Note Taking: University Style - long post warning

Note Taking must be on the communal species conscientiousness these days.  I took the following from D*I*Y Planner who, in turn, took it from My Creative Adventures.  So it may be third-hand but it's still very good stuff even for grad students.

When you first go to university, you are suddenly expected to do much more work than in school, and with much less help and guidance than you are used to. After all, you are an adult now, and you should be capable of managing your own affairs. Sadly, no one has ever told you how to do that. How do you plan for writing papers, giving presentations and studying for exams. And how can you manage to get good grades without too much stress and still have time for a job and a social life? I want to share some things I learned, and which I would have loved to hear at my first day of lectures.

First I will name some of the tools and supplies I used a lot. Then I will take a look at different aspects of the student life. I don't mention computer and printer, as every university has those for use.

Tools and stuff

* A planner/calendar. I think that you should use one planner for school and social stuff, to avoid planning a party the night before an important exam.
* Wire-bound notebooks with pre-punched paper. You can take the pages out and put them in a binder. In this way you can carry one notebook around to lectures, and later at home take the pages out and put them in the appropriate section in the binder.
* Binders and tabs. I use one binder per semester, with a tab for each course. Behind each tab you can put all the notes, and also the course outline or any other papers that get passed around. At the end of the semester I label the binder and take out a new one.
* Pens, pencils, post-it notes and flags. You can mark up your reading and put notes in it without writing in the book itself.
* Something to take notes in while you are out. I used my planner for this, but index cards or a small notebook will work too. You never know when you have a good idea for your next paper.
* Good dictionaries and reference works. Speaks for itself I think. You need these for writing.

Lectures
To get the most from your time spent listening to lectures, it is important to prepare yourself. Read the assigned texts and print the handouts (if any). Now you will understand much more of what the professor is saying, and you know if there are any questions or things you donít understand. Ask if your questions are not answered during the lecture.

The other important thing is to take good notes. These will help you remember important things and they will come in handy when studying for exams. Good note taking takes practice, but a few tips can help:

* Use keywords and short sentences
* Underline or highlight important things
* Note things you want too look up later too
* Make references to page numbers in the textbook or handout to save time writing

If you then go through your notes shortly after the class, you'll have a lot of the material already in your head.

Exams
Sometimes exams can be scary, especially oral exams. But if you have prepared for all lectures and taken notes, it will not be too hard to study for the exam. The first thing I recommend is to try and find some old exams or examples of questions. Knowing what to expect makes it easier to prepare and feel confident.

Also, it is important to schedule your studying at times when your energy level and concentration are at its best. Donít forget to schedule breaks too. I study best in a quiet environment, like the library, but at least put off the phone and computer. Distractions donít help.

The last thing that I found helpful is to o over old exams and hard parts of the course with a few classmates. We would always do this with three or four people a few days before the exam. I then there are still things unclear, you can still find time to visit the professor.

All this should prepare you well for the exam. Remember to eat and sleep well, and if you can take something to eat and drink to the room. This helps to relax a bit when you are stuck, and keeps your energy up.

Papers
After exams, I believe papers are the hardest part of studying. However, there are a few tricks to make writing papers a little bit easier. The first thing is to set intermediate due dates for the individual steps needed to complete a paper: identify subject or research question, search for literature, read and take notes, draft, research remaining points, and revise. Try to really keep to those due dates, and plan to finish at least a few day before the official due date. Setting due dates for smaller parts does also work for other assignments than papers.

After you have thought of some subject or question, you must start to look for literature. A good starting point is wikipedia or google scholar. (But never ever cite wikipedia in the paper!) Here you will find at lest some background info and some references. For many fields there are also databases with publications you can search by keyword (like MathSciNet for maths). Or look at the bibliography on the course website of the textbook. Once you have found a few good recent publications on your subject, the bibliographies in there will lead you further.

Now you have your literature, it is time to read it. I do this in two steps: first I read everything one time, quickly and in chronological order, without taking notes. Now I now roughly what is in what paper or book, and I read the interesting things, taking notes and underlining as I go. For the notes I use the same notebooks as for the lecture notes, so these notes can go in the binder too. I try to relate everything I read to the research question in some way, and make sure to put a reference to the paper or book on every page.

Then, when I have read everything I want to read, I make an outline and start writing. This is the first draft, so it does not have to be perfect right away. While writing, some points may come up that are not clear and need a bit more research. I note these down for now, and go back to all these points after the draft is finished. I do the remaining research, and rewrite the draft. Then print it out for proofreading. In the printout, I check all spelling, grammar and references. After that, it is ready to be handed in.

Two last things: make sure to backup your work regularly, for example by sending it to yourself by email every night. And try to use a nice layout; this is an easy way to make a good first impression.

Planning
Now you know all the things you need to do, but not how to plan for them. That is the next subject. I plan in my calendar. I write all the deadlines, exams and such in another ink colour than the other things so that they stand out. The same goes for the deadlines for individual steps in papers I set myself. I donít write down regular things to do like laundry and grocery shopping; I just do those as they come up.

In my calendar, I first put in all time-specific things like lectures, appointments and work. Then, in the remaining space, I plan the time with studying. I plan this mostly in the morning and afternoon, because I am not that good at working in the evening. Make sure you don't plan your days too full with studying. Plan some fun things to do and some downtime too.

If you do all this, you will probably have an easier time managing all your classes and assignments. I know I did. But the reason to manage your time and stuff in a good way is not only to get good grades, but also to free up time for a social life and all the college activities there are. Your years at university should be fun, so make time for that.

Posted by prolurkr at 10:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dissertation Reflections

Clancy Ratliff at CultureCat has a valuable post on the process behind her dissertation writing, Dissertation Reflections. I'm taking notes and so should you.

Posted by prolurkr at 07:15 PM | TrackBack

Finishing the Doctoral Degree in a Timely Fashion

Taken from Tomorrows-Professor, if you aren't already subscribing or reading their blog you should be doing so ASAP.

Finishing the Doctoral Degree in a Timely Fashion

The Dissertation as a Key Factor in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Dissertation from the Faculty Perspective

Additional insights for choosing a dissertation topic were offered at a panel discussion by faculty members entitled "What Makes a Good Topic and How to Find It"). The professors were able to approach the subject from their experiences both as dissertation advisors and as scholars who have gone through the process of choosing research projects themselves. The speakers acknowledge that choosing a dissertation topic is a challenging process that can produce considerable anxiety. A student's ego and identity are involved-it's almost like choosing who you are.

They then devoted themselves to dispelling anxiety by offering a series of practical suggestions for choosing a good topic. They stated at the outset that they could not provide a strict set of rules. Topics are as wide as
human knowledge; different fields have different criteria, different paradigms, and different methods. In the absence of a clear set of rules, the speakers proceeded instead to apply common sense and experience to arrive at helpful advice.

* Originality is a principal criterion of a good topic. You can be original in diverse ways. You may examine material that has never been studied before; or you can examine well-known material, but provide new interpretation.

* Another way to view these different concepts of originality is to recognize that some topics are central to the field and that there is always new work being done; other topics are on the periphery and have been neglected.

* It is important to choose a topic that is congenial to you, that you think is worthwhile not only within the framework of the discipline, but on a personal level. It is not all irrelevant to consider how much you like interviewing, computers, dealing with insects-or whatever it is that a topic demands.

* The specific topic that you study may have a personal and idiosyncratic origin. It is no accident that research on certain groups is likely to be pioneered by people of that group: women have often led the way in women's history, Blacks in Black history, immigrants in the history of immigration.

* You should have a doable thesis that has boundaries; you have to be able at least to imagine where and when it would end. It if hard to start a thesis, it can be even harder to end one.

* This means that you should be ambitious intellectually, but not too ambitious, think of it as a task that will enable you to get on with your career. Students sometimes ask if their dissertation should include A, B, C, and D after the dissertation is finished.

* One speaker put this idea in a different way. He suggested that instead of writing a dissertation prospectus it is best simply to write a dissertation chapter. He explained that what he really meant was that it is best to do a little piece of research think small. If it is interesting it will lead to a bigger problem. The best proposal is a pilot project; once you have picked a path you can add on different forks as you go along. He observed that everyone knows the BIG IDEAS, it is harder to do the little ones.

* Modesty is also helpful in choosing a manageable topic. Some students set out to write a dissertation that will change the world; others just want to write a dissertation. In terms of results, there seems to be no correlation between the quality of the dissertation and the ambitious nature of the topic.

* They noted that it is useful to make the dissertation separable into parts with short-term goals. Work on the dissertation often competes poorly with other tasks that offer more immediate gratification. Confronting the dissertation as a whole can lead to endless postponements.

* There was also a warning that dissertations seldom turn out as planned; it is important to hedge your bets and be prepared in case you do not find data that speaks to the issue.

* A good dissertation topic should also allow you to say something that is convincing to other people. Each field has its own rules as to what is compelling evidence. There is always a topic of explanation and there must be interpretable results.

* One speaker suggested that topics that involve comparisons provide a more structured framework than studies of individual subjects. He also recommended building on the work of others. This does not mean replication, but rather looking for gaps or for ways to extend other investigations. He stressed that very few things start de novo.
Having a framework, testing things that others have done is very helpful.

* To find out what it is you would like to do, it is helpful to be attentive to your reactions in your scholarly reading. If you find yourself saying "I wish I had written that," you can use that as a key to finding something similar.

* Preparing a research design also requires conversation. Research is often a solitary activity, but designing research is an activity that should be carried out collaboratively. Decisions made at the stage of research design are so crucial to the value of subsequent labor that issues must be talked out thoroughly at the outset. Even highly experienced researchers often collaborate with colleagues, teach courses on methodology with them, or pop into each other's office with a query twice a day. Rule numbers one for graduate students beginning their first large research projects is: engage in an extended conversation with your advisors. Even Jove, with his legendary powers, could not generate a good research design full-blown from his head.

* Looking to the future, the speakers addressed the relationship between the dissertation topic and job prospects. Both agreed that job considerations should be subordinate to intellectual interests. In any case, predicting the market is like "guessing in the dark." A topic that is in the mainstream of the discipline might appear to be safer, but it may be in an overcrowded field. That problem is not completely solved by choosing a more peripheral topic, since there may be less demand. In general, you should avoid choosing a topic because you think it is fashionable. They also added that the dissertation topic does not necessarily identify your field that precisely-hiring departments tend to work by broad fields.

During the question period, several students wanted to know how best to choose a dissertation advisor-especially how to factor in problems of personality or accessibility versus area of expertise. Both speakers strongly recommended working with more than one advisor-it can be beneficial even if there are no conflicts. The arrangement would depend on departmental policies; in some cases it could be a formal dissertation; in others, it may be more a more informal consultation arrangement. It can extend to faculty members outside of your department and even outside of your department and even outside of the University. In general, it is wise to have a number of potential advisors in mind. Some of the most popular, professors can be too great a demand.

The speakers tried to reassure students that most professors care about their dissertation advisees-indeed, professors often find it a source of personal pride to be an active part of the process of training a new generation of scholars. They added that the faculty have an obligation to teach and advise graduate students-that is what they are paid to do. The speakers urged students to be more active than passive in seeking an advisor, to be more aggressive in their outreach to professors. They strongly recommended that students work hard during their first year or two in getting to know the faculty beyond their classes-interviewing professors, and attending lectures or seminars.

Another student asked about the role of advisors in getting a job-he particularly wanted to know what to do if an advisor was planning to retire soon. The speakers responded that a professor's retirement need not pose a problem. He or she may even have more time to give to students. It is common for professors to continue to work with students after they have left an institution. It is important to talk frankly with a retiring professor about this issue.

Finally, a student asked why Harvard students seem to take so long in finishing the dissertation. The speakers observed that the problem arose from a combination of external pressures and internal factors. After exams, most students start teaching, which is a major distraction from the thesis. In addition, some topics take a long time. However, both speakers had the impression that students take longer than they have to, and that they are especially slow to begin. Both felt that this was a mistake and that students ought to plunge in as quickly as possible. It is very important to work hard enough during the first year of the dissertation to keep it alive even while teaching.

Timing of the dissertation was also discussed in terms of reaching a crucial point in the dissertation where the problematics become clear; you reach a conceptual breakthrough that allows you to imagine the end. The earlier that you reach this crucial point, the better. If you reach it during the first year of the dissertation work, then you can probably finish in two years, which in many fields is a respectable amount of time. You should be able to project even early in the dissertation what a reasonable amount of time would involve. There was a warning that people tire of dissertations. The ideal is to pick a congenial topic, work at a reasonable pace, and FINISH.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:15 AM | TrackBack

How to find good mentors

Tomorrow's Professor Blog has an good post on JUNIOR FACULTY - HOW TO FIND GOOD MENTORS. While it's not strictly for grad students I always think it useful to be looking a step or two ahead. Why? Well mentoring is as important as finding a good first job, in fact I think mentoring is potentially more important. Find a good mentor and your transition to faculty will be smoother and more complete.

How Can A Mentor Help?

In addition to addressing the skills needed to survive and prosper in academia already mentioned as reasons for seeking a mentor, there follow many other helpful influences a mentor can have on a new faculty member.

* A mentor can provide good advice on the key academic responsibilities of teaching and advising, including negotiating which courses to teach (balancing core and advanced), giving tips for getting good teaching evaluations from students and taking advantage of available resources for improving teaching skills, teaching the basics of students and advising (and where to find all the program and other requirements you will need to have at hand), supervising undergraduate and graduate projects, writing exams, grading strategies, interpreting course evaluations, and preparing for the unpredictable crises you are likely to encounter when advising students. Know your resources!

* A mentor can help guide you through your department's maze. You need to know how to get things done, whom to see for what, how teaching assistants and research assistants are approved and appointed, and, unfortunately, what to do when you encounter cheating or violations of the university ethics or honor codes. These things happen at the best of places. This type of mentoring requires inside knowledge and hence a mentor within your department or school.

* A mentor can be invaluable when you write grant proposals for research funding. They can provide you with successful examples and review your draft proposals. They can also be a big help in dealing with the rejection that often comes with a failed proposal.

* A mentor can be a demystifier of the tenure process, and in planning ahead for the process. This often means encouraging you to maximize your visibility in your field through publications, talks at conferences, talks in industry and other universities, grant applications, and professional service as reviewer, associate editor, program committee, professional society officer, and other visible positions that enhance your field. Key to a successful tenure process will be having people in the field know and like your work.

* A mentor can help build relationships with other colleagues both within your department and elsewhere on campus.

* A mentor can help you to keep things in perspective-they often have a more global and experienced viewpoint that can transcend the daily crises that can beset junior faculty. In particular, mistakes will happen. Get past it. Grants and papers will get rejected, don't take it personally and try again (and make it better).

Writing, prep practices or how to prove academics are obsessive

Parts-n-Pieces has chimed in with A Little Honest Self-Evaluation (about writing spaces). This entry is apparently part of a larger meme, one that I had missed so far.

Be brutally honest with yourself about your work habits.

I've been trying to find the right mix for myself so I can get this work done. I've tried it all, though: writing late at night, writing in the early morning, writing between other activities, writing at home, writing elsewhere, and at various times, none of it has worked well. I've always had to find the time and energy to write when there weren't other things to do. It's not as if I've ever (ever) been able to let the writing be the most important thing I was doing. When I was an undergrad and when I was in grad school, the Bundle was in elementary school and junior high school. I had a job, I was in school, but I also had to cook dinner and help with homework and do laundry and take care of the yard.... and then I had to find time to write. Typically, then, I wrote when the Bundle went to bed, but I'd be so tired... yet I had to crank out the work anyway. As she got older, I was able to write earlier in the day (while I was still mostly awake), but I still had the job . . . now, I'm finding that I need a specific environment to help me write. (As a quick aside: blog writing I can do anytime, anywhere. It's short and easy. Too bad the diss can't be that kind of writing.) But back to the point:

• I need it quiet (or at least not jarringly noisy) as I'm so easily distracted. It helps greatly to not be a home when I have to get the bulk of something done. I can edit at home, but the hard work of getting it all down and semiorganized, I can't be home or in my office. There are just too many distractions.
• I need my hair pulled back off my face.
• I need to be wearing comfortable clothes (these days, yoga pants and a long sleeved t-shirt, thick short socks, no shoes)
• I need to be drinking something cold. (I have no idea why I need this, but it could be 19 degrees outside, and I'd want iced tea or a frappuchino.)
• If I have to be at home, the house needs to be clean. (Really. There can't be dirty dishes in the sink or piles of dirty clothes in the closet.)
• The windows shades can be open, but the overhead lights have to be turned off. A corner lamp is OK. (Actually, I hate overhead lights anytime.)
• It has to be slightly cool in the room.

Here are mine that I know now, I expect to have more during my seclusion:

• It has to be quiet. I can play music but it has to be either instrumental or with soft lyrics in a language I don't understand, Native American and Celtic genres work really well. If I'm really having trouble concentrating, especially in the winter when the house is closed up against the elements, I play environmental sounds. Though sometimes this makes the cats crazy. They think the birds or frogs are actually in the house.
• I need to be wearing comfortable clothes - My working uniform tends to run to loose sweats and baggy t-shirts or leggings and loose denim workshirts. Fleece slippers in the winter no socks and barefeet in the summer.
• I can't work if my workspace is either too clean or to messy, which throws lots of things off. Basically I am a clutter girl but it has to be managed clutter. At the moment my study is currently on the edge of too messy, which means I will shortly have to take time to put stuff away so I can work again. As for the rest of the house, well it depends on how much I am into what I am working on. If I'm into it then the general cleanliness level of the house can be whatever it is. If I'm not into what I'm writing then those dust bunnies behind the fridge will drive me nutz. Hey when was the last time I vac'ed under the bed? (Our bed sits really low to the ground and has to be dismantled so you can get the vacuum under it to sweep.) Why do women revert to cleaning as a form of avoidance? Yes I know I so not alone in this practice.
• Lots of natural light with a peaceful view, if I can get it. The year I actually tired to write in my department's PhD student lounge I almost lost my mind. Thank the gods for wi-fi. Now I can work in the well lite spaces and leave that dark enclosed place behind. p.s. My study window is great for the peaceful view part. I look out on to the west side of the yard which has a tree and lots of shrubs. Beyond are fields, right now they are covered in snow.
• I need to know that the references I require are handy. This is a weird psychological thing that sometimes gets in the way. Should be interesting when I go to Colorado.
• I need a glass of water and tissues at hand.
• I need to have eaten something filling. I keep lots of cheese around when I am writing so I can make cheese sandwiches on the fly. This morning it is almond butter on Ezekiel bread (lots of sprouted grains but no wheat). If I can have a full meal before I start writing it is best...no it doesn't make me sleepy it energizes me.
• Finally I am an afternoon writer. At home I do my "morning bits" first - read and answer email, check on the blogs, read RSS feeds, and maybe do a post (or a few) based on what I read in email and feeds. I can do quantitative data processing in the morning but not qualitative work. All of the texted based stuff works best in the afternoon and into the evening.

Oh god I don't need any more this is way to many exclusionary vibs. LOL Looks like I need to work on it a bit. I've been, probably half-heartedly, trying to learn to work in 15-minute segments. Maybe that only works if you are less OCD about all of it. *sigh*

I agree with Professional Confessions, "In many ways, really understanding how I work best was the most valuable thing I learned during the dissertation process." We have to know what makes it easy for us to work and what gets in the way of writing, since this is going to be a lifelong activity.

Posted by prolurkr at 09:43 AM | TrackBack

Customizing Word when you work on large documents like dissertations

Charles Balch posted a link to his Document Automation Handout on Air-L, the listserv for the Association of Internet Researchers. The handout looks at automation/customization that can help in creating large documents such as dissertations. The page looks very helpful. It has tips on customizations to make within Word and includes several movie clips on such things as the equation editor and EndNote.

Posted by prolurkr at 11:11 AM | TrackBack

Two links to useful posts on writing

Todays reading brought me two views of writing that I think will be useful. First A Learners Space has Great Day and Useful Writing Techniques. I found this piece very useful to contemplate today, as I did non-writing work. I think it has a nice breakdown for many of the things we haven't been taught since we were children, assuming we were even taught then.

Defining concepts - not a dictionary definition but rather:

• what the concept means in the context of what you are writing about

Working on patterns of problem-solution:

• have you described the situation
• have you identified a problem
• have you described a possible solution
• have you evaluated the solution

Achieving coherence in your writing:

• repetition of key nouns
• use of pronouns
• use of transition signals
• arranging sentences in logical order

Think of transition signals as things that tell your reader when to:

• go forward
• slow down
• stop

thus enabling you as author to set: pace, tonality, focus. Examples of use:

• a similar idea - similarly, moreover, etc.
• an opposite idea - on the other hand, in contrast
• an example - for example
• a result - as a result, accordingly, in consequence
• a conclusion - in conclusion, in summary, in brief, in short

Best advice of the day, though, related to the use of Summary Labels and Generic Labels in text analysis. Basically, summary labels are identifications of content which you list down the left-hand side of your text, and generic labels are identifications of kinds of writing, or indications of the author's purpose and you note these down the right-hand side of the text. Combined, these make really good representations for note-taking, article summaries, analysis of a text, identification of key ideas, themes, strength or weakness of an argument, etc.

Some generic labels:

• introduction
• explanation
• comment
• opinion
• definition
• evidence
• illustration
• analysis
• process
• interpretation
• intention
• position
• conclusion

This technique worked so well when it came to analysing Lotman's text on the semiosphere. These activities really help you to focus your thoughts and enable you not only to extract key ideas but also to formulate your own position/thoughts towards/against them in a much clearer way. It's almost as if the labelling acts as a frame that just sets these elements in stark relief so that they are loudly foregrounded and thus become easily accessible.

New Kid in the Hallway tackled the Writer's block - a trip down memory lane giving us a timeline of her writer's block leading to dissertation and, more importantly, what she learned from those semesters.

What lessons have I gleaned from this process? Well, let's see.

1. DO NOT ISOLATE YOURSELF. Seriously. Personally, I got the most done during the times I was teaching or working on campus, and part of a dissertation group, and I got the least done during the quarters I was on fellowship. I got writer's block and I vanished and hid from my advisor and tried never to speak with her about the dissertation. I had no idea how to talk about my work and what I was doing at that point, anyway. It seemed so pointless to walk into her office to say, "Uh, I read some books/documents." I think this was partly because I assumed (actually, pretty much correctly, given this woman's position in the field) that she knew everything that was in those books already, so what was I going to say to her? Now, I realize I totally should have talked to her. But I couldn't at the time. (Partly, of course, because I wasn't reading any books/documents! It was an evil cycle.)

In any case, DON'T HIDE. DON'T DO WHAT I DID. A lot easier said than done, but what happened to me was that my advisor started making stuff up about what I was doing (or not doing). Not that I can blame her - she had no evidence to go on that I was actually doing anything! (Which, much of this time, I wasn't.)

It may feel like you can't possibly face (whoever it is) with as little done as you have. But you know what? NOT facing them, and isolating yourself, and STILL not getting work done, is not going to put you in a better position with this person. Dread is not conducive to productivity. Confessing your sins and moving forward is a much better idea.

Obviously, if you're writing a dissertation, this is much more useful advice than at other points in one's career. A book editor to whom you owe a chapter probably does NOT want chatty reports of what you're up to or a blow-by-blow of your research process (actually, one's advisor may not want that, either, but at least has some context/use for it). But if you're behind on something and you really aren't just about to get it done - you really are going to take a while - it's probably much better to get in touch with the person to whom you owe it to explain yourself and be responsible about it, than just to vanish for months. (I have another story along these lines, but it's probably not worth the energy to write it. Just believe me.)

2. DO NOT PLAN TO WRITE IN EIGHT-HOUR MARATHONS.* Honestly, I was never as relieved as I was the day that I read Joan Bolker's words: "There are not a lot of people who can just write - not stare into space, not get up to make five pots of coffee, not talk on the phone, but write continuously - for more than about two hours a day. You can write for a very long time on any given day, but the trouble is, you can't then do it again the next, and again, and again - and writing daily is the pattern that's best suited to finishing a dissertation." (pp. 53-4, if you're curious.) I mean, it made me realize how utterly wrong-minded I'd been with all my plans to write all day long, but it was nice to realize that I couldn't do that because it was an unrealistic goal, not because I was an undisciplined slacker.

*Unless, of course, this is necessary for meeting a specific deadline. I'm all about the 8-hour-writing-days to finish a conference paper or something. But don't plan on this as a regular schedule for writing, even if you are on fellowship or sabbatical or whatever.

3. IF YOU DON'T ACCOMPLISH WHAT YOU PLANNED TO ON ANY GIVEN DAY, DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP OVER IT. LET IT GO. This was probably my biggest, biggest problem in the days I describe above. I reached such a pitch of self-loathing about my inability to get done what I'd (unrealistically) planned that I was good for nothing. NOTHING. Not every day is going to go as well as you'd like. If you blow off a day, you are not an evil, bad, self-indulgent person. Just start again on the next day. And do NOT expect yourself to do more on the next day to make up for it, because that's just setting yourself up for failure. (Y'all do realize I'm talking to myself here, right?)

In a way, the thing that's helpful about working full-time when you're trying to get research done (rather than being on fellowship or something) is that it's hard to reach quite that abyss of self-loathing. If you're working, then you're teaching classes and/or going to meetings/accomplishing other admin/service tasks, as well as probably dealing with independent study students, professional associations, articles for review, etc. etc. There's always more that needs to be done; but at least you're doing SOMETHING. And it's hard to feel so bad about yourself if you're running around getting classes taught and meetings held and so on. Sure, it's not research productivity, but it is productivity. Being on fellowship/leave (or even just off teaching for the summer) is, for me, an irresistible temptation to work out, clean the apartment, go shopping, and watch TV - none of which are remotely productive. So I end up feeling much, much worse than I do during the school year.

There is lots of useful advise in both of the full posts.

Posted by prolurkr at 06:24 PM | TrackBack

Poductivity and/or creativity enhancement tools

Early last week DIYPlanner had a post on "What five items for enhancing your productivity and/or creativity can you not be without?" I hit me that this meme might be really helpful for prolurker readers, and for me when I read what y'all do to keep your productivity up. SO here are my top tools and a bit of explanation on why they make the list. p.s. I use a paper planner so there is no calendar program on this list.

General tools

• ActiveWords - ActiveWords has become such an integral part of what I do that I forgot to add it to the original draft of this list, I simply forget that it is there. ActiveWords acts as a cross-software spell checker, and a quick key program. I have key combinations set-up to then expand into full phrases or coding across programs. This is particularly useful when I'm writing up research. Repeated word phrases can be quick-keyed to cutdown on typing. There is a free trial version and I'm sure that if you try it you will buy it.
• Concetta Mindmap - one of several good mindmapping tools available. I find myself using this more and more to pull together what I need to do and what I'm thinking about. I'm not sure there is an end to what can be worked through with a mindmap. Check for academic pricing.
• CountDown Clock - keeping me on task...sometimes it's a problem in that I get sucked into what I'm doing and lose all track of time. CountDown lets me set a time limit on what you are doing and then tells you the time has expired with a message you set.
• eWallet - Remembers all of those things I don't have space for in my head - passwords, connection info for the blogs and email accounts, software license numbers, etc. Oh and it runs on palm and many cell phones too.
• GoBinder - I'm still learning this one but I see lots of value in using it for my students. I plan to have my semester plan for I101 programmed in beginning in the fall, so students can download the file directly into their GoBinder.
• Mobimate WorldMate - I first found this program when I was using a palm, now it is desktop too. WorldMate helps me schedule conference trips and keeps me on-time when I travel. It is an annual subscription but it's not very expensive if you just have the desktop version.
• UltraRecall - My digital electronic brain. I use the program as both a planning tool and an archive. I set-up my academic goals for submissions, conference, etc. a year or more in advance (depending on when conferences are announced and CFPs are issued). I archive each completed year for posterity, I have individual activities archived elsewhere so this file isn't my primary dossier. The file structure from my UR installation is shown on the right, just to give you an idea what can be done with the program. If you aren't already using a PIM or if you aren't happy with the one you have, I recommned you give UltraRecall a testdrive.
• VIP Simple To Do List - VIP is my GTD trusted location. I enter everything I have to do into VIP and set-up goals for completion. Things that don't have a current due date are entered as due on my 100th b'day. Mostly this is a sort order thing in that activities without dates are sorted before the current date rather then after, so my 100th b'day is way after today. Oh and the "Simple" version of the program is very inexpensive.

Academic recordkeeping tools

• FileMaker Pro - A recordkeeping and research tool. I'm still learning my way around it but have found it very useful in keeping my professional activities stored for monthly and annual reports.
• Movable Type - Allows me to keep my online CV up-to-date. I hacked together a pretty cool page to create a dynamic CV that I'm very proud of and will be improving as time allows.
• Scanner and tools - Indispensable, I use it to scan in dossier type stuff, conference programs, letters, etc. Also use it to manage my IRB forms so I can keep on top of my active work.

Research Tools

• ATLAS.ti - I have a older version of the program. After quals I have resolved that I will upgrade the program and attend a training workshop to really learn to use it.
• Concordance - Concordance is a nice simple program for doing word frequencies. I use it quite a bit when I'm doing research, helps me build the story of the data even if the results don't appear in the final paper. The company offers a 30-day free trial for personal evaluation.
• Detagger - Was a great find. It allows me to strip as much or as little HTML from pages as I need removed. Often I want to retain some of the coding as part of the study of performance, though rarely do I need all of it for analysis. Detagger gives me a lot of flexibility when doing research. I can convert picture and font tags to text then remove all remaining html to get down to the data I want. The company offers a 30-day free trial for personal evaluation.
• InfoRapid Search and Replace - I use the search most, have used the replace to cleanup old html documents in my archives. InfoRapid Search is not as powerful as Google Desktop but it doesn't have all the privacy issues either, that I like.
• Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count - LIWC is a great analysis tool. Like Concordance I use LIWC to find the story in my research. Usually I work with the default dictionaries but I am slowly building a "teen" dictonary to use as needed. Play with this tool and I'm sure you will be hooked.
• Microsoft Excel - My analysis tool of choice. What can I say I'm pretty good at programming, so I save lots of time doing data analysis in Excel.
• Microsoft Word - Where would any of us be without Word?
• Reference Manager - I keep so much in RefMgr, citations, full text of blog posts and articles, to-read-lists, it's an amazing tool. Plus it has cite-while-you-write which is wonderfully powerful.
• RocketPost - Is a powerful tool for updating and managing blogs. I have RocketPost set-up to be used with both of my blogs. It's one of those tools I use throughout the day on every computer with which I interact.
• SnagIT - SnagIT lets me grab clean screenshots for papers, and avatars for research. I seem to use it a lot to post pictures to the blogs as well as adding new desktops to the computers. It's a very handy tool I recommend it. I used it to grab the section of a screen shot from UtlraRecall you see with this post. All nice and neat.
• WinHTTrack - HTTrack is a free website archiver and offline browser. I use it to grab research materials and archive them for processing. HTTrack is the best program I have used, others for which I have paid cash didn't do as good a job in archiving and took up incredible amounts of resources while doing their work.
• WinZIP - Great for packing files for archive or for distribution among collaborators. I've tried other programs and keep coming back to WinZIP.

Ok I'm tagging three of you to get this ball rolling - David Brake, Angela Thomas, and A Learner's Space.

p.s. One of the nice things about doing a list like this periodically is you find out which of your programs have updates available. LOL Several of these were updated or plans were made to update for those that I must buy a-new.

Posted by prolurkr at 02:15 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Why Grad Students Succeed or Fail

Inside Higher Ed has Why Grad Students Succeed or Fail in today's article offerings. The article looks at the recently released book, Three Magic Letters: Getting to Ph.D..

Among the findings