This is a question that comes up a lot in advice about academic writing, or any kind of writing really. And it came up during the December 2018 Planning Your Winter Semester class in the Academic Writing Studio. A lot of people encourage you to write every day. You may think that because I have […]
Read More »Ethos & Influences
There is lots of advice out there about academic writing and academic careers. Posts in this category elaborate on some of the things mentioned on the about page to give you a better sense of how I approach academic work and the relationship between academic work and other parts of your life. Subcategories include:
Meditation as practice & metaphor for focus
This post is part of a series on Optimizing Focus. Finding it hard to focus is normal. Self-flagellation does not work to improve your focus. Furthermore it takes time and energy that takes you away from your writing; it is another distraction. I firmly believe that you can approach your work compassionately rather than violently. […]
Read More »What is the point of publishing peer-reviewed articles if you care about changing things out there in the world?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Peer-reviewed articles and changing things out there in the world I want to write more about some of the practical applications of the general point I made in Communication vs Validation: Why are you publishing?. In particular, I want to connect my approach to writing and publishing with the […]
Read More »How to use advice to develop your own practice
This post is part of an occasional series about how yoga influences how I work with clients. I don’t expect you to do yoga. Ever. In your whole life. The point of this series is that yoga has taught me some interesting things about how to approach other things. I have a daily yoga practice. […]
Read More »How much teaching preparation is enough?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How much teaching preparation is enough? Teaching is an important part of your job. You are committed to doing it well. At the same time, you may often resent how much time it takes. You really wish you had more time for research than you do right now. Content […]
Read More »Where does confidence come from? Part 2: Security
This is part 2 of a series about confidence. In Part 1 of this series, I talked about meaningfulness. Part 3 is about support. The introductory section is repeated so you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Or, listen to the whole series in one track here: Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · […]
Read More »Where does confidence come from? Part 1: Meaningfulness
This is part 1 of a series about confidence. In Part 2 of this series, I talk about security. Part 3 is about support. The introductory section is repeated so you don’t have to read them in any particular order. Or, listen to the whole series in one track, here: Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Where […]
Read More »Recent additions vs good starting points
This page uses the standard blog layout: posts in reverse chronological order of publication date with this “sticky post” at the top to explain how things work. I’ve also created a list of good places to start for those unfamiliar with my approach. The things I write are often not time sensitive, except in the […]
Read More »Managing long term projects
Academic work involves long projects. Of the five Lesser known lessons from academia Daniel McCormack discusses, three are about the difficulties of long projects. (He goes into some detail about each of these. I encourage you to read what he has to say in addition to my thoughts.) I want to focus on the aspects of academia that […]
Read More »Are you treating writing as real work?
The title is a rhetorical question. I know writing is real work, otherwise I wouldn’t be running a business supporting academic writers. You know it’s real work. Not only is that, you know it is the work that is going to be most valued when it comes to hiring, promotion, and whatnot. Despite knowing that […]
Read More »Risking doing the work you find meaningful
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Risking doing the work you find meaningful A longstanding imaginary-friend-on-the-Internet, who now runs a very successful online business, once said that something I’d said to them years ago had been pivotal to their success. I had no idea what they were talking about. Apparently, back when we were both […]
Read More »How to stop writing for your harshest critics
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How to stop writing for your harshest critics I had a question from a client a couple of weeks ago that I suspect resonates with many academic writers. In my book: The Scholarly Writing Process, I talk about the importance of identifying the audience for the article or book […]
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