handout so that people can contact you
later if a new objection or point occurs to them.

5. The feedback
Here we get to an essential of the Mumford method. It
relies on time for reflection and feedback so that the
handout can go through multiple drafts.
I like to present a paper many times. This forces me to
think and re-think the point but it also means I get
lots of new ideas from the subsequent discussion.
I can incorporate new points in the next version of the
handout for next time it is presented. For example,
when arguing that causes dont necessitate their
effects, we (it was a co-authored and co-presented
paper more about that later) got lots of objections
from our audiences. We were able to go away, think
about them, and come up with good replies. These
were incorporated in the next version of the handout.

6. The redrafting
The handout can then grow organically as your thinking
matures. In one case (my Negative Truth and
Falsehood paper), I presented the material about 1520 times over two years and in five Continents,
changing it all the time. By the end, I was very
confident that I had thought it through and had
accommodated all the major objections (OK, I must
still have missed something but thats the Arts for
you: theres no such thing as perfect paper but there
are perfectly on-time papers).
The handout contains the whole structure in a small
space. The structure is visible at a glance or two. And
it is then very easy to move it around by cutting and
pasting, trying out a new ordering of your thoughts,
for instance. Its very easy to change the structure.
I am very lucky in that I get lots of invitations to speak.
But the feedback can come from any source. If youre
a graduate student, for instance, you can become
involved in postgraduate seminars. Or you can
circulate the handout and ask for comments.
You are more likely to get comments on a brief skeleton
of your paper, which shouldnt take too long to read,
than if you present someone with a 30-page complete

draft. A reader can see what you are about very


quickly and tell you whether they think you have a
viable position.

7. Writing
Only when Im confident that a paper feels ready do I
write it up. And because all the thinking has been
done, I need produce only one draft. Of course I have
to read through it for typos, grammar and minor
solecisms but it remains pretty much as per first draft.
I never discard a paper once its been drafted.
When I write, I can concentrate on presentation and
style. I am not engaged in the agonizing struggle of
thinking through difficult thoughts at the same time
as trying to produce a clear statement of them. Those
two processes are very hard to combine. How can you
produce a clear and simple statement of something
with which you are yourself wrestling?
People often comment that my writing is clear and that I
make difficult issues seem simple. This is the reason.
Ive done all my struggling with the material before I
try to present it. I know exactly what I should say
before I start writing.
Some comment that they dont know what they want to
say until they start writing. But this cannot quite be
right. Its not as if you begin by thinking you are
writing on Kants ethical theory and end up with a
paper on the sociological insights of Coronation
Street. We all, to some degree, must plan what we
want to say first. The Mumford method is simply to
make that planning as thorough and robust as
possible and make an even clearer distinction
between the arguments and their presentation.

8. Books
I have presented this in terms of writing a paper. It hardly
needs saying that there is no reason why a whole
book or a PhD thesis could not be written this way.
Write a handout for each chapter and keep it ongoing
over a long period of time, constantly reviewing the
structure of the individual chapters but also the
whole.
I enjoy writing books. I like the challenge of dealing with
the parallel problems of a lot of detail and a big
picture. The method will allow the author to keep an
eye on both. For your ten chapters, you may just have
ten sheets of paper with the argument of the whole
book. You can shuffle them round and then shuffle
round the arguments within each chapter.

9. Co-authoring
A recent discovery is that this method suits co-authoring
exceptionally well. The big challenge of co-authoring
is agreeing to something you both or all believe. If
you start with a handout then you can discuss the

argument at length and make sure you agree before


any writing begins.
I co-authored a whole book and several papers this way.
We spent a lot of time in discussion, produced
handouts, discussed them, presented them, revised
them, and so on. When we were happy that we were
ready, the full draft could be produced. It didnt
matter which co-author produced the draft (we shared
out those responsibilities). There were no nasty
surprises for the other author when they received the
draft.

10. If you like it


If the Mumford method appeals to you, please go ahead
and try it and let me know what you think. I have
purposefully made this document available in Word so
that you can download it and overwrite it with your
own material while preserving the format. I would feel
very pleased if I saw others using my format.
If there are any useful suggestions, I can redraft this
document on an on-going basis. Thats the Mumford
method!

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