Here we are in February! Bye, January, don't let the door hit you on your way out.
I'm going to take this week's quote and theme from John McPhee, whose essays about writing have been collected and published as Draft No. 4. (I admit I'd be delighted if I ever limited myself to four drafts of any serious piece of writing.) Structure is always hard for me, and I envy scientists and social scientists who have field-driven standard structures to work with. McPhee presents and discusses various visualizations of the structure of essays he has written: a spiral, a circle, a set of ovals hanging from a through-line, two sets of ovals/images arranged as two sides of a triangle, the lines converging. And then he says this:
Readers are not supposed to notice the structure. It is meant to be about as visible as someone's bones. And I hope this structure illustrates what I take to be a basic criterion for all structures: They should not be imposed upong the material. They should arise from within it. That perfect circle was a help to me, but it could be a liability for anyone trying to impose such a thing on just any set of facts. A structure is not a cookie cutter. . . . A piece of writing has to start somewhere, go somewhere, and sit down when it gets there. (34)
I will note that although bones are not visible, we would certainly notice if they were missing. But I like the idea that writing has to 'sit down when it gets there' rather than, say, hitting the reader over the head with the main idea.
And presumably even the scientists find that a structure is not a cookie cutter, that 'methods' and 'discussion' sections do not write themselves (that's a fantasy of the humanities, I expect).
So if you feel like discussing your experiences with structure--developed or imposed, internal or external, diagrammable or just sensed--have at it in the comments. Also, of course, let us know how you did last week and what your goals are for this beginning of February.
Daisy
Help students to get presentations ready
Do mountain of committee reviews
Don’t lose mind
Do something healthy
Dame Eleanor Hull
--2 hours writing/research on each of 3 days
--abstract for August conference
--meet with TAs
--edit & submit teaching report for annual review
--add time estimates to list of class prep items
--prep for my classes (restrict to teaching days as much as possible!)
--process grad applications (10-ish, now)
--3 hours on garage
--remember to look at calendar/lists every day
--order book for Greek group
heu mihi
1. Read student's exam prep documents and give feedback
2. Get as much as possible done on the program for the big conference we're
hosting in March
3. Read ahead for class
4. Read a few essays and decide whether to assign them or not
5. Make one more little box for a flash drive
6. Admin stuff: Finish reviewing grad students' syllabi, review grad
applicants' files for Friday interviews, prep for undergrad meetings, any
number of other little things as they arise
JaneB
SELF-CARE: all process goals, for three term time months:
a) intentional movement 20x3 or 15x4
b) some kind of making (art or craft) x2
c) something gently social x2
d) read at least one chapter (of fiction) every day this week
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT: goals carried over!
a) 75% of weekly list of chores
b) make a sketch for the new idea for the shelving in living space
c) decluttering person will hopefully come, and we will Tackle The Kitchen
Cupboards...
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) deliver week 1 of teaching
b) prepare class materials for third week of teaching, with or without revision
RESEARCH
a) work on grant application
b) set second set of models running at end of week
Julie
1. Work on Big Article: try to figure out structure and
start organising material.
2. Add new section to local history article.
3. One day on review article.
4. House/life admin: son's birthday, brother's birthday, more financial stuff,
decluttering, pay for school trip, tidy desk.
5. Self-care/fun: video call with friends, read, journal, Netflix, exercise, do
something creative.
Susan
1. Finish microfilm
2. Organize things with guest
3. Do reading for workshop (precirculated papers are great, until they are
not!)
4. Get a little bit ahead on teaching.
5. Work on organizing conference
6. Hang out with friends
7. Keep up with exercise/ PT
8. Limit social media for mental health
I agree that we would definitely notice if bones weren't there! And I think a clever structure is something to be admired; it shouldn't necessarily be invisible. I'm always impressed when people find interesting ways of structuring writing. One PhD I examined described the structure as concentric circles, starting with family/household and moving outwards. Another alternated broad-brush chapters on a theme with focused case studies, so a sort of zooming out- zooming in.
ReplyDeleteI feel my structures tend to be more formulaic: intro, lit review/big questions, findings and discussion, conclusion. Maybe that's inevitable, and more about the restrictions of journal articles (my main format at the moment) and possibly also the result of being on the social sciences end of the history spectrum. I'm really struggling with the structure of Big Article because there are three different ways I could organise it and I keep changing my mind. That's quite common for me. My last article was an exception, because it was a compare and contrast two approaches to the sources, but everything else I've written I've changed the structure around.
How I did:
ReplyDelete1. Work on Big Article: try to figure out structure and start organising material. - SOME
2. Add new section to local history article. - STARTED
3. One day on review article. - YES
4. House/life admin: son's birthday, brother's birthday, more financial stuff, decluttering, pay for school trip, tidy desk. - YES EXCEPT DECLUTTERING
5. Self-care/fun: video call with friends, read, journal, Netflix, exercise, do something creative. - YES EXCEPT CREATIVE
Also: another meeting about teaching next year which was frustrating and anxiety-inducing, batch-cooking to help out a colleague who is having a hard time, helping son with Latin, proof-reading daughter's English coursework.
A mixed week: need to make more progress on Big Article. But we finally had some sun today for the first time in at least a week. And the snowdrops are out!
This week is a short week and a tough one, as it is my sister-in-law's funeral on Tuesday, and we are travelling down tomorrow evening and back Wednesday morning. So keeping goals minimal.
1. Research/writing - whatever feels manageable on Thursday/Friday.
2. Book conference in April.
3. House/life admin: decluttering if time, look into getting standing desk.
4. Self-care: read, exercise, journal, Netflix.
Lots of YES last week; I hope that feels like a good foundation for this short hard week, also hope that the travel goes smoothly and that it is helpful to be with family for the ritual of farewells. If you get a standing desk, I recommend also a memory foam mat to stand on. We just got one for the kitchen and I love it.
DeleteSnowdrops, how lovely. It will likely be March before we see any such thing, but of course I live in a mid-continental climate.
Structure is so hard for me, in part because in English there isn't a prescribed form for an essay (except in McPhee's terms, starting, going somewhere, and sitting down), and partly because my ideas present themselves in a sort of Gestalt, like rabbits and manticores gamboling in a meadow--but you have to freeze the frame and present individual bunnies and manties, not to mention adding in the grass, flowers, and shadows, and that's the hard part. I have more than once outlined articles I admire, to see how they work. And when I say outline, I don't mean A1.2.i.a.b, but tracing how the work gets done: introduce sources here, previous ideas on the topic there, new idea here, test the new idea against the old ideas, introduce theory that will allow the idea to go in a new direction. It has been very helpful, but I still struggle. Maybe I really should try to identify which bits of an essay are rabbits, which are manticores, which grass, which bits of light or shadow!
ReplyDeleteWell, that was a week. My mother-in-law died after 2.5 days of round-the-clock vigil by her kids, including an all-nighter for my husband, following another half-the-night. The funeral is this coming week (condolences again to Julie and her family), so I'm also going to have to keep the goals manageable, not easy given the committee and teaching work coming up.
How I did:
--2 hours writing/research on each of 3 days: I think I managed 3 days work again, but not sure it ever rose to a 2-hour stint.
--abstract for August conference: YES, done and sent.
--meet with TAs: NO, one was out sick; talked to the other one; but we really need to meet all of us at once, or else I need to make some decisions and impose them.
--edit & submit teaching report for annual review: submitted without edits, because done is better than good.
--add time estimates to list of class prep items: NO
--prep for my classes (restrict to teaching days as much as possible!): YES, enough--made students do more in-class stuff b/c not enough time to prep materials--this has resulted in the activity running over to 3 days instead of 2, but whatever, they're doing things and learning from the work.
--process grad applications (10-ish, now): 2, the oldest ones.
--3 hours on garage: NO
--remember to look at calendar/lists every day: really not sure. Some days. Some days much more than others, put it that way.
--order book for Greek group: YES
ALSO: made cookies, finally got to meet with my trainer again and seem not to have lost much ground, accompanied Sir John to very minor outpatient surgery (just b/c the facility wants an escort, but he really didn't need one), spent quite a bit of time talking with him about his mother and our own end-of-life wishes, various e-mails sent and answered about upcoming conferences, met with grad students and gave a couple of sets of feedback on their abstracts for conferences, wrote a letter nominating an undergrad for an award, did some urgent errands. I greatly fear an ILL book has gone missing; that is, I remember returning something for which I did not get a receipt, and I meant to pursue that, but was overcome by events, and now I don't see the book on my shelves though it will be due soon. Ugh.
New goals:
--1/2 hour writing/research on each of 3 days
--prep for 2 meetings
--prep for guest class
--prep for future class activity that has to be started way in advance
--track down missing ILL book or institute library search
--gym at least 3x, yoga at least 4x
--pick up cat meds
--remember to look at calendar/lists every day