EDHE 6500

• second class meeting
• Reflection Paper 1 of 5

brief presentation on additional writing strategies

• (see handout from PowerPoint slides)
• did writing exercise -- wrote straight (longhand) for five minutes, then determined how many words we could write in an hour, based on that word count.
• I wrote 168 words, which = 2,016 in an hour.

discussion about academic paper conferences

• "don't make your powerpoints look like a car lease"
• "you can't make your tenth presentation on your first try"
• anticipate criticisms
• good title is essential to abstract/presentation
• "your chances for acceptance are enhanced if you have a colon in the title" (heh, heh--no kidding!)

why present at a conference?

• for tenure/promotion
• to travel for fun
• to get travel money from institution, thus be able to see other sessions on their dime
• learn more
• make connections professionally
• responsibility to contribute to the body of knowledge (responsibility of getting a PhD)

discussion of Becker book / Reflection Papers

• write to your audience so they can understand it
  • how do you determine your audience?
• formatting requirements?
  • APA for most Ed journals
  • also includes style of writing
• discussion of research with students, and ethics
• discussing Stephen King's advice for creative writing, and the similarities
• how to collaboratively author projects, decide who is first author, etc.--"first author" truly matters academically
• "i am a professor, yet i feel like a fraud"
  • less experience than those who he's organizing in a program, feels like he shouldn't be the primary presenter
  • even professor: took time to feel comfortable in his skin, felt like he would be fired for incompetence
  • you only see the "finished" product from professionals, so they look really good--you don't see the messy process it took to get there, you aren't seeing their worst work
• frustrations of writing in your second language
• discussion of odd writing habits
• talking to another person, like a spouse, about the topic, can help you puzzle out your topic or understand what the problem is

discuss ideas and plans for final project

• LH: book on management: going to write book review
  • familiar with the work of the man discussed in the book
  • already has a few journals to pitch the book review to
  • usually 1,000 to 1,200 words for a book review
  • send email to the book review editor or general editor saying "recently completed book review," etc.... would your journal be interested in receiving the book review for possible publication...
  • but DON'T include the book review in that email
  • the only thing they will have read by you is your email -- so word it carefully
  • in a week or two, if no response, send a tickler email--then if no response, send the email on to the next publisher