Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Starting your academic year in mid-summer When do academics celebrate the new year? This is a serious question for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, where the beginning of the calendar year in January is more like the middle of the academic year. It seems like […]
Read More »Developing a Practice: Writing
Writing is central to your scholarly work and identity. And yet, you struggle to find time and motivation to do it. Posts in this category focus on the process of writing as a whole. They will help you establish an effective writing practice that enables you to pursue your curiosity, create knowledge, and communicate that knowledge through publications.
You Need a Writing Practice is a good place to start.
Using all 3 types of writing time will help you imagine how you can fit writing in even when you are also juggling teaching, meetings, and so on. It also helps you understand how your writing practice may shift with the seasons of the academic year.
![A flatlay photo of a white desk surface displaying a few items. A black rope noticeboard with walnut frame reads: "Things to do: 1. own today. 2. [empty space] 3. [empty space]. A pair of bright neon turquoise wired headphones, a laptop, turquoise notebook, black coffee in white mug and grey cable knit jumper sleeve decorate the image edges.](https://jovanevery.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/emma-matthews-digital-content-production-p6g6S_kXkFc-unsplash-900x600.jpg)
Motivation and accomplishment in your writing practice
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Motivation & accomplishment in your writing practice Given how hard it is for most academics to find time to work on their writing, and how difficult it is to know how long some stages of the process will take, I advocate establishing a regular writing practice and trusting that […]
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Dealing with the loss of a physical boundary between work and home
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Dealing with the loss of a physical boundary between work and home The pandemic has made us all hyper-aware of how much of what we’d come to tolerate as “just how things are” is actually deeply unacceptable. The pandemic has not created an impossible to resolve conflict between your […]
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Resting & recharging is preparation for the new academic year
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Resting & recharging is preparing for the new academic year I wrote this just before taking a 2 week holiday and mentioned how important it is to prioritize rest at this time of year. Fatigue impairs cognitive function. This is a fact. There is lots of research to back […]
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Writing & research in the summer of the pandemic
One of the issues that has come up in the Academic Writing Studio is the relationship between motivation to write and finding the writing you need to do meaningful. This is not a new problem but the current crisis may have brought it to the fore. You may already struggle to prioritize writing or treat […]
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Transitioning to summer
Note: I wrote this just before the pandemic situation started to impact academic workloads in the UK, US, and Canada. I am re-publishing it now as a reminder that things would already have been in transition at this time of year. For more on the specific impacts of the pandemic response on academic life… …head […]
Read More »Reviewing your writing accomplishments
Anna Clemens and I have been following each other on Twitter for a while. She provides editing and grant writing support for scientists and asked me if I could write something about reviewing the year for her blog. This is what I wrote. Review your scientific writing year (2019) Because her people are mainly scientists, […]
Read More »Revision following peer review is a normal part of the scholarly writing process
When I talked to Katherine Firth, one of the things that came up was the frustration that comes from the writing process taking longer than expected. (The link goes right to the bit of the video where we talk about this.) This happens at all stages of the process because all academic writing projects are long […]
Read More »Optimizing Focus: Do you have too many active writing projects?
If you are new here, I’ve been writing a series about Optimizing Focus. The general principles are outlined in Optimizing Focus: 3 elements to consider. Links to other posts in the series are at the bottom of that one. One of the elements that effects your focus is the context in which you are writing […]
Read More »Optimizing focus when your project brings up difficult emotions
Focus is crucial to your writing practice, and indeed to keeping your plans on track. Everyone struggles with focus at least some of the time. There is nothing wrong with you. You might frame this struggle in terms of distraction or procrastination. You might think of it terms of willpower. You may have a story about […]
Read More »Write every day?
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 »The work you wish you didn’t have to do
Something that a couple of members shared at the end of A Meeting With Your Writing reminded me of an important point. Sometimes the reason you think you’ve not accomplished much (in your writing, or in your work in general) is because the work you needed to do is work you wish you didn’t have to […]
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