Writing – Page 2 – UW Graduate School Skip to content

Advice Topic: Writing

Graduating soon, and what next?

“I am a fifth-year doctoral student and will be graduating soon. I’m at the point in my graduate education where I am thinking about possible careers. What are some simple steps I can take to start my career planning?” –Anonymous

Lucky you, grad student, you get two answers to your question! One is from Catherine Basl, career counselor with Career & Internship Services. Catherine manages the center’s programming for graduate students. Another is from the Core Programs team, who support personal and professional development of grad students at the UW. You know what they say, two heads are better than one!

Catherine Basl, career counselor, Career & Internship Services:

Leverage your research skills for career planning! Aim for a mix of independent reading about options and connecting with professionals in coffee chats or at events.

A few ideas for getting started:

  • Talk to one alum of your graduate program who works outside of academia in an area of possible interest. Graduate Program Advisers could be a good resource for finding alumni.
  • Attend an event on campus (Core Programs and the Career & Internship Center host many) that is focused on employer connections or exploring options.
  • Reflect on your time here at UW. Consider all of the roles you have held as a graduate student (TA, research assistant, mentor, tutor, lab manager, writer, coder, etc.). Looking at each role, what were the tasks and activities you enjoyed most? Least? See if patterns emerge across roles. For an example of this activity, see pages 8-10 in the Career Guide.
  • Paula Di Rita Wishart’s article on Career Callings also provides some great activities for reflecting on your graduate school experience and next steps.
  • LinkedIn’s Alumni tool shows you where actual UW alumni work and you can sort by location, employer, and field of study to see possible career paths.

Some notes:

  • Looking at job postings when you aren’t sure what you want to do can be overwhelming. Job boards become much more navigable when you have established criteria for what you want in a position. The same goes for large career fairs.
  • Gather multiple data points. That means talking to more than one person, reading about career options on more than one website, and testing out the information you hear.
  • Realize career planning is like all research projects—sometimes things fall into place quickly and sometimes you encounter roadblocks along the way. If you feel stuck or would like someone to brainstorm with, consider booking an appointment with a career counselor and checking in with mentors.

A few more resources for exploring:

Core Programs Team:

Dear UW Grad Student,

Thank you for reaching out! This is a great question, and one we hear frequently from graduate students who are further along in their degree programs and thinking through different career paths. Whether you are thinking about working in industry, non-profits, government, or academia, there are several resources that can help you do intentional career planning (many of which we’ve learned through collaborations with partners at the Career & Internship Center).

First step: do some self-assessment work. Where are you with your skills, strengths, interests, passions? Then, use a planning tool like an Individual Development Plan (link) to start to map out possible goals and steps you can take toward them in the next few months. You can also utilize this helpful career planning guide from the Career & Internship Center that provides several clear, proactive steps you can take towards finding that job you’re passionate about.

To explore and open your possibilities, do LinkedIn searches for professionals with jobs you’re interested in learning more about and set up informational interviews to hear more about their unique career trajectories.

Explore different career options within academia and/or job sectors outside of academia with the amazing resources on the Career Center website.

We totally get that you are 100% focused on your dissertation work and graduation – it’s a lot! And, we know that setting aside 1-2 hours per week (starting right now) to explore, research, draft, attend something that helps you refine your career search will really help you identify career options and opportunities for your next steps. It’s worth it – give it a try!

Sincerely,

Core Programs Team
#UWGradSuccess
 

Being Intentional and Productive This Summer

Summer is the perfect time to make room for activities and experiences that will help you be—and feel—prepared for the coming academic year! The pace can feel slower during this time of the year, and there’s a little more wiggle room to be intentional about visualizing and achieving your intellectual, professional, and interpersonal goals. Maybe you’re starting from scratch (or already have some initial goals) and just need a plan of action. Maybe you need some structured time and support to work on a writing project? Or maybe you’re interested in career development activities?

No matter where you’re at, below are some initial strategies that can help you create intentional space for productivity this summer!

Create a plan to meet your goals. As graduate students—and as whole people with complex lives—we know that completing your graduate degree is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to meeting your goals. And we know it takes time to reflect on the skills you already possess—and the academic, professional, and interpersonal competencies you’d like to develop in the future.  Creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP) can help you map out realistic, achievable goals for your time in graduate school and beyond. Use your IDP as a roadmap for meeting with mentors and advisors. What’s great about an IDP is that you can adapt and revise as you see fit!

Make progress on your writing. Whether you are working on a thesis, dissertation, or an article for publication, set achievable and concrete writing goals for yourself this summer. In past Core Programs newsletters, we encouraged you to start out by setting aside 15-minute blocks of time to write each day. Then try working your way up to 30-minute chunks of time. You’ll eventually see that you’re making progress. Reach out to peers (they can be peers outside of your graduate program too) to schedule skype and/or in-person writing support group meetings. You can receive and share constructive feedback on writing projects and hold each other accountable to getting tasks done. Finally, here are great tips on how to move past feeling stuck in a writing rut from Dr. Kerry Anne Rockquemore, President of the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity.

Get involved in professional development activities. There are many ways to brush up on your professional development this summer. 1) Update your CV or resume with skills and professional experiences you have gained from 2016–2017. 2) Identify conferences you’d like to present your work at for the coming year and mark those proposal and registration deadlines on your calendar. 3) Set up informational interviews to network with professionals currently working in fields or companies you’re interested in working for. 4) Volunteer in your local community to gain skills and to give back. 4) Contact your UW career center at Bothell, Tacoma, or Seattle for guidance with your internship or job search. 5) Check out just a few of our Core Programs newsletter links below on professional development:

Research funding opportunities. Whether you are seeking travel funds to participate in an academic or professional conference or grants to fund your research, start by learning about the breadth of possible funding opportunities available to you. Because application deadlines and eligibility requirements vary widely—and can sneak up on you when you’re busy during the academic year—it’s always a good idea to plan in advance.

Funding Information Resources

We hope you find these strategies useful, and please let us know of tips that worked for you!

Best,
Core Programs Team
#UWGradSuccess

Project Prep

I’m a graduate student in Engineering. How do I effectively organize the data, code and writing materials for a project?  —Anonymous

Well, that is the million dollar question, isn’t it? Everyone has their own methods, and hopefully you’ve written enough smaller papers that you’ve developed certain techniques for organizing and writing. However, as many students find, in graduate school, papers and projects become so much larger that they often require new tactics and strategies. There is a wealth of resources available on campus to help guide you:

  • Mentor Memos
    The UW Graduate School offers a series of Mentor Memos — penned by UW faculty and staff — that cover topics such as “What’s the best way to pick a lab?” “How can you manage a large writing project?” “How do you work the crowd at a cocktail party with confidence and ease?” and much more. You might be particularly interested in Managing Large Writing Projects.
  • UW Libraries’ Resources
  • Writing Centers
    • Includes centers for Tacoma and Bothell campuses

Good luck! Readers, please share your own tips and successful strategies in the comments!

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Writing in Graduate School: Making Sense of Feedback

Core Programs welcomes guest writers to our newsletters – UW students, staff, and faculty.  Since it is the time of year where many of you are working hard on your writing, we invited Dr. Karen Rosenberg, UW alum and director of the UW Bothell Writing and Communication Center, to share some guidance with you.  

Getting feedback on our writing is a key part of graduate school (and, for many of us, life well beyond).  Sometimes that feedback is exactly what we need: it stretches our thinking; it confirms that the path we’re bushwhacking is gorgeous and useful; and it sharpens our tools as we continue the journey.  When we get this feedback, we know how to course correct and how to forge our way ahead.  Thank your professors and study what works about their feedback – hopefully we can use our intellect and spirit to support others down the line.

Sometimes the feedback on our writing isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either.  It doesn’t rock our world with its insights, but we’ve been muddling along all right for a while now and the feedback serves as a green light to keep going.

But sometimes–whether intentional or not–the feedback hurts. It takes the wind out of our sails. It makes us doubt ourselves.  In one form or another, this has happened to many of us who have gone through graduate school (that is, jumped through all of the hoops we have jumped through to be in our current predicament of getting painful feedback on our writing).  So we might as well talk about it.

First, remember that we are getting feedback on one piece of writing, not on us as writers (and certainly not as whole, beautiful, complex people).  This sounds so utterly obvious, yet it bears a reminder every now and again.  We are not our writing.

Second, in the UW Bothell Writing and Communication Center where I work, we repeat the mantra: writing is never done, it’s just due.  So once we have tended to the sting of the fraught feedback, we can see if we can scavenge any useful bits from it, bits that enable us to revise our work…literally to see it again.

Before we get there, it helps to tend to the sting.  I don’t know what it feels like for you (and often I haven’t known what is has felt like for me, because when I was in graduate school I sought to distance myself from my feelings in a misguided effort to become more ‘academic’).  But during my 8 years directing the Writing and Communication Center, I’ve spent time thinking about what helps and hurts in responding to others’ writing.  Here are some tips to tend to the sting and then use the feedback to move forward:

  1. Read all of the feedback.
  2. Identify what you’re feeling. Shame? Anger? Despair? Nothing?  You don’t have to do anything with these feelings except acknowledge them and, if you can, sit with them.  Over time, this can help us receive the feedback in a less personal way.
  3. Step away for a while. Get some distance.
  4. Find your people. Seek out friends, family, and colleagues who can help you get in touch with your voice, your gifts, and your most vital reasons for being in grad school.
  5. Use your resources.  Schedule a writing tutor appointment at the Bothell, Tacoma, or Seattle campus.  And check out these online writing resources curated by the UWB Writing and Communication Center, UWT Teaching and Learning Center, and UWS Odegaard Writing and Research Center.
  6. Return to the feedback.  What’s useful about it?  What productive questions does it open up? Make a list of questions to discuss with your professor.
  7. Reject feedback that questions your right to be in academia.  For example, Latinx student Tiffany Martinez writes about a professor who circled the word “hence” on her paper with the comment “this is not your word.”  She rejects the feedback, describes the sting, and doesn’t let it derail her from academic path.
  8. Talk to your professor and make sure you have a clear sense of your next steps – ones that feels authentic to your voice and your goals for being in graduate school.


Many thanks and gratitude to Dr. Karen Rosenberg for writing this edition of the Core Programs graduate student newsletter. 

Making the Most of Seasonal Transitions

Greetings! How has your summer been? If it’s been like ours, there’s been some hard work, some good play, and continual reminders of why we do student affairs work in the Graduate School. Every time we have the privilege of talking with graduate students, we are in awe of your tenacity and creativity.

Some of you may be winding up summer quarter, some may be deep in research mode, others may just be getting started.  We at Core Programs just wanted to check-in and offer a few thoughts for making the remaining month before fall quarter work for you. What do you need most right now?  Is it a real break? Some play time? Some focused effort towards work? Some reflection about what’s ahead for the year?  Although the fall quarter is a little more than a month away, we thought we’d share some helpful tips to help you feel more prepared and ready to hit the ground running.

Set goals.  Make a list of goals that will address your interpersonal, wellness, intellectual, and professional needs.  Break your goals down into manageable tasks.  Deadlines can be self-imposed, but realistic.  Deadlines can also be external depending on whether you are applying for research funding, preparing for your qualifying exams, applying for a job, or ensuring that you block out time for self-care and relaxation.  Remain open to your goals and deadlines shifting, depending on your circumstances.  An individual development plan (IDP) can help you think through, and map out, your goals.

Write.  Maybe you’d like to start writing your thesis, plan to work on another dissertation chapter, or interested in revising that seminar paper so it’s publishable.  Get in the habit of doing structured, timed writing.  Set a goal to write for 30 minutes a day, or every other day, using a timer.  Choose a work space that will enhance your productivity.  For some, it’s the quiet of the library.  For others, it’s a bustling café.  Turn off your web browser and phone (unless you need your phone because of family or work-related responsibilities).  Also, it’s helpful to reach out to peers and have a writing partner or two.  Rely on one another to keep each other accountable to your work.  Here are more general writing resources.

Grow your networks.  Get an early start on your career development and network with professionals in academic, non-profit, private, or governmental sectors.  Your chances of finding, or getting, the job you want increase when you develop and sustain connections with industry professionals.  One strategy is to join LinkedIn (check out this tutorial, if you haven’t joined).  Use its search engine to look up individuals by job title or industry.  Peruse profiles to get a sense of how individuals describe their work, tasks and responsibilities, previous work experience, and the verbiage of their field.  Message individuals whose careers, companies, or industries pique your interest and set up an informational interview.

Find some space to release, reflect, or rejuvenate. While summer is busy for many of us, it also does offer more spaciousness as email inboxes are lighter and the sun is shining high.  Take some time for yourself – alone or with friends – to do something that is solely for you. Set yourself up for fall quarter by “filling your tank” with energy you can draw on as the months ahead get ever more full.  Perhaps start some refreshing habits that could keep you going into the fall.

We hope you find these tips useful as you prepare for the coming year.  As we get closer to the start of the fall quarter, we’ll be announcing an assortment of tri-campus welcome events, career-related programming, and more!  So stay tuned to this newsletter.

And let us know what you are up to!  #UWGradSuccess on Twitter or Instagram, or check out our Core Programs Facebook page.

Best,

Kelly, Jaye, Ziyan
Core Programs Team
UW Graduate School

Writing Productivity: Tips for Making the Most of Your Summer

From everything we read about writing productivity, protecting a 30-minute writing practice – daily – is what helps build momentum and make progress.  It can also help to remember why you are writing and publishing – there can be a variety of reasons.  What’s yours? My faculty advisor had encouraged me to think about contributing to the peer reviewed literature as joining a conversation. Thinking about writing as participating in key gatherings in the field helped motivate me, more so than simply thinking, “I have to publish so I get a job or get promoted,” though of course that is real too!  Think for yourself: What impact do you want for your work? What goal do you want to reach?

Here’s a blog post that can give you some tips for getting started with that writing practice and making the most of the next 6-8 weeks of summer.  It starts with “forgive yourself” for what you have or haven’t yet been able to do with your summer weeks until now.

The Academic Coaching and Writing site has summarized author Robert Boice’s work on Procrastination and Blocking. Boice is a psychologist and has studied junior faculty on their productivity (or lack thereof) and has developed a framework for the kinds of barriers you can encounter (or create for yourself) and strategies for overcoming them.  His work is aimed at junior faculty – so you know these challenges of getting major writing projects done in the midst of a busy life don’t magically disappear once you get that first faculty position.  It is lifelong learning – I know I love finding these resources for you because I continue to need them and rely on them myself.

Any of this sounds familiar? Boice describes procrastination as “opting for short-term relief through acts that are easy and immediately rewarding, while generally avoiding the thought (and the anxiety) of doing more difficult, delayable, important things” (p. xix). Blocking is “getting stuck at a difficult transition point . . . usually because of paralyzing anxiety and uncertainty, often because the task will be evaluated publicly or because the taskmaster is distasteful” (p. xix).

He goes on to give a number of strategies for overcoming, such as:

  • engage in free writing;
  • find an appropriate location, free from interruptions;
  • schedule writing time every day, not to exceed 90 minutes at a time, with regular breaks and a definite stopping point;
  • stick to a schedule with a system of contingency management, a reward contingent on meeting the day’s goals;
  • turn self-defeating statements into positive statements to reduce anxiety; and
  • learn to use feedback productively.

Find any of this useful? Check out the links for more.  And happy writing! We are writing with you.

Additional Resources:

Originally posted on August 4, 2016.

Navigating Authorship Conflicts

There are clear guidelines outlining what “counts” as authorship. While all disciplines have their own nuances in culture, the International Committee of Journal Medical Editors (ICJME) provides a reasonable set of authorship criteria:

  • Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  • Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
  • Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  • Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Note the “and” in those statements. Other contributions can warrant acknowledgments but not rise to the level of authorship. So much can be at stake with authorship – it is our currency in academia and how we establish our contributions in many sectors. The NIH Collaboration Guide recommends negotiating authorship well in advance of writing, and documenting decisions (e.g. who will be first author, who will be a contributing author) in email at least.

However, we know that things may not always go as planned. People move, experiments don’t work out, reviewers ask for additional work, projects stall out, contributions shift.

When these challenges arise, we heard suggestions from a panel of senior faculty and Chuck Sloane and Emma Williams from the UW Office of the Ombuds. These tips include:

  • Speak up. If something feels unfair or not right, get curious. Call a meeting with your PI (or whomever is making the authorship decisions) and ask about what change or decision has occurred. Seek to understand first.
  • If you have a different understanding of fair contributions in a given paper, request a meeting with all the relevant people involved. Using the authorship guidelines or your prior publication agreement as a starting point, ask about changes that have occurred and propose an alternative solution. Justify your position by referencing guidelines, journal practices, potential negative outcomes (if you think there are some) of certain choices. It can help to have an open conversation with everyone regarding what’s at stake with a given publication and authorship choice.
  • Prepare for these conversations by seeking a safe conversation partner first. You can talk through your position with a trusted peer or senior colleague (or the Ombuds or UW Office of Postdoctoral Affairs) first. It will help you let out some frustration and gain a calmer perspective before you approach your co-authors. This preparation can also help you map out the best approach to the discussion, including time, place, who is involved, and what rationale makes the most sense for your position.

Recommended Resource: Who’s on first? Nature (2012)

 

Originally posted on July 7, 2016.

Postdocs, You Are Public Thought Leaders!

You have ideas what you are passionate about, and you have spent years cultivating expertise. Now, how do you get your voice heard? How can you work to advance the issues? How can you influence change?

In mid-April, the Office of Postdoc Affairs co-hosted a workshop from the OpEd Project, a national effort to diversify the voices we hear in public conversations. The facilitator Michele Weldon has 3 decades as a public thought leader through her books, articles, and media work. Certain key points stood out from the workshop:

  • Own your expertise. You are an expert in _____ because ______. What are you a go-to person for? On what basis do you have credibility in this area? Own it, even if it feels there are others around you who are more established, more credentialed, more famous. We need YOUR voice and perspective in the world for real impact to occur.
  • Personal promotion isn’t self-serving (only), it is working toward public service. That is, you aren’t just “tooting your own horn” when you say your voice matters, you are bringing attention to issues that are critical to you.  The bigger your sphere of influence the greater impact for change you can have. Reframe your approach to self-promoting activities like tweeting, blogging, writing pieces for public audiences/radio spots to building your sphere of influence for issues you care about. And, as a result, you distinguish yourself in what may be a crowded field.
  • “If you say things of consequence, there will be consequences. But the risk and alternative is to be inconsequential.” (OpEd Project saying) Anticipate nay-sayers. As you practice your response to those who will say “who cares” and “why you”, you can be ready to stand your ground with calm, clear and respectful confidence. Sometimes these doubting voices come from within our own heads. Practice saying the same calm, confident response back when that voice of self-doubt or imposter syndrome rises up. #OwnIt
  • Make a pitch to an editor. Craft a tight 4-5 sentence email that showcases the following:  So what? Why you? Why now? What’s the contribution?  Why this outlet? And then sign it with your full name and affiliations. Then cut/paste your 600-800 essay right below that (no attachments).  Editors are busy and they want to scan what you have, not take an extra step to ask for it.   You can use a descriptive email subject line: Timely commentary on ______.

We know that peer reviewed publications are still the coin of the realm as far as your own academic career goes. But how do you get people to read your peer reviewed publications? How can they make the kind of impact you’d like? Amplify your work by pairing peer-reviewed publications with pieces you write for the public conversation or using social media to get your work in front of more people in your professional networks.  Many postdocs have created their own professional websites to gather together examples of their research and engagement activities, to reflect more of who they are. Websites, coupled with social media, can expand your reach and help you stand out from others in a job search or otherwise crowded space. See Future of Ice Initiative postdoc Sarah Myhre’s website as a terrific example of this, and check out how she features both peer reviewed research and news media highlights. Have a good example of your own?  Send it to us, we want to feature it in an upcoming newsletter!

Write to Change the World.

Additional Resources:

 

Originally posted on April 21, 2016.

Writing Help for ELL Students

Hello, I’m a grad student in school of engineering. I need to improve my writing (second language) for my assignments. I have seen some programs in OWRC, which one would you recommend me? The drop-in or the TLC? Or maybe other program? —Tori

(This week’s answer is courtesy of Peter Freeman, Interim Director of the Odegaard Writing and Research Center.)

I’d say both are definitely worth exploring. If you join TLC, you and your group will get to meet with a tutor facilitator every week for an entire quarter and work through anything you all have questions about. The drop-in sessions are similar, but allow you to meet with a tutor on a one-on-one basis. Of course, you’re certainly welcome to do both. We can definitely help with grammar. In this case, our tutors will ask questions to help identify specific concerns and offer suggestions and strategies to help address those concerns. We also have plenty of resources on our website to help with grammar and other writing conventions.

I hope this helps!

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Being Intentional Throughout the Spring Quarter

It never hurts to do some intentional planning and mapping out of the most important tasks and goals that lie ahead of you.  This is especially true for Spring Quarter as we know that many of you will be graduating, seeking internships, taking the next step in your program, and transitioning into a variety of career paths.  So why not welcome spring with some intentionality, and start out the quarter on the right foot?  Here are some tips to help you do just that:

Set goals.  You can’t do (and be) your best while attempting to do everything at once.  Your first step?  Take a step back.  What?  We know this is really hard to do in the midst of a tsunami of work, but it really does make moving forward possible.  Make a list of short-term goals that will help your reach long term goals—for the coming week, month, the end of the quarter.   Identify time constraints that are out of your control versus deadlines that you can manage and set for yourself—you’ll have a more accurate picture of a schedule that is actually yours.  Try out the following resources and see what works for you:  individual development plan, decision making, and SMARTER.

Be resourceful.   It’s true—in many instances, completing goals and projects are ultimately down to you.   They run the gamut from writing a thesis or dissertation to gearing up for multiple job searches.  But this doesn’t mean you have to do this work in isolation, nor should you.  Create opportunities for you to get and/or give support.  Co-organize a writing accountability group with peers, who are inside or outside of your field. The important thing is making a commitment to each other.  Check out these guides for writing accountability and dissertation support groups. Seek out opportunities for networking, job shadows, or informational interviews.  Schedule meetings with advisors or mentors (community, professional, academic) that you trust, so they can be your sounding board and help keep you on track.

Make commitments. Sometimes we need an extra push to move forward in our work, and creating external deadlines to participate in events that help us grow intellectually and professionally can help.  We’ve had graduate students (Masters and Doctoral) say that participating in Scholars’ Studio really helped them organize their thinking about their research in important ways.  Just like taking a step back, it can help to pull yourself up from the weeds of your work and communicate with others about it.  Whether in a rapid exchange with peers, a lightning or research talk, or ways to showcase your engagement with service and leadership, get inspired or refreshed by participating or attending UW events happening this quarter at all three campuses.

Stay present.  We know what you’re thinking, “Yeah right!”  Because it feels like crunch time, this can coincide with persistent worrying about the future.  Taking time for yourself to slow down at several points throughout the quarter prioritizes your health and takes focus and energy away from anxious thoughts.  This can look like doing only one task at a time (as multi-tasking never works), spacing out time between tasks and appointments (so you’re not rushing all the time), decompressing by going for a run or doing yoga following several hours of work-related tasks, or doing absolutely nothing for a few minutes (try focusing on the rhythm of your breath or visualize a soothing image).  The purpose of these activities is to help re-ground you and bring you back to your intentions and the present moment.

Warmly,

Jaye Sablan, Kelly Edwards, Ziyan Bai
Core Programs Team