It is all well and fine to tell students to read up to a certain point and then write, but that advice when given me has always been given as a way to get me to stop working or to invalidate work done. That is why I so resent it, and this resentment is my … More Dream-ritual for Mictlantecuhtli
It is harder to write when you have not yet read enough than it is when you have. It must be yet harder to write if you have not done much research at all. And it is hard to publish pieces which are poorly researched. Telling people to stop reading and write, makes writing harder … More Another illumination on the standard advice
We were all accused, and accused ourselves so much of arrogance but really it was only that we had other professional obligations. Those of us who said we had not been trained to work at colleges or community colleges and other non research entities were not “being arrogant” but merely stating facts. I have no … More “I have other professional obligations,” or, on “arrogance”
What they say — “apply to everything, be willing to go anywhere,” — is utterly wrong. You should apply in this order: R1, R2, D1, nothing below that and nothing that is not a university. What they say — “R1 institutions are the hardest ones to get tenure at,” is utterly wrong. They are the … More Advice to graduate students
This is for my writing group, research as a second language, and SMT, and anyone else, of course. The topic is doing work in short sessions, every day. Today in a departmental meeting on the lower division curriculum it was repeated that foreign language study is unlike the study of other subjects, like English or … More Illumination post
The other thing we were saying at that conference I went to a few weeks ago was that we had met some really mean and also supercilious people in academia and that that was why we had tried to get away from it. Colleague: Where do you expect to publish this book? Professor Zero: Routledge. … More On promise
This is, essentially, what I mean to say. I have not been much of a passive reader since the fifth grade, because I started writing in the sixth. In particular, I only occasionally read long novels for recreation; I do not normally find them relaxing or interesting, and I have to be relaxed and entertained … More Moria on Reading and Writing
This is one of the things I read in college and understood to some extent but ought to reread now. Axé.
I wrote for 27 minutes which yielded me 152 rough words needing much more research and organization. This is causing me to go to the library to look for one specific book. Over the next two days I plan to add at least 98 words to these words, and to improve the quality of all 250 … More 27 minutes today
As a person who was always encouraged to write before doing research or rather than do research I normally advocate never starting to write until you are actually ready. I hasten to emphasize that this does not mean one should delay. I also emphasize that all the ways of managing to write and surviving writing … More Deux conseils pour la semaine
coldhearted scientist وداد 