Swords and Shields: Metaphors for Paper-Writing

Lately, I have been having conversations with students beginning their PhD journey about the paper writing process. This has caused me to reflect on what I’ve learned about paper-writing. In the process I’ve come up with a metaphor that proved useful for mentoring a graduate student setting out.

Think of yourself wielding a sword in fencing. The sword is your argument. Your target is the current body of literature, but it’s obscured by haze. The body wears armor. Where you choose to attack depends on your observations, your study of that body of work over time. If you’re just starting out, you only see a bit of armor, legs, maybe a nose.

Now imagine you too have armor, pieces of armor and a big shield. You can only have up to five pieces, no more, or you can’t move. You must anticipate your opponents (read: reviewer’s) lines of attack and place defenses in the appropriate location to block the maximum number of attacks.

Your argument is the way you approach the opponent, how you parry and shift. You can spot an opening and aim for it, but miss because your argumentation, your performance, was off balance.

Your goal is not to create a mess. If you hit an opening, you must treat it with care and not wound the body (read: prior authors and people who vested their lives in this). This is how you defeat the opponent (read: reviewers) and win them over.

(Maybe there’s holes in this metaphor, but I think it’s pretty good!)