This is a guest post by Sarah Burton, a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow. You can follow her on Twitter @DrFloraPoste. I’ve added the headings, a few comments (in italics at the end), and the related posts. Thinking about what the life of an academic would look like I usually pictured piles of leather-bound books […]
Read More »Developing a Practice: Reading
The primary way you engage with new knowledge. Reading underpins your research and writing and your teaching. And yet it is probably the most difficult thing to find time for.
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 »When does Reading count as Writing?
In the intro to A Meeting With Your Writing I ask participants to list everything that comes to mind when they ask this question: “What does this writing project need to move forward?” I give them 30 – 60 seconds to write. Then I ask them to select the thing on that list that they […]
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When your work doesn’t look like work
You’re tired of the popular misconception that academics get the whole summer off. Are you letting that public perception affect how you work? Are you working indoors at your desk? Are you working during “normal working hours”? Are you avoiding the hammock? The patio? The dock? Are you saving gardening, long walks in the woods, and […]
Read More »Maybe sitting at your desk to work is the problem
Do you struggle with research because you think you need to be sitting at your desk to do it? I know that schools are really big on sitting still and being quiet as the necessary precursor to doing academic work. You did well in school. But just because that’s how school trained you, doesn’t mean […]
Read More »Just because it doesn’t feel productive…
A couple of my clients are working on writing projects right now. And some weeks, their updates are less than enthusiastic. They are discouraged by their progress.
Here’s a different angle on reading that doesn’t feel like real research.
You might spend a lot of time reading with a particular project in mind only to discover that nothing you read is going to end up in what you are writing.
Although that feels like you wasted several hours reading stuff you didn’t need to read, it was actually time well spent.
Read More »What is “research”?
In early 2012, Rohan Maitzen published a few very thoughtful posts about what counts are research, the apparent conflict between research and teaching, and related issues. One of these, “When is Reading Research?“, really highlights some of the underlying issues. When we talk about “doing research,” I think we conventionally mean reading in service of a […]
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