Achieving Writing Goals This Summer

We are already well into the academic summer (even though the solstice is not until next week), so a reminder of last summer’s “Writer’s Bootcamp” in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s ProfHacker blog, written by Billie Hara, may be in order.

Hara advises:

1. Have a writing plan.
2. Create a physical space for writing.
3. Limit your distractions.
4. Create an emotional space.
5. Collect writing tools.
6. If it helps your productivity, make it social.
7. Just write.

Details here: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/writers-bootcamp-summer-writing-edition-2012/39803

The Research Article: A rhetorical analysis

The research manuscript is a formulaic genre (type, category, classification) with its own conventions (rules, readers’ expectations). Kim Sydow Campbell’s Pros Write blog offers a rhetorical analysis of the key “moves” (communication strategies) of the research article.

1. An introduction to the genre of the research article: http://proswrite.com/2013/04/01/the-genre-of-research-articles/
2. A discussion of the research article’s introduction section: http://proswrite.com/2013/04/09/the-genre-of-research-articles-introduction-sections/
3. An analysis of the research article’s methods section: http://proswrite.com/2013/05/10/the-genre-of-research-articles-methods-sections/

Chronicle: How to Restart Your Research This Summer

Natalie Houston, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, offers advice on using the summer to restart your research and writing:

One of the best ways to get back to a research project that’s been cooling off for a while is to work a little bit on it most days. Doing some bibliography searches, free-writing in an idea notebook, or reviewing your last set of research notes even for just 20 minutes each day can help restart your creative and critical processes.

The article is on line at: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-to-restart-your-research-this-summer

Creative Routine

Most people would probably think it improbable to see “creative” and “routine” as companions in the same sentence. However, because you are reading this, you aren’t “most people.”

This week on Brain Pickings, Maria Popova examines ”The Pace of Productivity and How to Master Your Creative Routine”: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/22/manage-your-day-to-day-99u/

Productivity and creativity are habits, not inspired moments. Hope your summer is productive in all the ways you intend.

Schedule Your Research/Writing Time

Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education‘s ProfHacker blog, Ryan Cordell suggests that you formally put writing and research time on your weekly schedule: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/do-you-formally-schedule-research-time/49315

See readers’ comments to learn how they do it.

STTI Capstone International Nursing Book Award

The Capstone International Nursing Book Award

PURPOSE: The Capstone International Nursing Book Award recognizes the excellence of one outstanding book published by nurses.

ELIGIBILITY: Any nursing books published for the first time from 2 February 2011 through 1 February 2013 are eligible. Book must be in print by close of eligibility period.

NOMINATIONS: Publishers, authors or readers may nominate books for The Capstone International Nursing Book Award.

CRITERIA: Book will be judged for the following qualities:

•  Supports the learning, knowledge and professional development of nurses committed to making a difference in health worldwide.
•  Exhibits exceptional publishing qualities including editorial, production and manufacturing values.
•  Includes an electronic distribution component (please note in supporting narrative).
•  Exhibits excellence in its subject matter through author expertise, level and type of coverage, contributors, reviews, awards, adoptions, endorsements, etc.
•  Judges will also take into consideration originality and approach, reader appeal, academic and scholarly quality and suitability of vocabulary and content for the specific audience within nursing.
•  Must be submitted in English

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Supporting documents required below must address the criteria. A complete nomination consists of:

•  Online entry form and payment
•  Supporting narrative (1-2 pages)
•  Supporting PDF of reviews, author bios and credentials, contributor bios and credentials, and other examples that support the judging criteria
•  Four (4) nonreturnable copies of the book in English mailed to STTI

CONTACT INFORMATION: For further information or to make a contribution to fund this award, contact Renee Wilmeth, STTI publisher, +1.317.634.8171 (International), 888.634.7575 (U.S./Canada toll free) or e-mail renee@stti.org.

Chronicle: Should You Say Yes Or No?

One obstacle to completing writing projects is already having too much else to do, what Robert Boice characterizes as “busyness.” Nurses, with an ethos of service at the core of their careers, may have particular difficulty knowing when (and how) to say, “No.”

Natalie Houston, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, offers some guidelines to help discern when and how to say “Yes” or “No.” Houston notes that “Some parts of your schedule are flexible and some are not,” while “Many academic commitments are hidden or variable.” She analyzes why we say “Yes.” She offers helpful analytical questions:

■What would be the benefit of doing this?

■Who would I meet or connect with through doing this?

■What would I learn from doing this?

■What experience would I gain from doing this?

■What would I have to give up to do this?

■What would be the consequence of not doing this?

And she provides formulas for declining invitations gracefully.

The article is on line: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/should-you-say-yes-or-no

Don’t Put Off Reading This: Perils of Procrastination

Kerry Ann Rockquemore, writing in Inside Higher Ed, continues her series on scholarly procrastination.

“Breaking the Cycle” analyzes the procrastination cycle and offers a strategy for breaking it.

In the most recent installment “Writing and Procrastination” counsels “getting real about your writing,” committing to a daily writing practice, and expanding your team of readers.

 

Nobody’s Perfect

One of my favorite film scenes occurs at the end of Billy Wilder’s comedy Some Like It Hot –

 http://youtu.be/2Inp_sWsUqQ 

“Nobody’s perfect.” I’m reminded of this famous scene by Kerry Ann Rockquemore’s essay in today’s Inside Higher Education, “The Costs of Perfectionism” –

http://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2012/11/07/start-series-essays-about-dealing-academic-perfectionism

 ”Ironically, while academic culture exacerbates perfectionist tendencies among many faculty members, perfectionism has been shown to have a negative impact on scholarly productivity. A recent study found that perfectionist professors have lower research productivity, fewer first-authored publications, and fewer citations than their peers. While it’s bad enough that perfectionism can make us feel perpetually miserable and tortured, the single greatest reason to overcome your perfectionism may be that it isn’t helpful to your scholarly productivity.”

Brown: Calling All Nurse Writers

Writing in the Center for Health Media & Policy at Hunter College’s blog HealthCetera, Theresa Brown, RN, a featured writer in The New Yorker and a regular columnist in the New York Times, invites nurses in “Calling All Nurse Writers”: http://centerforhealthmediapolicy.com/2012/09/27/calling-all-nurse-writers/

Brown explains:

These nurses, and I, all write for the same reasons that physicians do: educating the public about how health care works, outlining ways to make health care better, exploring how hard it is to work in a job that often deals with death, or showing what nurses’ clinical work actually involves. By writing about nursing (or medicine) we learn about the nature of our roles as caregivers and we communicate the importance of that role to readers.

Blog readers are welcome to leave comments.

Joseph Ensign has posted this thoughtful response on this blog: http://josephineensign.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/nurse-writers-arrive-in-wiki-land/