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.
I'll be thinking of you with your sister-in-law's funeral. That's always hard.
DeleteWhen you're playing with big ideas, structure is always hard.
Thank you!
DeleteThinking of you and your family - I hope everything goes smoothly and you get to share some funny or loving memories as well as the sadness
DeleteStructure 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
I'm so sorry about your MIL. And the vigil sounds exhausting. Good luck with the week ahead.
DeleteSo sorry about your MIL. That sounds like a hard week. Good luck with this week.
DeleteMany condolences, this has been a very hard start to 2026 for so many of us. I hope all the arrangements run smoothly and include good memories.
DeleteStructure: I don't know. I always joke that for historians, chronology is our friend, but you can't just write the chronology. It's a skeleton. But I confess I don't often think explicitly about structure. My husband was once writing a complicated narrative, and analyzed a book he thought did it well, and he said it was symphonic structure, so you had multiple themes, and let them come in and out. I like that sense of how to work with multiple themes.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. Finish microfilm YES
2. Organize things with guest YES
3. Do reading for workshop (precirculated papers are great, until they are not!) READ BEFORE SESSIONS!
4. Get a little bit ahead on teaching. HAH! NO
5. Work on organizing conference SOME
6. Hang out with friends YES
7. Keep up with exercise/ PT MOSTLY
8. Limit social media for mental health YES
It was exhausting, but a good week. my guest speaker got to town, there was a good turnout, and we had a lovely dinner with great colleagues. And the workshop was great -- fascinating essays, though I finished reading (skimming) just before each day started, and I could have spent more time on them! The one thing about working flat out is that I haven't had much TIME for social media. But I've also been erratic about the PT exercises. Sigh.
I feel as if this week I can breathe, and begin to do all the things.
1. Fill in gaps in syllabus
2. Letter for grad student that is due
3. Pile of minor admin stuff
4. Keep up with teaching stuff
5. Send out emails re conference; book spaces
6. Finish Room of Doom
7. Do three more journals
8. Start sorting books -- 1 bookcase
9. Keep up with exercise/ PT stuff
10. Do SOMETHING fun.
I like the idea of symphonic structure! Glad the workshop went well.
DeleteThat sounds like a pretty good week! And FINISH Room of Doom is such a hopeful sounding line item!
DeleteI think "symphonic" might be a useful idea in English (or other literatures) as well, but it's hard to figure out how to bring the themes in, or to weave the tapestry, to shift the metaphor. In 5th grade I had a teacher show us how to make lists of ideas and then group them by adding symbols or colors to related concepts, which is fine if you can discuss one set of things at a time. Not so fine if you're weaving threads or themes in and out! And yet I keep wondering if there is some more sophisticated version of this exercise that would be helpful.
DeleteAs a mostly-STEM person, my academic papers do have a structure, and there are actually useful books on "how to write a paper" - but the structure still needs care and thought. Discussions and introductions are a Pain in the Backside that require careful crafting and multiple rounds of revisions - and I'm not even going to start on the REF whinges (one has to argue that ones work is a very specific and narrow kind of Exciting and Novel and A Step-Change, and that's just... not how it works). And I'm currently writing a not-quite-a-review paper with about 12 other people and it's just painful! Reverse-outlining is my friend for structure. I've never gotten to write a book for academic work - for fiction and frivolities, structure and plot are very closely related, and because novels are long and there are a lot of strands to organise, it's a challenge. One which I never really quite seem to have enough time for. That's definitely a retirement project - and again, there are books and schemas which I find useful. D&D also involves a lot of fun thinking and learning about plot and story structure. Sorry, my brain is tired and waffling around!
ReplyDeleteLAST WEEK:
I wasn't actually ill, but I felt like I had a bad cold apart from no symptoms by the end of the week. I cancelled things and crashed a lot this weekend and I feel a little better today (Monday) but I'm still very low energy. And there are always more things to do...
SELF-CARE: all process goals, for three term time months:
a) intentional movement 20x3 or 15x4 nearly - 3 sessions, only 2 over 20 minutes - the other was 17
b) some kind of making (art or craft) x2 no
c) something gently social x2 one thing
d) read at least one chapter (of fiction) every day this week gobbled the Martha Wells. Then went back and read all the bits with Feels. Now doing that again. This was an excellent book/pair of books to go with my mood. NO issues with reading this week.
IMPROVING MY ENVIRONMENT: goals carried over!
a) 75% of weekly list of chores no
b) make a sketch for the new idea for the shelving in living space no
c) decluttering person will hopefully come, and we will Tackle The Kitchen Cupboards... cancelled due to UnWellNess on both sides!
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) deliver week 1 of teaching yes, although I haven't even managed to schedule meetings with various project students and advisees, because they are non-responsive or offer one slot on the day I don't work and claim to be busy or just be students
b) prepare class materials for third week of teaching, with or without revision yes. Very grumpily!
RESEARCH
a) work on grant application some done
b) set second set of models running at end of week yes and completed
COMING WEEK:
DeleteThursday is going to be a very long day - I have teaching 9-11 and 4-6pm, then at 7pm a new D&D game is starting up with the online-friends group I play with. I expect to be very out of spoons on Friday!
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 including a birthday card for my Dad
c) something gently social x2 - yay, a new D&D game starting this week! Hopefully!
d) read at least one chapter (of fiction) every day this week other than re-reading bits of Queen Demon
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) reschedule decluttering person session.
TEACHING AND ADMIN:
a) deliver week 2 of teaching, email all the students who haven't replied to requests to make appointments
b) prepare class materials for fourth week of teaching, with updating
RESEARCH
a) work on teaching related grant application
b) analyse results and start another set of models running
c) read and comment on full draft of paper from not-my-grad-student
Doing things grumpily still gets them done and still counts! (Today I found myself saying, "Think I'm a cantankerous old bat now? Give me 30 years and I'll show YOU cantankerous old bat!" and a TA said "Hull's making threats.")
DeleteCan you really limit yourself to a chapter a day? I might manage that in a foreign language, but I tend to submerge into books and read them in huge gobs.
Structures for writing… I love fiddling around with structure for papers. In my field we do have very distinct sections that a lot of our writing tends to go into, but within those structures (or strictures depending on your perspective) we have lots of freedom. The ultimate organization and structure for me depends on what I want my message to be… If I really want to talk about X, then everything from the beginning of a paper is set up to highlight how X works, how we worked on X, and what X means. So there is definitely a themed structure – very much like the leitmotifs in an opera or the main theme in a symphony… That works great… Except when it doesn’t and you find out halfway through the paper that it really wants to be about Y, or you have to splint up the paper between X and Y, and then you redo everything.
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals
Help students to get presentations ready ONGOING
Do mountain of committee reviews INITIAN PARTS DONE, AND REVIEWING ONGOING
Don’t lose mind DOUBTFUL
Do something healthy CANNOT THINK OF ONE DAMNED THING
I’m in the second of two huge weeks of pre-conference preparation, trip catch-up, and giant review committee. Making progress on all those things, but I am beyond exhausted, and the committee is hands down the most stressful professional thing I have done. But it is going well and I’m getting the hang of it, and everyone promises that next year will be much easier. So, all good. Very much looking forward to our regional conference on the weekend, that is always a blast, and all I have to do is listen to talks, I wisely decided that I did not need to give one myself. No goals other than the big ones that have to happen…
This week’s goals
Finish student presentations and help them practice
Finish committee review meetings and all related paperwork
Gather up little bits of mind from puddles into which it has melted
Do something healthy
Enjoy conference!!
The mind will turn up--you just stashed it somewhere safe!
DeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteI am late, because I have been overwhelmed. The program for Big Conference has to be finished this week, and I'm in charge of it; classes started last Thursday; and I have had meetings out the wazoo. But I hope/think/cautiously believe that a more sensible rhythm will soon impose itself upon my work life (that's a kind of structure, isn't it?).
I'll cut to the chase:
Last week:
1. Read student's exam prep documents and give feedback - YES
2. Get as much as possible done on the program for the big conference we're hosting in March - YES
3. Read ahead for class - Ahead? No. But I'm on top of it.
4. Read a few essays and decide whether to assign them or not - YES
5. Make one more little box for a flash drive - I made on on Sunday; does that count?
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 - Good lord, yes, did all that. That's what kept me so busy! Graduate applicant interviews!
This week (or what's left of it):
1. Finish program
2. At least one more LOR
3. Clean house for Dad's visit
4. Prepare newsletter
5. Send program highlights to chair
6. Italian & exercise
I'm in task-triage mode, which means that I'm going to need to pause at some point and think back to what bigger things I want to keep on my radar this semester. If any. We'll see.
The relationship between rhythm and structure would be an interesting topic in itself! Good luck with what remains of the week!
Delete