academiblog

Making endless decisions -- that's why writing is so hard!

2008-05-13T20:45:00.002-04:00

From the Washington Post today:

Having to make too many choices can affect one's ability to stay focused, finish work and do complex mental tasks, finds a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Almost 400 people took part in seven experiments in which some were asked to make choices or rate various products. The more choices individuals had to make and the more time they spent deciding, the worse they fared on later tasks, regardless of the complexity of the choices.

That's what makes writing so difficult. Every word you write, every turn of phrase, every decision to add or omit content -- they all involve decisions. Deciding whether to expand on a point or whether you've done enough explaining can leave you feeling as though you've run a marathon.

This makes it clear why binge writing is so bad for you. It literally drains you of brain power, so that the next day, and the day after that, you feel ill when you consider sitting down to write.

Just writing this has exhausted me. I think I'll go lie down (see my post on sleeping).

And you thought writer's block was bad...

2008-05-13T12:00:00.003-04:00

Check out this "Rhymes with Orange" cartoon. Writers aren't the only ones who get blocked.

Maybe you need a nap

2008-05-11T20:09:00.002-04:00

"Forgoing sleep is like borrowing from a loan shark. Sure you get that extra hours right now to cover for your overly-optimistic estimation, but at what price? The shark will be back and if you can’t pay, he’ll break your creativity, morale, and good-mannered nature as virtue twigs."

This quote, from a post called "Sleep deprivation is not a badge of honor,"by David Heinemeier at 37signals, really caught my attention. Like overwork, some people seem to be proud of how little sleep they get. Yet, as he points out, you pay for the extra time that you eke out by sleeping less. Reduced creativity is clearly one price you pay.

I'm particularly sensitive to this as someone who needs a lot of sleep, and whose husband doesn't.

This NY Times article reviews recent research on the role that sleeping plays in the formation of new memories and in the consolidation of recent learning.

As a matter of fact, this recent study shows that a 90 minute short nap can speed up the process of learning a new task and remembering it long term.

So don't make the mistake of thinking that the extra hours of the day gained by sleeping less are really doing you any good. Better to get adequate sleep, and then approach the tasks that require your creativity and memory capacities with a well-prepared brain.

Academic bureaucracy

2008-05-11T20:03:00.004-04:00

From the NY Times: A tenured professor leaves academia in order to enter the world of business. He is now the chief executive of Kelly Services. Here is his comment comparing business to academia:

In business you learn at a faster rate, and there’s a lack of bureaucracy and better pay. I tell associates you don’t really know bureaucracy until you experience academic institutions.

Cover letter and C.V. advice

2008-05-09T21:56:00.003-04:00

The American Historical Association's publication, Perspectives Online, has two good articles on C.V. and cover letter creation. This article is chock full of useful advice, as is this article. The advice in these articles is appropriate for people in many fields, so don't ignore these sources if you are in education or economics!

Depression in Graduate School

2008-05-06T14:01:00.003-04:00

I have just run into two fantastic posts on the experience of having depression in graduate school. The first, "Even Scientists Get the Blues,"is by a science student who puts a personal face on the isolation, lack of structure and open-ended nature of running experiments as you work on your dissertation. The second is a short slide-show/movie with personal comments by three graduate students who are struggling with issues such as the competitiveness of fellow students, the harshness of professors, and the endless hours of work. It's called "Depression in Graduate Students."

I applaud these people for telling their first-person stories. So many graduate students have told me that just knowing that they were not alone in their suffering made them feel less pain while in graduate school.

Deconstruction gone wild

2008-04-30T20:24:00.004-04:00

Grad Student Deconstructs Take-Out Menu

CAMBRIDGE, MA-Out of sheer habit, English grad student Jon Rosenblatt tried to interpret the message within his Burrito Bandito menu.

It's finally happened. As reported in the Onion, a Harvard University English graduate student has gone off the deep end and used his hard-earned skills of deconstructing for evil instead of good. Yes, Jon Rosenblatt has deconstructed a Mexican fast-food menu.

As his roommate explained, "He has become so steeped in the complex jargon of critical theory that he's unable to resist the urge to deconstruct even the most mundane things."

You can read all the details of this tragic story here.

Grad-school-ruled notebook paper

2008-04-30T20:13:00.002-04:00

Mead Releases New Grad-School-Ruled Notebook

RICHMOND, VA—Company officials say the new notebooks feature lines 3.55 millimeters apart, making them "infinitely more practical" for postgraduate work than the 7.1 millimeter college-ruled notebooks.

The Onion, always up-to-date with the latest innovations for highly educated people, reports that graduate students will no longer have to put up with inferior college-ruled paper, which is only meant for undergraduates. Because of the higher level of learning demanded of graduate students, they will get their own paper, with even more narrow lines.

You'll be happy to know that "the notebooks are currently available in several special grad-school-edition colors, including alabaster, saffron, vermilion, and, for girl graduate students, periwinkle."

What they didn't teach you in graduate school

2008-04-27T16:53:00.002-04:00

This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education has some truly useful career tips for junior professors. It is adapted from What They Didn't Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career (Stylus Publishing, 2008). Included are tips about topics such as:

Departmental politics
Where to publish
When to serve as an editor
Why to change your career or move

I've just ordered the book from Stylus -- I'll let you know what I think.

Don't overdo your will power quotient

2008-04-18T17:48:00.004-04:00

We only have a limited supply of willpower in our brains at any one time, reports an article in the NY Times. If we use up that supply resisting dessert, giving extra time to students instead of taking a nap, or staying within our budget, we won't have anything left over.

How does this willpower limitation apply to academics? One of the biggest struggles for academics is having the willpower to write on a daily basis. Because there is no one out there calling up each graduate student or professor and asking them how their writing went that day, it is extremely difficult for them to nail their butt to the chair and just write something. So days without writing become weeks without writing, which leads to unfinished dissertations, low publication records, and reams of research that the world isn't learning about.

The fact that we all struggle with willpower in so many areas of life is one reason I came up with the Academic Writing Club. Why use up all your energy trying to go it alone, when you can lean on the support and encouragement of many others just like you? It's a simple but powerful principle. Save all that willpower for organizing your closet or going green.

Mini-hint to help with editing: fact sheets

2008-04-16T14:04:00.002-04:00

A client of mine recently told me about a technique one of her grad school peers uses to get a handle on all the information he's trying to incorporate into a chapter. He creates what he calls "fact sheets." Each fact sheet has one sub-topic or question at the top of a page, and under it he collects his notes and thoughts on that one topic. My client has been using this technique as she edits a chapter, and says that this helps her review her notes in a "somewhat orderly fashion."

How do you get a handle on all the information that is piling up in folders in your computer or on your desk? How do you make sure it all makes it into your writing?

Warning to Ph.D.'s going to Germany

2008-03-14T11:13:00.006-04:00

Do you plan to present a paper at a conference in Germany? Or even worse, are you applying for a job there? Then you'd be better be careful what you call yourself. A Washington Post Articl e that came out today states, "Americans with PhDs beware: Telling people in Germany that you're a doctor could land you in jail." Apparently no one outside of the European Union can call herself "Dr.," even if she has worked at the Max Planck Institute for 10 years and has a Ph.D. from an elite university in the States. So, caveat scholasticus (ok, I don't speak Latin, but that's my best guess at "Scholar, beware"). Or perhaps I should say, Herr oder Frau Doktor, seien Sie vorsichtig (ok, I don't speak German, either.) But consider yourself warned.

Using EverNote for academic research

2008-03-11T21:01:00.002-04:00

I have been rediscovering EverNote today. One of the members of the Friends group in the Academic Writing Club, which I participate in as well as run, brought up EverNote today and wondered who had introduced her to it. Well, it was me! I had tried an early beta version once and it had crashed my computer, so I had been wary to try it again. But she said she used it daily, so I re-downloaded it, and I'm excited about it all over again.

It's a deceptively simple program. I say deceptive because it appears at first glance that it's like a running note pad or journal, where you can write notes, copy and paste, or drag and drop anything that you find online or that you're working on in your computer, and store it chronologically. And that would be reason enough to use it, as far as I'm concerned. But it's a whole lot more. You can assign keywords and categories to each note, use the various templates that are loaded on to create to-do lists, or meeting notes, for example; or download lots of other templates available online such as a template for writing your notes on an article you just read. So you can capture all of your thoughts, all the articles, web sites, notes or even drawings and doodles (if you have a tablet) that you don't want to lose, and you have a way of finding them later.

If you think you might like to try it for your academic research, be sure and check out this post by GTD Wannabe. Also follow the links to the templates that s/he has created, including the aforementioned reading template. GTDW has created a pretty involved system of cross-referencing your readings, things you need to read, and locations where you can find your readings.

EverNote is a free download with all features enabled. After 60 days, if you want to access advanced features, such as image and text recognition, you have to pay ($49.95) although I think a lot of people would be happy with it without those features.

Searching for meaning in academia

2008-03-06T17:34:00.002-05:00

One of the more psychologically-minded and empathic professors who blog about teaching, Louis Schmier writes a blog called "Random Thoughts." His most recent post touches on an issue that I often hear professors talk about: how to find meaning and purpose in academia as you struggle your way up the academic ladder. In an atmosphere where over-working and not having a life can seem to be prized, and where in the years before tenure you feel the need to hide your real self and cater to bureaucratic demands, it's hard to stay in touch with the idealistic visions or intense intellectual passions that got you into academia in the first place. I'm encouraged that he describes having been to a conference (The Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching) where people were able to discuss their feelings about the loss of connection to a "meaningful purpose."

Don't wait until you get tenure to think about these issues. You don't want to arrive at your destination and find out that the struggle to get there wore you out and left you without motivation or interest in your field. Here is a recent post from one of the professors I work with that illustrates what can happen to your life during the tenure-track years if you are not careful:

I actually stopped socializing ... I think it happened in my second year on the tenure track. My work schedule made me avoid people and then I got so used to being alone I stopped seeking people out. Before that, I was fairly social... I think it is really important to maintain contact with friends and socialize. I don't know how to achieve that balance. I think my life is kind of a cautionary tale because I stopped socializing and now I'm not sure I even know how to do it anymore. Not interacting with people outside of work besides my immediate family is a habit for me and I am concerned that I may never get back into a social groove now. I lost some social skills and interacting with people feels exhausting to me and too much work. I can't get to any deeper level with people because I only see them every six months. I don't think this is a good solution at all.

Read Schmier's recent blog post for a more thorough description of the thoughts and feelings of the professors he talked to who "want something more."

Advice for choosing your graduate school

2008-02-27T16:26:00.004-05:00

My latest newsletter, "Mean and Nasty Academics," generated a lot of email and also comments in the Writing Club. Here are some comments from Writing Club members on a thread on the message board called "Advice for Prospective Graduate Students." I've edited out confusing or identifying details.

I have another suggestion for potential grad students when evaluating departments. Most of the time, current grad students will not say anything negative about the people in their department for fear it will get back to the professors. I personally will give a realistic picture of everything administrative (requirements, money, office space, all of which are not the best in my program), but would NEVER EVER say which professors are bad to work with. In general, I have a nice department with friendly, helpful people, but there is one professor in particular who is a nightmare (not the one on my committee, btw!). She is just awful. Abusive is a GREAT word for her. She is a pretty big name, though, and puts on a good show for prospective students. So when we get one coming through who is really excited about working with her, we (not just me but the other grad students too) try to dissuade him or her. We have to do it subtly, though. We will never say anything bad about the professor, but we do make comments like “MOST people are great to work with.” and “Don’t make your decision to go to a particular grad school based on one professor, because they could go on sabbatical, they could leave… or they could be a nightmare to work with!” Often, though, the potential grad students don’t pick up on our subtle messages, but we aren’t willing to say any more. So when I have friends who are looking into Ph.D. programs, I always tell them to pay attention when the grad students are neutral about something, or try to avoid the topic, because that is a big red flag.
One thing I realized is that it it sometimes worthwhile to ask current grad students at one school if they know anything about other programs that you are considering. Sometimes they will have friends there or have heard gossip. We have no problem being upfront about other programs, just not our own! I had one friend who was looking at a school that is a good school but happens to have a very dysfunctional department, and I was able to tell him some info (not a lot, but some), and connect him to other friends at other schools who knew a little more.
Gina’s newsletter got me thinking about all the advice that I have given friends of mine who wanted to do Ph.D. programs. The first thing I usually do is try to talk them out of it, but I always fail. So after that, I give them advice on what to look for in a program and what questions to ask. I looked through my emails to find my “best of”... I wanted to share some of my other tips and hear any from you guys.

I would only recommend a Ph.D. to people who really want to do academia, or who are in an area where you really NEED a Ph.D. to do a particular non–academic job (usually in the sciences). If you’re not sure if you want to go into academia, then I would wait before going back OR if you really want to go back to school, make sure you go somewhere that gives you a masters if you quit. (my university only started doing this last year; if they had done it in year 2, I guarantee I would have quit!).

If the school has an admit day where they fly everyone out, make sure to swap info with the other admits on at each university b/c it’s a good way to make connections...You can also compare notes since you’ll probably have all gotten into different programs and heard different things.

Do not go anywhere just for one person. If there is ONE professor that you really want to work with, but don’t want to work with the others, that’s not a great bet, b/c people go on sabbatical, they leave, or sometimes end up being horrible to work with. Incidentally, this is true for the job market too, as we keep getting told (although we know it anyway).

Be sure to ask where they have placed people recently. I am not talking about the superstar graduate from 15 years ago, but in the last 5 years, where have they gone? A lot of times, websites or brochures will list recent placements, but they might not be representative or even all that recent.

Also, ask how long it takes people to get out. I would actually ask current students this. do not believe anyone who tells you you can get out in 4 years– this is pretty much impossible. 5 is the minimum. (this is true at least in my field– the only people I know who have finished in 4 years came in with their own data for their dissertation on day 1 of year 1 of the program.) What are the requirements? Are they comparable with the requirements of other schools? (I wish I had asked this question!)

Find out how accessible the professors are– do they like grad students? Do grad students get to do a lot of good research and get co–authorships? (if you hear the word “apprenticeship” this is a good thing) What is the funding like? Are they really strict about cutting you off after a certain point? (this is less of an issue in [our] system b/c if you TA for a class, it pays your fees). If they are strict about cutting you off, do they at least do their best to get you out in time? ([Another school I know] is like this– they will cut you off, but they also don’t try to hold you back for the most part). All things being equal, it is better to go somewhere with more money b/c you will get better funding (less TAing/teaching is always better). More funding will in general make your life better.

Do they kick a lot of people out? If so, why?

Since I am a particularly negative Nellie about academia, I often recommend that my friends go lurk/post on PhinisheD, since there are a lot of people there who love academia, just to get a more positive viewpoint on it. It is the right path for some people.

I would also ask them to think of their life commitments and plans before starting on a Phd. I am told that research shows that married men finish their grad school faster, and married women slower. Also do you think your spouse can live with you needing to devote so much time to the dissertation. Do they understand what it takes ? My husband often jokes about starting a ‘Distressed spouses of Phd’ clubs, as does my sister who is married to an ABD. It can’t be done if people around you are not supportive of this project which can run into several years.

Do you have any advice that you wish someone had told you before you applied to graduate school? You could save someone a lot of heartache if you posted it here!

Do you feel pressured by your mentors?

2008-02-26T15:34:00.002-05:00

So many professors have told me that they feel "overly mentored" by their chair or others in their department, in their quest for tenure. Even though the mentoring may be meant in a kindly, helpful way, it can result in the mentee feeling inadequate, bullied, or even paralyzed.

If you are in this situation, and giving direct feedback to the mentor is either not helping, or not advisable in your situation, then you need to work on your own point of view. You need to work on not giving too much power to the mentor, and feeling like you are the one in control; the one making decisions for yourself.

Here is a great 6 minute video by Byron Katie, illustrating a cognitive-behavioral technique for convincing yourself that you have choices, even if you are being pressured.

You can also see examples of the process she calls "The Work" which is a series of techniques for questioning your beliefs that keep you trapped.

I haven't read anywhere else about this problem of overeager mentors doing more harm than good in academia. If you have examples that you can share, please let me know, or comment here.

Hazing and Bullying: One Academic's Story

2008-02-25T12:51:00.003-05:00

In response to my newsletter article ("Mean and Nasty Academics" -- see previous post), I received some insightful replies. One of them is reprinted in full here, with permission of the author, leaving out any identifying information.

About ten years ago I helped form an organization for students with disabilities at an Ivy League University. At our first meeting with graduate students, we went around and talked about our experiences and needs from the organization. There were students in professional programs and students in academic, arts and sciences programs.

The students in arts and sciences, of whom I was one, uniformly told of harassment and abuse, loading on extra work, being stifled especially in bringing up ADA-related requests for accomodation.

In contrast, students in professional programs told of faculty who were solicitous and kind, who sought to adapt the program to fit the student's abilities.

I had experienced hazing in the first year particularly; since my funding was year to year, I was in a precarious position to file a complaint. Then I fell off a library stool, and suffered a major broken leg. Suddenly the funding was there, for the next semester. Guilt worked.

Ten years later, I see how callow and unprepared I was for the Ivy League academic culture. The Department now has shifted graduate advisers to one who is rigorous and defined about what a student needs to do, and these standards apply across the board. She is also approachable, and stands up for the first-year students in the required colloquium.

What worked best for me was to find my strength, in talking about subject matter and approaches to subject matter. Absolutely never to talk about personalities, say "I'm sorry," or admit weakness. For accommodation, I would go to the Student Disabilities Coordinator, and vent, and we would work out an approach to the faculty member involved, or the library, or whatever was needed.

The disabled Arts and Sciences students at that first meeting were all women, so we may have been getting a double-barreled dose of hazing.

In thinking about that experience, I can see that what (some) men gain in going through fraternity initiation, or playing team sports, may help in cultivating stoic endurance, or understanding a culture based on stoic endurance. Women are not socialized to such a culture. People with disabilities have no toehold in academic culture to which to be socialized. I joined, as student representative, the all-campus committee called Architectural Barrier Removal and Prevention, and it became my support group. Didn't support the academics, but allowed me as a person to believe that I fit on that campus.

Circling back around to the hazing itself, what was so scary? First was the private discussion with the Chair of Graduate Studies, who said "Don't talk about your disability," in a threatening tone. That's in contrast to ADA requirements that you DO bring up your disability and what accommodations are needed. I had a required course with this man, and needed to change my seat in a seminar so I could hear all the discussants. I asked to do so, he said "All the seats are fixed." I had counted on taking a lighter load in the first semester, as I had in a State University; he announced that all first year graduate students were required to take a full load. The summer after the first year, my mother was dying, yet I had to finish incompletes, in order to get (or release) that funding for the next year, so I couldn't go visit her. Then I broke my leg, and *really* couldn't go visit before she died. Of course once she died, the Department and teachers in other departments were a bit kinder.

Having finished in that program, I don't feel bitter. I had some support, in the following years, and survived. My dissertation was MacArthur "Genius" Grant quality, though I don't know anyone to nominate me for it. OK, I'm laughing.

The message is that doing good work is a way of undoing the sting of harassment, and the pain of bullying, a way of asserting one's self. It doesn't make it right, or helpful.

I could have finished sooner without the bullying. In my time there, I've seen incoming faculty come to the tenure decision point and be denied. Although I don't know their experiences, I would bet that they were harassed, disrupted, and bullied when requesting those things that would help them complete tenure. I talked with one who made it, who needed a semester off to finish her book, but was needed in the Department for teaching, so they said. She thought that the tenure clock would be postponed automatically. I said that wasn't a sure thing, based on an earlier tenure candidate who had not gotten an extended time to file for tenure. I suggested that she check it out and make a formal request. She did, finished her book, and got tenure.

And now that I know them, and they know me, for most I would say that these are all nice people. But until you have a good long basis of understanding, and even after, it helps to think of them as tricky, mean, nasty, SOBs, every once in while, not constantly.

Why do I post this person's recounting of her story? I believe that the more we air these kinds of stories, the more likely it will be that administrators will do what's right, and not just what's expedient, when it appears that academic bullying is involved.

Mean and Nasty Academics: Bullying, Hazing, and Mobbing

2008-02-24T13:28:00.005-05:00

“Tenure is supposed to protect scholars from outside control, but it does a lousy job of protecting them from one another.”
-- Kenneth Westhues, quoted in The Chronicle of Higher Education

I don't usually post my newsletters here, but I think this is a subject that needs to get more airing. So here is the text of my latest newsletter, called "Mean and Nasty Academics." (If you'd like to sign up for my bi-weekly (sometimes less frequent) newsletter, go to this page, which also lists the bonuses you will receive.)

Another reason I'm posting this newsletter issue is that I have received some interesting replies from my newsletter readers that will help those of you struggling with these issues. I will put these replies up in later posts.

Mean and Nasty Academics

"I was surprised to experience hazing as a graduate student, not once, but continually and by multiple professors… I watched how some of the other women faculty members in the department were treated, and they were second-class citizens at best." (Twale and De Luca, 2008, p.84)
"A tenured full female prof gets up to talk, and an untenured junior faculty man tells her that her ideas are not really important, that it may be a concern of hers but not ours. And the entire faculty went along with it, including the women... Be invisible. We weren’t supposed to say anything, even the strong women who could hold their own. Women sensed they were in a powerless position." [Ibid, p.85]

As an academic coach, I could add many more examples of graduate students and professors of all ranks being victimized by mean, nasty, harsh, underhanded, passive aggressive or bullying behavior at the hands of other academics.

The only reason I don’t give you details of what my clients have told me over the years is that I need to protect the identity of the victims. However, I’m not giving anything away if I tell you that I have heard numerous examples of departments ganging up on one individual, of professors being shunned, of tenured professors harassing other tenured professors, and of incredibly harsh treatment of graduate students by their advisors or other professors.

Bullying and emotional abuse don’t only exist in academia (see Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace). But Darla Twale and Barbara De Luca, the authors of Faculty Incivility: The Rise of the Academic Bully Culture and What to Do About It, suggest that there has been an increase in “bullying, mobbing, camouflaged aggression, and harassment” (p. xii) within academia.

In working with people who have been the victims of bullying, I find that one of their first needs is reassurance that they did not do anything to deserve such treatment. So let me say that No one, ever, under any circumstances, deserves to be humiliated, undermined, insulted, shunned, marginalized, ganged up on, or even spoken to harshly. If it has happened to you, you did not cause it to happen. And you are not alone.

What Can I Do About Bullying?

There is no space here to review the reasons that academics can be so cruel to one another. Instead, I’ll focus on what you can do about it. The following suggestions are summarized from the Twale and De Luca book; additional comments from me are in brackets.

Avoid becoming part of an abusive department. Before you attend graduate school or accept a job, do your homework. Look at faculty turnover rates, policies and guidelines regarding harassment, and level of enforcement of such policies as seen in grievance filings and resolutions. [Note for prospective faculty: Talk to all the current and past faculty members that you can.] [Note for graduate students: Look at graduation rates and time to degree for both your prospective department and advisor, and talk to as many more advanced graduate students as you can to find out the “hall file” on any prospective advisor or department that you are considering.]

If you are the victim of any kind of abuse:

Document all communication concerning the abuse and take notes on all occurrences.
Share with a close friend and/or colleague to get their take on the situation.
Assess the situation coolly and continue to observe and collect information in order to see who is involved and how widespread the problem is.
Don’t react precipitously or impulsively.
Don’t react in kind. [Note: if you are equally rude, you won’t come out looking better than the perpetrator.]
Show appropriate assertiveness. [Note: the way to do this could be the subject of a book, so get help with this if you don’t know how.]
Get institutional support. The authors suggest that professors contact a local chapter of the American Association of University Professors. [Graduate students should contact their Director of Graduate Studies, the chairperson of their department, or their dean.]
[Note: educate yourself about bullying – see links below.]
[Note: If necessary, get help from a therapist or academic coach that is knowledgeable about this kind of situation.]

Luckily, academia has many wonderful people in it, who are horrified by the notion of abuse, and who would not stand for it if they were made aware of it. By exposing such behavior to the light of day, we can increase awareness and help increase the likelihood that administrators will intervene in cases of academic bullying.

Have you personally experienced an incident or situation in which you were bullied, abused or mobbed (ganged up on) within an academic setting? If you were, and you’d like to share it (with names and identities changed) in order to help the readers of this newsletter better understand what can occur in academia, please write me at gina@academicladder.com

Twale, Darla J. & De Luca, Barbara M. (2008) Faculty Incivility: The Rise of the Academic Bully Culture and What to Do About It. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

___________________________________________________________

If you have been the victim of bullying in academia, this informative blog has many useful links.
Bullying of Academics in Higher Education

Also see: “Mob Rule: In Departmental Disputes, Professors Can Act Just Like Animals” in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

And it can happen to postdocs: “When Bad Things Happen to Good Postdocs”

Where I Used to Procrastinate

2007-12-21T21:33:00.000-05:00

.....................................

Where I Used to Procrastinate

Lyrics by Gina Hiatt

Sung to the tune of

Where I Used to Have a Heart,

by Martina McBride

......................................

There were times I’d want to eat

Paint pretty toenails on my feet

Do anything but write

I’ll get to it later tonight

——————————–

Find me another closet to clean

Make a call to my Aunt Jean

Think I’ll read another blog

Or maybe go out for a jog

——————————–

Then I found you, Writing Club

Almost as fun as my old pub

No more waiting for the dark

To get me my che–eck mark

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chorus:

Done with writing delay

Email reading all day

Thinking writing can wait

Where I used to procrastinate

——————————–

Where I used to procrastinate

I sit down and make a list

I just write down everything

And clear out the mist.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

There were times I’d go a day

Or a month or two, let’s say

Without writing a single word

Made me feel just like a turd

——————————–

Writing Club, Writing Club,

Gotta finish, there’s the rub

All you people by my side

I can’t give up and I can’t hide

——————————–

No more endless games of Snood

Wondering why I want more food

Watching reruns on TV

No procrastinating for me

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Chorus:

Done with writing delay

Email reading all day

Thinking writing can wait

Where I used to procrastinate

——————————–

Where I used to procrastinate

I sit down and make a list

I just write down everything

And clear out the mist.

Whoa — oh, and clear out the mist.

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Video: Great argument for action on global warming

2007-12-19T11:15:00.001-05:00

You're probably already convinced. But here's a nice way to convince skeptics of the necessity for action.

Perfectionism + Academia = Misery

2007-12-08T13:41:00.000-05:00

"The graveyard is filled with indispensable people."

A recent NY Times article, "Unhappy? Self-Critical? Maybe You're Just a Perfectionist," discusses the price you pay for expecting too much of yourself, engaging in all-or-none thinking, and being too self-critical. In other words, if you act like 99% of academics. Although this article does not mention academics, it does describe three types of perfectionists. Academics tend to fall into the first category: "Self-oriented strivers who struggle to live up to their high standards." These unfortunate people are at risk for self-critical depression.

The article describes how a counselor at U.C. Davis had some perfectionists "slack off, " in order to discover that the world didn't collapse when they didn't push themselves to excel. Although I wouldn't prescribe slacking off for most academics I work with, they probably could use some help in being more reasonable in their expectations of themselves, in saying "No" to excessive external demands, and in having more moderate work habits. At Academic Ladder we approach this gently, asking people to start writing in moderately short writing sessions, taking frequent breaks, and being kind in what they say to themselves internally. Our Academic Writing Club uses this approach also -- people are reminded daily not to demand a ridiculously high quality and quantity of scholarly output of themselves. Paradoxically, they perform at a higher level in the long run.

A Vision of Students Today

2007-12-05T13:44:00.001-05:00

Food for thought...

Start your own dissertation group

2007-12-01T13:24:00.000-05:00

Graduate students who participate in departmental dissertation groups or groups led by their dissertation advisor (which I will call "formal groups") can count themselves lucky. The vast majority of grad students, especially in the humanities and social sciences, are not members of a dissertation group.

The good news is:

You can start your own dissertation group
It might even be more useful than the formal groups mentioned above.

I've written about the difference between such formal groups and the coaching groups we run at Academic Ladder. There is another solution, however, for those of you who don't have access to a formal group and cannot afford to sign up for a coaching group with us.

Start your own group! The trick is to start thinking outside of the box.

Here are some features of the standard formal group, which I would suggest you consider changing, in order to meet the needs of your particular group:

They meet monthly
They meet in person.
You submit a chapter to the members ahead of time.
Depending on the size of the group, your turn to submit may only come around every few months or twice a year.
One person presents their work at each meeting and it is critiqued by all present.

Here are some alternatives and creative additions to this standard format:

Meet weekly or every other week.
Meet on the phone (there are free bridge lines available.)
Start a private listserv for your group to communicate whenever they want (private listservs can be set up through Yahoo Groups.
Submit smaller and less polished pieces of work.
Ask for help on specific areas where you are stuck (e.g. presenting your argument, how much or which evidence to use, organization of a section.)
Play around with various "assignments" that you all agree on (e.g. submitting a "statement of purpose" for your current section or chapter, or submitting a work plan for the next month).
Commit to specific goals that you will achieve and report on in the next meeting.
Keep a group score card with a space for each person to check off whether they achieved their goal.

A client of mine recently started her own group, and it is working wonderfully for all the members. She wrote to me:

I'm so proud of our group. I think the format is great--a small group, meeting every other week with some form of writing. We are getting very attuned to each other's projects--having the dissertation abstract as the first writing piece has been marvelous, b/c it gives me a roadmap for the subsequent writing pieces that each of us produced.

Another client arranged a group by writing to her departmental listserv, and then forming a smaller group online with those who responded. She has since successfully defended her dissertation, and credits the group (and me!) with a lot of her success in finishing.

If you can't find enough people in your own discipline, consider looking outside your field. People in foreign languages, comparative literature, and English, for example, can help each other with the writing process.

Be creative and try out different options. Academia can get so sticky and possessive of its methods, which are sometimes too formal and old-fashioned. Think about what your needs are, and start your dissertation group based on that starting point. And please let me know how it goes!

The Last Day of Class

2007-11-29T11:12:00.000-05:00

It's not too early to start thinking about the last day of class, is it? This page from U.C. Berkeley has 16 tips for the last day of class, and some links to other resources.

How to be an academic original

2007-10-10T20:24:00.000-04:00

My newsletter for October 10 will be on "Six Steps to an Original Contribution."

Of course, the way to be original is to think creatively. In Barbara Lovitts' new book Making the Implicit Explicit: Creating Performance Expectations for the Dissertation, she clarifies what the 270 faculty members who took part in her focus groups indicated went into an original contribution.

So what is an original contribution? The description starts out: "Something that has not been done, found, known, proved, said, or seen before that results from:" I won't write out the rest of her description -- the book is worth reading in its entirety, plus I don't have permission! But I want to note the actions that cause the "something new" to be created:

Asking or identifying
Applying
Developing
Inventing
Creating
Finding
Coming up with
Producing
Combining
Synthesizing

Clearly these are all actions that demand creativity.

Let's assume that you are trying to think up a research topic in a relatively new area. Here are some tricks for launching creative thinking. These ideas all relate to the idea of jarring your thinking loose from its old associational pathways, in order to allow yourself to perceive in fresh new ways.

Identify one area you might be interested in exploring. Force yourself to ask 5 questions about this area. Write them down quickly and don't be critical.

Try "what if" questions. If your questions seem silly or dull, don't worry; just write them down. For example:

"What if they did this research on children?" or
"What if I applied this to countries with socialist policies?"

Often it helps to come up with truly wacky questions

Try repeated "why" questions, asking and then answering "Why."

"I'd like to study the history of quilting in Ohio." "Why?"
"Because it will show how pioneer women in this area differed from those in the South." "Why?"
"Because..."

Try "who, what, when, where, how" questions. For example:

"Who else could I study using this method?"

"What would I gain from examining this?"

Write down 10 facts or problems associated with the area of interest on small pieces of paper. Move the pieces of paper around and notice if new associations come up.

Create a mind map with the possible topic or area of interest in the middle. Draw a circle around it.

Think of a word that you associate to it, and draw it on a line radiating out from that circle
Repeat with as many words as you can
Then draw word associates to that word.
Try using colors and pictures

Create an "Ideatoon."

Make a storyboard of your ideas or thoughts (again, don't be self critical at this stage) by writing them on post-it notes and putting them on the wall, either in radiating patterns as in a mind map, or in columns.

I've got a lot more ideas to spark your creativity -- for later posts.