Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You don’t need to find a “gap” in the literature Your research, and the publications based on that research, need to make an original contribution to knowledge. Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of ways academics, at every career stage, get in a bit of a […]
Read More »Developing a Practice
Your academic life is more than a string of articles published, classes taught, and meetings attended. You write because this is how you articulate and develop your ideas. You publish to communicate those ideas to others. Posts in this category help you develop the practices you need to do the work you love well without burning out or compromising your values.
You Need a Writing Practice is a good place to start to investigate the Writing subcategory.
Juggling 101: Elements of a good plan is a good place to start investigating the Planning subcategory.
Do you struggle to write for long periods of time?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Do you struggle to write for long enough? One of the members of the Academic Writing Studio asked about writing stamina in an Office Hours session, a regular group-coaching session I used to host for members. “You know, I have this ideal self that wakes up every day and […]
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Academic Writing & Publishing: A Discussion with Katherine Firth
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Academic Writing: An Interview with Katherine Firth This post is an edited transcript of my interview with Katherine Firth in October 2019 to celebrate the publication of my Short Guide on Peer Review. JoVE: Hello. So I am Jo Van Every, and this is Katherine Firth. [Katherine confirms]. […]
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Peer Review is worth saving
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Peer review is worth saving There is a crisis in peer review. It affects all disciplines. It affects all types of publishers. It adds delays to the publishing process, which was already frustratingly long. I suspect it is also affecting the reviews themselves in various ways. The Peer Review […]
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Two questions to help you avoid burnout
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · 2 questions to help you avoid burnout During the early stages of the Covid pandemic, I recommended what I thought were probably temporary emergency measures. Not even a year into the pandemic I was asking “Are things getting worse? Or is dystopia the new normal?” In the face of […]
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What is Real Writing anyway?
At the beginning of every planning class in the Academic Writing Studio, I ask participants a set of questions about what they did in the previous period. We focus on writing, and I ask questions about how much time they protected, what they worked on, and how those projects advanced. I do this in the monthly […]
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Starting a new project
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Starting a new project Once you’ve found and protected time for writing, your next challenge is to decide what to work on in that time. In Making Decisions About Your Writing, I talked about prioritizing amongst multiple projects. In this post, I want to talk about starting a new project […]
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Burnout is real!
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Burnout is real! As the Covid19 pandemic and related adjustments extended over months and years, conversations about burnout seemed to increase. The additional pressure of the pandemic seems to have pushed several people over the edge. A client who was already working with me to move a book project […]
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Spotlight On: Meaningfulness Matters
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Meaningfulness Matters: A Spotlight I have been supporting academics with research and writing in some way since 2005. It took several years for my business to evolve into what it is today, but one thing that has remained consistent is my belief that focusing on what matters to you […]
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Optimizing Focus when your project brings up difficult emotions
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Optimizing focus when your project brings up difficult emotions At the end of A Meeting With Your Writing one day, a participant shared how she’d managed her focus on a project that brings up difficult emotions… “I’ve been dealing with one thing that was very hard … with some […]
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This is *not* your new year, new start
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · This is *not* your new year, new start The beginning of the calendar year is accompanied by a lot of cultural pressure to reflect on the year just ended and make some big decisions about the year ahead. Reflection and planning are both practices I encourage. However, if you […]
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What to do about a stalled book project
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · What to do about a stalled book project Are you *not* writing a book? Maybe it’s your “thesis book”. Maybe it’s something else. You might have a contract for it. You might not have started it, but think you should have by now. You might have a lot of […]
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