All posts by Madeline Walker

Summer bummer and working to white noise

Academic Writing, Deadlines, Distractions, Environment, Focus strategies, Goal setting, Inspiration and motivation, Posts by Emily, Procrastination, procrastination, Productivity, Time management, Writing resources

By Emily Arvay

© University of Victoria

As the weather warms, it can be increasingly tempting to cast off thesis or dissertation work in favour of a strawberry gelato, or pick-up baseball, or a fluffy beach book. Ironically, it is often during the summer months that graduate students find themselves bogged down with preparing for major field exams, thesis or dissertation writing, or condensed language-requirement courses. For many, the intensity of graduate work during the summer months might mean having to forgo that picnic in the park or rousing beach bonfire. One tactic for warding off such tempting distractions is to pretend, at least temporarily, that summer doesn’t exist. To drown out the squeals of children leaping through sprinklers, you might try losing yourself to the quiet din of a busy library, steady rainfall of a winter storm, or smoothing balm of furniture music. Rather than bemoaning those mint mojitos you’re missing out on, you might try embracing your newfound status as a den-dwelling troglodyte by closing those curtains, silencing those devices, and riding out that tsunami of graduate schoolwork with this ten-hour loop of rainy-day jazz. Although it won’t be easy, you might approach your thesis or dissertation project as you would a sandy band-aid: by pushing through the short-term pain of getting those drafted chapters off to your supervisory committee as quickly as possible. Then, once sent, you can treat yourself to a much-deserved break. Long-awaited, that beach-side lemonade will taste all-the-sweeter.

About the author:

Emily Arvay completed her PhD at the University of Victoria in 2019 with her thesis “Climate Change, the Ruined Island, and British Metamodernism.”  Since then she has worked as a Learning Strategist and EAL Specialist at the University of Victoria. She is currently conducting further research on the intersections between literary metamodernism and contemporary climate fictions.

Need to get on track? There’s an app for that

Deadlines, Dissertation writing, Distractions, Focus strategies, Goal setting, Make writing social, Motivation, Posts by Madeline, Procrastination, procrastination, Productivity, Time management

By Madeline Walker

Our last post was way back in March. I was going to write about some time management and productivity apps and tools to complement Emily’s wonderful post, but fittingly, I procrastinated about that. And here it is, the end of May, and I am finally tackling this task! I think I need one of these apps. . .

My colleagues  at the Centre for Academic Communication told me about some productivity tools and apps they use or have had recommended to them. Today, I am checking out a few.

Some apps are about sticking to the task at hand by shutting out distractions. If you are a Mac user, this free application, SelfControl, will “let you block your own access to distracting websites.” The skull image scared me a little—I might die if I can’t  access my mail for half an hour!

SelfControl app

Calmly Writer and Forest apps also give you the “distraction-free” writing experience; as with many of these apps, you can get a free trial then will have to pay.

Kaveh swears by the kitchen timer: “I find the simple technique of dividing your working time to rotating minutes for work and a break (at a ratio of 5:1 or 4:1) the most effective. If a kitchen timer does the magic for you, then you can call it the Pomodoro Technique (but it doesn’t have to be). You can simply use any timer.”

Are you a list maker? You might like Toodledo, a listing app that helps you organize life and work. The claim is that it will “increase your productivity,” providing a place to “write long notes, make custom lists, create structure outlines and track your habits.”

Finally, two intriguing apps have to do with making commitments in order to increase your productivity.

stickk is a “commitment platform with the tools to help you achieve your goals.” When you sign up with stickk, you make a  commitment contract, for example, I will write five times a week for 12 weeks. The makers claim the difference between having a goal to achieving that goal is to make a binding agreement with yourself.  Additionally, you can put money on the line by committing to pay a certain amount if you do NOT reach your goal. They even suggest promising to donate to an organization with values antithetical to your own in order to motivate you to stick to your commitment. I thought of promising $100 to the National Rifle Association if I fail to meet my goal of walking four times a week, but then I backed out.

With the app called focusmate, you sign up to be part of a “community of doers.” You arrange to work in tandem silence with a “live peer accountability partner” for 50 minutes of distraction-free writing (or some other task), up to three times a week. The app claims that it can help you eliminate procrastination and commit to “blasting excuses and get important work done.” When you are accountable to another person, you show up.

Sounds a bit like our Graduate Writing Room, 2-4 PST Wednesday afternoons: Join us and get ‘er done:

https://uvic.zoom.us/j/84862607742

Do you have any great productivity and time management apps you’d like to share in the comments? We’d love to hear from you.

https://selfcontrolapp.com

https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique

https://www.calmlywriter.com

https://www.forestapp.cc

https://www.toodledo.com/

https://www.stickk.com/

https://www.focusmate.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Too much to do and not enough time?

Academic Writing, Anxiety, Centre for Academic Communication, Deadlines, Distractions, Focus strategies, Goal setting, Inspiration and motivation, Mental health, Motivation, Organization/ Order, Planning, Posts by Emily, Procrastination, procrastination, Productivity, Stress, Time management

By Emily Arvay

 

Q: Why is time management so hard?

A: There are many different reasons for why time management is hard. Lots of students might wait until things are already off the rails to think about time-management. And when you are in triage mode and putting out fires, taking the time to create a time-management plan can seem counter-productive. Also, students sometimes create vague or unreasonable time-management plans that set them up for failure. So within a week of setting up their plan, they are already behind and then just abandon the plan.

Often, time-management plans are unworkable because the student has neglected to really think through and spatialize their course requirements in enough detail. Frequently, students already in a state of panic about missed assignments and late penalties might find it challenging to think through complex processes in a step-by-step way due to elevated cortisol levels that often come with anxiety, not to mention sleep deprivation from pulling successive all-nighters.

Ironically, one of the great benefits of building a reasonable time-management plan is that it can greatly reduce that sense of panic by restoring to students a sense of control over their lives – once the plan is in place, a student need only review the items for a single day, hold those items in mind, and let go of the rest. So, to use a metaphor, instead of staring at the top of a mountain wondering how can I possibly climb that, a student need only look to the closest tree and hike to that point.

More importantly, having a good plan in place can prevent burnout because it enables students to give themselves guilt-free permission to set school-related activities aside. If you have ticked all of your to-do boxes for the morning, you can go for that walk to the ocean. Or, if you have completed the task you needed to do after dinner, you can binge-watch whatever new series you enjoy without feeling that you are somehow not doing enough.

One added perk that comes with good time-management plans is that students often find interpersonal tensions related to poor well-being or the perception of overvaluing school at the expense of significant relationships really improves, which can generate a supportive and motivating feedback loop.

But setting aside the impact of stress, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and interpersonal strain, more commonly students may not give much reflective thought to how much time it takes to complete different tasks and then do the math to see what that process looks like when spatialized.

 That is, not many students time themselves to see how long it might take to read one page of a challenging but not overly difficult academic article, or how long it might take to write 250 words of an essay. So, in underappreciating how long certain tasks might take, students also can set themselves up for failure in terms of time-management.

Most often, when I ask to see how students are presently managing their time, what I see spatialized are assignment deadlines, marked in an agenda or on their computer calendar, or on the whiteboard. What I most often see are a string of dates for submission: something along the lines of submit English research paper today at midnight and that’s it. Or a student may dedicate large coloured squares of time to different subjects: on Mondays, there might be a large blue square for Math in the morning and then a large green square for Biology after lunch, but without any indication of what particular tasks are intended to be completed during those intervals.

What is notably absent from most time-management plans are the most important elements: catch up times and necessary activities such as buying groceries, eating, sleeping, getting exercise, socializing, doing things that make you feel good about your life.

Also, sometimes what students “label” poor time-management might actually be something else, such as procrastination due to perfectionism, or writer’s block due to a fear of failure seeded by familial expectation, or a sense of dread created by overly-critical thoughts, or poor self-discipline from a lack of intrinsic motivation or greater sense of academic purpose.

So for students who find it difficult to stick with an otherwise reasonable and well thought out time-management plan, it might be worthwhile to give some thought to what, in particular, is behind poor time-management. In those moments when a plan is abandoned, it might be worthwhile to draw greater awareness to what kinds of thoughts or feelings might be surfacing to prevent the completion of that task? If the underlying issue is perfectionism, or fear of failure, or lack of purpose, there are related strategies students might use to overcome those challenges too.

 Q: What are some effective strategies?

A: To create a time-management plan with enough detail, I would forgo sticky notes, or those tiny paper planners, or even a white board in favour of a some type of electronic planner, if possible. This strategy often allows students to squeeze in more information, cut and paste items efficiently, and even automate important reminders. But really, use whatever system will work, since there is no point in generating a time-management plan that is not regularly consulted and, for some people, the physical reminder of a white board is key.

I would recommend that students build comprehensive time-management plans in the first week of the term when they have access to all of their course syllabi. First, I would recommend coding in necessary items, such as meal times, ideal start and stop times, times for exercising, times for commuting to work, times for enjoying hobbies, times to enjoy friend or family commitments. Perhaps you might decide to take each Saturday off to recoup from school?

Then code in major deadlines, noting the weight/value of each, time they are due, preferred method of submission. Then spatialize, working backwards from the deadline, all the tasks required to complete that assignment. So if the assignment is a seven page research paper requiring you to cite ten academic sources, code in the time to write each of those seven pages, time to create your outline for writing, time to collate notes and quotes from selected sources, time to read those ten sources, time to locate and upload or print those sources. Once this process is complete, time also to book an appointment with a CAC tutor, and time to integrate their feedback into your final draft before submitting that assignment.

I would do the same process for each major assignment, leaving in one hour of catch up time for each hour of time worked so that if things really start to slip sideways, if there is an unexpected illness or extenuating life circumstance that pose a setback, there is still plenty of wiggle-room left to shift items around.

Likewise, I would ask each student to give some thought to how long they can reasonably focus. Some students prefer to work for two-hour intervals without interruption followed by a long break. Some students find they focus best in 25 minute intervals with 5-10 minute breaks. Some students do their best work early in the morning, with their first cup of coffee. Some students work best after dinner into the wee hours of the night. Regardless of whether you are an early bird or night owl, you might give some thought to what time of day you tend to sustain greatest focus, think most clearly, and can produce your best work. If you can identify that time, I would complete your most challenging task then.Likewise, you might give some thought to the hours of your day that you tend to feel more foggy or sluggish (for many this is right after eating a large meal, or right before bed) so you might want to devote your easiest work to those periods of time?

You might also think about ways you might incentivize the completion of hard tasks. Perhaps you might go for a run, then sit down to complete a hard task. Or perhaps you might complete the hard task knowing that, once completed, you can reward yourself by listening to your favourite song, or watching comedy on Youtube, or eating a bowl of ice-cream.

Q: What should a student do when they simply DON’T have enough time?

A: If you find yourself in triage mode, it might be wise to adopt a “good enough” mentality that is dispassionately strategic. To this end, you might consider….

  • Which assignments are worth the least? Which readings do you NOT have to read? Which feed into assignments? Which readings can you skim?
  • Read the abstract and headings. Read only the intro and conclusion and forget the middle. Read topic sentences. Read phrases that are italicised or in bold. Read (peer-reviewed) reviews of that work to obtain a scholarly synopsis (rather than online cliff notes, etc).
  • Tag team with a trusted classmate. You read one article and they read the second; you share with each other what you have learned.
  • Ask instructors for extensions as soon as you realize you are in an impossible time crunch. Avoid asking for extensions on the day of your assignment deadline. Keep your email to your instructor simple and straightforward. Include your full name, course section, and V number. You do not need to explain why you are requesting an extension beyond using a phrase such as “difficult extenuating circumstances.” Suggest an alternative deadline, one that gives you more time than you need to avoid having to ask for an extension on your extension! Thank your instructor for their time and consideration.

 For more time-management strategies, you might listen to this podcast.

 About the author

To show the author's faceEmily Arvay completed her PhD at the University of Victoria in 2019 with her thesis “Climate Change, the Ruined Island, and British Metamodernism.”  Since then she has worked as a Learning Strategist and EAL Specialist at the University of Victoria. She is currently conducting further research on the intersections between literary metamodernism and contemporary climate fictions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enliven your writing in 2021

Academic Writing, Blogs and blogging, Posts by Madeline, Writing resources

Welcome back. I hope you had a good break. We all needed a rest after an exhausting and challenging semester in the midst of a pandemic.  Would you like to join me in starting 2021 with a resolution to exhume “zombie nouns” from your writing? In this humorous video, Helen Sword contends that when we turn other parts of speech (verbs, adjectives) into nouns by adding a suffix, we create “zombie nouns” or nominalizations that suck the life out of our writing, making it more abstract and difficult to read.

I’ll take Sword’s example: “The proliferation of nominalizations in a discursive formation may be an indication of a tendency towards pomposity and abstraction” contains seven nominalizations and doesn’t leave us with a clear idea of who is doing what. Several of the bolded words started as lively verbs (proliferate, form, indicate, tend) and others started as adjectives (pompous, abstract), but they life drained from each of them with the added suffixes, which added unnecessary complexity.

Reanimated, this sentence becomes “Writers who overload their sentences with nominalizations tend to sound pompous and abstract.” Note that a human (the writer) was added for clarity. So much better!

Sword also created The Writer’s Diet, a tool that measures words and constructions that weaken writing, for example be-verbs and zombie nouns. I tested a paragraph of a recently published article*, and zombie nouns were off the chart! Academics tend to use many nominalizations. Indeed, you may think of nominalizations as a required feature of  formal writing, and perhaps you’ve even added nominalizations to make your writing sound more “academic.” But as Sword says, nominalizations obscure meaning, and you want to communicate important ideas and research as transparently as possible. I invite you to join me in analyzing your writing this year to see if you can enliven and clarify your sentences by reducing nominalizations.

screen shot of the writers diet website testing an excerpt of flabby prose

Resources:

Sword’s tool and video are a good place to start. You can add the Writer’s Diet app to your Microsoft Word program for free. Another resource on this topic is  OWL’s page on nominalizations.

Write for us! 

Would you like to write for the blog?  We welcome ideas and blog posts from graduate students, staff members, and instructors. Please send your query or post to Madeline Walker, Editor, at cacpc@uvic.ca

Before you write, please consider the following:

We love content relevant to academic communication (reading, writing, presenting) and graduate students. We value

    • a unique point of view,
    • posts reflecting the diversity of UVic students,
    • stories that illustrate difficulties and vulnerabilities,
    • posts with practical tips and ideas,
    • fresh topics,
    • humour,
    • content specific to UVic,
    • and motivating and inspirational themes.

Posts should be between 250-750 words and may be edited for clarity, grammar, and punctuation.

If your post is accepted for publication, please provide a good-quality jpeg photo of yourself (not a selfie) and a short (2-3 sentence) biography.

* This is the recently published article where I obtained the excerpt: Nils Dahl, Alex Ross & Paul Ong (2020) Self-Neglect in Older Populations: A Description and Analysis of Current Approaches, Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 32:6, 537-558, DOI: 10.1080/08959420.2018.1500858

 

Learning how to write through storytelling

Academic Writing, Centre for Academic Communication, EAL graduate students, Education, International graduate students, Tutoring

By Hossein Ghanbari Odivi

I was born into a crowded family. Up until I turned 6, we had been living in a village in the southeastern part of our country where we cultivated our land and looked after our flock. The only language I knew was Bakhtiari, which is different from Farsi, the lingua franca of Iran.

I remember waking up to this beautiful country morning and based on my recollection of previous days, I thought I’d have lots of fun on that day as well. However, that was a short-lived wish as I was told to pack up as we were moving house to Ahvaz, which turned to be my birthplace! I had no recollection of the city whatsoever. However, I learned that Ahvaz is the capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province, and it proved itself to be a lively city for sure. Cars and people were everywhere in abundance. I was mesmerized by the unknown.

After we had moved in and settled down, I was told that I was going to school along with my elder brothers. Little did I know about schools and homework. At school, I heard different languages that later on were deciphered to me as Farsi and Arabic. At the time, a considerable percentage of the population in Ahvaz was Arabic speakers. In other words, it was expected to hear Arabic at school as many of my schoolmates were Iranian Arabs who would interact with each other in Arabic. Just like many other places in the world, where education is conducted in a certain language, classes were taught in the standard Farsi, which was all Greek to me. However, as I found myself in this new context, I had to adapt and adopt, which fruited in my learning Farsi.

With this little synopsis of my background, I aim to say that it takes effort and persistence to master new endeavours. In my personal life, writing in an academic setting was hard for me. Although I am a teacher and am in love with reading, I found academic writing a challenge as I did not know how to approach it appropriately. That is why I always make sure that my students know about essay structure and paragraph development. As long as we start from there, the rest will be easier to do.

Similar to stories that have a setting, theme, and a central message, academic writing also has its own framework. Thus, to write acceptably in an academic setting, one should follow the rubrics of academic writing. That is how I learned to write in an academic context. I learned that every academic essay should have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

To write an introduction, one should break the ice to the reader with enough and not too much information. When the ice is broken and the reader’s attention is directed toward the message that the writer intends to convey, it is time to present a thesis statement. See? It is a fancy word for the central meaning in your essay. Your thesis statement is the main argument that you are presenting for or against another argument and in the form of some paragraphs, called body paragraphs. Each body paragraph has a topic sentence or a central meaning. These central messages help develop the argument in the thesis statement from one or two angles in a structured fashion. Every topic sentence is supported by sentences, which are explanations, other writers’ ideas, and references to previous findings on the topic. These sentences are connected through transition words. When the writer feels they have made an acceptable argument on the topic, they draw a conclusion, which is the final section in an academic essay. A conclusion is a brief recount of the thesis and the highlights of the arguments made throughout the essay.

With that being said, I believe the takeaway of this short anecdote-essay is, just like the time I adapted myself to my new life as a child and adopted its new rules to usher myself around, academic writing can and will bring you joy when you learn to adapt and apply its rules. It is at that time that  you will feel at home.

Thank you,

Odivi

Odivi is a tutor at the Centre for Academic Communication. You can book an appointment with Odivi at https://uvic.mywconline.com/

Odivi is a Ph.D. student in Education at UVic with a concentration in Indigenous Language Revitalization. He is also a certified English Teacher in Canada. He wrote his MA thesis on the study of moves and steps in Farsi and English Academic Recommendation Letters. Odivi taught English in Iran for 12 years. Before he came to Canada, he lived in Turkey where he taught English and IELTS to Turkish and international students.

 

 

Let’s write together this fall

Academic Writing, Centre for Academic Communication, Dissertation writing, Distance students, EAL graduate students, Focus strategies, Goal setting, Inspiration and motivation, International graduate students, Make writing social, Mental health, Motivation, Posts by Madeline, Procrastination, Productivity, Time management, Web-based writing groups, Writing groups, Writing resources

Welcome new graduate students and welcome back returning students!

Writing is a big part of your work as a graduate student. Frequently we write alone, and that can feel isolating. Now that we are keeping our physical distance from one another, this sense of isolation can be profound. A great way to break out of isolation and kick-start your writing is to connect with your peers and write together and/or share your writing. Wendy Belcher, editor, teacher, and the author of Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks, is a proponent of making your writing social, whether through involvement in a writing group or with a writing partner. Writing with others can allay writer’s block and other forms of anxiety, make you more productive, and help you feel connected to others.

If you’d like to start your own writing group, The Thesis Whisperer has some tips on how to start your own “Shut up and write” group (you can modify to create online or socially distanced meetings).  Another resource—this one developed here at UVic—is The Thesis Writing Starter Kit, which can also be modified for online meetings.

If starting a writing group isn’t your thing, or if you simply want a pre-made writing group, why not join our virtual writing room on Wednesday afternoons? It’s a great way to set and accomplish small goals while writing in the (virtual) company of others. No registration required, just drop in on Wednesday afternoons between 2 and 4 p.m. (September 9-December 4). You can come in for all or part of the session. A tutor from the Centre for Academic Communication will be there to answer any questions and facilitate.

 Zoom link: https://uvic.zoom.us/j/91672624091 

We look forward to seeing you!

Getting Excited about APA Style is not an oxymoron

Academic Writing, APA, Citations, Dissertation writing, Grammar and punctuation, Posts by Madeline, Style guides, Writing resources

By Madeline Walker

Are you a graduate student in Business or the Social Sciences, such as Psychology, Linguistics, Sociology, or Economics? Have you bought your new edition of the APA Style Manual? No? Well, to be honest, neither have I. Officially published earlier this year, the entrance of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association’s Seventh Edition was overshadowed by the chaos accompanying the Covid-19 pandemic. I have just had a chance to review the changes from the sixth to the seventh edition, summarized in this document, and I’d like to tell you about five changes that stood out for me. I’m sure you’ll have your own favourites.

photos of the new edition
Image from https://apastyle.apa.org/products/publication-manual-7th-edition/

First, The 7th edition acknowledges the difference between preparing a professional paper for publication and a student paper for a course. In Chapter 2, they provide a sample professional paper and a sample student paper (p. 1). In 2.18, they note different page header elements for the professional paper and the student paper (professionals: page number and running head; students: page number only). (Yay! Finally, we’re getting real—no running heads for student papers!) In 2.3, they describe a title page for a student paper v. a professional paper—also reflecting the reality of the classroom (why do you need an author’s note for your unpublished class assignment?). These changes come as a relief to many instructors who have spent years struggling to modify the professional guidelines to suit the classroom: Finally, it’s been done for you!

Second, I was thrilled to see in Chapter 4, on writing style and grammar, that APA has endorsed the singular use of “they,” explained in this blog post on the APA style blog. You can safely banish the awkward “he or she” and the dreaded “s/he” from your writing. With APA’s blessing, you can use “they” in those instances, as this pronoun is inclusive of all people and helps to avoid making assumptions about gender. When to use “they” as a singular pronoun? Chelsea Lee (2019) explains that “Writers should use the singular “they” in two main cases: (a) when referring to a generic person whose gender is unknown or irrelevant to the context and (b) when referring to a specific, known person who uses “they” as their pronoun.”

Third, all of the old-school “two spaces after a period” folks who started their typing life on typewriters (including me) can embrace the new rule: “Use one space after a period (or other punctuation) at the end of a sentence” (p. 4) (from Chapter 6, Mechanics of Style).

Fourth, Chapter 8 has some guidance about how to cite recorded or unrecorded Traditional Knowledge and Oral Traditions of Indigenous Peoples (see Section 8.9). This guidance is a much needed addition to the style guide, as post-secondary libraries decolonize and researchers draw on Indigenous knowledge.  Also in this chapter is new guidance on how to format quotations from research participants (see Section 8.36).   I’ve worked with so many students doing qualitative research using some form of narrative inquiry—now there are guidelines about how to work with the rich data from their participants’ voices.

And finally, I am delighted to see that the font-mantra—”you must use Times New Roman 12”—has been relaxed with this edition, with an emphasis on accessibility rather than homogeneity: “Font guidelines are more flexible. This revised section notes that ‘APA Style papers should be written in a font that is accessible to all users.’ Section 2.19 provides the following font recommendations: a sans serif font such as 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, or 10-point Lucida Sans Unicode or a serif font such as 12-point Times New Roman, 11-point Georgia, or normal (10-point) Computer Modern (the latter is the default font for LaTeX)” (p. 2). According to Wikipedia (I know, not a definitive source), for the first time, APA Style’s team worked with accessibility experts to ensure accessibility in APA writing/reading (shortened in-text citations are another change).

These are just a few of the exciting transformations the APA Style Manual has undergone to keep pace with our rapidly changing world. I am looking forward to owning my own copy of the 7th edition. (And no, I’m not kidding.)

Finally, if you don’t have a copy of the manual yet or don’t plan on buying one, the APA style blog continues to be a great resource for answering your APA questions:

Archived sixth edition blog

Current blog

References

Lee, Chelsea. (2019, October 31). “Welcome, singular ‘they.’” [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/singular-they

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Write for the blog: Be part of the Graduate Student Writers’ Community

Blogs and blogging, Centre for Academic Communication, Environment, Graduate student writers, Inspiration and motivation, Make writing social, Motivation, Posts by Madeline, Writing resources

By Madeline Walker, Editor

Hello. Coming back to the Centre for Academic Communication (CAC) after a year away feels strange. Rather than stepping back into the familiar, welcoming halls of  the library and sharing laughs with students and tutors, I navigate through the disorienting cyber-space of Zoom meetings and online communication. It’s hard to get my footing here. I feel like an astronaut floating far away from the mother ship. I miss you. But it’s great to be back, and I hope to see you in person soon.

Call for blog posts

Please write a post for the blog! This is your community, and we want to hear your voice, your opinions, and your ideas. You can write on anything to do with the experience of graduate student research and writing. Perhaps you could share how graduate research and writing has changed for you since the onset of the pandemic. How have you coped? What do you miss most? Have you discovered any unexpected treasures? Or perhaps you’d like to voice some thoughts on developing an academic identity, writing for publication, or attending conferences.  Maybe you’d like to review a useful book that helped you with your writing or research. Please browse previous posts to get an idea of the range of writing.

Blog posts should be between 250 and 750 words. Use plain English—make your post accessible. I encourage you to

  • provide hyperlinks to resources
  • include a catchy title
  • check out this template (yes, it’s from a marketing perspective, but the guidelines are sound)
  • read  “Write for Us” for further information.

Please send your inquiries and posts to me at cacpc@uvic.ca.

Start your own blog

Writing a guest post for the Graduate Student Writers’ Community blog might stimulate you to start your own blog.

Pat Thomson, academic blogger extraordinaire, claims that blogging has many benefits for the graduate student researcher/writer. Writing blog posts can help you set a regular writing routine, develop authoritative voice in your writing, and practise writing in a conversational style (Thomson & Kamler, Detox your writing, p. 120). She writes that blogging is a “productive way of performing your research for a wider public” (p. 118). If you would like to start your own blog, UVic’s instance of WordPress, the Online Academic Community,  is free for UVic students. Attend a how-to workshop and start blogging!

New Online Resources for Graduate Students at the CAC

The capable team at the CAC have been developing many online resources in the past four months, including CAC Online, a self-enrolling CourseSpaces site  (You must be loggged into UVic to access the link). In particular, I draw your attention to the valuable resources for grad students housed there, including videos by Emily and Kaveh about reading, writing, and publishing your research.

P.S. Pat Thomson and Barbara Kamler’s excellent book on doctoral research and writing, Detox your writing: Strategies for doctoral researchers,  is available from our library as an e-book.

 

 

Shape out of chaos: The mysterious process of writing

Academic Writing, Argument, Book reviews, Centre for Academic Communication, Cognitive process and writing, Organization/ Order, Outlines, Productivity, Reading, Revision, Writing process

By Madeline Walker

 “Insisting on control, having a plan or outline, and always sticking to it is a prophylactic against organic growth, development, change. But it is also a prophylactic against the experience of chaos and disorientation which are very frightening.” (Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers, p. 35).

As spring explodes into summer in the Northern Hemisphere, my thoughts are the upcoming year. Starting July 1, I will be taking a year’s leave from my job at the Centre for Academic Communication.

Since I started this blog in December 2016, we’ve published 44 posts – many by graduate writers graciously sharing their stories.  In my first blog post, Writing Undressed, I wrote about the messiness of writing, an uneven process that occurs in fits and starts and not according to some smooth trajectory. In this post, I would like to return to the mysterious and magical process of writing, a topic that continues to fascinate me.

A friend who self-published a novel asked me to write a review, and I was happy to agree because I enjoyed his story.  But getting traction on writing the review has been difficult. First I re-read the book, taking notes. The first read was for pure pleasure; the second time was purposeful—I was looking for key ideas and quotations to use in the review. I also looked carefully at the structure of the novel, which on my first read simply blended into the background.

Once I had my notes, the real difficulties began. How can I capture all of the different ideas I have? Where to start? Do I need to summarize the story first? But what about an engaging opening? Am I reading it correctly? Am I making too much of this idea?  Self-doubt flooded me and I felt like a novice writer. I’ve written several reviews before that were published, but somehow previous experience didn’t seem to give me a leg up. I felt mired in chaos.

And then I realized: This happens every time. Lately, my self-doubt is laced with the added tang of ageism: “you’re getting old and your mind is deteriorating, you’re losing vocabulary, you can’t do this anymore.” Different spice, same message, just the familiar devil of doubt sitting on my shoulder. Recognizing the pattern means I know what to do. Ignore the voice as I muddle through. And muddle through I always do! I spent several evenings writing fragments and re-starting the review, mulling over it when I wasn’t actually writing.

 “The turning point in the whole cycle of growing is the emergence of a focus or a theme. It is also the most mysterious and difficult kind of cognitive event to analyze. It is the moment when what was chaos is now seen as having center of gravity. There is a shape where a moment ago there was none.” (Peter Elbow, Writing Without Teachers, p. 35)

And then one morning as I rode my bike to work, it started to happen, the center of gravity for that review started to emerge. I need to trust that this always happens, eventually, if I muddle and mull long enough. It was as if my neurons were firing a mile a minute—ideas flowed and my center of gravity emerged like a hot sun around which my planetary thoughts revolved. I knew the key idea that I was to follow in the review and I had to stop twice, pulling my bike over to the side of Lochside trail to make notes so I didn’t forget what it was I wanted to say.

Peter Elbow’s wonderful metaphor for center of gravity suggests a place of equilibrium, where the ideas are pulled into a central mass of significance. And this happened for me when I recognized the argument I wanted to make about the book. Emergence of an argument signals the emergence of a center of gravity because for me, argument is the structuring principle of most of my writing. Once that starts to take shape, it gets easier.

I don’t make plans or outlines. Well sometimes I do, but they fail—they are provisional—I don’t stick to them. I’ve realized that I must honour the scary disorienting feeling of being groundless when I begin the process of writing. Tons of notes and scribbles and frustration and trying to find a thread.   I need to trust that the mulling and stewing and casting about for words and ideas is a necessary messy and chaotic stage I go through. When I try to force a solution or structure too soon, the process becomes distorted and prolonged.

One  dictum about writing is “clear thinking = clear writing.” I hazard a rewrite of that simplistic equation:  “chaotic thinking and messy writing lead eventually to clear thinking and writing.”  There really are no shortcuts.  One stage leads to the next: the emergence of an argument or significant idea or center of gravity or shape. And from that center of gravity the work will build itself.   At least that has been my experience.

Please enjoy the blog as it is–we will not be adding content during my absence. However, I will check my email at mrwalker@uvic.ca if you wish to contact me with ideas for the blog’s future directions.

Take good care and enjoy the work and play of writing.

Madeline

 

 

Talking theory with Janet

Academic Writing, Centre for Academic Communication, Dissertation writing, Education, Graduate student writers, Theory, Tutoring, Writing resources
Janet Symmons

Traffic at the Centre for Communication (CAC) eased off this week, so I took the opportunity to chat with Janet Symmons. Janet is a graduate student tutor at the CAC and a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education, Curriculum and Instruction.  We talked about how to write about theory—not only because this is a question grad students wonder about, but because it’s a topic dear to Janet’s heart. During our talk, Janet clarified the difference between a conceptual framework and a theoretical framework, told me a little about her own story and provided a useful resource.

Madeline: So what is the difference between a conceptual framework and a theoretical framework?

Janet: There has been quite a debate about this – Google it and you’ll see.  People get the two confused.  A conceptual framework clarifies the concepts through which the findings are discussed. So it emerges as you write your literature review (key words and ideas).  Concepts are the general meanings of words, and from them you build the conceptual framework.

The theoretical framework is built from one or more theories through which you view everything.  It’s like a pair of glasses you put on, glasses that you can change.  For example, you can look at the same data through different lenses—say a feminist lens or a Marxist lens—and find different things.  You can also combine theories that complement one another. My theoretical frame is self-determination theory. This is the theory through which I will view my data. Perhaps in a different study I can use the same data, but change my theoretical framework, to say, feminism or Marxist theory. Those would give me a very different perspective of the same data.

Madeline: When do you write about theory?

Janet: You should introduce your theoretical framework in your introduction, but give all of the details about it in your methodology section. And when you’re writing about its history or background, use the past tense. When you are writing about how you are using it, use the present tense.

Madeline: What are you working on and what is your theoretical framework?

Janet:  I am doing a qualitative study, interviewing nine British Columbia educators about their use of open educational resources (OERs), specifically what motivates them to use OERs.  I am collecting my data using phenomenology methodology, specifically Reflective Lifeworld Research.[1]  With this approach, you gather data in a particular way, use a three-part analysis, and put it back together. After that, I will use self-determination theory to view the data.

Madeline: Why did you decide to inquire about how educators use OERs?

Janet: OERs are on the cusp; they will either evolve or be tossed to the wayside. Educators using OERs are being disruptive by using OERs rather than traditional textbooks, and I want to know why.

Madeline: Let’s backtrack to theory. You can’t just pick any theory, right? Don’t you have to align theory with your project?

Janet: Right. First I tried using one theory called Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations, but after working a few months on it, I felt as if I were fitting a square peg into a round hole. It just didn’t work. I read about a few more theories before I found the ones that worked, and a light bulb went on.

Madeline: But isn’t phenomenology a theory? Is your theory reflective lifeworld research or is it self-determination?

Janet: It can be confusing. A resource that really helped me get clear is Salma Patel’s post where he explains the research paradigm in simple language and provides a table:

http://salmapatel.co.uk/academia/the-research-paradigm-methodology-epistemology-and-ontology-explained-in-simple-language/

Madeline: Thanks, Janet.  I know our conversation will help graduate students struggling with how to write about theory.

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[1] For more on this methodological development, see the work of Helena and Karin Dahlberg. They draw on the phenomenological and hermeneutic traditions to create a new approach to qualitative research.  Dahlberg, H., & Dahlberg, K. (2019). Open and Reflective Lifeworld Research: A Third Way. Qualitative Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800419836696

Photo credit: By Conrad von Soest – http://www.badwildungen.de/altar/foto6.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1844015

The “Glasses Apostle” painting in the altarpiece of the church of Bad Wildungen, Germany. Painted by Conrad von Soest in 1403, “Glasses Apostle” is considered the oldest depiction of eyeglasses north of the Alps.