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Archive for the ‘practice writing’ Category

Assess Your Dissertation Writing Habits and Make Some Changes: Time for Spring Cleaning

Posted in academic, accountability, choice, cleaning, coaching, courage, determination, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, distractions, finishing the dissertation, following through, getting started, habit, housecleaning, mental toughness, perseverance, practice writing, productivity, re-group, re-start, regrouping, restart writing, restarting, self-deception, self-sabotage, showing up, start writing, take charge, take stock, time, time management, time theft, write more easily, writing, writing schedule, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Change is happening in the Washington DC area, not just in Congress, but here in my backyard.  Spring is here.  Tulips are pushing their way above ground.   The trees are dropping all sorts of little colored pellets on my deck and front walk. 

The first days of Spring are a great time to assess your writing habits and consider how they are working for you or against you.  It’s an opportune time for you to consider where change in your writing process might help you. 

Time to clean house.

You’ve probably been down this road before, deciding to make a change but not putting any muscle into that decision.  However, there are positive strategies that can achieve lasting results.

Most of these involve capitalizing on the power of habit. 

In December 2008, I wrote a post in this space called “Make Getting Started on Your Writing Easier: Top 5 Reasons to Develop a No-Kidding, No-Fooling Daily Writing Habit.”

If you were fighting the dissertation battle then, 15 months ago, you may have read my “top 5 reasons for developing a solid, robust, no-kidding daily writing habit.”  And perhaps you would have made changes at that time.  Then these last 15 months might have been different.  Maybe you wouldn’t have continued to sabotage yourself and expend energy resisting writing rather than putting your energy into writing.  

What if you stopped making excuses now?  How about committing to  writing every day, even if only fifteen minutes a day?  Before you back away and begin again with the excuses, consider how writing every day, preferably at a scheduled time and maybe first thing in your day, would increase your productivity and, most importantly, would have you writing. 

Where do you need to exert control and spend your energy? What can you do to help yourself be mentally tough?  I’d love to hear from you. 

Enjoy the season.  How about a change?

Best to you,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.usingyourstrengths.com

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Writing the Dissertation: Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, Part 3

Posted in academic, discourse, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, higher education, practice writing, Smart Tips, teaching writing, trusting yourself, write more easily, writing, tagged , , , , , , , on October 11, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I’m curious how you learned the conventions you are to use, the voice you should use, the way to argue within your field, or, if you’re learning as you go, now, as you write your dissertation.

If you were at a U.S. university as an undergraduate, you may not have been writing exclusively in your major course of study until late in your 2nd or even until your 3rd year of school.  By then, had you learned a bit of flexibility by writing in different discourses for your required courses? 

Had you been writing as an art historian one night and the next night as a psychologist?  Did that give you insight into what writing conventions are important in each field?

And as you specialized more and more in  your own field, did you become clearer about your field’s discourse or writing conventions?

The New York Times (9.6.2009) asks several professors to give advice to students entering college this year. 

Stanley Fish advises students to “take a composition course even if they have tested out of it.”  He says, “I have taught many students whose SAT scores exempted them from the writing requirement, but a disheartening number of them couldn’t write.”

Gerald Graff,  the past president of the Modern Language Association, tells students how to write an argument, seemingly without the help of a writing class or instructor.  

Since it’s a little late for those of you who are writing dissertations to take a writing class, Graff’s suggestions on how to take what you know and transform it into an argument might be helpful and definitely would have helped me early on in my student career.

He says: 
1. Recognize that knowing a lot of stuff won’t do you much good unless you can do something with what you know by turning it into an argument.

2. Pay close attention to what others are saying and writing and then summarize their arguments and assumptions in a recognizable way. Work especially on summarizing the views that go most against your own.

3. As you summarize, look not only for the thesis of an argument, but for who or what provoked it — the points of controversy.

4. Use these summaries to motivate what you say and to indicate why it needs saying. Don’t be afraid to give your own opinion, especially if you can back it up with reasons and evidence, but don’t disagree with anything without carefully summarizing it first.

Even as the writer of a dissertation, it’s great to remind yourself that you know a lot of stuff.  It’s easy to forget that. 

Also don’t forget that there’s usually a reason for the writing requirements you run into for your dissertation.  Remember that the literature review creates a context for your methodology and findings or for your argument.

As you write your dissertation, your field’s required structure and discourse conventions give you a great clothesline where you can hang your ideas.

Warm regards,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com

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Writing the Dissertation: Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, Part 2

Posted in academic, acting as if, brave, courage, creativity, discourse, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, higher education, practice writing, resilience, teaching writing, top strengths, trusting yourself, underprepared students, using your strengths, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Dissertation writers are largely self-taught academic writers, and the learning process can be a bold and daring adventure.

Over the years many of my dissertation coaching clients talk about the challenges in writing academic discourse.  Academic writing is its own special discourse, with its own particular conventions. My dissertation coaching clients largely learn this discourse by doing.

What they are asked to do and the way they feel their way along, trying to put into practice what they think they’re being asked to do, is not unlike underprepared students in their first year or years of college.

Professors and instructors in composition and rhetoric fields are familiar with David Bartholomae’s article “Inventing the University.” Bartholomae defines how beginning college writers must act as if they know what they’re doing, even if they don’t.

The article opens in this way: “Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion–  .  .  . or a branch of it, like History or Anthropology or Economics or English. He has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding, and arguing that define the discourse of our community.” 

Bartholomae says that students can’t wait to write academic discourse until after they have learned more or can write comfortably: “they must dare to speak it, or to carry off the bluff, since speaking and writing will most certainly be required long before the skill is ‘learned.’”

Likewise, my dissertation coaching clients have to boldly write and rewrite. Dare to write.

Dare to carry off the bluff.

Warm regards,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.usingyourstrengths.com

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Writing the Dissertation: Learning how to do something you didn’t know how to do, Part 1

Posted in academic, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, fears, higher education, memories, practice writing, teaching writing, underprepared students, using your strengths, write more easily, writing, tagged , , , , , , , on September 23, 2009| 1 Comment »

 When and how do we acquire the skills, voice, critical perspectives, and confidence needed for successful writing?   Specifically to write successfully a dissertation and, for that matter, the book that follows the dissertation?

Years ago as a first-year college student, I tested out of composition class, but all students at my university were required to take at least one semester of writing, so I took an advanced writing class.  It’s possible that I may have been required to write an argument, but I don’t remember any such formal assignment.  Maybe I’ve conveniently forgotten it since it would have been a painful process for me.  I came to the university understanding only vaguely what would be required in the demanding, competitive world of a good, large university.  

I think I was a decent writer at that time, but not very analytical.  I had a lot to learn. 

I recall a few assignments from that class–two had to do with describing a place.  I suppose I remember those assignments because it was the kind of writing that I had always enjoyed, but I wonder if in that class I was ever assigned to do something I didn’t already  know how to do, something that would help me write an extended argument.

Throughout my undergraduate years, I never felt confident as a writer, and years later, when I was ready to write my master’s thesis, I recall being very unsure about what I was supposed to do.  And that feeling was magnified even more by the time I began my dissertation.

I remember being afraid, but my strengths of curiosity, love of learning, and perseverance were helpful… at times…when I remembered to call on them.

Student writers in undergraduate school and graduate  school, dissertators, academicians, and professional writers all need to know how to use different rhetorical strategies and how to write in specific discourses.

Learning those skills is hard work, and teaching those skills and the type of writing in which those skills are learned is a bear, especially in terms of the paper load.

Is it a student’s responsibility to teach herself?  Maybe, but when is she or he told that it’s her job or how does she pick up on the cues of what kind of writing will serve her best?

How did you become a good writer?  I’d love to hear from you!

Warm regards,
Nancy
Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com

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3 Tips for Restarting Your Dissertation

Posted in coaching, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, practice writing, re-group, re-start, restart writing, showing up, write more easily, writing habit, tagged , , , , , , , on September 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

For sundry reasons, several dissertation coaching clients are now looking around and saying, “What happened to the last three months of my life, how can September be nearly over, and what do I do now?”

Bemoaning the lack of progress you’ve made on your dissertation doesn’t help.  Starting again is the key.  And not just starting, but forming a daily writing habit.  

If you’ve been reading my blog on most any given day, you know that I advocate forming a daily writing habit as the best way to produce text and to finish your dissertation.

 Practicing that habit is critical. 

Just as musicians have to practice in order to play well, writers have to practice their writing habit in order to produce a finished document.

I came across The Practice Notebook, a blog designed to help professional musicians and music students alike to develop good practice habits. And even better, it’s to help musicians “make the most of limited practice time, by making your practice as efficient as possible.” 

The tips are all good.  With apologies and thanks to the practice notebook blogger, I have rewritten three tips particularly applicable to dissertation writers who are restarting their dissertations after time off.

The initial goal in restarting your writing is to wake up your brain, tame your space, and tame yourself.

 1.  When you make your plan to restart, go light on those first few writing sessions.  Short is good when you’re just re-starting.  If you can last through 15 minutes the first day, you’re on your way. 

 2. If you are a bit out of practice with your dissertation writing and can’t detect any signals between your brain and fingers, do some warm ups.  Start by making a list. Do some free writing.  Write a haiku.   

 3.  When you’re restarting your dissertation writing with the intention of getting your dissertation writing habit up and running, it’s o.k. to write in your monkey jammies.  What?  You don’t have monkey jammies? O.k., then, how about writing in your knit sleep pants?  They’re good, too. Make yourself comfortable and reward yourself for showing up.

 Go gently, but firmly and keep coming back.

 Dissertation coaching can help you restart your dissertation, too.

 All good wishes,

Nancy

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.dissertationbootcamp.net
www.smarttipsforwriters.com

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Have You Practiced Your Dissertation Writing Yet Today?

Posted in coaching, discipline, dissertation coach, dissertation writing, getting started, habit, perseverance, practice writing, restart writing, Smart Tips, start writing, tagged , , , , on September 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I have had the same piano tuner for years.  Each time he comes for the yearly tuning, he grumbles that he really should come twice a year but, nevertheless, my Yamaha, he proudly says, continues to hold its tune.  When he finishes, he triumphantly plays several measures and then grandly declares, “Your piano is now ready for your morning practice.”

When I urge my dissertation coaching clients to write daily, I often think of my piano tuner’s charming call to daily piano practice.

I encourage my clients to establish a writing habit, one that you do routinely as if it were any other kind of job, and to look at it as a practice that you do each day.  Recently a dissertation coaching client said, “I’ve found it useful to take your idea of a ‘writing practice (or daily writing habit)’ and think about it quite literally as a practice, that is, like practicing an instrument.  Thinking about writing in this way has helped me to release my perfectionist tendencies a bit, allowing me to see my mistakes as small things that will improve the more I ‘practice.’”

My dissertation coaching client has put into “practice” exactly what I had hoped she would, adopting a perspective that I think would help most writers. 

When you revise, you can work at  making better word choices or fixing problems, but during most writing sessions, the goal should be to follow a thought, expand an idea, and keep the writing going. For now, produce text. Everything is fixable later on.

Practicing your writing is like practicing the piano.  Put in the time each day, and before long, you’ll start to see (hear) the difference. 

Have you had your morning practice yet today?

Nancy

P.S.  Are you attempting to tame your perfectionist inner critic? You can change your way of thinking by changing your perspective.  I’d love to hear from you.

Nancy Whichard, Ph.D., PCC
Your International Dissertation Coach and Academic Career Coach

www.nancywhichard.com
www.smarttipsforwriters.com

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