This was useful. I sat down and wrote out a comparison of what happened making and then using in class a syllabus compared to writing. I figured out roughly how many minutes a semester I did on various things. Took me about an hour just to think it over. I certainly saw correspondences. Yet, without my "audience" and paycheck, I don't write nearly as seriously as I did my teaching. It's not like I prepared for class hours upon hours--it's an iterative process to get better at a class. I estimated that I spent 900 minutes a week on various parts of teaching during the semester + summers from prepping the syllabus, actual classroom and office hours, preparing/reviewing notes for class, and grading. I probably underestimated times in the summer where I did more reading to see how to enhance whatever wasn't too hot in the last classroom iteration. I decided that teaching=writing; prep/write syllabus was reading, and planning; grading=editing. Soooo, why don't I spend that time (that still left me plenty of time for other things) on my project. Procrastination is about emotions. Did I sit on my emotions on days when I didn't want to teach or just do my duty? Of course, I LOVED teaching and the interaction...writing is sort of lonely. That's probably why I do publish co-authored things or in projects organized by others. Now I'm trying to imagine those 900 minutes in terms of writing processes. I'll let you know if i do better with a syllabus for my writing. My grandfather put on Gilbert and Sullivan shows. He said, "When that curtain opens, something damn well better happen." Teaching has that feature- you will walk in and something damn well better happen. I wonder how to make myself feel that way when I open a draft-in-progress chapter (or prior to that even opening it). Clearly it helps to have a conference paper due (I will finish my paper/chapter by the Nov conference). It's not gaming myself, exactly--there's both more uncertainty and more control in writing than in teaching. That might sound odd to some of you--you meet 30-50 people you don't know and start teaching is pretty uncertain for a little while, but there is more control [I was blessed with highly motivated students who, on the whole were decent writers and also fun to be around]. Somewhere in all that chewing thoughtfully while procrastinating on writing is something helpful to me. Thanks Jenn!
"there's both more uncertainty and more control in writing than in teaching." This is so true, Mary! Loved this reflection.Teaching bright students often gives such immediate rewards. You can see during the session that they are responding to what you're teaching. That gratification is so long delayed in writing and often we don't even see it!
Yes! I love this syllabus idea. Starting with outcomes and then working backwards to define the tasks that are necessary to achieve them; but also laying that out in the week-by-week syllabus format and being realistic about how long the items will take... this seems like a really effective approach for making a writing plan! Thank you so much
thanks, Andrew! Yes, it's a relatively simple approach, but the execution gets harder...especially as we take on more. I've been warned of this admin thing by my senior colleagues! :)
This was useful. I sat down and wrote out a comparison of what happened making and then using in class a syllabus compared to writing. I figured out roughly how many minutes a semester I did on various things. Took me about an hour just to think it over. I certainly saw correspondences. Yet, without my "audience" and paycheck, I don't write nearly as seriously as I did my teaching. It's not like I prepared for class hours upon hours--it's an iterative process to get better at a class. I estimated that I spent 900 minutes a week on various parts of teaching during the semester + summers from prepping the syllabus, actual classroom and office hours, preparing/reviewing notes for class, and grading. I probably underestimated times in the summer where I did more reading to see how to enhance whatever wasn't too hot in the last classroom iteration. I decided that teaching=writing; prep/write syllabus was reading, and planning; grading=editing. Soooo, why don't I spend that time (that still left me plenty of time for other things) on my project. Procrastination is about emotions. Did I sit on my emotions on days when I didn't want to teach or just do my duty? Of course, I LOVED teaching and the interaction...writing is sort of lonely. That's probably why I do publish co-authored things or in projects organized by others. Now I'm trying to imagine those 900 minutes in terms of writing processes. I'll let you know if i do better with a syllabus for my writing. My grandfather put on Gilbert and Sullivan shows. He said, "When that curtain opens, something damn well better happen." Teaching has that feature- you will walk in and something damn well better happen. I wonder how to make myself feel that way when I open a draft-in-progress chapter (or prior to that even opening it). Clearly it helps to have a conference paper due (I will finish my paper/chapter by the Nov conference). It's not gaming myself, exactly--there's both more uncertainty and more control in writing than in teaching. That might sound odd to some of you--you meet 30-50 people you don't know and start teaching is pretty uncertain for a little while, but there is more control [I was blessed with highly motivated students who, on the whole were decent writers and also fun to be around]. Somewhere in all that chewing thoughtfully while procrastinating on writing is something helpful to me. Thanks Jenn!
"there's both more uncertainty and more control in writing than in teaching." This is so true, Mary! Loved this reflection.Teaching bright students often gives such immediate rewards. You can see during the session that they are responding to what you're teaching. That gratification is so long delayed in writing and often we don't even see it!
I wonder if each chapter in a book needs its own syllabus. Maybe the book is the degree program, so to speak. Enough.
Ok...there should be paragraphs in this comment. Call it semi-stream of consciousness.
Yes! I love this syllabus idea. Starting with outcomes and then working backwards to define the tasks that are necessary to achieve them; but also laying that out in the week-by-week syllabus format and being realistic about how long the items will take... this seems like a really effective approach for making a writing plan! Thank you so much
I hope it helps! Let me know how it goes!!
Will do!!!
Amen--so hard to stick it, especially as admin duties stack up. But wish I started doing this years ago.
thanks, Andrew! Yes, it's a relatively simple approach, but the execution gets harder...especially as we take on more. I've been warned of this admin thing by my senior colleagues! :)
I love thinking about coming up with a writing plan like a syllabus! I think I'm going to try this for summer.