Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Why questions are useful in feedback As I was preparing the first iteration of my class on Dealing With Reviewer Comments, I asked some friends and colleagues to recommend resources for dealing with feedback. That’s how I discovered Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. Lerman developed this process for artists, […]
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.
Your vision guides the writing and the revision
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Your vision guides the writing and the revision You’ve worked really hard on this article. The subject is important to you. You have something important to say. It feels urgent. This vision you have for the paper is extremely important. You know what you want to say even if you […]
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Sometimes slow is the only way forward
A few of my clients have been frustrated with their writing progress. This statement is probably true no matter when I utter it. Even if you’ve successfully developed a process that works, sometimes you hit a slow patch. When this happens, your first instinct is to wonder what’s wrong and go looking for a way to […]
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What is an “efficient” writing practice?
A few conversations I’ve had recently, with clients and on Twitter, have reminded me that we have some interesting ideas about “efficiency“. It’s as if you have a gremlin observing your writing practice like a time and motion consultant. Maybe you feel more comfortable printing out articles and making notes by hand in the margin. […]
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Redefine “writing block”
One of my clients is well advanced in her career and currently managing a very large research project. By anyone’s definition, she is successful. She has written and published before. She has things to write about. She knows how to do this. She has experimented with different ways of writing over the course of her […]
Read More »There is no typical week
Some of your work is scheduled. You know that you will be teaching that class every Tuesday at 2 p.m. (or whatever) for the next 10 weeks or so. You’ve probably also scheduled weekly office hours in which you will be available to students for class-related questions or general advising. You might even have taken […]
Read More »Small steps yield big results
Whether it’s the New Academic Year or the New (Calendar) Year, you probably have some New Year’s Resolutions! It is tempting to set big goals. However, every big goal is achieved by a set of very small steps. Small steps are much less overwhelming than big changes. A post from Peter Shankman on Why Inspirational Quotes […]
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You can ignore the grading.
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You can ignore the grading This post refers to the break between the first and second semesters of an academic year, which in the Northern Hemisphere tends to incorporate the Christmas holidays. Often the exams and assignments that come in at the end of the semester need to be […]
Read More »Making progress on projects
There are two basic ways to approach a writing project. You figure out what the final product will look like and make a plan to achieve it. You start writing. I am reminded of a passage in Alice in Wonderland: “Cheshire Puss,’ she began, rather timidly, […] ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I […]
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Writing for the people who will like your work
It strikes me that many academics spend a lot of time and energy worrying about the people who will hate their work. Even before you’ve written the article, you are imagining someone criticizing it, probably in a particularly mean and hurtful way. No wonder you have trouble writing. Write for the people who are eager […]
Read More »Writing makes you feel better
Think of a time when you weren’t finding time to write. How did that feel? I’ve heard enough academics complain about how little time they have for writing during term time to know that whatever specific feelings that brought up for you, they weren’t good. Now, think about a time when you were writing regularly. […]
Read More »Writing is the social currency of academic life
In high school things like fashionable clothes, knowing the latest hit from a popular band, and being good at sports were the keys to popularity. Getting good grades might have endeared you to teachers and parents but it wasn’t really the currency of peer approval. The world you are in now is like an upside […]
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