- BART that might have been. via Eric Fischer/Flickr and SFist
Welcome to Week 2 of Fall Writes! Don’t forget to update us on your goals for the week, if you haven’t done so already. And if you’re lurking/on the fence about joining the writing group, go ahead and introduce yourself in the comments. Virtual accountability and goal-setting make for writing magic, I SWEAR.
If you’re looking for writing tips, check out George Orwell’s Six Rules for Writers and follow @advicetowriters on Twitter if you’re into that kind of thing.
Goals
Nicole
I. For the R and R: to answer questions from reviewers without messing up the point and flow of the article:
1) Continue rereading all the policy reports to answer reviewer 2 questions and to pull out key quotes
2) Make a brief case for how the policy was being pitched around social goals (if there were really any) in the rhetoric–unless this can’t be done in a way that is coherent or relates to what I’m saying, in which case, explain it in the memo.
3) Make the changes in the article already noted, plus the best points of the above. That includes following up Reviewer 2 feedback to theorize even more. There are some places I can push more, but am concerned about muddying up the clarity.
4) Any helpful direct quotes from interviews that are topical? If so, add, per reviewer request.
The big blocks of writing with groups of other faculty are good, though not sufficient to finish quickly.
II. Do some brief research on a couple of journals for joint ppr (Thurs. call).
Dan
Same work schedule as last week: seven hours of work Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and an hour during lunch Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and two hours Monday and Wednesday evenings for a total of forty, including teaching. No work on Saturday. As far as more concrete goals for the week, I will probably need to turn that research proposal back around, since I sent off a third draft earlier this evening. If we can get that squared away, I need to turn my three-page research proposal into a six-page research proposal, and send that off to Dr. Karen for the next round of reviewing. I am also due to send her a first job letter on Wednesday.
Meg
Mon.: Work, no writing
Tues. am: Write up diss revision notes from last week’s meeting; start outlining changes to the chapters.
Weds-Fri.: Put in at least 4 hours of concentrated work on diss. revisions in the mornings; start working probation analysis into parole chapter.
Sat.: Finish off second wave of apps that have Oct. 1 deadlines.
Sun.: Off
Matt
1) Spend 10 hours revising an article that I need to send to my junior colleagues by September 26 for our department writing group. This includes reading more secondary source material to provide better context in one section.
2)Spend 10 hours working on a fellowship proposal due in November. That was one of my goals for last week, but student issues took up more time than I expected. The proposal is supposed to be ten pages, so I would like to draft 3-4 pages this week.
3)Spend 10-15 hours organizing and taking notes on the archival material I collected this summer.
Ye Olde Royle Blog 
Goals for week two:
1) Spend 10 hours revising an article that I need to send to my junior colleagues by September 26 for our department writing group. This includes reading more secondary source material to provide better context in one section.
2)Spend 10 hours working on a fellowship proposal due in November. That was one of my goals for last week, but student issues took up more time than I expected. The proposal is supposed to be ten pages, so I would like to draft 3-4 pages this week.
3)Spend 10-15 hours organizing and taking notes on the archival material I collected this summer.
Didn’t do as well re my goals as I would have liked last week, but a change in one of my weekly grading procedures (in which I track Twitter participation; I should have a blog post on that coming soon) should cut out about an hour and a half of that for me. My attempt to carve out Thursday as a day for things other than course prep has largely failed—the vast majority of my work hours are teaching-related, including the time that I spend on e-mail. Since that’s not working, instead I’m going to try carving out thirty minutes a day of work on the book manuscript, because I don’t want that to fall by the wayside. I had some good momentum for a major chapter revision going, and I want to get that back.
So for this week, my goals are as follows: seven hours of work Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, an hour during lunch Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and two hours Monday and Wednesday evenings for a total of forty, including teaching. At least half an hour of work on the book manuscript, Sunday-Friday. No work next Sunday (instead of Saturday, because Sunday is full of fun events). In terms of concrete goals, I need to get a course proposal out to Dr. Karen so that I can get some feedback on it before a big-deal postdoc deadline rolls around, and I will most likely get comments back from her on a job letter, which I will then need to turn around. I also need to review some interview transcripts for Staring Out to Sea, the oral history project for which my digital humanities students will be working to build a website.
Staring out to sea? Sounds like there’s a story there…
Hi.
There have been some work-related highs and lows in the past week. One high was being asked to review for a top journal. But I did not get far enough into my goals (esp. for this R and R) and I am frustrated. For one thing, I was pissed about something research-related Thursday related to one paper, and let it flag my motivation to work on my R and R Friday, when I needed to be at the library working on it [in one joint writing group]. Uggh. I got there late. I also missed my writing-together group Wednesday to go instead to yoga–good choice? Bad choice? Still figuring this out. I am starting to doubt if a writing together group is the best thing for me that afternoon; yet, this is one way to force the time to get carved out. Also, I am finding a lot of unexpected demands in my new position that are temporary, but still sucking the attention they require as part of the job description. I can’t tell if some of the opportunities that come my way are useful (like being interviewed by a student for a school paper–good publicity? Mutually boring timesuck??). It turns out that having nine job candidates come through the dept. this fall is not a small feat even for someone who is spared of any real committee work right now. Further, I really want to move ahead on a substantive writing group as this gives me something to work toward with starting to get one of my diss. chapters revised, but am encountering some obstacles there, too.
GOALS: This week I just want to get through reading all the policy reports and adding my notes from that and from other responses as part of this R and R as margin comments in the article manuscript (pre-changes). Side comments will allow me to think through which of the changes I want to and can make rather than messing up the whole *-ing thing/ losing clarity.
It’s a project my friend Abby did with her students. You can check out the Staring Out to Sea course blog if you’re interested. And I would say don’t ever feel bad about yoga or exercise in general. At least for me, it’s the way that I stay sane and balanced (at least as much as I am) when everything else gets crazy.