Begin with what you don’t know: An end of year reflection and meditation for academics

W.S. Merwin, who was recently the Poet Laureate of the United States, grew up in New York City. As a child, he had a recurring nightmare of concrete covering all the green areas of the earth. His whole life, and all his poetry and writing, has had the aim of serving to make sure that this doesn’t happen.

We academics are an anxious group. Will my article be accepted? Will I get tenure? Will my department survive the next round of budget cuts? We can get stuck in endless cycles of worry.

How to build effective collaboration

As a graduate student or early career academic you likely have a packed schedule. Trying to get published can be a daunting task, especially when you feel you have to do it alone. But maybe you don’t have to. If you can find the right person or persons to collaborate with, say doctoral students Tracey S. Hodges and Katherine Landau Wright, you are less likely to be stressed, and more likely to be productive and on the path to publishing success. Hodges and Wright share the following advice for effective collaboration:

How to be an effective writing accountability partner

Has a colleague asked you to be their writing accountability partner? Accountability partners provide guidance, support, and motivation for a writer to forge ahead and stay on course with their writing. They also have a general interest in the writing success of the other person and can offer their own, different experiences, perspectives and ideas. All these things combined will help a writer overcome their challenges and barriers to writing success so they can be more productive, motivated, and able to reach their writing goals. To be an effective writing accountability partner, you need to be able to do these four things: