Category: Communication

I’m a big fan of sketching diagrams on the computer to get to grips with complex ideas and processes - I’ve written before about dia, my favourite desktop diagram tool.  Here’s an online tool, Gliffy,  that looks like it does a similar job.

You can add shapes and connectors from various different palettes and set colours and other attributes.  Impressively, it has export to a number of file formats that mean you could download your diagram and open it in another editor, or put it on a web page. You have to sign up but it’s free, although they do also have a premium account.

Here’s a website full of articles about writing. The article listing shows a huge amount of material on a range of topics. While a lot of the stuff is geared towards fiction, there are some articles that look relevant to researchers. Here’s a few that might be of interest:

6 Ways to Jump-Start Your Writing Day

Technical Writing for the Terrified

 Dreading the Writing Assignment? Outlines to the Rescue

 Editing and Polishing - How Much is Enough?

This sneaky email tip from email-overloaded made me smile; although it seems a bit sneaky, I can think of plenty of times when I could have used this to good effect. The idea is to send a “Thanks!” email to someone who’s agreed to do something at the time when they’ve agreed to do it, so that they’re subtly reminded of their commitment.  Sounds ideal for certain types of PhD supervisors.