Patter
Pat Thomson, Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, has just launched a new blog with a batch of interesting posts.
Having attended a number of her tough but highly effective sessions on academic writing in the School of Education, I am particularly familiar with her post on Swales and Feak’s exercises in skeleton writing. Her book with Barbara Kamler, Helping Doctoral Students Write: Pedagogies for Supervision, has rightly become recognised as a key text (don’t be misled by the title – it’s just as useful for PhD students). The recently published Routledge Doctoral Companions (for students and supervisors), which she co-edited with colleague Melanie Walker, have also been indispensible in my own research.
Of course, these represent only part of Pat’s research interests and experiences, so it will be interesting to see how she decides to develop the blog. As @PatParslow suggested in a subsequent Twitter discussion, professorial blogging is all too rare. Yet in my experience of talking with other PhD students, professors who do blog can be enormously influential (probably far more than they realise) in legitimising blogs as platforms for research dissemination, particularly in under-represented disciplines.
Tags: blogging
July 12th, 2011 at 10:38 am
Hi Andy – liked this, made me think about stuff!
“…professors who do blog can be enormously influential (probably far more than they realise) in legitimising blogs as platforms for research dissemination, particularly in under-represented disciplines.”
Having blogged before I begun a PhD (but not in a professional/academic capacity), I had a battle with myself over initially blogging my PhD work as it went along. When I started the PhD at another university (where there were less people in my field, in my department blogging – despite a focus on new media studies) I felt that it wasn’t the appropriate thing to do. Funnily enough, when I transfered to work with my current supervisor (who has a large and fluid – as in tries/tests new platforms as much as me) it wasn’t even a question about putting things online and feeling comfortable about testing/sharing/going off topic/parking ideas online. I think at the start, I thought (and my first supervisor confirmed) academic blogging would be something equivalent to posting results and papers online (in unfinished states, risking *something else* in the process) – and I wasn’t yet comfortable in my own abilities to articulate stuff *in that way* because my concept of blogging was closer to personal/hobby type thing – but I definitely agree that exposure to those who are confidence (or used to) sharing their ideas in this way opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in terms of dissemination and articulation. I couldn’t not have a blog now as I’ve developed a network of people that I enjoy sharing with and in turn, reading about. Enhancing the PhD experience, especially when I am so far away from campus (and even if I was on campus, I wouldn’t be able to get my fix of radical/critical/technical/webby/educational jibber on a daily basis.)
July 13th, 2011 at 11:25 am
Hi Jen.
As you suggest, supervisors can be particularly influential, so thanks for sharing your own experiences on this. Much appreciated.
July 14th, 2011 at 11:26 am
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July 15th, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I’ve never had a department chair or Dean be the least sympathetic or encouraging about my academic blogging activities.
I don’t even know if such a creature exists.
July 16th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Thanks for your comments David.
I’d be interested in hearing why you continue to blog, if it is not formally recognised or much appreciated by faculty.
June 22nd, 2012 at 8:41 pm
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