How to improve the narrative in a piece of academic writing?

Question

I have recently finished a year of Doctoral School, and am about to start my PhD. During the last taught year I have written two research papers which were reviewed by several people both internal and external to my faculty. The feedback was mostly complimentary, however the common criticism made about my work went along the lines of "You write excellent sections, but there is little link or narrative between sections."

There are a few guides on technical writing fundamentals, so this could serve as a platform for other posts on more nuanced writing practices. I would like to create a better narrative in my writing going forward, so the themes I would like to create a discussion on are as follows:

• Practices for identifying the narrative present in your own work.
• How do you build a narrative when writing an academic paper or other piece of technical writing?
• Guidelines for linking the internal sections within a piece of writing.
• Guidelines for linking your work to related research by other authors.

Answer 1

As a non-native English speaker, I found the use of linking words lists very inspiring. I printed this cheatsheet and carry it with me along with the paper draft of my thesis for immediate access.

I also took an afternoon to brush up on my English (which, I believe, was already fine to begin with) and ended up reading most sections on this Guide to Grammar and Writing. In particular, I paid special attention to the page on Transitions, and it might help you too. On this page, they show how you can turn this hard-to-follow paragraph:

The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people's bodies by making mummies of them. Mummies several thousand years old have been discovered nearly intact. The skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and toenails, and facial features of the mummies were evident. It is possible to diagnose the disease they suffered in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies. The process was remarkably effective. Sometimes apparent were the fatal afflictions of the dead people: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head, and polio killed a child king. Mummification consisted of removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages.

into this nicer one

The ancient Egyptians were masters of preserving dead people's bodies by making mummies of them. In short, mummification consisted of removing the internal organs, applying natural preservatives inside and out, and then wrapping the body in layers of bandages. And the process was remarkably effective. Indeed, mummies several thousand years old have been discovered nearly intact. Their skin, hair, teeth, fingernails and toenails, and facial features are still evident. Their diseases in life, such as smallpox, arthritis, and nutritional deficiencies, are still diagnosable. Even their fatal afflictions are still apparent: a middle-aged king died from a blow on the head; a child king died from polio.

There are others resources grouped into "Word & Sentence Level", "Paragraph Level", "Essay & Research Paper Level".

Finally, if you need help writing transition paragraphs between sections, I'm not sure whether resources exist about this. I would suggest thinking about the high-level view of your work and reminding yourself (and the reader) why the previous section exists, why we are going to start the next one, and how they are connected within the big picture. During this paragraph, imagine your reader all of a sudden stops and says: "why the hell am I reading this already?" -- this is your chance to remind them.