Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from July, 2006

How to rework some writing that's not working

Here's how one new faculty member worked on turning her dissertation into an article. It's way better than staring at a computer screen and swearing. I don’t want to jinx it, but may have had a breakthrough with the article I’m working on. Earlier this week/last week, I pulled out a big section of chapter 1 of my diss to serve as the introduction/lit review of my article, and I started working on trimming and condensing it (since I need it to be way shorter for an article-length piece). But. It wasn’t really gelling. It seemed kind of disjointed, not entirely relevant to my article (but OK for the diss), and very dissertationy (not surprising, given the source). Frustrated, I spent a chunk of Wednesday outlining the material in its current form. This is my fall back strategy when I’m stuck: I gloss the text, writing short descriptions of what each paragraph is focused on; then I compile those descriptions so I can read an overview of the whole piece and get a better sense of i

The Academic Brain

This is how your left hemisphere looks most of the time. Your Right Hemisphere, on the other hand, can feel peaceful, think about the big picture, and take disparate thoughts and connect them up, in order to create new ideas. The trick is to figure out how to get them talking to each other. To learn more about my neuropsychological take on the academic brain, see my newsletter, coming out on Thursday morning. Be sure you're on the mailing list -- sign up on the Academic Ladder home page .

Free 20-minute coaching sessions -- limited time offer

Are you having trouble moving forward on your dissertation and wondering what it's like to work with a dissertation coach? Are you unsure what a dissertation coach does and how a coach could assist you to make significant and sustained progress to your degree? Now you can experience the benefits of working with a coach through a free 20-minute coaching session. Find out for yourself if working with a dissertation coach is the answer for you. For the next two weeks Jayne London, my associate in The Academic Ladder, is offering complimentary 20-minute dissertation coaching sessions. This is a fantastic opportunity for you. Read what other graduate students have said about working with Jayne: The suggestions you made earlier this week made my work come together perfectly. It probably saved me three to five days or more of wheel spinning and over-planning. Dee McGraw, doctoral candidate, Emory University Jayne has enabled me to eradicate old, ineffective ways of working and develop new