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<\/a>I asked Lisa about her own graduate school experience\u2014could she share any tips gleaned from writing her dissertation? Lisa admitted that she didn\u2019t become as \u201cdeeply reflective about how to write and especially what to do if writing doesn\u2019t go smoothly\u201d until she had her own graduate students.\u00a0 We agreed that we often learn best by teaching. Lisa\u2019s experience supervising graduate students exposed her both to students who experienced writing as pleasurable and to students who experienced writing as terrifying, and this helped her to a realization. \u00a0\u201cI needed to get more reflective about my own<\/em> writing practice and what I might offer to them to work through problems or how to take the writing to a deeper level.\u201d Here Lisa touched on a theme she returned to several times during our dialogue: self-reflection in writing. As we become aware of our writing process, we come to know and accept ourselves as writers, and therefore we become more effective at writing, making the most of our idiosyncratic methods.<\/p>\n Garnered from both her own writing experience and her experience supervising, Lisa shared some of the ways she guides graduate students when they run into writing trouble. \u201cDon\u2019t assume that writing is easy and don\u2019t assume it\u2019s something natural. Take it as an\u00a0 aspect of your learning process. It\u2019s a skill and needs to be practiced. Do it regularly so it becomes a habit and something you think about through that regular engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa noted that in anthropology, writing is sometimes the site or space for analysis, and students may get stuck in their writing because they are \u201cstill in the process of figuring out the analysis and trying to sort it out.\u201d\u00a0 She went on to describe several ways to overcome barriers that arise when we try to think things through before writing them down.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I start a piece, it\u2019s not unusual for me to have a very hazy, broad idea of what I\u2019m talking about, but when I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, I am working out the analysis as much as I am working out the narrative structure.\u201d Lisa paused thoughtfully. \u201cWhen things don\u2019t go well, when you start to stumble in writing, change it up a little bit. Pick a different topic for even a few minutes or a day or two. If you\u2019ve been sitting with your computer, stop and try pen and paper. In some of my classes, I have a session where you get a sentence fragment to start and you have to keep writing for five minutes.\u00a0 Just do freewriting. Unleash the initial apprehension about starting a writing session.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa also finds that using visual tools can help shift stuck writing. \u00a0\u201cI rely very heavily on making diagrams with my students when working through not just writing but analysis. I need to move between the word, the mind map, and the flow chart, and sometimes it is enormously helpful to sit and talk about what you are trying to write and try to represent it visually. So you have both a sense of the component elements of your writing, but also there is something very freeing, very stimulating in moving away from the word and putting it into circles and arrows.\u201d<\/p>\n Another method Lisa uses when she needs to change things up is voice. \u201cI turn on a recorder and just start talking. Sometimes it\u2019s just me and my dogs and I\u2019m going to start somewhere, sometimes in the middle or sometimes I think this is where I want this paper to end up. It\u2019s a bit time consuming because you have to go back and see if there\u2019s anything you really wanted and at times there is and at times there isn\u2019t, but generally that process begins to bring to the surface bits and pieces that I know need to be in the piece I\u2019m working on.\u201d<\/p>\n Lisa then stressed the importance of sharing your writing: \u201cWe end up writing in little closed off spaces and there is much value in thinking about how you can make the writing more social. Talk to other people about writing \u2013 don\u2019t assume that other people are writing without problems, without crisis.\u00a0 Sometimes, talking to other people about what you are writing is a way to express it differently.\u201d<\/p>\n This led Lisa to think about how she shares her own work with colleagues: \u201cI think particularly among faculty we are unwilling to share our unfinished, our unpolished drafty drafts, and I think there is enormous value in working through even some of the basic foundational elements of an argument or the structure of a piece by being willing to open yourself up a bit.\u201d\u00a0 She elaborated on the metaphor of writing as conversation, a metaphor that can liberate us from the intimidating prospect of writing a thesis or dissertation:\u00a0 \u201cThink of writing as a creative process. If you load it up by saying \u2018I have to write my dissertation,\u2019 that\u2019s such a daunting process, whereas if you say \u2018I want to ask some interesting questions\u2019 and \u2018I want to engage in some conversations,\u2019 it\u2019s so much more doable, and it also feels like something that is much more like our everyday lives. Although there are certain requirements for a dissertation or a thesis in the level of academic language, and you are engaging sources in a way you wouldn\u2019t ordinarily in everyday conversation, by metaphorically framing what you\u2019re doing as engaging in a conversation and asking interesting questions, you don\u2019t take on that huge burden: \u2018Now I must create original knowledge\u2019 in five or seven chapters or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n I agreed that the conversation metaphor is very useful in academic writing, mentioning a helpful writing text based on the idea of dialogue, They Say\/ I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing<\/em> by Graff and Birkenstein (2010).<\/p>\n As the clock crept closer to the end of our allotted time, I asked Lisa for any further thoughts on how she writes best, and she reiterated the importance of opening up about your writing:\u00a0 \u201cI sometimes think the reason we don\u2019t talk about what we\u2019re writing is there\u2019s always a risk that we won\u2019t finish it, so we don\u2019t talk about it.\u201d \u201cYes,\u201d I said, \u201clike telling people you\u2019re quitting smoking then starting again.\u201d\u00a0 Lisa laughed. \u201cThe list of things we would like to write is always longer than the list of what we actually manage to write, but I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any real shame in that. Sometimes part of the creative process is working through the possibilities and then settling on the one or the two that you\u2019re ready to actually write.\u00a0 I tend to think of myself as a non-linear writer, so I really am one of those people that sometimes just starts in the middle. I kind of know where I should end up, but I\u2019m not too sure where I\u2019m starting from. I think by this point in my career I\u2019ve made peace with that process; I don\u2019t stress about it very much anymore and I\u2019ve also made peace with the fact that sometimes I start articles or writing pieces that don\u2019t get finished. Sometimes I lose interest, and other times I can\u2019t figure out a way to tell the story that is compelling to others. It may be something I found deeply interesting, but I think why would other people care about this?\u201d<\/p>\n I responded: \u201cWhat I am taking away from what you have said, Lisa, is that self-reflection, self-knowledge about being a writer is extremely important. Once we know what kind of writer we are, we can make peace with that, work with it, instead of thinking we ought to be a certain way.\u201d Lisa nodded in agreement. I left feeling validated\u2014I am one of those \u201cstart in the messy middle\u201d writers, and I was happy to know that others worked productively, even confidently, in this manner.\u00a0 Thank you, Lisa, for sharing these ideas.\u00a0 There\u2019s no shame in being the writer you know you are. . . in fact, it\u2019s cause for celebration. Writer, know thyself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lisa M. Mitchell is Associate Professor and Graduate Advisor in Anthropology at UVic. Her research interests are at the intersection of bodies, technology, and inequalities. She has conducted research on prenatal testing, perinatal loss and reproductive politics in Canada, on the visualizing technologies of medicine, especially ultrasound fetal imaging, on experiences and meanings of body and risk among impoverished children and their families in the Philippines and among street youth in Canada, and on bereaved parents\u2019 use of social media.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Madeline Walker with Lisa Mitchell Last week, I wandered over to Cornett to visit Dr. Lisa Mitchell, Associate Professor and Graduate Student Adviser in the Department of Anthropology. We sat together in her cozy office on a cool March afternoon to talk about writing\u2014a favourite topic for both of us. I asked Lisa about … Continue reading Know thyself: A conversation with Dr. Lisa Mitchell about writing<\/span> <\/a>
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