Graduate school – Page 3 – Johanna L Peterson

Week 2: Starting the Article

Well, Week 1 saw me off to a bumpy start. In the good news department, some contacts I’ve been forging over the last couple months finally yielded some results and I was very busy this week with site visits, interviews, and reading. In the bad news department, my attention to this project was a little less than it should have been, and I fell back on at least three of the excuses Belcher points out that writers make to avoid writing. As I mentioned in my post last week, Belcher suggests that you create a writing agreement and keep it by your work space, where you get ready in the morning, posted on your door so you see it as you leave for the day, wherever. Part of this agreement is having consequences for when you fail to meet your writing goals for the week. The punishment I’ve set for myself is two-fold: 1) on the weekly basis, I will post here about any of the goals I fail to meet 2) for the entire project, if I fall too far behind or don’t have a decent article by the end of it all, I’ll take my writing partner and his wife out for drinks on me (alright, this might not be a terrible punishment, really, as I want to do it anyway…). You also get to choose a positive motivation; mine is going to dinner at an incredible Armenian restaurant I discovered about a month ago here in Beirut.

To the task at hand then, and with no further ado:

Week 2: Starting Your Article. This chapter opens with a discussion of the types of articles you can write (a surprisingly large number, I thought), the myths and realities of what makes an article publishable, and the components of a good abstract (since this book is tailored to article writing in the humanities and social sciences, she focuses on the characteristics of good abstracts for these two fields). Belcher then moves on to the daily tasks for the week (see below) and reminds the reader, finally, of the importance of tracking your time in order to maximize your effective use of it. (Note: If you don’t skim the chapter ahead of time, tracking your time usage will come as something as a surprise when you get to the last page of the chapter, so I suggest skimming the chapter on the first day of your work week to avoid any surprises in the course of the week.)

Week 2 Tasks

Day 1: Read through page 60 and discuss your article topic with a writing partner and start documenting your time.
Day 2: Read pages 60-61 and print out and reread your chosen paper, discuss it, and make a list of revisions.
Day 3: Read pages 61-62, draft an abstract, and get a review of it.
Day 4: Read pages 62-63 and find a read a model abstract in your field.
Day 5: Read page 64 and revise abstract according to reviewer comments.

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What kind of projects are you working on right now? How do you keep yourself motivated to see them to completion?

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For all posts related to this project: Week 0 (Introduction), Week 1 (The writing plan), Week 3 (Arguments), Week 4 (Choosing a journal), Week 5 (Literature review), Week 6 (Article structure), Week 7 (Evidence), Week 8 (Strengthening the intro and conclusion), Week 9 (Giving and receiving feedback), Week 10 (Editing), Week 11 (Finalizing the article), Week 12 (Send!)

Research Update 4: Organizing, Storing, and Otherwise Making Data Retrievable

To be honest, I generally have no idea what I’m doing. I think this is, in fact, the usual feeling of the average graduate student. My tendency, when I don’t know what to do, is to organize. While sometimes this results in bouts of procrastination-induced spring cleaning, abroad I don’t have these types of distraction since I’ve only got the one room and almost nothing to organize. So, I make to-do lists, five-year plans, and data spreadsheets. I also offer to do all the dishes.

Since organizing is my go-to method of dealing with the unknown, before I began my research year abroad, I approached the library staff at UCSD about my options for managing and storing the vast amount of data I was sure to be collecting over the course of not only the next year, but probably the next decade or so. I met with a bunch of different people, which felt kind of weird, but also awesome, and we figured out what we think will be the best platform for me. Below, you can find the questions I asked, or was asked, to determine my organization and storage needs, as well as the solutions we developed in response to those questions.

Things to think about when choosing data management and storage solutions:

What do you want from your data management system? I want to be able to easily access all of my data in one place, and to be able to search by key words or themes, all in order to make the writing process as easy as possible.
What will your storage needs look like? I knew I would have a lot of images. Turns out, from my time in Nantes alone, I have over 12,000 images. In addition to space, I need to be able to easily retrieve my data as well as to make sure it is all saved and backed up, many times over.
What kind of data are you working with? Pretty much all of my data are written documents. For the most part, I’ve been able to take pictures of the documents. So, I’m mostly working with images I’ve taken, though I also have descriptive items for those times when I wasn’t allowed to take pictures.
How will you use your data in the long-run? I plan on using the data I collect this year for at least the next decade, probably (nothing happens quickly in academia). I want to be able to access, organize, and search the data easily and quickly in order to facilitate writing and analysis.

The result is a multi-pronged approach that gives me endless storage space, the ability to organize my data (which includes images, metadata, and commentary and analysis) in one place, and easy access. So, what does this look like?

Data entry. As I briefly outlined in my post on my time in Nantes, I had a daily routine that involved downloading new images and inputting new data. For inputting data, I have an Excel spreadsheet (it’s a template that’s formatted for the storage and data platform I’m using but follows the one that I made for my work at the Arab American National Museum, which you can see in this post) that allows me to include all the metadata (image number, archive and collection name, box and folder numbers and names, image descriptions, commentary/analysis, and key terms/themes) for each image. Unsurprisingly, this is the most time consuming of my tasks and I am, in fact, still making my way through writing close descriptions of each of my images from Nantes, three months later.
Storage. My images and spreadsheets are stored in three places: 1) two 1-terrabyte external hard drives, 2) Google Photos (if you don’t need archive-quality images, you can upload an infinite number of photos here; my spreadsheets are saved to Google Drive, rather than to Google Photos, for obvious reasons), and 3) my data entry + storage platform, discussed below. I’ve organized my images the same way on both my drives and on Google Photos to make access easier.
Data entry + storage + access. The final piece to the data entry, storage, and access puzzle is a platform called Shared Shelf. We decided to go with this because it’s made for storing images and the metadata that goes with it, and can be customized to include the things that I want like analysis and thematic tagging for each image. By including these tags, accessing my materials by theme can be accomplished by selecting the desired tags. My initial commentary and analysis will be helpful for reminding me why I might have taken the picture, a particularly important aspect of the document, or a helpful translation. I’m only able to get this through my library’s subscription, and it will remain available to me once I’ve graduated.

So that’s that. A (kind of) quick overview of how I organize all the material I’m collecting abroad so that it stays safe and can be easily accessed and manipulated once I get to writing.

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What kind of data organization systems do you use, whether it’s in daily life, at work in a non-academic setting, or in the academic world? What kinds of tips and tricks do you have for making the process of data management and processing a little less cumbersome?

Introduction: From Class Paper to Journal Article in 12 Weeks

In the last several years, several people have recommend to me Wendy Laura Belcher’s Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Publishing Success. While I’ve got plenty to do both in the archive and in processing the research I’ve already done while abroad, I’ve been wanting to add a committed writing element to my week, and this seems like an excellent way 1) to do that, and 2) to put a research paper I’ve already written to good use. Each week on Monday, I’ll post a summary of each chapter, how I did at meeting the tasks of the previous week, and what tasks I’ll be undertaking for the upcoming week. So, to start:

Introduction: Using This Workbook. As any good introductory chapter should, this chapter lays out the rationale, methodology, and organization of the book. While no specific tasks are required, it does discuss how you might use the workbook individually, with a writing partner, in a writing group, or in teaching a class. It also alludes to the fact that this book is about revising something you’ve already written, rather than starting from scratch (spoiler: I skimmed ahead to chapter 1, and that is indeed the process that this book guides you through).

My plan for this week is to approach a potential writing partner or two (this is good for both accountability and for companionship) to see if they’re interested in joining me on this twelve-week adventure. If not, I’ll go solo. Updates next week about how that goes.

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Do you have any recommendations for books, articles, or blogs on the writing process, whether it’s for academic publication, dissertation writing, creative writing, or just to keep yourself on task and practicing during the term?

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For all posts related to this project: Week 1 (The writing plan), Week 2 (Getting started), Week 3 (Arguments), Week 4 (Choosing a journal), Week 5 (Literature review), Week 6 (Article structure), Week 7 (Evidence), Week 8 (Strengthening the intro and conclusion), Week 9 (Giving and receiving feedback), Week 10 (Editing), Week 11 (Finalizing the article), Week 12 (Send!)

5 Things: A Graduate Student’s Summer “Break” To-Dos

I’ve reached the end of my two-week schoolwork break. I’ve gotten a chance to catch up with friends and family, and spent five days in San Francisco. I’ve almost finished my (incomprehensible mumbling of an embarrassingly high number) re-read of the Harry Potter series. It’s been lovely.

Though I’m not doing anything this summer in the way of teaching or grading, I’ve got plenty on my plate, a lot of it put on the “to do later” list during the school year (/the last several school years…). So, without further ado, five things you can do (and I’ll be doing) as a graduate student during summer “break”:

Organize your note-taking and documents storage systems. In my first year of graduate school, the history and theory class I was taking spent two full sessions (that’s six hours) going over the various note-taking, document storage, and productivity tools that make all the information you’re processing easier to access throughout grad school and in professional life. Possibly the most helpful six hours of class time ever. I use Evernote for note-taking and -keeping and Google Drive for document storage. Use whatever platform(s) works best for you. My goal this summer is to settle on a citation manager and figure out how to use it.
Brush up on that language(s) you need for your research. Reviewing grammar and vocab is great, but it’s the summer, so mix it up and keep it fun! In addition to academic texts and primary documents, read news, listen to music, and watch TV shows and films.
Prepare for the coming year. Check out your institution’s graduate student handbook and see where you’re at in meeting the requirements. What do you need to do in the next year to keep you on track, whether you’re still in coursework, preparing for exams, setting out on research trips, or completing dissertation grants? What can you do this summer to make the school year (or at least part of it) a little more bearable?
Update (or create) your five-year plan. Closely related to #3 above, thinking long term helps you stay on track (coursework, exams, grants and fellowships, publication submissions, etc) and keeps all those pesky deadlines (holy grants, Batman) from sneaking up on you. As you progress through your program, it’ll also help you think about life post-grad school and you can begin shaping that sooner rather than later.
Relax. Brain breaks and academic disconnects are necessary for recharging, remembering why you’re doing this, starting the school year refreshed, and getting ready to tackle the next challenge. My plan is to do about four to six hours (let’s be real, four or less is what will most likely actually happen) of concentrated work per day, Monday through Friday, with weekends and a few vacations completely off.

Any other suggestions?

Week 2 Roll Call

The quarter got into its full swing this week. I had a full load of reading and writing. As I noted in the first post of the quarter, my reading load is really quite a bit lighter this quarter. This will give me the opportunity to provide a greater diversity of posts. Last week, I wrote that I would use this extra space and time to talk about pedagogy, my research, and other things. These kinds of things will be forthcoming, and some will be incorporated into my weekly roll calls.

Without further ado, readings from Week 2:

Middle East in the Twentieth Century

This week’s readings focused on the two World Wars, the interwar period, and the establishment of the mandatory administrations in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine. I’ll provide a post on the Mandate in the Middle East for more information about this period this week.

Scholarship of the Modern Middle East, Post-Colonial

Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley. Syria and Lebanon under French Mandate. London: Oxford University Press, 1958.

We’re doing something a bit unique at the beginning of the quarter where each student picks a different book to read each week (not sure if this will continue beyond these first two weeks). The authors of these books were, in some way, involved in European occupation of the Middle East from the late 19th century to the interwar period. An interesting variety were presented last week, from a British Zionist to Lord Cromer, and the book I selected by Longrigg.

Though Longrigg’s first relationship with the Middle East was through his service in Iraq during the First World War and then as a British mandatory official there, and later worked for the Iraq Petroleum Company, he wrote this book as a 15-year retrospective on the French mandate in Syria and Lebanon, examining the legacy of the mandate generally. His purpose is manifold: he wants to counter the notion that the British had any acquisitive interests in the region during the period (this was, apparently, a great issue based on the vehemence with which he denies it throughout the work); he wants to show the possibilities and problems of mandatory administration; and he wants to support the notion of the mandate at a time where historical perspective has perhaps painted it with a rather bad brush. These purposes are weaved throughout the work and are part of the overarching thesis that, in spite of the many and positive contributions of the French to the mandatory and post-mandatory state (most of which have been overlooked by detractors of the mandate and of people in the region), the project was ultimately a failure due to the implementation of an administration that refused to acknowledge and adapt to local political and societal circumstances.

Works such as Longrigg’s provide the historian with first-hand accounts of the intentions, beliefs, and worldviews of those involved in the Mandatory system implemented in the Middle East in the aftermath of World War I in the former Ottoman Empire.

French Revolution, 1789-1815

Week 2 offered a continuation of the discussion on the social, ideological, political, and economic realities of France in the years immediately preceding the Revolution in 1789. To drive this point home, the class was assigned several primary documents that revealed the various currents of thought proliferating at the time, and we watched the 1988 film, Dangerous Liaisons, based on the novel Les liaisons dangereuses, written by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos in 1782.