Sometimes the gulf between where we are
and where we would like to be can appear large and insurmountable and can
elicit a sense of disorientation. Setting goals can help to break a long
journey into smaller, neater, more manageable parts. Thoughtfully considered
goals can be particularly useful in an academic context and can help
researchers overcome the unique challenges posed by a lack of externally
imposed structure and demanding workloads.
The November Writing Challenge runs
over a two week period. This means that the goal or goals that you set yourself
should be modest and achievable. Short term goals like this
represent the ‘how to get there’ in your research roadmap, and should logically
address the larger, longer-term picture of ‘where you hope to eventually be’.
Imagining a result or an end product, whether it be a doctoral thesis, a book
or something quite different, can be what inspires you to press through the
inevitable ebbs and flows of academic life.
Importantly, the goals that you choose
need to be challenging and personally worthwhile. As Narelle Lemon, a Senior
Lecturer at La Trobe who successfully participated in the AcWriMo in 2011,
writes,
Set your goal, not someone else’s, and go for it. Seems obvious but often the writing block and stumbles come from not writing what weare ready to write, what feels right and what is actually aligned with their research/publishing goals.
While for some, the adoption of a
strict writing schedule, with efficiency rigidly measured in word counts, might
break a rut of patchy productivity, for others, a more intangible goal might be
more fitting. Inger Mewburn, for example, chose to use AcWriMo as an opportunity to re-orientate her relationship to her writing; as she puts it, her goal was to ‘resist’ the sense of urgency that has increasing come to permeate academic culture and to ‘give [herself] the gift of time to write because [she]genuinely [enjoys] it’.
More than an inducement to increased
productivity, the November Writing Challenge provides an opportunity for La
Trobe researchers to re-consider their understanding of writing and the role
that it plays in scholarly work. At the heart of the academic profession sits
knowledge generation and dissemination. It is through the written word that we
clarify, organize and communicate our ideas and the findings of our research
and it is how we are held accountable both professionally and socially. As Liz Stanley, Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, writes, ‘Treating writing seriously as a job tells us things about ourselves, about our minds, and so about our work and its engagement with the world’. If the very act of writing is supportive of the growth and
refinement of a sense of intellectual purpose and identity, then it is to the
benefit of academia in general that healthy writing practices are nurtured and
encouraged and that good writing takes pride of place amongst the goals of our
profession.
In this vein, we hope that you will think
about writing holistically as you go about defining your goals for the November
Writing Challenge. Here are few pointers to get you going:
- Make your goals specific, realistic and measurable – but also challenging. Examples might include finishing a journal article or creating a more productive writing routine.
- Identify the steps you will need to take to progress towards the achievement of your goals. Think in terms of daily action. This might be writing for two hours before you do anything else each morning, trying out a number of new writing strategies or writing at least 500 words each day.
- Record your accomplishments daily and don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the horse.
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