—reasons to keep a diary/written record of existence.

credits: 1. anais nin; 2. sophocles; 3. fanny howe; 4. @pigmenting ; 5. louise erdrich; 6. tristine rainer; 7. clarice lispector; 8. sei shonagon; 9. elaine feinstein; 10. susan goldsmith wooldridge.

#writing #save #YEP ! .......

blacklinguist reblogged

verdantsecretgardens

englishgradinrepair

“500, or even 50, shitty words a day will eventually turn into something coherent and good.” – prof

#writing

blacklinguist reblogged

liu-anhuaming

englishgradinrepair

my prof sent me this–how he organizes theoretical readings. it looks promising!

#writing

blacklinguist reblogged

cancerbiophd

alexistudies

Anonymous asked:

I have to start working on my thesis and other research and shit and I just feel like I'm falling behind and stuck in a rut productivity and inspiration wise, and the lack of routine with covid is making it a lot worse. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to deal? Thank you!!

alexistudies answered:

oooo this is relatable, i hit this point in about mid july and i wanted everything to be over!! some advice/tips i can give are:

1. set a schedule for yourself and try your hardest to stick to it! and put it in writing (in a planner, etc) so then you’re more likely to stick to it. share this schedule with close friends or family (see point #2)

2. ask a friend to hold you accountable! so share your schedule with them and say “hey, check on me at 2:30pm to make sure I’ve started working on my thesis for the day”. my friend destiny and i do this often; we send each other our to-do list for the day and then send updates at set times (12:30pm, 3:30pm, 6:30pm)

3. i’d suggest only picking about 2-3 things to focus on per day. if you try to do a little bit of everything in one day, it can feel overwhelming. so like mondays and tuesdays, you only focus on your thesis and research topic A. on wednesdays and thursdays, you focus on classes A and B, etc.

4. when you’re feeling tired, learn to rest and not to quit. listen to your body and your brain! if you’re just not feeling it, take a 20 minute break and go for a walk, or watch an episode of something on Netflix.

i hope you know that you’re doing great and that you should give yourself the grace you give others! we’re in unprecedented times and it’s completely normal to feel this way. productivity/success might just look different this season, but as long as you’re trying your best, that’s all that really matters. feel free to inbox me with any more questions you may have! (i do have two afternoon classes today tho so it might take a minute for me to respond)

#writing #grad school #college

blacklinguist reblogged

sabrutus

a question for all the gradblrs: What is the difference between undergraduate and graduate writing? How did you find yourself bridging that gap when you started graduate school?

blacklinguist

good question!

definitely less ‘stumbling’ through words... i have a better grasp of literature and how to ‘sound’ because i’ve spent countless hours poring (pouring? lol) over articles and books and textbooks! i think the familiarity of how folks write in my field is what has improved my academic writing the most.

also had the benefit of a super anal advisor who would send me dozen of small corrections, made sure I followed APA constantly (my other professors didn’t care), and really stayed on me with my writing. if you do NOT have an advisor like that, i would seek out help from your writing center (or ask your professor(s) for assistance). i still live on purdue owl’s style guide site after 6 years.

#grad school #writing #friends

blacklinguist reblogged

thewayforward

the energy i want in my super specific, in depth, well researched paper:

the energy it actually has:

#how my thesis is abt to look #writing

blacklinguist reblogged

decaffs

best-cranberry asked:

Hi! I just saw your post on writing a research paper. Great tips! I’m writing a paper that is more analytical—it’s basically like an extended introduction where I point out the problem and evidence and my reasoning for why my way would benefit science. Do you have any tips for writing a paper like that?

decaffs answered:

Hey! I’m glad the tips helped a little.

My biggest recommendation to to take a top-down approach to and extended introduction. Start by discussing the issue in its broadest sense and with each paragraph narrow down until you’re at your niche. Along the way, point out gaps in the research or methodological issues in the research you’ve already discussed and in your final paragraph draw all these together and explain how your research will correct the presenting methodological issues and bridge gaps in the literature and your rationale for your research will be completely sound.

Hope that helps!

best-cranberry

Thanks! I was really getting overwhelmed with all of the information and directions I could go in, but this is helping me get back on track

#writing

blacklinguist reblogged

theburnedoutnerd

alicesaurusfragilis-blog

this next trick is a little something i like to call “bulking out my bibliography with articles I barely looked at”

ardatli

“Works Sighted”

#writing

blacklinguist reblogged

dreamsinvenus

spiderrrling

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can’t remember

what-even-is-thiss

*wakes up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat*

WAIT IT’S CALLED A THROW PILLOW

holorifle

here is a super helpful website for this kinda thing!

the first result isn’t always the one you’re looking for but when you press enter it’ll give you a ton of words related to your query that’ll probably have what you’re wanting, or something better

here’s some examples:

anchored-in-high-tide

Reblog to save a writer’s sanity (the last bit that’s left)

#omgggg #resource #writing

blacklinguist

Anonymous asked:

Hi! I'm currently writing my graduate thesis proposal and the introduction. Just that. I know why and how and what I want to wrote about, but I can't seem to produce a satisfactory intro. Any tips?

ah congrats on getting started!

from my own feedback:

- start off with what you are proposing to do immediately. this is not a narrative, but a statement of your project, so jump into it.
so basically i said “the proposed master’s thesis will do x via x.” then ...
x is [explanation of concept / idea / whatever].
-- [examples + elaborations of concept / idea].
-- [what EXACTLY i am personally looking at related to said concept + idea].
-- [more specific examples].
-- [any competing arguments].
-- [what i will do differently].

+++++

it’s basically a mini lit review, but you really need to stay focused on what the topic is, and show that you’ve crossed your i’s and dotted your t’s! i think i used just under 10 sources in my topic, trying to give concrete information and not just random poetic waxing (though i am STELLAR at that, lol).

most of my rough draft made it to my final draft; my advisor was just looking at technical things like stating my POINT early on, and making it readable with paragraphs and such. so if you already had to have an advisor in mind like me, i would send them your rough draft! if you have a writing center that does virtual hours (idk if you’re in quarantine right now), i would look at them too.

i also searched various sites looking for help with thesis proposals specifically. mine is a hybrid so everything wasn’t applicable, but i think most people are able to get their questions answered with those resources [i like this one, this one, and this one].

an additional note : my university is ‘special’ dsfhfsdjsfdnk so my proposal didn’t end up being that long ? i’ve heard of some schools requiring 30+ page proposals .... mine was capped at 5 (it was 6 minus the 6 extra of references and appendices).

please let me know if you have any other questions, and good luck!

#write it seriously honestly .... i'm using some of that proposal stuff in the actual paper #trespassers w #anon #grad school #thesis #masters thesis #writing

blacklinguist reblogged

problematicprocrastinator

25/2/20

Sometimes the best writing happens when you simply let yourself write badly

🎶 Evergreen - Barbra Streisand

#studyspo #studbud #writing #they don't need to be 'aesthetic' they're your STUDIES

blacklinguist reblogged

11 days to find 5 solid sources and write this. Being in grad school feels like you’re constantly being attacked 😣 I can’t remember if I wrote annotated bibliographies in undergrad? They seem scary. Send tips/help!

blacklinguist

i think i wrote an annotated bib once in undergrad ? it’s been a couple of years but two general research tips i follow are :

- let your first good source be the entrance to a rabbithole: scan the bibliography/references/works cited of the first source you have ! most articles / books aren’t written in a vacuum (only the foundational papers/books are), so there should be a plethora of good leads there

- the annotations are basically summaries of the work, so take notes as you skim through. if it’s an article: (introduction, general framework/theory the study focuses on, the structure of the experiment, data, and conclusions). if it’s a review/book/chapter: (main points of the author, their own conclusions, explanations of more specific terms).

#grad school #writing #references #studbud

blacklinguist reblogged

readingloveswounds

eatpraydig

notes from a diss writing workshop

*As promised, here are some notes/main takeaways i got from the dissertation writing workshop that i attended at my university yesterday! if you have any questions about any of it, i can do my best to answer - i’ve already been through the prospectus-writing process so i’m more personally familiar with that process*

why is it (i.e. graduate level argumentation) so hard???

making sure that you’re engaging with previous scholarship; carving out a space for yourself within pre-existing scholarship
committee is pulling you in different directions
trying to organize large amounts of information in a coherent and effective way

the dissertation as argument: types

exploratory arguments: doesn’t bother making pronounced claims, only suggesting possibilities; the “maybe, i don’t know” approach; this is generally what most people do at the beginning of the process of writing the dissertation or at the beginning of their graduate career; it is still a generative approach even if it doesn’t “pan out” (these are usually your seminar papers - because they are so exploratory (i.e. a process of familiarization), we often write them and then forget about them)
additive arguments: takes a corpus or method (or combination of the two) and pushes it further; what’s being generated is a new focal object or a deeper interpretation of a new focal object; this is what the majority of graduate-level writing is; if it doesn’t pan out it’s because something has been misapplied
elaborative arguments: modifying the thing you’re applying by adding not new material, but a new critical apparatus; bringing things together that were previously unrelated; main advantage is that if it works, you’re generating a novel approach and leaving behind a model that can be used by others (can be your conference papers - in writing such a paper, you have to bring something other than your interest to the table; think: in what way might this be interesting to someone other than me?)
corrective arguments: you think someone has done something wrong and you have identified the problem; you need to convince people why it’s wrong and need to provide a solution; high risk (you better be right), high reward (attention-getting) (also often conference papers; can also be journal articles - be aware that writing for a journal is a different animal because the lack of face-to-face interaction means that everything relies on the writing itself)
transformative arguments: transforming a topic so that no one can think about it in the same way ever again; if you can do this then “you’ve won the game of scholarship”

main takeaways:

most students are uncomfortable with elaborative arguments because we’re too focused on content, on telling the reader what we know about a specific topic - we need to take a step back and think about whether you’ve created something that someone can apply to something else entirely (usually you have, but can’t readily identify it)
don’t resist the possibility that you are capable of producing transformative arguments! there’s no guarantee that it will happen, but it also isn’t unlikely to happen; try considering what your conclusions might mean more broadly for your field of study

literature reviews + prospectus

function of a lit review = providing background and summarizing previous literature; often narrativized and related to your argument
people often reproduce in narrative form their own reading process, which seems intuitively sensible, but almost never works to your advantage argumentatively; if you do this, your narrative will ultimately appear convoluted and hard to follow
optimal form of a lit review: make a map for your reader so they don’t get lost; think about where you want to position your reader by the end of the lit review, and think about the path you would have taken to get to that point; think about where your reader would have to begin in order to get where you want them to go
warning: committees are most anxious about a sense of fear - if they feel like you don’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going with your argument, they will intervene and try to help by filling that vacuum with their own expertise which will lead to them “pulling you in different directions”
the lit review is the most underutilized tool for showing your committee that you’re in control of your material; by doing all of the argumentative work in the lit review, you ease pressure off of the prospectus, which should focus on justifying why your work is worth doing
knowing why you’re doing what you’re doing the way that you’re doing it = argumentative authority

dissertation writing tips (aka how to juggle a ton of information)

decide which chapter(s) need to serve an additive function, rather than thinking that the chapter should serve as a representative, microcosmic version of the entire argumentative superstructure; chapter only plays a role in the overall argument
how to make your novel data do more work for you - either you can use scaffolding method, which provides structure to guide the reader where you want them to go - OR - you can simply ask the reader a question and answer it for them; if you can’t formulate and answer a question, how can you expect a reader to do it?
boil your work down into a set of questions rather than a set of claims; we as graduate students are driven by questions but we rarely verbalize them!
if you have all the pieces but don’t know what the overall takeaway of your work is yet - make a list of exclusions, or things that you could do with your data/ argument, but that you don’t want to do - what you’re actually trying to achieve may snap into focus as a result of this exercise

#writing #grad school #thesis #dissertation #gonna use this to help me out today

blacklinguist reblogged

theclassicsreader

ardor-mohr

James Baldwin, The Price of the Ticket (1985)

#mood #writing

blacklinguist

frognonbinary

i’ve been doing my homework on how to break into a writing career and honestly. there’s a Lot that i didn’t know about thats critical to a writing career in this day and age, and on the one hand, its understandable because we’re experiencing a massive cultural shift, but on the other hand, writers who do not have formal training in school or don’t have the connections to learn more via social osmosis end up extremely out of loop and working at a disadvantage.

like, i didnt know about twitter pitch parties!! i didnt know about literary agents and publishers tweeting their manuscript wishlist, in hopes that some poor soul out there has written the book they really want to read and publish!! this isnt some shit you learn about in school! you really need to know the ins and outs of the writing community to be successful!

for anyone interested, here’s what i’ve learned so far in my quest for more writing knowledge:

1. Writer’s Market 2019 is a great place to start– it gives you a list of magazines and journals that you can send your work to depending on the genre as well as lists a shit ton of literary agents that specify what genres they represent, how you can get in contact with them and how they accept query letters. this is a book that updates every year and tbh i only bought it this year so i dont know how critical it is to have an updated version

2. do your research. mostly on literary agents because if you listed on your site that you like to represent fluffy YA novels and some asshole sends you a 80k manuscript about like…gritty viking culture, you will be severely pissed off. always go in finding someone who you know will actually like your work because they’re the ones who will try to advocate for you in getting published.

3. learn how to write a query letter. there are slightly varying formulas to how you can write an effective query letter. you’re also going to want to get feedback on your query letter because its the first thing the literary agent will read and based on how well you do it, it could be the difference between them rejecting you outright and giving your manuscript a quick read

4. unfortunately, you’re gonna want to get a twitter. Twitter is where a lot of literary agents are nowadays, and they host things like twitter pitch parties, where you pitch your manuscript in a few sentences and hashtag it with #Pitmad #Pitdark, some version of pit. a lot of literary agents and publishers will ALSO post their manuscript wishlists, which is just the kind of books they’d like to represent/publish, and they hashtag this with #MSWL (it is NOT for writers to use, only for agents/publishers)

5. connect with other writers, literary agents, publishers at book events. you will absolutely need the connections if you want to get ahead as a writer. thats just kind of the state of the world.

promptsforthesoul

lupine-dreams

Important info is important -.-

UPDATE: so i just got signed by an agent bc of twitter pitch parties. for any aspiring writers, you dont HAVE to go the twitter pitch party route, its just another way to get noticed a bit faster

#writing #save #tips #nice nice !#honestly this makes me think about getting a linguist twitter #i just ... man do i really have to go back there

blacklinguist reblogged

laranjatoranjalaranja

Academic writing advice inspired by Umberto Eco’s ‘How to Write a Thesis’:

Planning

Determine primary sources/bibliography.
Determine secondary sources/bibliography.
Find title.
Brainstorm a table of contents with as much detail as possible (with chapters, sections and even paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - see How to Write a Thesis’ own table of contents as an example at the end of this document) (if the first drafted table of contents is good enough, it will not be necessary to start the writing from the beginning).
Do a first draft of the introduction.

Note-taking and research

Use Google Scholar to make sure you do not miss important sources.
Keep the table of contents in mind when researching and take notes of which sources could go where.
While note-taking, differentiate which parts could be used as quotations from the ones that are simply important for the argument.
Eco underlines the importance of what he calls reading sheets, which can be understood as your notes on your readings. According to him, these should contain:
information about the author if he is not a well-known figure;
a brief (or long) summary;
they should mostly consist of quotations (accompanied by all the corresponding page numbers)
any commentaries you might want to add;
an indication of which part (or parts) of your table of contents the information mentioned belongs to.
Keep reading sheets on primary sources (which should be the longest) separate from those on secondary sources (which should only be 1-2 pages long).
In the end, re-read the notes and color-code all the different parts according to where they would fit in your table of contents.

Writing and editing

A good place to start would be by redrafting the introduction.
Define every key/technical term used/mentioned unless indisputably obvious.
General writing tips:
keep sentences short;
do not be afraid to repeat the subject twice (ex: Roberta went to the shop (…) Roberta bought carrots and tomatoes);
avoid excessive details;
avoid subordinate clauses (orações subordinadas);
avoid vague language;
avoid unnecessary adjectives;
avoid the passive voice.
While drafting, write everything that comes to mind. Leave the editing for the end.
Use your tutor as a Guinea pig. Make them read your first chapters (and, progressively, all the rest) well before delivery is due.
Ask for as much feedback as possible. Ask colleagues, friends and/or family to read your work. They will provide you with more diversified feedback, as well as allowing you to know if your writing is clear to anyone.
Stop playing ‘solitary genius’.
Don’t insist on starting with the first chapter. Start with what you know best and feel more comfortable writing about, then fill in the gaps.
Leave time for editing and try to take at least a one or two days long break in between writing and editing.
Do not forget to fill in the gaps. When you revisit your writing, go through it with all these writing tips in mind as well as a conscience of what your most common mistakes are.
Use Hemingway in the final editing phase.

Quotations and footnotes

Since there are two kinds of sources (primary and secondary), there are also two kinds of quotations: either we quote a text which we will interpret, or we quote a text which supports your interpretation.
Some quotation rules to know:
“Quote the object of your interpretive analysis with reasonable abundance.”
“Quote the critical literature only when its authority corroborates or confirms your statements. (…) when quoting or citing critical [aka secondary] literature, be sure that it says something new, or that it confirms authoritatively what you have said.”
“If you don’t want readers to presume that you share the opinion of the quoted author, you must include your own critical remarks before or after the passage.”
“Make sure that the author and the source of your quote are clearly identifiable.”
“When a quote does not exceed two or three lines, you can insert it into the body of the text enclosed in quotation marks. (…) When the quote is longer, it is better to set it off as a block quotation. In this case the quotation marks are not necessary, because it is clear that all set-off passages are quotes, and we must commit to a different system for our observations. (Any secondary developments [like the quote’s reference] should appear in a note.) (…) This method is quite convenient because it immediately reveals the quoted texts; it allows the reader to skip them if he is skimming, to linger if he is more interested in the quoted texts than in our commentary, and finally, to find them immediately when need be.”
Some footnote rules to know:
“Use notes to add additional supporting bibliographical references on a topic you discuss in the text. For example, ‘on this topic see also so-and-so.’”
“Use notes to introduce a supporting quote that would have interrupted the text. If you make a statement in the text and then continue directly to the next statement for fluidity, a superscript note reference after the first statement can refer the reader to a note in which a well-known authority backs up your assertion.”
“Use notes to expand on statements you have made in the text. Use notes to free your text from observations that, however important, are peripheral to your argument or do nothing more than repeat from a different point of view what you have essentially already said.”
“Use notes to correct statements in the text. You may be sure of your statements, but you should also be conscious that someone may disagree, or you may believe that, from a certain point of view, it would be possible to object to your statement. Inserting a partially restrictive note will then prove not only your academic honesty but also your critical spirit.”
“Use notes to provide a translation of a quote, or to provide the quote in the original language.”

#thesis #grad school #save #writing #tips #this semester is really going to help me w my academic writing #i've been SITTING on ideas for months now

blacklinguist reblogged

quartercentry

shakespearenews

We Have Suffered Enough

The Cost of Performing Trauma for Women of Color |By Melisa Pereyra. Melisa Pereyra talks about how suffering goes hand in hand with being a woman of color actor, how trauma is held in the body, and how audiences react when stories lack grief.

howlround.com

We, women of color, are praised when we suffer. White spectators from all over the country told me they loved me as Lavinia, and Claire in The Maids, and Lady Macbeth—particularly in the “mad scene,” they were quick to say. What is that about? Why do women of color gain space in someone’s consciousness only when we show them the depth of our suffering?

#writing #readables