Managing Large Writing Projects

Large projects, such as an master of arts degree thesis, dissertation, book, or just a long paper, can be daunting. For some of us, myself included, project management can be a challenge for any article written from scratch. This memo can help you break down your writing project into smaller, less intimidating parts. I will focus on the writing of a thesis or dissertation, but the same basic logic applies to even smaller writing tasks.

Getting started: Clarify purpose, argument, audience

Purpose: A thesis or dissertation should yield a high quality document that adds to the body of scholarly knowledge and is worthy, eventually, of publication in a peer- reviewed journal. Or your writing may address a public controversy or develop a creative insight that could change how people view a phenomenon of interest.

Argument: With your purpose clarified, think about your argument. Create a main argument that carries you through your thesis or dissertation. (There may be many other points along the way, but a core message will help you stay focused from beginning to end).

Audience: Keep a particular audience in mind. For academic work, identify a target journal. Think about who would want to read your work; this will motivate you to write and clarify your message.

Outlining, setting deadlines

One of the causes of vertigo with large writing projects is the sense that the work before you is too big or too much for you to handle given all your existing responsibilities and pressures. So break the project into manageable parts, and make the immediate task a two- or three-page mini-paper.

How to start: Outline your project carefully. Start with a one-page handwritten outline that is simply the main sections or chapter titles.

Then move to a more thorough outline, with detail under each of the points in the first version. At this point, each part of the outline is no more than a few pages.

Refine your outline to indicate how many pages and what kind of work each part will require. For instance, I might have a line in my outline that reads, “Introduce self-perception theory (two pages; brief literature review).” Your daunting, massive thesis or dissertation has now been reduced to a series of manageable, “do-able” tasks.

Set a schedule for completing each piece of the outline. Make sure that each chunk is small enough to be do-able in just a week or two, or even just a day or two.

Procrastination

First-time procrastination problems? You may just be tired, so relax and don’t be hard on yourself.

Persistent procrastination? Break your task into even smaller pieces.

One option: Identify a one-hour block of time. Work on your next writing task for just 15 minutes, followed by a five-minute stretching/social break. Repeat two more times, and in one hour you will have done 45 minutes of work. If that works, then schedule your next writing period for 80 minutes, and so on, until you can set aside three hours at a time for writing. You may find that taking the break after 15 minutes is hard to do because you get a rhythm and can’t stop working. That’s a good thing.

Another option: Schedule writing appointments with fellow students or faculty—or, form a three-to-five person study group that meets every one or two weeks to help keep each other on track.

Other options: See your adviser, commit to a scholarly conference (to create an external deadline), or set up some other writing-related appointment.

If your large writing project becomes so emotionally upsetting that you find yourself unable to do any of the above successfully, consider making an appointment for student counseling. It is easy for the different parts of our lives to get entangled, and the fear or stress you experience regarding your writing may have nothing to do with the quality of your ideas or your skill as a writer—but instead be symptomatic of other things upsetting you at home or at work.

And remember—it’s OK to ask for help.

by John Gastil, former professor, Communication

The Literature Review

From seminar paper to master of arts degree thesis to dissertation, the literature review provides both the foundation and the frame for your own research. Its preparation requires careful planning and a well-crafted presentation.

The purpose of the literature review

A literature review tells us what is known by sharing the results of prior studies related to your own.

A literature review places your study within a larger body of work. It shows how your study seeks to fill a gap in, or extend, our knowledge in this area.

A literature review offers a benchmark for assessing your own results. In the conclusion to your study you will revisit the literature review armed with your new findings.

Organizing the literature review

A good literature review is a synthesis of prior research presented in a way that adds value to our understanding of that work. So, it’s important to organize your review in a way that is coherent, relevant to your own study, and useful to other researchers. For example, you might cluster prior research by media type, communication situation, similar findings, key themes, respondent type, or other useful distinction.

Whatever organizing scheme you choose, it is typical to present the most important, relevant, or strongest collection of existing research first, and go from there. If not, there should be a narrative logic to the review presentation.

Another way to add value is to identify conceptual linkages among ideas and authors. Researchers often talk about the same processes — just in somewhat different ways.

It’s tempting to want to include every study that appeared in the key word search of your topic. Don’t. The challenge is to find the right balance between giving the reader confidence in your familiarity with literature and focusing on what’s most relevant for the study at hand.

Writing the literature review

Your synthesis of prior research should focus on key findings or conclusions with just enough information for the reader to discern the question and approach: “In her ethnographic study of Muslim immigrants’ perception of mainstream British media, Gillespie concluded…” The exception being if the study cited is significant because of its methodology — only then would you offer more methodological detail.

Not all ideas in the literature review are used to construct your study’s conceptual framework. So, at the end of each section, tell readers what key concept, finding, definition, or theme is most critical to “carry forward” into their reading of your study.

Don’t over-quote. It slows down your narrative. Direct quotations should only appear if the author said something in a unique, powerful, or precise way (e.g., a definition) that demands repeating in its exact form. Otherwise, use your own words.

Since a good review is a coherent, value-added organization of the literature, provide the reader with clear “signposts” through the instructive use of headings, introductions, transition phrases, and summary statements.

Finally, because people reading your paper or dissertation may not be familiar with your area of research, be careful not to weigh down your literature review in field-specific jargon. It is important that you write in clear and active prose.

by Nancy Rivenburgh, professor, Communication

Communicating with the News Media

Some common scenarios

At some point in your graduate studies, you may have the opportunity to interact with journalists who are interested in covering your work. Sometimes reporters or editors will find you on their own, having networked through their contacts in academic departments or elsewhere as they seek particular kinds of expertise. Other times, you may receive a call from UW News & Information, in which a public information officer seeks your help to answer a reporter’s questions. In some cases, you may actually seek media attention yourself. Two examples when you might want media coverage:

to assist in recruiting research project participants from the general public;
if you have research findings that are significant and are about to be published.

If you receive a call directly from a reporter, feel free to call News & Information and consult one of the public information specialists. They have many years of training and can help guide you through what may be new and unfamiliar territory, beginning with an assessment about whether you are the right person to answer the reporter’s questions.

About reporters

Reporters come in all shapes and sizes. Some have extensive backgrounds in the subject they cover; others will know very little. You should assume that the reporter knows very little about the subject. Remember, you are not speaking to the reporter but to the reporter’s audience— his or her readers, viewers or listeners, which usually represents a broad mix of the general public. Here are some other recommendations:

When a reporter calls, make sure you know which medium and media outlet he/she represents. If it’s not one with which you are familiar, you may want to call the news office to see what they know.
Find out what general areas the reporter wants to know about and the questions he/she intends to ask. It’s perfectly OK to tell the reporter that you are not the right person to talk about that subject and refer him or her back to the news office.
If you decide to talk to the reporter, you need not respond immediately. Ask the reporter what his/her deadline is—then be certain to call before the deadline. Deadlines are sacred to reporters and essential to news cycles.

Preparing to be interviewed

Take some time to think about the key points you want the reporter and the audience to know about the subject. For TV or radio, you will need to be very succinct. You will probably not have the opportunity to make more than two key points or observations that will end up in the final cut.

You can be a bit more expansive with a print reporter, but being concise, organized and to the point still matters.

As you prepare, ask yourself these questions:

What are the most important points about, and/or findings from, my research?
How might those findings further human knowledge (for example, do they contradict what has passed for conventional wisdom) or affect people in their daily lives?
What makes this research timely?
How can I best illustrate my findings with examples?

Try to simplify your statements. Statements that are heavily qualified or highly technical tend to be omitted from stories or the qualifications are minimized—nuance is very hard to convey.

Remember, everything you say is “on the record” and can end up in the final story. Do not guess, speculate, or make any statements or comments that would make you wince if they were in the public domain.

Your campus news office is available to help at any time in the process, including providing tips for working with television reporters, how to help you reach the general public when you need participation in a project, or what to do when you are involved in a potential media crisis.

by Bob Roseth, retired director, UW News & Information

Collaborating and Co-Authoring

Finding opportunities to collaborate and publish

Many scholars enjoy co-authoring because doing so affords an opportunity to develop new ideas, extend our methodological toolkit, and share the workload. The first step in finding opportunities to co-publish is to let your faculty mentors know that you are available to help if they ever get such invitations. Faculty sometimes receive unsolicited invitations to write an article or contribute a book chapter. Since faculty often plan long-term writing agendas, they may decline an unexpected invitation. They may be more likely to accept such an invitation if they know they can share the research and writing tasks with a co-author.

If you hear of such an opportunity, or see a call for papers that you would like to answer, you may also pitch a co-authorship opportunity to other students or faculty. Whether or not they accept your invitation will depend on how thoroughly you’ve considered the workload, authorship credits, and of course, the intellectual fit.

Many forms of collaborations

Collaborative work with faculty can take many forms: payment in the form of a stipend without additional acknowledgement; a thank-you in the acknowledgments of a book or an article; a footnote in the relevant section of the published work; gradations of co-authorship; or independent access to the data or field notes.

Across the humanities and social sciences, an author is someone who makes a substantive creative contribution to a project. A research assistant makes a minor creative contribution or a mechanical contribution such as collecting data or organizing archives.

For the most part, being paid as a research assistant does not eliminate the obligation to acknowledge the contribution of a minor or mechanical contribution. The benefit of collaborating is that all parties acquire new experience and skills, and have the creative opportunity to generate and test new ideas.

Discussing the workload

There are several good tools that facilitate co-authorship, such as Endnote, Word’s “track changes” tool, and of course, e-mail. Your discussion of workload should not only include the details of which parts of an article you will author, but the process for editing drafts, for backing up drafts and data, for keeping notes on major edits, and for resolving intellectual differences. But co-authoring doesn’t stop there—you should also talk through the likely division of labor for submitting to journals, corresponding with editors, handling revisions and resubmissions, and reviewing page proofs.

Even though many of these tasks seem far in the future and hypothetical — contingent on acceptance — they are a significant part of the work of publishing and it is best to talk through the hypothetical scenarios. The more you clarify the workload and timeline before the writing starts, the more likely you are to have a successful collaboration. Moreover, writing may not even be the most difficult task for authors: conceptualizing the problem, designing the research project, and collecting data are major tasks that need to be made even before writing begins.

Negotiating authorship credit

We are in an unusual profession in that faculty actively work to make students into colleagues. So many project leaders will err on the side of generosity in negotiating an authorship credit, and there are several possible permutations:

Listing authors in alphabetical order, which in the social sciences and humanities can indicate equal contributions (if specified in the footnotes);
Listing authors in the order of substantive contributions made;
Randomizing the order of authors across multiple papers based on the same project;
In increasingly rare cases, subdividing authorship, which takes the form of “A with B” or “A and B.”

Journals may also have their own guidelines for how to acknowledge each other’s contribution in a footnote, endnote, or other front matter.

It is best to establish early on—as part of the workload conversation—what the duties and obligations for these credits will be for your particular piece. However, the initially agreed-upon authorship order can change based on the actual contributions realized at the end of the paper.

Personal negotiations

It is best to have face-to-face conversations about the terms of this important relationship, so avoid using e-mail. Unlike writing a paper for a class, collaborating and co-authoring is a long-term personal commitment to being available and amenable to an extended process. This longer-term working relationship means meeting deadlines (and being flexible with them), deferring to your collaborators in the areas in which they have more expertise, and picking up responsibilities when necessary. Ultimately, it can mean celebrating and sharing the reward of successfully publishing and contributing to the advancement of knowledge.

by Philip N. Howard, professor, Communication

Academic Job Offer and Salary Negotiations

Some graduate students may fear the negotiation process because they have little or no experience negotiating a job offer. Here are tips for negotiating a starting package that can maximize your personal and professional satisfaction as a future faculty member.

Collect information

Ask faculty in your department what they think would be a fair package.
Research average faculty salaries online by state and institution.
Check the websites of professional associations in your field for academic salary information.

Always negotiate

When you’re offered a position, the balance of power shifts in your favor. As a result, you will likely never be in a better position to get what you want.
Departments expect you to negotiate.
Do not assume anything. Ask questions.

Maintain a positive attitude

The way you negotiate sets the stage for future interactions with your colleagues. Strive for a win-win situation. The hiring committee and your supervisor want you to be happy with your starting package.
Be professional, courteous, appreciative, ethical — and firm.
Be willing to compromise and accept “no” as an answer.

Frame your requests appropriately

Frame your requests in terms of what you need to be optimally successful and productive at the institution.
Focus on the value you will bring to the department.

Think broadly

Always ask for a higher salary! Your starting salary has a big impact on your overall lifetime earnings because raises are calculated from your base (starting) salary.
Evaluate other aspects of an offer so you know what you’re getting yourself into: relocation expenses, confer- ence money, office space, lab equipment, job responsi- bilities, student and staff support, healthcare, retirement, family benefits, etc.
Try not to get so excited about having a job offer that you forget to think about the future.

Prioritize

Pick your battles—prioritize what’s important to you and then only negotiate the things about which you feel strongly.
Ask yourself “What do I need to be happy, be produc- tive—and get tenure?”
Distinguish between what is absolutely necessary for you and what would be nice to have, but extra.

Get it in writing

When you receive the official offer letter, make sure it agrees with what was discussed during the negotiation process.
If the letter contains inaccurate information or is missing vital items, ask for an updated letter.
If you agree to the terms, sign the letter, make a copy of it, and promptly return the original.
Do not consider yourself hired until you and your employer have both signed a written document.

Resources

Golde, C. (2001). Be honorable and strategic. Science Careers.

Heiberger, M. M., & Vick, J. M. (2001). The academic job search handbook. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Reis, R. (1999). The right start-up package for beginning science professors. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

by Briana K. Randall, associate director, UW Career Center

A Dozen Sentences that Should Appear in Your Academic Job Application Letter

When you apply for an academic job, your cover letter helps a hiring committee interpret your curriculum vitae and conveys your excitement about and dedication to your work.

Your mission is to land an academic job. The immediate goal is to use the cover letter to get you on two shortlists — the shortlist of a dozen people who will be invited to submit more writing samples and have references checked, followed by the shortlist of three or four people who will be invited to visit the hiring department.

Cover letters should include 12 pieces of information that hiring committees are seeking:

“I would like to be considered for the position of [title copied from job ad] in [exact department name from job ad] at the [exact institution name from job ad]. I am an advanced doctoral candidate in [your department].”
This opening should be short and can certainly vary. The odds are that you will submit for many jobs, be shortlisted for a few, and be offered one or two. In all the cutting and pasting, make sure these letters are correctly addressed to the chair of the search committee or the chair of the department.
“My doctoral project is a study of [cocktail party description]. Much of the research on this topic suggests that [characterize the literature as woefully inadequate]. But I [demonstrate, reveal, discover] that contrary to received wisdom, [your punch line].”
This is the key statement about your doctoral project. Demonstrate how you will contribute to an intellectual conversation that is larger than your project – but unable to advance without your findings. The next paragraph should detail your research with one sentence on each chapter in your manuscript.
“To complete this research I have spent [X years] doing [fieldwork / lab work / archival work / statistical analysis]. I have travelled to [these cities or libraries], interviewed [X number of experts], created [original datasets/original compositions/original artwork].”
This sentence should be followed by a paragraph with the story of your research process. Overwhelm the committee with the volume of artifacts you’ve studied, people you’ve talked to, time you have dedicated or places you’ve been.
“I have completed [X] of [Y] chapters of my dissertation, and I have included two substantive chapters as part of my writing sample.”
Many hiring committees expect their top candidates to be almost finished with the doctoral project, since the dissertation is a test of commitment to a research trajectory. Ideally, the review committee will be excited by your original research and beg you for more once you are on a short list. Your mentors should confirm this information in their letters.
“I have well-developed drafts of several other chapters, and expect to defend in [month, year]. OR Having defended in [month, year], I plan to [turn it into a book-length manuscript for a major scholarly press / select key chapters for publication in disciplinary journals].”
Your advisors will also confirm these things. Committees want to know that your defense will not take place while you are working on their coin. If any of your committee members are unwilling to commit to even a season of the year for your defense date, or you don’t have two substantive chapters to submit to the hiring committee, it’s too early for you to be on the academic job market.
“Although my primary area of research is [disciplinary keyword here], I have additional expertise in [another disciplinary keyword here] and am eager to teach in both areas. I have [taught/served as a teaching assistant] in courses about [A, B and C]. In the next few years, I hope to develop courses in [X and Y].”
Departments love hiring people who can teach several topics. Look up the courses offered in the department to which you are applying, and use their keywords. Although the hiring committee will take research fit as most important, teaching skills and interests will be taken seriously. Specify courses in which you served as a teaching assistant and those in which you were the instructor of record.
“For the most part, my approach to research is through [social science or humanistic method keyword here], and I would be interested in developing a methods class on this approach to research.”
Many departments struggle to find faculty who will teach methods classes, and signaling your interest likely will put you ahead. Job candidates are particularly valuable if they demonstrate how they cross methodological boundaries, appreciate diverse approaches to inquiry, and can contribute to advancing knowledge with different analytical frames.
“Although I have been focused on my graduate research for several years, I have been actively involved in conversations with [scholars in the department you are applying to, or scholars at other universities/professional associations/conferences/other disciplines].”
This can be the one paragraph about service, highlighting conferences you’ve attended, workshops you’ve organized, and other ways you’ve supported your discipline. If you are applying for work in a department that is different from the one that trained you, demonstrate how you already have affinities for the new discipline, such as showing that you are familiar with faculty interests.
“In the next few years, I hope to be able to investigate [reasonably related problems or questions].”
Address your research trajectory over the next five years. The department will be investing in the person they hire, so the hiring committee will look for the direction your research will take. Communicate future research possibilities eloquently; don’t leave the committee to assume you will be doing more of the same.
“I am interested in this post for a variety of reasons: [something about the character of the department/university/community/city].”
The committee will be happy that you know something about the place you want to work. This may be particularly true for colleges and universities with distinct liberal arts traditions or unique community programs, or are not located in major urban areas. A committee might not interview you if the members believe you would not seriously consider a job offer.
“Because of my graduate training, my doctoral research, and my teaching [experience/interests], I am uniquely qualified for this job.”
Within a few sentences address your general focus and course work, and point to your experience teaching in the domains mentioned in the job description. Write a brief statement on why you are uniquely qualified for the job.
“In the next few months, I will be attending the [conference A] and [conference B]. If you or your colleagues are also planning to attend, I would be happy to meet for an informal conversation.”
Many departments make their first short list phone interviews or informal conference visits. Alert the committee if you are giving a paper so they can see you in action.

These sentences are in roughly the order they should appear in for applications to jobs at research schools. Most of the content should be about research, followed by one or two paragraphs about teaching and perhaps one paragraph about service. If the job is mostly about teaching, expand the amount of space dedicated to that topic.

Shoot for two and a half pages of content: less than that and you might not seem like an advanced doctoral candidate well immersed in a project; more than that and committee members may stop reading. As you write, drop in the names of granting agencies that have supported you, or the journals that are publishing or reviewing your work. Ideally several faculty members will write letters on your behalf. If possible, at least one letter writer can come from a university other than yours. Hiring committees love reference letters on different university letterheads; it shows that you have social capital beyond your home department.

Address your letter to the person heading the search or the department head. A greeting such as “Dear Committee Members” shows you haven’t done enough research. Ask a friend proofread your document for grammar and spelling.

Finally, follow up with the department. Hiring committees do not always tell candidates whether they are on the short list. If you finish another dissertation chapter, or get an article published, a few weeks after submitting your letter, submit an update by e-mail and ask that this example be added to your file and where the committee is in the hiring process.

by Philip N. Howard, professor, Communication

Creating a Research Agenda

by UW alumni Justin Reedy, Ph.D., Communication, and Madhavi Murty, Ph.D., Communication, in conversation with UW graduate students

Creating a research agenda should be a major goal for all graduate students—regardless of theoretical interests, methodological preferences, or career aspirations. A research agenda helps you orient yourself toward both short- and long-term goals; it will guide your selection of classes, help you decide which academic conferences (and within those, which specific divisions) to engage in, and steer you in recruiting mentors and research collaborators.

What is a research agenda? It’s a plan and a focus on issues and ideas in a subset of your field. You cannot study everything in your field during your time in graduate school, so decide what to focus on now, and what to defer until another day.

Research agendas are not set in concrete; they naturally change over time as your knowledge grows and as new research questions emerge.

Don’t be intimidated. Many students may start a graduate program with only a few ideas of areas they would like to study, or perhaps a few general research questions. Graduate courses, conversations with faculty and fellow students, and time spent reading the literature in the field can help you start to form a research agenda out of those ideas or research questions.

How to get started

Talk with faculty members about your general interests. Use faculty as a resource to find out which topics are over-studied and where additional work is needed.
If there are students with similar or overlapping interests, get their perspectives as well.
Read a great deal, even in the early weeks of your graduate work. Be open to reading research outside your immediate areas of interests and seeing how they link to your own areas.
Ask faculty for reading lists or copies of syllabi. Such resources help you familiarize yourself with the research already done in areas that interest you. Be sure to follow up on citations that are interesting or intriguing.
Identify key authors relevant to your interests. Read their scholarship and understand the work that has informed their research.

Advancing your agenda

Classes

Identify courses that will help advance your research agenda—both in terms of specific knowledge about the issues and relevant methods. Remember that the title of a class might not always fully describe it, so contact the professor to find out more about class content.
Look both inside and outside the department for classes—and look outside especially in your second year in the program. Graduate students in interdisciplinary fields, for example, may find very valuable classes in diverse departments.
Think specifically about the research questions you want to ask, and think about how you will answer them. Then pick courses to help you in reaching this goal.
Try to use class assignments to advance your research agenda. If possible, use each seminar paper as a way to focus on a specific part of your overall agenda —whether it be a literature review or a proposal for a study.
Don’t be afraid to take a chance on a course that seems somewhat outside of your agenda or your comfort zone. If the topics or research methods covered in the course draw your interest, you could find a way to incorporate those into your overarching research agenda.

Conference papers, colloquia, and research articles

Ask faculty members if they have research projects in which you can participate.
Work with more than one faculty member. Different faculty members provide different perspectives even if they are interested in the same concepts.
Talk to faculty and other graduate students about conferences you should attend (and conference paper deadlines). Use conference paper deadlines to pace your own research production.
Present your work at conferences, listen to others’ ideas, and solicit feedback on your research.
Consider working towards the publication of your papers. With enough feedback and guidance from faculty, fellow graduate students, and colleagues in the field, what starts out as a seminar or conference paper could turn into a journal article or book chapter.
Attend talks and colloquia on campus—both inside and outside your department. These talks can help you generate research ideas and help you see your research in a new light.
Recruit others to work with you on projects. Student collaborations are especially fruitful when the constituent members have similar interests, but bring different yet complementary perspectives and skills to the endeavor.

Be active: Be a part of the conversation in your field!

Strategies to take your research to market impact

In May 2020, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and UW CoMotion co-hosted a virtual professional development event focused on helping postdocs explore ways to commercialize your research products (check out the full recording). Four scientists in various entrepreneurial stages shared their insights on how to effectively take their research from discovery to market.

Briefly, there are four major paths of research distribution: license innovation to an existing company or a new start-up, building an internal business at UW, and open distribution. Prior to making any decisions, consider the implications of each path, including risk, personal commitment, types of financial return, degree of control, and your ability to achieve success and independence. UW CoMotion provides guidance on innovation training, IP advising, protection & licensing, start-ups & incubator, funding & partnerships. You can always schedule an appointment to discuss which path works best for you.
Here, we summarize three strategies to assist you as you consider commercializing your research efforts.

Assess your interest and values. Are you interested in teamwork, creating a business model, or understanding the market demand of a certain product? Do you value the market impact of your research product and have a desire to start a business? Starting a company involves more than one person – you will need to collaborate and share similar values and goals with your partner (or partners). The ultimate goal of commercialization is to turn your research into a product with market value and make a difference! Spend time discussing common values, goals, and expectations. Remember, there’s no single path to success. Your goal is to create a product that has an impact – commit to a plan, but be willing to modify your path as you move through different stages of product and company development. Check out the 10 simple rules to commercialize scientific research.

Identify your support network. At the OPA, we strongly encourage you to build a mentoring team, regardless of your career aspirations. You need a support network of people who can assist you in different ways. This is particularly important on the pathway to commercialization, as you will end up needing to learn from experts in the business, legal, and industrial sectors. If your mentors are all from your academic life, you might consider branching out. Both Life Science Washington and UW CoMotion offer mentoring programs.

Time management and planning. Starting a business will feel daunting, and you will find yourself juggling among many unfamiliar responsibilities. Time management and planning are critical to making sure you are on track. There are time-sensitive steps (e.g., finding co-founders) that you need to accomplish as early as possible. You will likely need to acquaint yourself with new knowledge outside of your specific area of expertise, and you’ll need to build a collaborative team to accomplish your goals. These all demand your time and effort, which will feel increasingly constrained as you move your product and ideas from the bench to business. Check out tips on time management for start-up founders.

Last but not least, engaging in the entrepreneurial process has many benefits to your career development. For example, you will learn how to do translational research, tell a story about your research, and communicate to a diverse audience. You will also have the opportunity to expand your network as you explore the potential market impact of your research. It’s an exciting opportunity to fully apply all of the skills you developed during your graduate and postdoctoral research.

Reaching Out for Support

We know that you’re working hard to meet deadlines, achieve milestones, and fulfill commitments within and beyond your graduate program. During these last few weeks of the quarter, we encourage you to tap into support resources that match your needs. Your success is not only about your ability to complete your grad program requirements for the quarter, it is also about being able to get support for yourself as a whole person.

Peer support. Consider scheduling a writing group session for a few hours in the upcoming weeks. Peers need not be in your grad program. The goal is to schedule structured time dedicated to completing final projects. Just sitting next to one another can break the isolation of graduate study, and you can hold one another accountable to meeting your writing goals. Depending on the environment that works best for all of you, meet at a café, find a spot in your campus library, or make it a potluck/work group so you can enjoy good food at the same time.

Campus and community support. Let’s be real! Graduate school is stressful — with some weeks feeling more challenging than others. If you’ve been experiencing anxiety or depression for more than a few days, we encourage you to reach out to counseling services on your campus (Bothell, Seattle, Tacoma). Each counseling center can refer you to low cost community-based mental health resources in your city or area. If you need to talk to someone in more immediately, consider calling your county’s free 24-hour crisis line: King County, Pierce County, Snohomish County. If you’re having a hard time taking any of these steps, consider asking a trusted peer, friend or staff to sit with you while you contact support resources. There’s no shame in asking for professional mental health support.

Faculty support. Email your professor, drop in during their office hours or schedule a short online meeting if you have follow up questions about final projects or tasks that are due. Life also happens, and you may need more time to complete your final project. Be proactive and contact your professor as soon as possible to see if you can get an extension. Be clear about why you need an extension and include a realistic timeline for turning in your project. More often than not, professors are accommodating. Just remember to be proactive.

Self-care. There’s always time for self-care, and there’s never a better time to practice self-care than during crunch time near the end of a quarter. Hold off on making any new commitments, and reschedule times for meetings and projects that can be put on pause for the next couple of weeks. Consider marking out time in your daily schedule to get up from your workstation to stretch, drink water or catch up on the phone with friends and loved ones. We all think better when we get enough sleep, so set limits for yourself while you’re working (use a timer if needed), so you can get ready for bed at a reasonable time.

We hope these tips are helpful, and let us know what has worked for you!

Best,

Core Programs—Office of Graduate Student Affairs
UW Graduate School

Finding Mentors to Support Your Success

In honor of National Mentoring Month, our newsletter focuses on what it takes to build a strong mentoring team for yourself. Having a support system is vital to your success in graduate school.

Advisor versus mentor. Generally speaking, an academic or career advisor is assigned to you, directs you to fulfill course or career development requirements, points you to texts or job resources in your field and helps you identify baseline milestones that you must meet in order to graduate with your degree or enter the job market. A mentor is invested in learning about your motivations and passions as a graduate student, shares insights about the norms and challenges of graduate school and encourages you to define what success means to you. Importantly, a mentor will lend an empathic ear to you: not only as a student, but as a whole person. Can a faculty or staff advisor also be your mentor? Yes. Is this always the case? No. This is why it’s important to deepen your bench of people who are in your corner.

Types of mentors. A mentor is that someone in your life who asks you good questions or inspires you to be your best self just because of how they live in the world. It may not matter if you have very different lives or careers. If you connect with that person, and something in your interactions helps you shine more brightly, then awesome — count them in your circle. Mentors can serve as consultants, coaches, guides, sponsors or thought partners (and more). Peers, staff and faculty in and beyond your university, professionals in your field, and members of your cultural and spiritual communities are all potential mentors. And identifying mentors who will complement your needs requires some initial self-reflection. It’s helpful to assess what you need from a potential mentor before requesting their guidance. Be as specific as possible, and think about where your own gaps might be. Is it in research mentorship, career direction, personal goals or worldview alignment? We also recommend building a mentoring team because it is difficult, if not impossible, for one person to have all the qualities you need in a mentor.

Frequency of mentoring. Depending on your mentor, as well as your goals and interests as a graduate student, the frequency of your mentoring meetings will vary. The scale of mentoring will also vary over time, as you complete small and large milestones, and even dependent on the kind of week you’re having. You may need to check in with your mentor quickly in the hallway, Skype for an hour once a month, or schedule 30 minute check-ins once a week over coffee. Sometimes, a mentor on your team may be your go-to person when you really need to talk through something; a person whom you call when you need them rather than following a standard meeting schedule. When your time is really constrained, it’s important to make the most of your mentoring relationships. Check out these tips on micro-mentoring (geared toward the workplace but still relevant).

Finally, it’s helpful to understand that a mentoring relationship is a reciprocal relationship — a “two-way street” where you are also making important contributions and being accountable to your success in graduate school. Interested in learning how to do and be your best as a mentee? Check out this resource.

Do these tips make you think of someone who’s already on your mentoring team? Has this particular someone made a difference in your life? In the spirit of National Mentoring Month, take a minute and send them a thank you note or text. Sometimes people don’t know the positive impact they have on others, so expressing gratitude is a great way way to acknowledge their importance in your life. In the same spirit, we proudly announce that the 2019 Postdoc Mentoring Award nomination process has started! Submit a nomination by Thursday, February 28 for an outstanding postdoc whom you consider your mentor.

As always, we hope these strategies are helpful to you, and please let us know what works!

Best,

Core Programs—Office of Graduate Student Affairs
UW Graduate School