Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Imperfect notes for perfectionists One of the Academic Writing Studio team told me about a great book they’d read that they thought might be helpful for many of our people. Jeanette has been part of the team for a long time. Perfectionism is something many academics struggle with. You […]
Read More »Welcome to the Library
The Library is an archive of my writing about academic work since launching this website in 2009. The top section contains the most recent additions. If you are new here, scroll down to see a few suggestions for good posts to start with to get a sense of my general approach. The Spotlight section at the bottom highlights a series of posts on a specific topic, and is updated regularly.
Most of my writing is sent to Studio members or my newsletter before appearing here. Since 2020 I’ve been creating audio versions of most new posts. They are embedded here but you can also follow me on Soundcloud if you prefer to listen.
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Recent posts
Motivating yourself to finish the damned book!
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Motivating yourself to finish the damned book Do you have a book project that’s been in progress for a long time? You are not alone. Over the years I’ve helped several mid to late career scholars who are weighted down by the unfinished projects they have lying around. Like […]
Read More »How do I know when my book is ready to submit?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · How do I know when my book is ready to submit? You are almost finished with your book! You plan to submit it to your publisher in a couple of months. You’ve been working on it for a long time. You’ve not only got a full draft but you’ve […]
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Start Here
The posts in this category introduce you to some of the main principles that guide my approach to academic work and careers.
Optimizing Focus: 3 elements to consider
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Optimizing Focus: 3 Elements to Consider Everyone struggles with focus. This is why I prompt participants in A Meeting With Your Writing to think about what they’d like to try that day to optimize their focus. In this rather long post, I set out the fundamental principles that underpin […]
Read More »Communication vs Validation: why are you publishing?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Communication vs Validation: Why are you publishing? The primary purpose of publishing, even scholarly publishing, is communication. If you centre the communicative role of publishing, with a focus on the audience and the difference you would like your work to make for that audience, decisions about when and where […]
Read More »You need a writing practice
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · You Need A Writing Practice Writing is central to your scholarly work and identity. And yet, you struggle to find time and motivation to do it. I argue that it is more effective to focus on the process of writing as a whole and establish an effective writing practice that enables you […]
Read More »Spotlight On: Confidence
We all wish we didn’t live in a world where we needed to know quite so much about burnout. Alas… This Spotlight brings together all the posts I’ve written on the topic, alongside several that are relevant to prevention and recovery.
Explore the whole Spotlight here, or if you prefer to listen, you can find a playlist of this introduction and all the posts mentioned over on my Soundcloud.
You can do this!