Category: Writing
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Critical digital pedagogy: Command and control
Update (12-02-18): You can now download the full chapter here (A critical pedagogy for online learning in physiotherapy education) and the edited collection here. Update (22-02-17): This post has been modified from the original. Changes include updated in-text citations, minor grammatical improvements and an added reference list. Yesterday I shared the background for this short…
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Critical digital pedagogy: Initial abstract for the chapter
Update (12-02-18): You can now download the full chapter here (A critical pedagogy for online learning in physiotherapy education) and the edited collection here. This post is linked to a short series I’ll be sharing on the process of writing a book chapter for a publication by the Critical Physiotherapy Network. I’ll add links to…
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Who cares about “referencing”?
Why do we teach our students how to reference? Mendeley, EndNote, Refworks, etc. all do it for you. In my experience the emphasis for students in higher education is almost always on what the citation looks like and not on the work the citation does. When it comes to learning about referencing for students, the focus is almost…
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Writing about the software that I use to write
Note: I started writing this post more than a year ago and have regularly pushed it back in the queue. It began as a list of text editing software that I thought might be useful for people who are stuck using MS Word but has since grown beyond a simple list. I like to think…
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Moving between consuming and creating: Thinking about workflow
I use Pocket a lot. It’s not unusual for me to have more than 500 articles saved to read later, which to be honest, causes me a bit of anxiety. It’s a list of “things to do” that I know I’ll never finish. But I keep adding stuff to the list because I know that…
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What does it mean to be a book?
Recently I’ve been thinking about what it means to be a book. What makes a book, a “book”? I’m willing to bet that when you see the word “book” you think of a physical container for words that are printed on paper, bound within covers and sits on a bookshelf. Wikipedia agrees with you: A book is a set…
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Abstract for RCTs in educational research
There seems to have been a resurgence in calls for the use of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials in educational research lately. There’s a lot to like (in my opinion) about RCTs in certain contexts because of how they are designed. For example, when you want to figure out the effect of variable A on…
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Thoughts on my first article for The Conversation
I pitched 3 ideas for articles to The Conversation: Africa at the end of last year, one of which was picked up to develop and publish. A few days ago I gave the go-ahead for it to be published and am happy to report that it is live. It’s called Technology is no longer a…
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Pitches for The Conversation: Africa
I’ve been wanting to contribute to The Conversation: Africa for ages and have only recently been able to put together a few pitches for the articles I’d like to write. If you’ve never heard of The Conversation, it’s a wonderful attempt to get academics to write thought-pieces that are more accessible to the general public…
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Work ethic supersedes what we call “inspiration”
Cohen approaches his work with extraordinary doggedness reflecting the notion that work ethic supersedes what we call “inspiration” — something articulated by such acclaimed and diverse creators as the celebrated composer Tchaikovsky (“A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”), novelist Isabel Allende (“Show up,…
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UWC writing workshop
Last week UWC hosted a writing workshop for academics. I always enjoy writing workshops because there’s always something I find in them that makes me think about my own process a little bit more. I wasn’t able to attend the full sessions every day, but managed to make a few notes while I was there.…
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Zadie Smith’s 10 rules of writing.
Another post from Brain Pickings on Zadie Smith’s 10 rules of writing. Brain Pickings is a fantastic collection of Interesting Things, that I highly recommend. When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else. When an adult, try to read your own work as…
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Neil Gaiman’s 8 rules of writing
Another short list in a series on writing tips from people who are way more qualified than I am. Write Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down. Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it. Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read…
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10 tips on writing from David Ogilvy
More tips on writing, again from the excellent Brain Pickings blog. This time the original author is David Ogilvy. The better you write, the higher you go in Ogilvy & Mather. People who think well, write well. Woolly minded people write woolly memos, woolly letters and woolly speeches. Good writing is not a natural gift.…
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Six tips on writing from John Steinbeck
I found these tips on writing from John Steinbeck at the excellent Brain Pickings blog. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised. Write freely and as rapidly…
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Henry Miller on Writing
Henry Miller’s eleven commandments for writing.
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Developing research and scholarship in our department
I often speak to colleagues who seem surprised when I describe our departmental structure to develop capacity among our staff members. I thought I’d make a few notes here as an example of what I see as a system that works quite well(for us anyway). My university has an Institutional Operational Plan (IOP), which includes…
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Notes on academic writing
Earlier this year (January in fact) I spent a few days away on a writing retreat to help develop academic writing skills for new academics. I made a few short notes during that process that for some reason didn’t make it onto the blog. Here they are… Completed the following articles: Wikis and collaborative learning…