Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with writing and academic

AHRC Funding for PhD - How to ensure it!?

0bvious — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 07:16:50 -0800

Applying for AHRC funding for an Art PhD. Any advice? I am very much at the end of a very long, and arduous, PhD application procedure. I am applying to do Art Practice, with heavy emphasis on practice-based research. I got the place at the university, now I need to get the funding!

I have one very good reference already finalised and am waiting to hear back from my proposed supervisor on the other (required) reference.

What are the most imperative aspects of my 500 words proposal for funding?

I realise that this subject is rather contextual, but any advice would be appreciated.

World-wide Journal Club?

The White Hat — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:22:52 -0800

Is there a MeFi-like site that deals exclusively in academic writing? Lunit's post today reminded me of how much I enjoy reading journal articles from fields outside my own. Then it set me to wondering if there was a single aggregator of scholarly articles from multiple disciplines-- a best-of site for science, engineering, and humanities writing. Is there such a thing on the tubes?

Academic Writing - No first person

trashcan — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:31:54 -0800

Academic writing without using I or me, list of good phrases and verbs..... I am writing my Masters Dissertation and I am getting fed up of finding ways of avoiding:

"i decided to ...." or "I interviewed"

and turning it into:

"the author interviewed..." or "it was decided to'

can you throw me some good, strong academic phrases, intros and generally strong words to get my juices going again.

thanks...............

What current rhet/comp issues are you into?

hpliferaft — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:04:45 -0800

Describe some current issues in English Rhetoric and/or Composition that are interesting to you. I'm a part-time composition instructor who's been out of grad school for a few years. I'm looking for research ideas with some currency in the field.

Also, an overlapping question: what noteworthy works have you read or written about the rhetoric or composition of new media lately?

How can I force myself to write?

blocked — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:48:24 -0800

How can I force myself to write? I am an academic for whom writing books and articles is very important. I have a good amount of time for writing, plenty of ideas, and a good sense of what I want to write. But most of the time, I get very little writing done. I can easily go a year or more without writing anything of substance. Instead, I spend most of my time doing email, doing administrative tasks, browsing the web, and so on.

This has been a persistent pattern throughout my career. Every now and then the floodgates have come down (a big period every six or seven years, a smaller period every year or two) and I've had a relatively brief and intense writing period during which I've managed to get a lot done. As a result I've been reasonably successful. However, I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I'd like. And recently, the problem seems to be getting worse, and I'm falling behind drastically. The problem also has all sorts of negative effects on the rest of my life, as I set aside a lot of time for writing and then squander it.

I've read many books on writing and writers block (including Professors as Writers and the like), but these haven't really made a difference. I know the standard advice: find a place that's a writing place and only a writing place, set aside a time, make yourself write so many words a day regardless of quality, and so on. But knowing this hasn't helped. I find myself spending very little time in my writing room, and when I do spend time there, typically nothing happens.

I think of this as some sort of fairly serious disease of the will. I know just what I want to do, have no obvious obstacles to doing it, but it just doesn't get done. There is some sort of enormous resistance to getting started on the writing process, and a sense of aversion and unpleasantness in the initial stages when I do start, both of which prevent me from doing it. Every now and then I get past this resistance and aversion and get into a state of flow (which is then one of the best feelings one can have), but it's proven very difficult to force myself to do this.

I've been to a hypnotherapist and a regular therapist about this, but they haven't made much difference. I probably could and should have done more of this, as I think that the right therapist, with a real understanding of this issue, could probably help a lot. But it's hard to know just who the right therapist might be, and it's difficult to ask local friends and colleagues for recommendations, as I'm reluctant to tell them about this.

I think that what I need is some sort of mechanism that in effect forces me to write. I used to have no problem writing reams in an exam context, for example, and every now and then when a similar sort of immediate context arises, there is no blockage. (I also don't have much blockage in writing long emails on academic topics.) Deadlines help to some extent, but they've become less effective then they used to be as one comes to realize that deadlines are typically very plastic. I can imagine various artificial mechanisms (set up an automatic donation to an awful cause unless one reaches a certain goal, block the Internet for a certain period each day, and so on), but it's hard to make myself implement these and easy to circumvent them.

It seems to me that what might have the potential to work is something involving another person somehow forcing me into a writing schedule: be in the writing place for a certain period each day, write so many words and show them to me at the end, and so on. It wouldn't be easy to get a friend, relative, or colleague to play this role. But perhaps some sort of active therapist or writing coach might be able to do it.

So my first question is: any recommendations for some sort of active therapist or writing coach who could play this role? Assuming that things could be done over phone and email, they could be located almost anywhere (a good thing, since I don't want to disclose my location here, and local resources are limited). It might well take some sort of daily contact, so phone and email would likely be the main locus wherever the person is. I'm interested in recommendations both of specific individuals, and of kinds of individuals who I might seek out, as I'm genuinely unsure of what sort of person to approach.

Any other ideas as to approaches and strategies that might help are welcome, too. Others may have been in a situation like this before and have had experience of what helps. My own insight into the situation is limited. The whole thing is a bit pathetic, and it's taken me a long time to even get to the stage of sending out a cry for help like this. But now that I've done it, any ideas will be welcome.

What can you tell me about 'Poe(t)heory'?

0bvious — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:51:54 -0800

What can you tell me about 'Poe(t)heory'? I have found little online regarding Poetheory, but it seems to be interchangable with the title 'Theorypo'. How separate a distinction is it from merely 'postmodern theory and poetry'? What sources of info should I be seeking?

Marjorie Perloff and Peter Jaeger are names that crop up regarding poetheory. Anyone else you know of or any related disciplines/schools/concepts?

Thanks

Looking for detractors of Literary Darwinism

0bvious — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:45:07 -0800

Literary Darwinism: A relatively new field of evolutionary psychology / literary theory. What has recently been written in argument against it? I have read through some of the works of:

Joseph Carroll
Ellen Dissanayake
Jonathan Gottschall
Robert Storey
Michelle Scalise Sugiyama

...and a few others, yet I am having a hard time finding critical work designed to bring down the arguments of Darwinian Literary Studies. It appears that the field of Poststructuralism is one of the main targets of Literary Darwinism's (Lit-Dar) proponents.

Has anyone attempted to re-address the balance?

I have found little in Lit-Dar writings about specifically text and textuality, something the Postmodernists very much conern themselves with. Surely there is some work on the subject that addresses its absence from Lit-Dar writings?

(I am not interested in the critique of Evolutionary Psychology - of which there is plenty - unless it specifically addresses the Literary and Textual concerns of Darwinian Literary Studies.)

Thanks a lot

What are my rights for republishing screenshots/promotional material in an academic text?

serial_consign — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:01:49 -0800

What right do I have to republish software screenshots and promotional material within a critical/academic context? Do I need to get formal permission from the corporations that own & distribute this material? I'm submitting a book chapter and the publisher for this text appears pretty stiff on copyright protocol. I want to republish screenshots from early GUI's (i.e. Xerox Star) and also some interface applications for the iphone. Do I need to get in touch with Apple/Xerox for this kind of republishing? I was planning on using promotional and or archival images..

This is all in the context of a scholarly text. Also, with the iphone specifically I'd be writing about an interface designed for it, not so much the device itself and I would have permission from that designer.

I've never got formal clearance for republication of images - I've only dealt with Creative Commons content online - if anybody could provide any input/direciton it would be greatly appreciated.

Music for writing academic works in a frenzy

Anything — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:59:00 -0800

Music for writing academic works in a frenzy You know that scene where the rising young genius sits furiously in his desk chair, flails his fingers against the typewriter, producing the manuscript that will transform thousands of minds; a near-empty vodka bottle is almost rolling off the table, and dramatic music is playing in the background? I want that.

I've got the rest of it worked out, but I still need to find the music. I'm probably going for classical, perhaps jazz, but I know very little of either. I took some discs from the library half-randomly, and now I'm listening to String Quartet No. 2 by Dmitry Shostakovich, which sounds pretty good. I like the lurking madness in this piece, but I think I need something even more, I don't know, majestic, so maybe a symphonic work would be more suitable.

If you think you know what I'm looking for, please tell me.

For academic types...

anonymous78 — Thu, 17 May 2007 09:57:41 -0800

I don't believe that authenticity exists in any form. What scholars/philosophers/social critics have argued similiarly? Jameson? Derrida? Deleuze? I'm coming at this from an academic perspective (anthropology) so I'm really only interested in academic writing/theory/social critique. I'm not the best read student when it comes to the heavy-hitters (i.e., Foucault, Bourdieu, Nietzche etc.) so I really don't know where to begin. And yes, I know the theorists I've listed are radically different thinkers, but I'm really open to anyone as long as his/her writing is academically grounded.

Should I rewrite my undergraduate thesis?

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 11:20:26 -0800

I studied philosophy in college. By my senior year I had decided that I wanted to pursue a career in academia. I had co-founded a conference. I was writing a thesis. I had intentions of applying to graduate schools. However, during my last semester I experienced a crisis of faith and delayed my thesis for six months, eventually earning a "C". I want to go back and do the job right, but I don't know how. The thesis was a disaster in part because I had not developed the necessary skills to conduct basic academic research independently. My college is exclusively seminar-based and most of the "research" I used in my papers was gleaned from my participation in class. Paper-writing for me was typically an intuitive affair wherein I would try to come up with complex interpretations of the materials provided in class rather than seek out new information from new sources. This approach gave me a false sense of security in my supposed ability to find connections between anything, conveniently ignoring the fact that all of the materials were connected by virtue of their inclusion in the course. Nonetheless I succeeded in my endeavors and held excellent academic standing until my last semester when I crashed on the thesis. Suddenly I wasnt being handed assignments anymore and I began to doubt the relevance and quality of my work. I fell into the rut of deleting chunks of text and rewriting everything until it became dense and esoteric. I was also reading hefty courseloads of Heidegger and Wittgenstein at the time and I precociously felt inclined to emulate their writing styles in combination, which further drove me into protective esotericism. I eventually abandoned my bibliography altogether, instead opting to rely upon the whimsy of my own thoughts as the basis of my research. My advisor was aloof throughout this catastrophe although in hindsight I probably should have been more insistent on demanding his time. When I finally handed in a stack of papers six months after the original due date it was clear that the project was a failure. I immediately moved from NYC to Providence and began an entirely unrelated creative project that is just now, one year later, beginning to wrap up.

Now I want to go back, write the thesis properly and start working towards graduate schools or at least to just write productively in any context, but I don't exactly trust my workflow management, research methods or organizational techniques. I also have less of an advisor than I did the first time. WHERE TO BEGIN?

Academic writer's block.

RogerB — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 14:45:03 -0800

Academic writer's block: tips, strategies, experiences, psychology for dealing with it? I am working on writing a Ph.D. dissertation, and my writing is going haltingly at best; there seems to be a constant threat of becoming stuck, blocked. So, I'd love to hear any tips or strategies for dealing with academic writer's block. (I'm in a humanities field in which the dissertation will be more about having interesting and original ideas, and writing a compelling argument about well-known texts, than about reporting new findings based on research. So this dissertation is, primarily, a large writing project, unlike in many other fields where the research being reported is at least as important as the writing.)

My writing style up to this point doesn't seem to be a good model going forward. I've usually written to deadline, in spurts of intense activity, after incubating an idea for a while beforehand. And I am not afflicted with logorrhea, like some academics I envy; I tend to write too little and too densely, not to overwrite and have to edit down to a page count. Still, I've produced short papers that I'm happy with, and published; and I am excited about my dissertation idea, so self-confidence would not seem to be the problem so much as procrastination and blocking.

More generally, I'd like to hear suggestions about becoming a productive scholarly writer. It seems like there's a big transition at the ABD stage, where a student who's used to writing smaller papers to given assignments and deadlines is faced with the requirement to produce longer works, write relatively constantly, and work with much less supervision for the rest of his or her career. Suddenly, becoming a productive academic seems a lot like becoming a productive writer of any other kind. How do people make this transition without getting stuck?

Let's assume that the rest of my specifics (topic, advisors, teaching and other responsibilities, institutional arrangements) are outside the discussion; I'm more interested in tips on becoming a productive scholarly writer than in getting therapy for my specific case. I've read a lot of books on this topic, and found most of them not very helpful (beyond delivering the welcome reminder that you need to sit down and try to write every day), but recommendations are still welcome.

Roehampton Creative Writing Masters

0bvious — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 14:44:00 -0800

What do you know/think about the University of Roehampton, London? Most especially I am interested in its School of Arts, and its MA in Creative and Professional Writing.... Good uni? Did you attend there? What are your experiences of the Roehampton area?

Any info gratefully appreciated

is emacs worth it?

bonaldi — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:35:32 -0800

Is emacs worth learning? I do a whole lot of text editing, and soon I'm about to have to do a whole lot more, this time in the form of academic essays. Just now I'm using TextWrangler (a Mac app similar to BBEdit) for Perl, PHP, HTML and other code stuff, and QuarkXpress for writing where the presentation matters.

However, I know that the frills of academia -- footnotes, bibliographies and the like -- are going to be tedious to do by hand, and can't be bothered with the hassle of repeated typesetting, so I'm planning to use LaTeX for this (I've used it before).

I hear emacs has "modes" for working with all these disparate types of text, and does folding to boot. This sounds quite groovy. But, given the many advances in GUI editors since ye days of serial terminals, is it still worth the effort of learning emacs (and is that as hard as it is made out?) If it has any bearing, I should point out that I don't know any LISP.