Academic life and work from Aotearoa New Zealand
Uncanny but true -- Throwntogetherness is ten years old this month, and this is my 100th post! Wow, what a ride. I started out this blog within a few weeks of my first permanent, post-PhD academic job as a 34 year old. I had three kids, one was only 6 months old. I had two... Continue Reading →
Do you ever feel like it is just so pointless to write academic articles, books, and commentaries?
Wow! Thank you to those of you who have stuck with me for TEN years now. This blog is 10 years old and the BOOK that I have been working on for all that time is finally for real. The final stages of the book included spending August of 2022 recieving NO meetings zoom or... Continue Reading →
Editing is the most painful and most pleasurable part of writing for me. In the book coming out of my PhD thesis, it was more pain than pleasure!
Writing a book is so hard. Well, drafting a book was relatively straightforward. But the post-review rewrite and edit has been brutal. It's not that I can't do it, it's finding the time and space to have uninterrupted writing and editing that allows me to retain the whole book in my head while I finish... Continue Reading →
How do you get the right kind of feedback from your supervisor? There isn't one right answer but in this post I point you in the direction of some resources to help you get started.
Recently I gave a workshop about getting your PhD on track -- or back on track, for those who have had some delays and detours due to COVID-19 and the usual crises and distractions that accompany PhDs. It seemed clear to me that I could not get anyone's PhD back on track in a mere... Continue Reading →
I have run five 'finish your dissertation' groups in my time as an academic, and it is such a privilege to get insight into the thesis process from a group of students who I am NOT supervising. One thing I hear from students is that they do 'everything' their supervisor tells them to, but the... Continue Reading →
"Oh crap." I thought, for the six hundred millionth time since I had opened my overdue manuscript. Other common thoughts included: "This is total crap." "Did I write this crap?" "This isn't quite so crappy." "Oh crap, that needs a lot of work." And so on, for several hours a day, for almost the entire... Continue Reading →
Throwntogetherness 