My EME6920 class is currently discussing the dissertation process. I thought it might be nice to share my dissertation story. So, here it is:
Category Archives: writing
Learning from Peer Review: Resources
Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Firm Faith Watson. If you don’t know her, you should! Her title is Director of the Faculty Development Center at Murray State University, but she serves more than just the Murray State community. She has created the This Works for Me Virtual Summit, a series in which she interviews various academics about … well, about what works for them! The youtube channel is here.
My contribution to the series is on the topic of peer review. We don’t talk about peer review all that much in academe other than to complain about Reviewer 2 (who maybe isn’t so bad after all), but we should!
Writing, 400 words at a time
For the last year (and 3 months) I’ve done a lot of writing. I haven’t tallied it all up, but I’ve participated in the Any Good Thing Writing Challenge and I have been successful each month. Success means that I’ve been able to generate at least 400 words at least 5 days per week throughout that time. And that’s a lot of words.
400 Words
Start time: 5:29 pm
Writing. So many people in academic environments struggle with writing, and I am no exception. My typical problems include procrastination and overcommitment, which then combine to paralyze me at times. Rather than writing anything, I write nothing (not to fear, I’m still working because there’s always plenty to grade, edit, report on, etc.). For the last several years, I’ve tended to put myself last, which means that writing has been last on my to do list. I would have inner dialogues that went something like this:
Okay, it’s 9 am. Why not give yourself 30 minutes to catch up on email, then knock out those letters of recommendation, check in with the online class, do the manuscript review for the journal, and then you’ll be clear to write your own manuscript for the rest of the day.
Vanessa Dennen 