How to Be a Good Reviewer

Posted on December 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago, I was in a rut. With graduation approaching in a few months, I started to feel very fearful. Those fears also led to a bit of existential drama. Mostly this involved trashing my project (and my career in general) as meaningless.

Some good talks with my Dissertation Support Group, classmates, and advisors cheered me up and re-engaged me in my work. It got me to thinking about how one can offer useful advice on other people’s writing.

  • Instead of simply making marginal notes, write a letter to the writer explaining your thoughts about their work.
  • Even if you have fifty separate suggestions for improving the draft, prioritize them and break them down into three or four clear, digestible points. For example, say “the most important thing you need to do next is cut unnecessary information.” I prefer to relate these points to one of the four cycles of revision–thesis, organization, evidence, and clarity. Break down for the writer what types of problems they should focus on.
  • Give very specific examples of the type of problems you note. Saying “I really don’t get your point” is colossally unhelpful and potentially debilitating. Re-read the draft and point out sentences that made you feel like you might be getting it, and paragraphs where you felt the most lost. Or, in the above example of the writer needing to trim the draft, underline evidence that you feel could be cut.
  • Summarize what you think the writer did well, and praise them for any progress made since previous drafts.
  • Give your feedback both in written form and face-to-face. It can be hard to remember what someone said in a conversation (and I know my own notes from those meetings are often puzzling when I revisit them). At the same time, written comments may be misunderstood and sometimes don’t pack as much punch as face-to-face feedback.

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Posted in Dissertation Drafts, Dissertation Support Group

Cycles of Revision

Posted on December 8, 2008 | Leave a comment

I read about the cycles of revision when I was trying to teach my students how to improve their work. I think they were in a Penguin handbook back in the day–I tend to purge writing handbooks regularly so I can’t cite them exactly.

  1. After reading your draft, clarify your thesis. As any good writing teacher will tell you, you often won’t know what you want to say until you’ve said it. Even if you start out with a thesis, it may need to be modified. Also, during the thesis stage, eliminate all writing that is not relevant to your thesis.
  2. Next, work on paragraph organization. I like to write a one-word summary next to each paragraph, which often helps me see where I need to rearrange. Also, if a paragraph can’t be easily summed up in a word or two, it may have more than one main idea in it and need to be divided.
  3. Now that you know your thesis and you have the structure of your paper figured out, look for places to add evidence. Some of the quotes you cut, for example, may need to be replaced with more appropriate citations.
  4. Read the paper out loud, slowly. Correct any issues of sentence clarity and transitions between paragraphs.
  5. Give your writing to someone else to review. If you want to communicate well, audience feedback is essential.

I find that focusing on different types of problems helps me do a more thorough job of revision. (It is always very difficult for me to avoid the temptation of stopping working once I have a first draft. At the same time, if you’re an endless tinkerer maybe having clear steps to follow would speed you up a bit.)

If you try to correct sentence clarity first, you end up wasting time (re-writing sentences that may not relate to your thesis) or, much worse–never get around to addressing major issues. It’s easy to not see the forest for the trees in revision. Reading with an eye for discovering your thesis–and only discovering your thesis–does more to improve your project than perfect grammar could ever do.

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Posted in Dissertation Drafts, Process, Strategy, Teaching

Self-Review

Posted on December 4, 2008 | Leave a comment

Stay tuned for a future Doctor Jones post on the influential book Getting Things Done, but in the meantime, I wanted to lend my support to one of the book’s tenets.

Periodic review of one’s work is one of the best ways to spur productivity. It can seem counter-intuitive. Let’s say you’ve had a bad, ineffective week of work. Instead of sitting down on Friday afternoon to assess your progress, you want to actually get something done.

But parodoxically, the very act of reviewing makes one more productive. I think this is one of the biggest benefits of having a Dissertation Support Group. Simply preparing for that meeting for fifteen minutes–which for me, involves checking the progress of last week’s goals, setting new goals for the following week, and noting a “big idea” that I had over the course of the week–often helps me crystalize some aspect of my project. Knowing that the check-in is imminent also sometimes prompts me to quickly finish (or start) working on one of my previous goals–even though there are no negative consequences if I don’t work on them.

I recommend periodic check-ins, alone or in groups. They are not a waste of time.

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Posted in Dissertation Support Group, Process, Strategy

Writing in a Vacuum

Posted on November 26, 2008 | 2 comments

Gerald Graff wrote a really interesting column in the MLA newsletter this month, which pointed out that many undergraduate papers are asked to interpret a text in a vacuum.

I know that’s true of my undergraduate experience. Most of the time, I was specifically told not to cite criticism in my papers. No wonder I am struggling to “enter the conversation” to this day. For much of my academic career, no professor explained to me the importance of answering the “so what?” question or finding someone who disagreed with me.

I bring this up for two reasons: first, making students enter a conversation when they write any paper, in any class, is a compelling idea. Second, as Graff points out, in many academic genres (the conference talk, the job application, the dissertation abstract), it is vitally important to explain both why your project matters and why it may be controversial.

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Posted in Strategy, Teaching

Committee Choices

Posted on November 20, 2008 | Leave a comment

Today I had a really good meeting with a member of my committee, and so I’ve been thinking again about the importance of choosing one’s committee wisely.

The best thing about this professor is that by the end of our meetings, I feel full of ideas and excitement. I don’t feel this way only because she gives good advice (which she does), but also because she is very engaged with my ideas. It’s such a great feeling to know that I have her full attention.

I was thinking about another person who many people have said was an “obvious” choice to be on my committee. I chose not to ask them, and here’s why: this person had read my first messy attempt at doing what I do in my dissertation. They were critical of it, but it wasn’t the criticism that was the problem. They just didn’t get what I was trying to do, or if they did, they didn’t care about the issues I was wrestling with.  I felt conflicted at first about not asking them to be on my committee, but once I found the right people it became very obvious I had made the right decision.

Other qualities I like in a committee member:

  • I like someone I can meet socially and have a pleasant, non-academic conversation with.
  • I like someone who can give practical advice about the writing process and about university bureaucracy.
  • I like someone who has advice about how to deal with other committee members–not necessarily a gossip, just someone who will speak from a professor’s point of view about how they like the committee member / student relationship to work.
  • I like someone who listens carefully to what I say and responds thoughtfully.
  • I like someone who makes me feel welcome to contact them frequently. It’s very hard to show someone your work if you feel you are imposing on them.

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Posted in Advisors, Strategy

Interviews

Posted on November 18, 2008 | Leave a comment

I recently attended a panel on interviewing at my school. I want to share my favorite piece of advice: the people who interview you for an academic job are looking for a good co-worker.

Some ways to foster the impression that you will be pleasant to work with:

  1. Show genuine interest in the interviewers when appropriate (during pre- or post-interview chit chat, not in the middle of the interview).
  2. Speak concisely about your project and avoid overly specific jargon. Being long-winded and unclear is unpopular in every profession–yes, even academia.
  3. If you get a strange question (from your future socially awkward colleague), deal with it as gracefully as you can. Don’t make the interviewer feel bad by dismissing the question, but don’t be rattled either–likely the other interviewers are feeling embarrassed by the situation, too.
  4. Be yourself. Give good chemistry a chance to develop.
  5. Never, ever, say anything bad about any of your current or past colleagues. Even if you are a gossip, don’t let on!

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Posted in Jobs, Strategy

Female Professors At UT-Austin Earn $9,000 Less Than Males Professors

Posted on November 12, 2008 | 2 comments

Female Professors at UT-Austin earn $9,000 less than their male colleagues.

When I read the headline, I immediately pictured my least favorite teacher in the English department (male) and my most favorite teacher in the English department (female) and fumed at the injustice.

But it’s not that simple. Professors’ salaries are based on a variety of factors–some are negotiated, some have to do with spousal hires. Salaries are based, to varying degrees, on job performance.

All of the graduate students in my department make the same amount of money, and it is awesome. We still have enough insecurities to go around, but at least they aren’t exacerbated by suspected or actual financial disparities.

I wish it were socially acceptable to ask potential colleagues bluntly how much money they make. It seems to me that less secrecy would lead to more fairness. It’s hard to trust the university to look out for our best interests, and it’s hard for us to know if we are being treated justly.

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Posted in College / University News

Research / Archive

Posted on November 10, 2008 | Leave a comment

One of the more effective strategies I have for researching is the “Books I’ve Read” folder in my computer. All of the books and articles I’ve read for my dissertation have their own file. The files themselves are not identical in format. They reflect different strategies I’ve had in researching–summarizing the book, a free-write in response to reading it, or simply a long list of quotations.

Before I started writing my dissertation, I would sometimes wonder if getting all those notes organized into computer files was a waste of time.

I think I did waste some time by taking notes by hand and then re-typing them into the computer. This also resulted in double-guilt when I wasn’t working well: I had to read AND I had to re-type and regurgitate the contents of the book, and if I wasn’t doing both of those things regularly I felt bad about myself. If I had to do it again, I would take notes straight into the computer file and not worry about formatting those notes in any particular way. (If you ever read something and have a rush of ideas afterward, by all means write them down. If a book leaves you cold, though, it’s okay to move on with a minimum of reflection.)

Now, as I’m writing the dissertation, I find my extensive archive of quotes from my research sources incredibly helpful. While writing each of my chapters, I read back over all of the notes in the “Books I Read” file. I am often surprised by the provoking and / or inspiring books I’ve completely forgotten about.

Some of the files are only a few lines long, and some are a dozen pages. But all of them help me to access the ideas that have shaped my project.

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Posted in Strategy

Annotation Minus Paper

Posted on October 13, 2008 | Leave a comment

I’ve always been a huge fan of the “Reviewing” toolbar in Microsoft Word, which allows one to make marginal comments in documents. I grade using this tool and I love it. I don’t have to worry about messy handwriting, and I can type faster than I can write–which means I give my students more comments. Bonus: they can read them. I have long since given up receiving paper copies of student work.

While researching for my dissertation, I can comment on Word documents and highlight important points, but until today I wasn’t able to annotate .pdf files. Then I learned about the PDF XChange Viewer, which is a free program that lets one underline, draw pictures, and attach “sticky notes” all over a .pdf.

Academics may not be the worst paper wasters in our nation, but we’ve got to come close. In my book–or rather, my blog, taking notes while avoiding printing = awesome.

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Posted in Process, Teaching, Technology

Networking

Posted on October 3, 2008 | 1 comment

A lot of young professionals, myself included, really dislike networking. I think the reason many of us dislike it is because we believe that networking is synonymous with manipulation and scheming.

I just read a magazine article in The Writer by Susan Johnston called “Tips for No-Pain Networking.” The most important point that she made is that networking is about mutual gain. If, while at a conference, you’re cruising the crowd for someone who can advance your career, you’re bound to feel awkward and gross.

Rather than focusing on your own goals when meeting new people, look for ways in which you can help them. Point the way to the bathroom, or offer a bit of gentle feedback on a presentation (“I thought the most interesting thing you said was . . .”). Offer to e-mail someone the name of a book that might be relevant to her project.

Sure, you may secretly hope that your good deeds will be noticed and reciprocated. But you aren’t breaking any networking rules if your interest in other people is genuine.

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Posted in Strategy