ACADEMICALLY “Developing the scholar in you”
The Monthly eNewsletter of The Scholar Mentor
October 2019 | Issue 6 www.TheScholarMentor.com
COME ON TEAM, HUDDLE UP! Who’s your favorite football, basketball, or soccer team? You can also have a
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favorite academic writing team made up of players (scholars) all working
IN THIS ISSUE
toward scholarly productivity. So, there are many lessons to learn from thinking about your writing and productivity like a sports team. For example, having an academic writing team means you have others who are with you in the game (academe, publishing). They encourage and pump you up for each practice (writing session). As a team, you share plays and strategies to improve your skills (writing, formatting). You work long and hard, hoping your efforts will produce a win at the end of a season (semester, academic year). Having a writing team, much like a sports team, can help you to be accountable to each other as you work toward the big win (a published article, a book chapter, or other academic product). So, academic writers...huddle up! In this issue of Academically, The Scholar Mentor shares approaches to create your academic writing team and provides templates to keep your team
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Come on Team, Huddle Up Developing a Writing Team Team Doctoral Students Committed Schedule Team Junior Faculty Committed Feedback Personal Mentoring The Scholar Mentor Bio ---------
on track. A writing team helps you to be accountable while supporting your academic writing productivity as well as each member on your team. Strategies and templates are provided to start and support your academic writing team. 1-2-3, let’s write!
The Scholar Mentor Newsletter is designed to advise, encourage, and mentor scholars in academic writing, and successful navigation and attainment of career goals in academe. Felicia Moore Mensah, PhD | @docmensah | #thescholarmentor | https://www.facebook.com/TheScholarMentor
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DEVELOPING A WRITING TEAM I have worked with junior scholars and doctoral students in setting up a writing team. The overall purpose of the writing team is for support and accountability leading to more productivity. Because doctoral students and junior faculty are in different phases of the academic career trajectory, they need different kinds of support. In some ways, this was one of the reasons for developing The Scholar Mentor so I could be a resource of support to early writers and to share my successful practices as a scholar. In past Newsletters, I have made available some resources to support writing and productivity. For example, the Anatomy of a Research Article and the Manuscript Checklist can be used for independent and team writing. However, developing a writing team has to include team-players, and everyone must be willing to attend the practice sessions. Team #1 Doctoral Students Doctoral students and their learning, growth, and development vary across a range of needs depending upon where they are in their program. Doctoral student teams can consist of players who are relatively at the same point or have a specific goal to work and support each other. For example, a doctoral team can consist of 4-6 second- and third-year doctoral students. At this stage, they could work toward doctoral certification/qualifying examination and dissertation proposal writing. The common task could be writing their literature review. In writing the literature review, they can share citations, discuss articles, outline their literature review, discuss theoretical frameworks, write annotated bibliographies, and develop/refine their research questions. The team can check-in weekly or bi-weekly, but when you do check-in, there must share a progress report. Share how what you need and keep everyone moving toward their end goal (pun intended). If doctoral students are further along, such as those collecting, analyzing, and writing research findings of their dissertation, a team of 4-6 doctoral students can be developed. Here, some activities can be to discuss your data analysis process, or even schedule an NVivo session to learn qualitative data analysis or SPSS for quantitative analysis. This team can also support each other by serving as a peer-debriefer. Here, members of the team sharing initial interpretations of research findings or reading excerpts to offer feedback to each other. Committed Schedule To make sure doctoral writing groups are productive, there has to be a consistent schedule for accountability and a work plan for individual and group activity. For example, a recent group of nine (Continued on page 3)
Felicia Moore Mensah, PhD | @docmensah | #thescholarmentor | https://www.facebook.com/TheScholarMentor
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doctoral students (third year through fifth year) were giving a template to keep track of their goals for the fall semester, including myself. We will meet monthly to report progress and to support each other in meeting our 2-3 stated goals (i.e., cert exam preparation, proposal writing, dissertation draft, manuscript submission). As their advisor, my goal is to provide the additional academic support through advisement, mentorship, and encouragement; to address questions they have; and to offer my process of writing, tips on publishing, and whatever they need to keep us moving toward our goals. Below is the template (Goals Form) in one shared Google document that each person completed prior to our first session together. The whole team is able to see what each person wrote as goals and to see our individual and collective progress over the semester. When you see others working and moving along, this will encourage you to stay in the game. A fourth session is scheduled where we will share progress on our goals and final products. Name
Goals for the Independent Study
Progress on Goals Checkpoint Oct 17
Progress on Goals Checkpoint Nov 14
Progress on Goals Checkpoint Dec 5
Notes:
Team #2 Junior Faculty Similar to doctoral students, junior faculty can be at different points along their career trajectory, whether reaching reappointment (years 1-3) or approaching tenure (years 4-6). In both cases, writing or publishing is a primary goal for most. Getting 4-6 junior faculty together is a worthy goal. Because of the demands of academic life, it is extremely important that junior faculty carve out time for individual writing and then come together to receive the additional accountability and support from writing team colleagues. The opportunity for junior faculty to get critical feedback on their writing can support their development as advisors. They can learn how to receive and give critical feedback to others. However, the major factor to consider for junior faculty in giving feedback is time. Therefore, the strategy I am using with a current junior faculty team I am mentoring is establishing a committed schedule for meeting and offering committed feedback. Considering time constraints, a semester plan was created for weekly check-in for accountability as well as giving and receiving feedback. This group started with uploading pieces of
Felicia Moore Mensah, PhD | @docmensah | #thescholarmentor | https://www.facebook.com/TheScholarMentor
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writing, or a manuscript in progress. Most are working on a revised manuscript or starting a new piece. Initially committing to a six-week process of giving committed feedback has transpired into working through the fall semester. Committed Feedback The players on this junior faculty team involves weekly check-in and progress on individual projects and critical feedback to others. Each person commits to doing pre-work with scholars submitting work and each member providing feedback on each member’s submission. On the weekly virtual meetings, scholars discuss their feedback and additional questions. Knowing the that is an issue, submitting pieces of work and offering feedback weekly is not too taxing for the team. Below is a brief outline of the 6Week Writing Group Protocol. The focus is accountability and progress toward a publication. However, flexibility is allowed to support the work of the team. Weekly Schedule Focus · Week 1- Introduction · Week 2- Literature Review · Week 3- Research Question · Week 4- First half of manuscript, with title and abstract · Week 5- Full Manuscript Part 1, with title and abstract · Week 6- Full Manuscript Part 2, with title and abstract Pre-work 1.
Each team member sends out the Introduction from their manuscript. The title and abstract are intentionally excluded.
2.
Read each team members’ Introduction and prepare a response to two questions for each submission: (1) From reading your Introduction, I anticipate your paper is about… (2) One question I have about your paper is …
Protocol 1.
Each team member’s Introduction is discussed for 10-15 minutes (depending on the number of introductions read or members on the virtual meeting.
2.
Team members upload the pre-work for the next week to the shared Google Drive.
In both the doctoral and junior faculty writing teams, the opportunity to work together, record progress, obtain feedback and to do this on a consistent basis as we work toward personal and team goals will allow all players/scholars to be productive. Develop a game plan with your team… and huddle up! Felicia Moore Mensah, PhD | @docmensah | #thescholarmentor | https://www.facebook.com/TheScholarMentor
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Need Personal Attention? Email The Scholar Mentor [thescholarmentor@gmail.com] to set up your "FREE" 15-min Virtual Mentoring Session! After answering a few questions and talking with you about your needs, The Scholar Mentor will send you a Personalized Academic Mentoring Program, with payment options to fit any budget. “Developing the scholar in you� - See TSM website for details. www.thescholarmentor.com
www.TheScholarMentor.com Current Bio Felicia Moore Mensah, Ph.D. I have an exceptional and very successful record in advising doctoral students and developing early career scholars. I enjoy teaching and serving as a mentor and coach to my students and many others I adopt along their academic trajectory. I also work with junior faculty, assisting them in obtaining tenure and promotion and improving classroom practice. From my 15+ years in the academy, I have personal stories and insights to make your journey less frustrating and more pleasurable. I have published extensively in top-tier academic research journals, written book chapters, and developed curriculum materials, teacher resources, and other scholarly products. As a researcher, my work addresses issues of diversity and equity in science teacher education, with an emphasis on culturally relevant teaching, multiculturalism, and critical theories. As a workshop provider, I can design a program that meets your particular needs for student, teacher, and faculty development. Let me develop the scholar in you! Like The Scholar Mentor on Facebook, Follow on Twitter & LinkedIn, Visit the website.
Felicia Moore Mensah, PhD | @docmensah | #thescholarmentor | https://www.facebook.com/TheScholarMentor
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