It is really easy to overvalue tasks that other people ask you to do or see you doing. And to undervalue the tasks you do alone. Writing happens alone. Sometimes it doesn’t even look like work, especially when you have to do a lot of thinking. It takes a long time to get a product […]
Read More »Preparing for the job market
Whether you are planning an academic career or looking for options outside of academia, the transition from student to career is difficult. An academic qualification may be necessary but it is never sufficient to get you a job. Potential employers are always looking at a combination of knowledge and skills in relation to the particular […]
Read More »Conferences are an excellent opportunity to meet editors
When I was a graduate student, I completely misunderstood the reason publishers come to conferences. I thought the primary purpose of the Book Fair was to sell books. Then I discovered that people that staff those booths are not (usually) people from sales and marketing. They are editors. And they don’t just stand there at […]
Read More »Hook and Eye: Guest Post: Recycling is not a bad thing
Are you worried that you are “recycling” your work? Are you trying to make sure each paper and presentation is completely new and unique? You are not alone. But you are probably more at risk of not publishing enough and not reaching the people you want to reach, than you are of repeating yourself. I […]
Read More »In lieu of my own post on writing
Inger Mewburn at The Thesis Whisperer wrote a brilliant post recently on getting writing finished. The ‘Out The Door’ rant « The Thesis Whisperer In his superb book “Writing for social scientists” (which should be renamed “Writing for everyone”), Howard Becker talks about the importance of being the kind of writer who can get stuff […]
Read More »Your conference paper & how you present it
The academic conference paper serves a couple of purposes. draft of an eventual journal article getting feedback meeting people with similar interests You probably have 15-20 minutes to present. And one of the most common complaints about conference presentations is that they go over time. How do you prepare? Preparing for this is a 2 […]
Read More »How I help mid-career academics
You’d think that once you get that academic job and get through whatever process you have to go through to keep it (tenure, probation, or whatever it’s called where you live), it would be plain sailing. You have been judged by your peers to know what you are doing and be doing it well. Unfortunately, […]
Read More »Self-organizing is possible at any conference (reprise)
Back in … I wrote a blog post about unconferences. As the formal conference season approaches (in UK and Canada at least), I wanted to bring back some of that post to encourage you to take control of your conference experience. Maybe the particular conference you are going to has been organized in the typical […]
Read More »Struggling to make progress towards a goal?
Just a quick post to alert you to a must read blog post by Marissa Bracke: The Real Reason You’re Not Taking Action On Your Goals As I read it, I thought of struggling to write (the dissertation, a book, a journal article, a grant proposal), struggling with the job search, … well, pretty well […]
Read More »Getting useful feedback on your conference paper
There is plenty of evidence that conference presentations don’t necessarily get you any useful feedback.
But that doesn’t mean they couldn’t.
You have to build an audience
Do you tell people you know are going to be at the conference when you are presenting? Do you ask them to come? Do you tell them you would like feedback?
Read More »I wish it were different, too
In an ideal world, my job would be redundant. It is not an ideal world.
It’s okay to ask for help
There is nothing wrong with you. It’s normal to struggle sometimes.
The demands are what they are. The support is what it is. And neither is likely to be ideal.
Read More »The goal of your conference paper
Scholarly work is inherently collaborative. Not in the sense that it should all be co-authored, but in the sense that you develop your ideas in conversation with others.
These may be formal conversations. They may take place mostly in writing, even formal types of writing. But you do your best work in conversation.
The reason you give conference papers is to meet people and build relationships.
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