Daily Writing: How Prolific Scholars Do It

I am most productive as a writer on days when I wake up before the crack of dawn and get an hour of writing in before everyone in the house is awake and and, most important, before checking email or social media. I know several highly productive academics – some of them chairs, deans, and provosts – who do the same thing. For people with administrative duties, that is often the only time they have to write.

You don’t have to wake up at 5 a.m. to be a prolific scholar. You do have to write however. And nearly all of the prolific academics I have met are daily writers. Daily writing is one of the most important strategies I can recommend to boost your productivity. Theresa MacPhail calls daily writing a “no-fail secret to writing a dissertation.” That advice is just as crucial for new (and older) faculty.

It’s also backed up by research.

A study by Robert Boice, reported in his book, Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing as well as in this article, provides concrete evidence that daily writing produces both more writing and more ideas. Boice conducted an experiment with 27 faculty members who wanted to improve their productivity. He divided them into three groups and examined their writing progress for 10 weeks.

Boice instructed Group No. 1 – the abstinent writers – not to schedule any writing sessions but to write only if they felt compelled to. He also asked them to keep a log of creative ideas to write about. The thought behind planned abstinence was that these writers would have a list of creative ideas ready when they finally did feel like writing. Result: The abstinent writers produced an average of 0.2 pages a day and had one creative idea a week.

Boice told Group No. 2 – the spontaneous writers – to schedule writing sessions five days a week for 10 weeks, but encouraged them to write in those sessions only when they were in the mood. They also were asked to use part of the scheduled writing time each day to come up with a new idea to write about. Result: The spontaneous writers produced an average of 0.9 pages a day and one creative idea a week.

Group No. 3 – the forced writers – agreed to a strict accountability plan. They scheduled five writing sessions a week for 10 weeks, and kept a log of creative ideas to write about. To ensure they would write every day, whether or not they felt like it, the members of this group each gave Boice a prepaid check for $25, made out to an organization they despised. If they failed to write in any of their planned sessions, Boice would mail the check. Result: The forced writers produced an average of 3.2 pages a day and one creative idea each day.

I first heard about this study in 2006 from Kerry Ann Rockquemore. When I saw the results, I was convinced I wanted to be in Group No. 3. I have been a daily writer ever since, and recently submitted my fifth book manuscript for publication.

If you are not a daily writer, but are producing as much writing as you think you should, then there is no reason to change your habits. However, if you are unhappy with your productivity and would like to write more, my experience as well as the research show that daily writing is very likely to work for you. Here’s how.

Pull out your calendar and schedule writing sessions five or six days a week. Writing experts Patricia Goodson and Wendy Belcher both recommend that you start with 15 minutes a day if you have never tried daily writing before, or if you are overwhelmed with other tasks. Patricia Goodson recommends that you start with 15 minutes and increase your writing time by one minute each day until you reach your desired level.

If you are not sure what counts as daily writing, check out this list of 10 ways to write every day.

Nearly all writing experts agree that you should not schedule more than four hours for a writing session. My colleague Anthony Ocampo says that if you push yourself too far, you might get a “writing hangover.” If you have one day that you can dedicate to a long stretch of time for writing, you may want to schedule four hours for that day. On your busiest days, set aside at least 15 minutes – even if it means waking up 15 minutes earlier in the morning.


Once a writing session is on your calendar, treat it like any other appointment. By that I mean show up for it and schedule your other obligations around it. If you have scheduled a writing session from 10:30 to 11 a.m., and a student emails to ask if she can come by at 10:30, tell her you already have an appointment at that time and to come instead at 11 a.m. It might seem odd at first to be making appointments with yourself, but, over time, you will get used to it. In fact the busier you are, the more crucial it is it schedule your writing time and stick to it.

Once you start writing every day, it becomes a habit. I will admit there are days I don’t get my writing done, but I notice it when I don’t. I notice it so much that I make sure to write the next day.

My preference is to write every morning from Monday to Friday for at least an hour, but usually for two. What about you? Are you already a daily writer? How long have you been at it, and has it made a difference in your productivity?

Re-posted from: https://chroniclevitae.com/news/836-the-trick-to-being-a-prolific-scholar

How to meet your financial, fitness, and writing goals: Five strategies that work

Have you ever lost weight, saved money for an important purchase, or met a writing deadline?

If you have ever met any fitness, financial, or writing goals, there is a good chance that you have developed skills that will allow you to meet other goals.

The strategies for meeting very different kinds of goals are surprisingly similar. In this post, I will focus on these three areas – as these are some of the most common goals that people have.

If you have never set or met any goals, then this post might also be helpful for you to decide if goal-setting is an appropriate strategy for you.

So, what do money, fitness, and writing have in common?

1. Set reasonable goals.

With saving money, it will be hard to meet your goals if you try and save half your income. Likewise, losing five pounds a week is setting yourself up for failure, as is trying to write 3,000 words a day. Instead, set reasonable, achievable goals. These goals will vary by individual, but it is important to set goals that are both reasonable and achievable. Here are some examples of reasonable goals.

Writing: Write for 30 minutes Monday to Friday. Write 300 words a day. Take notes on one article or book chapter a day.

Fitness: Walk or bike to work once a week. Go to the gym three times a week. Avoid meat on Fridays. Avoid sugar on Tuesdays. Lose one pound a week.

Money: Only buy fancy coffee once a week. Put 10 percent of earnings in a savings account. Use 10 percent of earnings to pay off debt. Cancel cable television. Eat out only once a week.

2. Keep track of your activities.

Knowledge really is power here.

If you really want to take control of your finances, one of the best things you can do is to track every penny you spend. If you are not ready to do that, however, you can at least make a budget and track spending in certain areas. Mint provides a free tool for you to do that. For example, if you set a budget of $100 a month for eating out, it will tell you when you’ve reached that limit, and you can eat in for the rest of the month.

The same goals for your fitness goals – keeping track can do wonders for you. There is a free app called My Fitness Pal which allows you to track everything you eat and even add your exercise so that you can keep track of calorie intake and expenditure. This application works, but requires a high level of commitment. However, even writing down the food you eat once a week or writing down the exercise you do daily can help you meet your fitness goals. I haven’t tried them yet, but many people recommend the FitBit - which tracks your activity.

For writing goals, there are also different levels. Some people find it useful to write down the number of new words they write each day. Others keep track of the hours they spend writing. If you want to go all the way with time management, it can be incredibly revelatory to track your time for a full week. In this article, Kerry Ann Rockquemore draws parallels between tracking your money and your time.

3. Get a buddy involved.

Getting friends involved can help you achieve these goals. There are many ways to do this, from joining support groups to simply asking a friend to check in on you daily or weekly. There are online forums you can join, or you can make your own. Many of us are uncomfortable sharing personal information with others, but , if you can find a trusted person who will keep you accountable, it can do wonders for meeting your goals.

4. Celebrate your achievements.

It is crucial to not only set goals, but also to reward yourself when you achieve them. Depending on your personality and your goals, you can either give yourself a small daily reward or promise yourself a larger reward at the end of the week, month, or year.

It can be hard to think of rewards, so I will offer a few productive examples.

• At the end of each week, if you meet your writing goals, catch up on one of your favorite TV shows.
• At the end of the day, if you meet your fitness goals, call one of your friends and catch up.
• At the end of the month, if you meet your financial goals, allow yourself a small splurge such as downloading a movie or getting a fancy coffee.

5. Make your goals a priority

It would be very difficult to make fitness, money, and writing goals your priority at the same time. For this reason, I would suggest thinking about one area of your life and deciding where you want your priorities to be. In what area are you most committed to change?

I have made different areas of my life priorities at different times. Prior to going to graduate school, my priority was to travel the world, learn new languages, and have a great time. To meet my goal of traveling the world, I worked as a waitress, and saved nearly all of my tips.

Once I began graduate school, as a new mother of twins in a very low-income household, I had to track every penny we spent to make sure we could pay rent at the end of each month. My financial goals were to avoid getting into debt, and I made that a priority.

When I was lucky enough to secure a tenure track job at a research university, I made writing my top priority, as I was sure I wanted to be in academia, and I wanted to build a solid case for tenure.

Now that I have tenure, I continue to write. It still is a priority, but writing has become such a habit that I no longer need all of the mechanisms I once had in place to make sure that I made progress on my writing projects. This has allowed me to focus on other areas of my life. With three children headed for college, I have to think about saving for their education – thus bringing me back to examining my finances. As I just turned 40, I have also realized that my body is not getting any younger, and it is important for me to pay attention to my fitness.

Over the past month, I have recommitted to my fitness goals. It was actually through this process that I saw the parallels and was inspired to write this post.

Finally, I know it has been a while since I have posted here. One of the reasons for this is that I have been focused more on writing opinion pieces. I also have just finished writing a textbook called Race and Racisms that has taken up quite a bit of my time. You can check out the website for that here.

I am grateful to all the readers of this blog and hope to post here more often.

It's November, also known as #AcWriMo

For the past couple of years, academic writers on social media have begun to participate in #AcWriMo - Academic Writing Month - the academic version of National Novel Writing Month.



I first heard about #AcWriMo from PhD2Published - which has a post announcing and describing the 2013 version of #AcWriMo. I have done #AcWriMo for the past two years - using my Twitter account.

I plan to do it again this year, and I hope you will join me.

Here are the four basic components of #AcWriMo that you might find helpful:

• Decide on your goals. These goals can be simple or multifaceted. For example, you can have a goal of writing 750 words every weekday, or completing four pomodoros every day, or finishing a draft of an article.
• State your goals in a public forum. You can do this on Twitter using the hashtag #AcWriMo. You can do it on the public spreadsheet created by PhD2Published. You can start an accountability group over email with friends. You can post your goals in the comment section below. You can do it anywhere you like. But, don't skip this step!
• Post your progress. If you are on Twitter, you can post daily updates using the #AcWriMo hashtag. If you are on Facebook, PhD2Published also has a Facebook page where you can post. It is important to have public accountability, because it actually works!
• Declare your successes at the end of November and celebrate!

In the spirit of public accountability, here are my November writing goals.

During the month of November, I will write for at least two hours each day. Most of my work is revising, so I will stick with a time goal, as opposed to a word count goal. When I am doing new writing, I will try to produce 500 new words a day.

My specific writing goals include:

1. Put the final touches on OUP15 - the last chapter of the race text I am writing!
2. Revise DEP5 - the fifth chapter of my book on deportees that is nearly finished.
3. Finish writing DEP6 - the sixth chapter of my book on deportees that is in disarray.
4. Pull together a first draft of DEP7 - the seventh chapter of the same book that is all in pieces.
5. Finalize ASA conference paper.
6. Work on grant for next project and submit to any November deadlines.

I will post my progress on Twitter. Happy #AcWriMo!

How to Overcome Writer’s Block: Seven Strategies that Work

It happens to the best of us. We wake up. We go to the computer. We intend to write. Two hours later, we have put 0 words on the page. What happened?



You know what happened, so I won’t go into detail. Instead, let’s focus on a few ways to get words on the page (or the screen) even when it seems we’d rather do almost anything else. For many writers, the trick is to get started, because once we get started, there’s no stopping us!

If you are having trouble getting started with your writing, try one (or more) of these seven strategies to overcome your writer's block.

Strategy #1) Meditate for five minutes

As soon as you realize it is your writing time and you are not writing, stop whatever you are doing, set a timer for five minutes and meditate. I am not an expert on meditation, but I can say that you don’t have to be to do a five-minute meditation. Simply set a timer for five minutes, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing for five minutes. Pay attention to the thoughts that come to your mind, and bid them farewell as you focus on your breathing. I find it easy to bid thoughts farewell as I breathe out, as it feels cleansing.

Strategy #2) Cut off the Internet.

Unplug. Open up your Word Processing program. Don’t allow yourself to turn it back on until you have 500 new words on the page. The Internet can be an amazing tool. However, no matter what writing project you are working on, once you have your document in front of you, I am sure there is something you can do to move the document forward without the Internet.

Strategy #3) Call a friend.

Tell her you are having trouble writing, but promise to spend the next 60 minutes writing. Ask her to call you back in 60 minutes to tell her how many words you have written. It is amazing what accountability can do.

Strategy #4) Do some exercise.

Do 100 jumping jacks or 20 pushups. Walk around the block. My personal favorite is to power up my Xbox and put on a zumba song. I rock out to one song, which takes just five minutes (and burns about 100 calories) and then get back to writing.

Strategy #5) Go old school.

Turn off the computer. Pull out a pad of paper and a pen and get to writing. Draw figures to conceptualize your project. Write about why you don’t feel like writing. Write and think through a theoretical puzzle. Write up your methods section. Whatever you do, spend at least 20 minutes with a pen and paper and watch how your writing is reinvigorated.

Strategy #6) Have a healthy snack.

Go to the kitchen. Grab an apple. Do something fancy to it, like peel it and cut it into pieces. Or, taken a mango and cut it restaurant-style. Do something methodical and creative with a healthy snack and then eat it. You will be amazed at how that little bit of left-brain activity and a sweet reward can fuel your writing.

Strategy #7) Change your location.

If you are working on a laptop or with a pen and paper, move yourself to another room. If you work at a university, try going to the library or a study room. If you are at home, try out the dining room table or the living room. If you live in a studio, try facing a different window. Move yourself to a new location and tell yourself that this is your writing spot for the day.

I hope one of these seven strategies works for you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you found it useful to work one or two of these strategies into your everyday writing routine.

Just imagine yourself getting up, preparing a quick, but artful breakfast, then meditating for five minutes, sitting down and writing for 30 minutes before getting up and doing 25 pushups and writing for another 30 minutes. What a rocking morning that would be!



Best of luck with your writing, and let me know which of these (or other) strategies help you move through writer’s block.

How Can an Academic Publish an Op/Ed?

Do you want to publish an Op/Ed? I do! I have a deep yearning to open up the New York Times and find my name next to a provocative headline in the Op/Ed section of their paper. In fact, it is my goal to have one published by the time I am 40. That gives me about thirteen months to achieve this goal.



I want to publish an Op/Ed because I am aware of lots of things that never make it into the mainstream media. I have an analysis and a viewpoint that I almost never see in mainstream media. As an academic, I want a role in the public discourse. I want people to at least contemplate my point of view and the facts and analysis that I can offer.

Publishing an Op/Ed in the New York Times is a lofty goal – if you think rejection rates are high for journals, consider that the New York Times gets hundreds of Op/Ed submissions daily and can only publish a handful. The acceptance rates are well below 1 percent.

So, how am I going to work towards this goal of publishing an Op/Ed?

Let’s start with what I have already done. I haven’t just sat around and wished for this to happen. I have been working on it.

I submitted my first Op/Ed to the New York Times on March 23, 2009. I have submitted three more to the New York Times since, each of which was rejected. Simply submitting Op/Eds to the New York Times was not paying off. So, I decided to get some help.

I did some online research. I found this amazing website: http://www.theopedproject.org. The Op/Ed Project is dedicated to getting more voices into mainstream media and has lots of information about how to write Op/Eds and where to submit them.

They have a formula on their website for how to write an Op/Ed. Of course everything has a formula, so no surprise Op/Eds do as well. I followed their instructions on how to write an Op/Ed, quoted below:

Lede (Around a news hook) 

Thesis (Statement of argument – either explicit or implied) 

Argument: Based on evidence (such as stats, news, reports from credible organizations, expert quotes, scholarship, history, first-hand experience)

• 1st Point:
◦ evidence
◦ evidence
◦ conclusion

• 2nd Point
◦ evidence
◦ evidence
◦ conclusion 

• 3rd Point
◦ evidence
◦ evidence
◦ conclusion

“To Be Sure” paragraph (in which you pre-empt your potential critics by acknowledging any flaws in your argument, and address any obvious counter-arguments.)

Conclusion (often circling back to your lede)

Once I wrote my Op/Ed according to their formula (more or less), I submitted it to the New York Times. No luck.

I decided to get some training. I participated in a teleworkshop put on by the Council on Contemporary Families. After the workshop, the workshop leader, Stephanie Coontz – who has published many pieces in the New York Times – was kind enough to help edit the piece for me. I took my edited piece and submitted it to the New York Times again. No luck.

I decided to try and submit to other places. The Op/Ed Project has a list of places to submit Op/Eds. I used their list of places to submit and slowly made my way down this list: I tried the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times, and the Washington Post. Then, I tried the Kansas City Star – my local paper. With no luck in the mainstream outlets, I sent the piece to Counterpunch and they published it!

I am very proud to be a contributor to Counterpunch, but I still would like to have a larger audience. So, I signed up for an Op/Ed core seminar.

In the intensive all-day workshop, I learned that I am an expert on criminal deportations to Jamaica, what makes a convincing argument, the importance of ledes, how to marshal convincing evidence, and many other things. I left the workshop confident that I have many, many Op/Eds that I could write. The trick would be to decide which one I would start with, and how I could write one that is timely and relevant.

I am currently drafting an Op/Ed. Once I am finished, I will send it to a Mentor/Editor, courtesy of the Op/Ed Project. Then, I will send it to the New York Times. If they don’t want to publish it, I will send it to other mainstream outlets. If they don’t want it, I will just keep going down my list until I find a place willing to publish it. Then, I will start again, with a new Op/Ed.

What about you? Do you want to get your voice into the mainstream media? Have you been successful? How?

How a professional editor can help your writing

When I was in graduate school, I met with one of my mentors – a new Assistant Professor – and asked her if she planned to submit an article based on a recent talk she had given. She told me that the paper was too long and she was considering hiring a professional editor to get it from 10,000 to 8,000 words. I was astonished.

I had no idea that academics used professional editors, and something about it did not seem right. The idea that an intellectual would pay someone to do their intellectual labor did not sit well with me.

It was not until many years later after I finished graduate school and had a job of my own, that I came to see the benefits of using a professional editor. I realized that editors do not do intellectual labor for you. Instead, they polish your prose and allow your intellectual contributions to become clearer. Moreover, I began to use an editor myself. I realized that, whereas I may have great (even publishable) ideas, I had not learned how to present them in the best possible form, and a professional editor could help me with that.

In this post, I will discuss three of the benefits to using a professional editor. 1) Many academics do not have the skills to edit their own work. Using a professional editor is one way to teach you those skills. 2) Professional editors are just that, professionals. This means that they can edit your work quickly and professionally and save you time. 3) Using a professional editor can help you get more work under review, and, ultimately, published.



Using a professional editor will improve your writing.
Most graduate programs do not include any writing training. As a consequence, many academics are not very good writers. We split verbs, dangle modifiers, use too many adjectives, use long and convoluted sentences, misuse words, and misplace punctuation marks. Using a professional editor will help you to see which errors you most frequently commit, and to correct them. The first time I used an editor, I learned grammar and style rules I never had known before and realized that I repeated the same errors over and over again. The best way to find out which errors you commit most frequently is to have a professional edit your text and tell you.

Using a professional editor will save you time
For those of you on the tenure clock, time is of the essence. The less time you spend poring over every detail of your article, the quicker you can get it under review and accepted. Paying a professional editor  to turn your almost-finished article into a well-polished piece of work can be a fantastic investment. It is no secret that many academics are perfectionists. Paying someone to do the final editing can take off some of that pressure to be perfect and save you a lot of time.

Using a professional editor will help you get more articles accepted
A well-written paper gives you an edge in the peer review process. When reviewers receive papers that have grammatical errors, it turns them off. Many think that your grammatical carelessness could be indicative of carelessness in other areas. If you write “loose” instead of “lose,” or if you code a variable incorrectly or did not transcribe your interview quotes or archival documents with precision, reviewers may look down on this. On the other hand, having an article free of grammatical and stylistic errors allows reviewers to focus exclusively on the quality of your work, and not on your minor errors. Even if your article is not accepted, the feedback you receive will be more useful as the reviewers’ critiques will not be influenced by their negative opinions of your writing.

Have a nearly finished article on your desk that you are nervous about sending out? Consider sending it to a professional editor to help you get to that last hurdle of finishing and submitting it.

How to find a professional editor
I often receive emails requesting recommendations for professional editors. There are five editors that I can recommend, and I have listed their information below.

There are at least three levels of editing: (1) developmental editing; (2) editing for style and content; and (3) proofreading. Developmental editing is the most time-consuming and costly and requires the highest level of expertise. Proofreading involves fixing errors and editing is somewhere int he middle.

Like writers, editors have different styles, and it can be hard to find one whose style matches your own.

Each of these professional editors are people that scholars have recommended to me. Here's a brief description of their services, as well as their contact information:

KATE EPSTEIN
Kate Epstein has helped many writers bring their books into the world. She'll point out the weaknesses in your arguments, show you how to use structure to make your writing easier to read, and all the while cheerlead for your work. Assistant Professor of Sociology Joan Maya Mazelis at Rutgers University wrote, "Whether early or late in your writing process, whether you need help hashing out ideas and figuring out what you want to say or you need line-by-line editing services to make your arguments clearer and stronger, Kate is an excellent developmental editor!" You can find her at www.epsteinwords.com or email her at kate@epsteinwords.com.


DEIRDRE GOLASH
Deirdre Golash is an analytical thinker (J.D., Ph.D.) with a fine eye for style, grammar, and punctuation. Send her your rough draft or your completed manuscript, and let her massage your logic, smooth your style, and nit-pick your grammar and punctuation. You'll be glad you did. Understanding the structure of arguments is the foundation of analytic philosophy, my core discipline. I will make sure that your article -- whatever the discipline -- provides a well-structured, conceptually sound argument for its conclusion.

She has been a university professor in an interdisciplinary department (Justice, Law and Society) for the last twenty years. She teaches courses on theories of justice, legal theory, Western legal tradition and social ethics (as well as a doctoral-level class on writing for publication). She has published two scholarly books and a number of articles in philosophy of law. 

She specializes in what she knows best: academic writing. She can provide any level of writing help from simple proofreading for grammar, punctuation and word usage to substantive editing for conceptual and logical soundness. She can help you get your piece from ideas to outline, from outline to rough draft, from rough draft to final version, or from substantively complete to publishable. She is available for phone conversations to discuss the work where appropriate.


Contact info for Deirdre: https://www.elance.com/s/deirdreg/ or esperata@gmail.com

(Disclaimer: Deirdre Golash is my mother.)

KRISTY JOHNSON
I've really enjoyed working with Kristy Johnson: she's fast, knows her stuff, has an eagle eye, and brings what I have found to be very useful insights to my writing (in other words, she's not afraid to tell me when I make no sense). So the next time you find yourself in the final stages of writing a manuscript you've read one too many times, let Kristy give it a fresh look, clean up your mess, and get you one step closer to publication! I no longer send out an article without passing it by Kristy first, and my nerves are the better for it. You can email her at poet300@msn.com.

Kristy S. Johnson –MFA in creative writing, Freelance Editor for 10 years.
Focuses: Dissertations/Thesis, Academic Articles/Book Chapters, Newsletters, Annual Reports, CVS/Resumes, Fiction and Non- Fiction Books, etc. Field focuses: Humanities, Social Sciences and Education. Services & Fees: Proofreading/Copy Editing, $4/page, Content Editing, $5/page (non-book length), Content/Copy Editing for books negotiable. Dissertation Flat Rate (150-350 pages): $700.

SCRIBBR.COM

SCRIBBR is a proofreading service designed for theses and dissertations that can also be used for articles. SCRIBBR is a great service especially if you are on a tight timeline, as they work with a pool of editors and can turn your work around very quickly. The service is high quality and very professional. 

I sent SCRIBBR a 6,000-word article I have been working on for some time.  The editor, Elaine, found many errors that I had overlooked and suggested several places where I should insert citations. I am much more confident about sending the piece out for review. The proofreading price was also very reasonable at 114 euros for a 72-hour turnaround.

MORELIA RIVAS
Morelia is an English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English translator who specializes in producing thorough, high-quality media and academic translations. She also offers editing and proofreading services and takes great care to provide quality work for your media and academic needs.

Contact info:
mprtranslation@gmail.com
miprivas@gmail.com
mprtranslation.com

--------------------------------- If a professional editor is not within your budget, I can recommend Grammarly - a Chrome extension and tool that automatically checks your grammar. You can get either the free or premium version. Grammarly finds most typographical and even stylistic mistakes. I have been using the premium version as a Chrome extension and it has found mistakes in my blog posts, email, and social media posts. It is kind of like the Word grammar checker, but a much better version of that.

How to choose a dissertation topic

Note: This week, I am sharing with you a great post by Vilna Bashi Treitler, which has been posted over at the SREM Mentoring blog.

Are you struggling with choosing a dissertation topic?

Choosing a topic can be one of the most important choices you will make in your professional career because it determines the first major piece of research for which you’ll be known, provides a focus for the group of professors you wish to solicit for your dissertation committee, and it is the first thing (along with the text of your letters of recommendation) that future colleagues will scrutinize when considering you for a job in their department.

The bad news is that all this can make choosing a dissertation topic pretty overwhelming. The good news is that I try to make the process somewhat easier by explaining to you how you might get started and avoid certain pitfalls. I have four pieces of advice to offer that I hope you follow, plus a tidbit that is not mandatory.

First, “push the envelope.”

You’ve probably heard a gazillion times that new research should “push the envelope,” but I’d bet that the likelihood that you had a clear explanation of what that means has not been given to you. Well, I’m going to explain it, right here, right now.

It is a phrase with a mathematical reference. An envelope is a term for the curve that encloses all other curves in a family of curves. When the term was used in aeronautics, it referred to the outer curve describing the limit of an aircraft’s performance. Test pilots were encouraged to push the envelope in order to test the aircraft, and the phrase made it to the common lexicon in Tom Wolfe’s 1979 book about test pilots, The Right Stuff. (Thanks, for the info, Michael Quinion, at http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pus1.htm!)

Envision the whole of sociological knowledge as contained in one big dataset, complete with keywords and subject headings. Surely, you would contribute something to the dataset that would ostensibly fit under a subject heading, and possibly a set of existing keywords, but to push the envelope your topic should meet meet three criteria.

• It doesn’t repeat something that’s already in that dataset.
• It is something that sociologists interested in the topic will want to read when searching on information on the topic. That is, your research is not just different from the other work on the issue, but also has an interesting take.
• It is research that actually teaches researchers in your area of interest new information and will be useful to them when they are framing their own research projects. That is, not only is your research interesting, it shouldn’t be ignored if other sociologists want to do research in the same areas.

Honestly, you need only come up with a question that, when answered, would shed new light on what others have done before – but the idea is for that new light to truly have us look at things in a whole new way.

Read the remainder of the advice here: http://srem-mentoring.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-choose-dissertation-topic-four.html

Get Inspired: Change Your Writing Location and Spark Creativity

Although few academics think of it this way, writing is a creative process. When you write, you pull words together to make a point or argument, to describe a scenario or a person, to analyze data, or to introduce a phenomenon. Doing this well requires creativity and ingenuity. Thus, it is important to feed your creative side.

Once you think of writing as a creative process, it becomes evident that it takes creative energy and that it requires stimulation and inspiration. This does not mean, of course, that you must wait to be inspired to write. With packed schedules and long to-do lists, inspiration rarely strikes on its own. The good news is that you can train your mind to be more creative on demand, and that there are a few tricks you can use to spark creativity.

The trick I am going to focus on in this blog post is very simple: change location. Many writers dream of having the perfect writing spot. For me, this would be a large, sparsely decorated room with hardwood floors, high ceilings, a sturdy cherry writing desk, and most importantly, an enormous window with a view of the sea. Unfortunately, I have no such luxury. Instead, I do much of my writing on my couch, in my cluttered office, and at various coffee shops around town. And, even if I did have an amazing office, it still would be important to try writing in other spaces. The reason is that a change in location sparks creativity.

If you have a favorite writing location that works for you, that is fabulous. However, if you ever find yourself stuck with your writing, it can be a good idea to try a new location, even if it is just for a day. For example, I know a very productive writer who works in her lovely home office most days, but once a week she meets with friends at a local coffee shop where they write together for two hours. For her, injecting a bit of variety in her writing routine provides just enough stimulation to keep going and to continue to be creative and productive.

I know another writer who resolved to write in her office on campus every morning. This strategy worked out well for the first few weeks of the semester. However, as the semester wore on, and fatigue began to set in, she found it more and more difficult to get her creative engines running, and easier to be distracted by all the tasks (and people) that called her attention in her office. She decided to change location, and to try writing at the campus library. This simple strategy of changing location worked wonders for her.

My own strategy is to write at home three days a week, and to go to a coffee shop two days a week. Usually, writing at home works for me. However, once my mind begins to wander and the disorganization in my living room shouts for my attention, I pack up my laptop and head out for a coffee shop. That change in location seems to work well. Once I am in a new space, I am able to concentrate again.

There are many possible ways of implementing the idea of changing location. For those of you who have a stable writing location that works, it might be a good idea to meet with friends at a coffee shop once a week to write together. If you do not want to leave your house, you can simply try writing in a different room. For those of you who are not getting the writing done in your office that you would hope to get done, it might work for you to try a new location: the campus library, a coffee shop, the public library, your home office, or even a friend’s house. For some people, it will work better to change locations every day. For others, adding a little variety into your regular routine is the trick.

The reason changing location works is that, as you are writing, you are – consciously or unconsciously – taking in all that surrounds you. This background noise or scenery will have an impact on how your brain works. If your environment is nurturing and inspiring, that is great and will work to your advantage. Nevertheless, if it is the exact same environment every single day, you might be missing out on an opportunity for creative inspiration by putting yourself in another space. On the other end of things, if you are writing in a less than ideal space – such as your cluttered office or your unkempt living room – you might be limiting your creativity by allowing your mind to focus on all of the things that demand your attention. In that case, you might be surprised how a simple change in location – one with fewer distractions - leads you to new places in your writing.

If you do decide to change it up, let me know how it goes! Either way, best of luck with your writing this week.

Seek Out Your Writing Inspiration: How to Find the Ideal Writing Spot

Writing requires concentration and lots of mental energy. That is one reason where you write is important. If you are in a location that it not conducive to concentration or is uninspiring, it can be hard to get your writing done.

In an ideal world, I would be writing in a large, clean, sparsely decorated room with inspiring objets d’art, and two huge picture windows. One picture window would have an amazing view of the sea, and the other of snow-capped mountains. Aside from the geographical feasibility of that ideal location, it is simply an ideal, not my reality. But, knowing what my ideal location would be tells me some things about the kind of places I should seek out for writing. It is important for me to be somewhere with something nice to look at. I draw inspiration from my surroundings. It is also best if I am in a quiet place, with few distractions.

What would your ideal writing location look like?

Do you enjoy the quiet or do you like a bit of bustling around you as you write? How important is your view? Do you prefer to write in a warm place or a cool place? Do you want to hear birds chirping, conversation buzzing, classical music, top 40 hits, cars whizzing by, or nothing at all? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but thinking of your ideal writing spot can help you figure out where is best for you to write and where is simply not conducive.



I know for sure that the most important thing for me is a minimum of distractions. That is why it is sometimes difficult for me to write at home, where there is laundry to be done, clothes to be picked up, plates to be washed, and lots of snacks in the kitchen to be eaten. My office can be a good location sometimes, but only when it is fairly well organized and my door is closed – signaling to potential visitors that I am busy.

My office and home have the advantage of being quiet, for the most part. And, I prefer the quiet for writing. But, I am willing to sacrifice that for the lively energy of a coffee shop. Thus, two days a week, I make my way to a local coffee shop to write. When the next table gets a bit rowdy, I pull out my earphones and put on classical music.

Other people find that quietness is the most important aspect of a writing space. Thus, they seek out library carrels, empty conference rooms, home offices, and secluded cabins in the woods.

Choose a good place to write because writing is important

Choosing a suitable writing spot also has the advantage of signaling to yourself that writing is important enough to you for you to make the effort to find the best place possible to do it. Doing so can be empowering insofar as you are not only writing, but acting like a writer, like someone who writes and takes it seriously.

Think about it. What would be your ideal writing spot? If you can’t recreate that space in your current environment, what aspects of it can you recreate? Can you find the quiet, the inspiration, the movement, the view, the space you need anywhere close to where you are?

Of course, you probably can write anywhere. However, as a writer, you deserve to treat yourself by finding the best location possible for your writing.

Here are ten ideas for writing locations:

1. A library carrel
2. The public library
3. An empty conference room
4. A coffee shop
5. Your home office
6. Your work office
7. Your backyard
8. Your front porch
9. A local park or arboretum
10. A friend's house

Pick wherever works best for you and let the ideas flow!

How To Concentrate Better and Focus on Your Writing

To write, I need to concentrate. To concentrate, I need to have a clear mind. And, when something is bothering me, it is hard to have a clear mind, and, consequently, to write. So, how do you write when you have too much on your mind?

The simple answer is that you can not write when your mind is preoccupied with other things. To concentrate, you have to get the problem off your mind. The difficulty that clearing your mind involves depends on how big of a problem you have. Some problems can be taken care of fairly easily, whereas others are much bigger and require major steps. Let’s start with the easy kind of problems.

Annoyances with an Easy Fix

Let’s say you can’t write because you cannot stop thinking about an annoying email from a student asking you if they can enroll in your class even though they will miss 75% of the class sessions because of baseball practice and you can’t get it off of your mind. (Of course, you should not have opened your email before writing, but, that’s beside the point.) The best thing to do in this situation is to respond to the email.

Do something about the situation instead of letting it bother you. Tell the student attendance is required in your class, and that you cannot make any exceptions. Then, close the browser window and get back to writing.

If you are having general problems with concentrating, you also might consider doing meditation, which has been shown to enhance concentration.

Respond to What's Bothering You and Get it Out of Your System

This technique – of responding to situations that bother you to get them off of your mind – also can work for more complex problems. If, for example, your chair just asked you to serve on yet another committee even though you are already on five other committees and you are all riled up about what to do about it, the best thing to do is to send a firm email explaining why this is not a good time for you to take on another committee assignment. Again, act, and get it out of your system.

Suppose your problem is that you have just received a rejection letter from a journal and feel depressed about your academic future. The best thing to do is to be pro-active. Take out a pen and make a plan for submitting the article to another journal. Set a firm date as a goal for beginning the revisions and for submission. Having a plan will make it easier to move forward.

Acknowledge Your Emotions and Work with Them

It is essential to acknowledge your emotions and to work with them. If you had an argument with your partner this morning, and can’t get it off of your mind, sometimes it is best to acknowledge that you are upset, and to engage in tasks that do not require much concentration. You can fix the bibliography on your latest manuscript or organize those articles that are piling up on your desk. Who knows, you might even calm yourself down while you are busy looking up citation formats in the Chicago Manual of Style.

Of course, there are some problems that are not going away any time soon. You may be involved in a custody battle with your spouse. Your mother may be dying of cancer. You may be on the brink of divorce. To figure out how to be productive in those very trying circumstances is much less simple.

The first question you have to ask yourself is: how long is this going to last? If your sister has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and will die within the next thirty days, by all means, drop everything and spend every minute you can with her. If, on the other hand, you have a mentally-ill brother who requires long-term care, you have to decide how much of a role you are going to play in his care, and set limits to the amount of time and energy you give him.

Setting limits on what you can do for your loved ones is difficult. But, often, it is for the best. If you depend on your job for your financial solvency, it would be detrimental in the long term for you to spend so much time caring for others that you end up losing your job. Once you have lost your job, you likely will be of much less use to your loved ones who rely on your emotional and financial support. So, be sure to keep the long-term in mind.

Finally, do not hesitate to seek out professional help if you are having trouble dealing with your problems on your own. If you find yourself unable to move forward with your life or your work because of constant emotional setbacks, your best bet is to seek out a qualified therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist who can help you to find the most appropriate solutions for you.

How I Published Three Books in One Year

Have you ever looked at someone’s CV and asked yourself how in the world they were able to publish more than one book in a year or several articles in one year? I have. I often have asked myself “How did they do it?” or “What’s their secret?” when looking at someone’s impressive CV.

I never thought that I would actually publish three books in one year, but I did. And, in this post, I will tell you how I did it. The truth is: there is no secret. Publishing often takes a long time, yet sometimes happens quickly. This, in turn, means that, sometimes, you will see a cluster of publications on a person’s CV.

First, let me clarify what I mean by the statement that I published three books in one year. I don’t mean that I wrote three books in one year. I just mean that I had three books released in the space of twelve months. In March 2011, the University Press of Florida released Yo Soy Negro: Blackness in Peru. In September 2011, Paradigm Publishers released Immigration Nation: Raids, Detentions, and Deportations in Post-9/11 America. In February 2012, Routledge published Due Process Denied: Detentions and Deportations in the United States.

Here’s how it happened: Book #1: Yo Soy Negro: Blackness in Peru.

I defended my dissertation in May of 2005, and immediately began to revise my dissertation with an eye towards turning it into a book. I wrote a new chapter in the Spring of 2006, and another new chapter in the Fall. In January 2007, I submitted a proposal to several presses. To my delight, one editor was interested, and asked for four chapters. I got busy and sent those to her the following month. She was remarkably efficient, and got reviews by the May 2007. One of the reviewers thought the manuscript had promise. The other disagreed. The editor told me that I could submit the complete manuscript after a major revision.

I then spent the summer in Peru collecting more data for the book. I did some more historical work and ethnography and came back from the summer to the University of Illinois at Chicago where I had a post-doctoral fellowship. I dug in and began to revise the manuscript. By February 2008, I had a revised manuscript. I thought it was much better, and decided to submit it to what I considered my dream press. The editor expressed interest and sent the full manuscript out for review. A full year later, in February 2009, she had the reviews in hand. One was positive and hopeful about the book. The other two disagreed. The editor decided, based on the reviews, not to move forward. I was devastated, but determined to publish this book. I revised it yet again, aiming to develop a consistent argument and theoretical line that carried through the text. In May 2009, I sent it to a third press.

This press, the University Press of Florida, was efficient, and had reviews in by November 2009. The two reviews were positive, and the revisions they suggested were minor. Finally! I made those revisions, and submitted the final draft for publication in March 2010. A year later, in March 2011, the book appeared in print.

Now, we get to book #2: Immigration Nation.

You might have noticed in the story above that there were long stretches of time when Book #1 was under review. The first time was in the Spring of 2007. At that time, the book was incomplete, so I continued to work on the chapters. But, I also spent some time on my new project on immigration policy. The second time was between February 2008 and February 2009: a whole year. In addition, I was on fellowship between February and August 2008, and had lots of time to write. It was during this time that I drafted what would become the core of Immigration Nation. In the Fall of 2008, I spoke to a few publishers about Immigration Nation, and wrote a proposal. One of the publishers I talked to expressed interest and I shared a few sample chapters with her. However, the book wasn’t finished, and she was dragging her feet. In the summer of 2009, after submitting Yo Soy Negro to Florida, I resolved to finish Immigration Nation.

In August 2009, I had drafted several chapters of Immigration Nation, and sent those to Paradigm Publishers. They were very interested, and gave me an advance contract. They sent the chapters out for review, and I worked on finishing the remainder of the book. Paradigm sent the reviews back to me in February 2010, and I was able to work on the revisions, as I had just sent Yo Soy Negro back to Florida for copyediting. I sent the revised manuscript to Paradigm in April 2010. The editor got back to me with further suggestions for revision, and I worked on those until November 2010, when Immigration Nation finally was ready to move into production. Getting it into production in November 2010 enabled Immigration Nation to appear in print in September 2011.

And, then there was book #3: Due Process Denied.

Once Yo Soy Negro and Immigration Nation were in production, they weren’t completely out of my hands, as I had to complete the copy edits and page proofs. However, those tasks were fairly minor compared to actually writing the books. In the Fall of 2010, a series editor at Routledge approached me and asked if I would like to write a short book on deportations. I said that I would, and agreed to a May 2011 deadline. In February 2011, I decided that I would focus the short book (25,000 words) on the lack of due process in detention and deportation proceedings, a theme I mention in Immigration Nation, but do not develop fully. I worked furiously on the draft, and was able to meet the May 2011 deadline, more or less. The book went out for review. The reviewer was positive, and only suggested minor changes. I revised the book and sent it back to the publisher in the Fall of 2011. The production process was super-quick, and the book appeared in print in February 2012.

So, that’s the story. It took years for me to publish my first book, a fairly normal time for the second, and an abnormally short time for the third, in large part because it is a very short book. I was able to publish the first two in fairly close succession because of the long review process for the first.

Perhaps I do have two secrets to publishing three books in one year: 1) write every day so that you have lots of material to work with and 2) keep submitting your work until it gets published.

Four Rules for Finding Your Writing Groove… when you’ve lost it.

Have you lost your writing groove? Some of us started the year off with great productivity, but many are seeing the beginning of a mid-semester slump. This post is directed at those of us who have taken a break and are ready to get back on the writing wagon.

Rule # 1: Plan First, Write Second

There are two kinds of writing-related thinking, and they are hard to do at the same time. The first kind revolves around planning what to work on and the second kind is actual execution. Planning ahead makes execution easier.

If I sit down at the computer without a plan, I end up spending the better part of my precious writing time figuring out what I am supposed to work on. This inevitably leads to procrastination, and little productive writing. Instead, when I sit down and my planner tells me I am supposed to be enhancing the data section with additional quotes for my article on transnational networks, then I know exactly what to do.

To get back on the writing track, spend some time before your designated writing time planning out exactly which tasks you need to accomplish. Planning your writing tasks ahead of time facilitates the execution of them.

Rule # 2: Designate a specific time as your starting point

Saying that you will write on Monday morning is a good thing. Deciding you will write on Monday morning from 8am to 10am and putting it in your calendar is even better. When you treat your writing time as an important appointment with yourself, you are much more likely to stick to it. Take a good look at your calendar and decide exactly when and where you will begin your writing.

Rule # 3: Make writing a habit by doing it every day at the same time

When you sit down and plan out your week, try and find a time that you can dedicate each day of the week to writing. If you get into the groove of writing every day from 7am to 8am, it eventually will become a habit and it will be easier to stick to your writing schedule.

If you develop a routine of having coffee every morning and sitting in front of your laptop, eventually, your brain will know that after coffee comes writing. By the same token, if you make your way to a coffeeshop to write after dropping the kids off at school each morning, your brain will begin to recognize this routine.

Rule # 4: Make planning for your week a habit by doing it every week

A weekly plan serves as a roadmap for the week, and it will help you move forward on your writing tasks when you have a better idea as to where you are going and what you have to do to get there. Start this semester off right by making a weekly plan for your first week back at work.

Some people sit down and do their weekly planning meetings on Friday evenings, others on Sunday mornings. It does not matter when you do it, but it does matter that you do it and it helps if you do it at the same time each week.

Taking breaks from writing for holidays, rest, celebration, or any other reason is important and provides much-needed relaxation and renovation. If your break was intentional, congratulate yourself for taking care of your mind and body and preparing yourself for the new year. If your break was unintentional, it likely is the case that your mind and body needed a break and took one for themselves, even as you tried to get them to work. Either way, release yourself from any guilt about what you have not yet accomplished and focus on setting reasonable, achievable writing goals for yourself.

I wish you a productive, happy rest of the semester.

Don’t Want to Write Today? Five Solutions That Will Get You Writing

I always schedule my writing for the morning. But, some mornings, I just can’t focus. I open up my laptop, turn off the Internet, open up a Word document, but the words don’t flow.

Does this ever happen to you? If it does, what should you do?

Should you push through and write anyway? Or should you do something else instead? There is no right answer to this, but there are a variety of things you can do when you are having trouble moving forward in your writing.

Solution #1: Write anyway.

Give yourself a time or word-count goal. I often say I'll write for only fifteen minutes. Those fifteen minutes often turn into thirty or forty minutes. Just the act of writing becomes comfortable and you will find yourself on a roll. If a time limit is too harsh, try writing 200 words. Either way, you will have written more than you would have had you given up.

Solution #2: Change your writing task.

Sometimes I get to my laptop, and my task-list tells me I need to write two paragraphs on the internment of the Japanese, but I don’t feel like doing that. That’s fine. If this happens to you, go down your task list and pick another task you’d rather do.

If you find that whenever it is time to do this particular task you don’t feel like writing, pay attention to this pattern and try and figure out what is going on. Maybe there is some deeper reason for why you don’t want to do that task. Maybe you don’t feel capable or perhaps you are ready to move on to a different theory or method. It will be easier to figure this out once you take notice of your patterns.

Solution #3: Change your writing time for the day.

If your calendar tells you to write at 10am and you don’t feel like writing at 10am, try scheduling your writing for a different time - either earlier or later. Make sure that you don’t just knock writing out of your calendar, though!

Take note of this when you change the time, as it may be the case that simply changing the time you plan to write could provide a quick fix for you. If every time you plan to write at 3pm, you don’t, it might be time to rethink when you are scheduling your writing time.

Solution #4: Use a pen and paper.

Sometimes the laptop is just not very conducive to productivity. When this happens, going low-tech can be the best option. Put away the laptop, and pull out some old-fashioned pen and paper and feel the ideas flow.

Many writers find that certain kinds of writing, such as outlining an initial draft, are easiest to accomplish using just a pen and paper. Using a pen and paper is one sure way to avoid a blank screen.

Solution #5: Skip your writing appointment.

Even though I believe strongly in the idea that you should write every day, every so often, I decide not to write. If you are writing consistently each day and one day you just don’t feel like it, it is perfectly acceptable to make a conscious decision not to write that day.

Of course, you don’t want to get in a pattern where you are making a conscious decision not to write every single day. However, it could be the case that you just need a break. It might also be the case that five days of writing a week is not sustainable for you, but four days is. If you notice that you are skipping your writing appointment every single Friday, it might be time to move or cancel that Friday writing appointment.

Resistance to writing is very common. Sometimes the resistance is at a deep level and you need to work hard to figure out how to move through it. Other times, a few simple tricks such as those listed here can help you keep your writing appointment for the day.

When in doubt about the importance of writing every day, remember Brian Clark’s Ten Steps to Becoming a Better Writer - the first of which is “Write.”

Whatever tricks you use, I wish you the best in your writing.

Writing is easy

The past few posts this year have been about daily writing. I have set out the evidence for you that daily writing is a proven strategy for productivity. I have listed ten ways to write every day. I have explained how you can be productive by writing two hours a day. I have explored how to infuse creative energy into your daily writing. And, I have suggested that you just do it: sit down and write.

If you have read all of these posts, my question for you is: have you tried daily writing yet?

If you have started writing every day, that is excellent news. All you have to do now is persevere.

If, after reading all of these posts, you still cannot or have not carved out at least 30 minutes in your day for writing, I assure you, you are not alone.



I have worked as a writing coach, both for individuals, and as part of the New Faculty Success Program. Working as a writing coach, it became clear to me that people have different relationships to their writing, and that not everyone will write every day simply because they know that it is the best way to be productive.

It took me a while to understand that people face resistance to their writing because that was not my experience. Once I became convinced that I should at least try daily writing, I tried it and it worked. I had to work out a few kinks, but was able to implement the strategy immediately. I am not sure why some people face more resistance to their writing than others, nor why I rarely experience resistance to my writing. I just know that some people do and others do not.

I have been at a conference over the past few days, and have been delighted to meet many readers of this blog. When I meet people who read the blog, they often express awe at my ability to write on a consistent basis. I usually am unsure how to respond, as there is not a big secret to my productivity. It is a direct result of my sitting down and writing every day. Each morning, I sit down to write and, slowly but surely, articles and books are the end result.

I do understand that writing is not easy for everyone. However, I did want to share with you that it is easier for some people. I’d also like to make sure you know that people who do face resistance to their writing can be successful. For those who face resistance, being a productive writer requires overcoming that resistance.

I have written about this before. I discuss some strategies for overcoming resistance in this post on moving through your writing block and in this one on getting through your writing resistance.

Here are three more examples of strategies you can implement that may help you find the time to write.

1. Turn off the Internet on your computer before you go to sleep. When you wake up, go straight to your computer and write for at least 30 minutes before switching the Internet back on.
2. Before ending your work day, write down on a note pad exactly what your writing task will be the next day. For example, you could write: “Insert paragraph on strategic essentialism into literature review section of article.” Begin your next day with that task.
3. Find a writing accountability partner. This can be via phone or in person. If it is via phone, you designate a time to call one another and agree to write for a set period of time. Once that time is up, you call back to report. If you do this in person, you simply meet the other person somewhere and write together.

There are countless other strategies that you could implement to overcome your resistance to writing. The important thing to keep in mind is that you do not have to change yourself as a person to become a better and more productive writer. You simply have to change your behavior, and find strategies that work for you that ensure your productivity.

As you work on building time for writing into you day, keep in mind that the majority of writers face some sort of resistance to their writing and that many are able to overcome this resistance and produce scholarly material.

I do not know why some people face resistance to writing and others do not. I simply know that resistance to writing is a common problem in academia. And, I find comfort in the fact that I have witnessed many people overcome that resistance. I hope you do as well.