Today, I delivered a Research Conversation (organised by Dr Katy Vigurs) . The theme was pre-research activity and then getting started. I have previously blogged about Boice Advice for New Faculty Members so I adapted some of that and some ideas of my own to develop and issue a challenge to the audience at the end
£10 for 10 days writing challenge rules
- 10 days of writing
- 20 to a maximum of 30 minutes writing per day
- Monday to Friday only
- 8am to 6 pm
- No references needed but you can include them if you want
- ONLY Writing – not find references, etc.
- Email partners to say done each day (optional but you will find it useful)
- Email me the writing when finished to claim the £10
When I have used this approach I have found that I can write 200-250 words per day, so if everything goes to plan they should have roughly a 2000-2500 word draft at the end. Let’s get writing a little and often.
The idea is to change existing behaviour!
I accompanied the challenge with some tips:
- Choose the same time everyday.
- I chose to make it the first thing I did every day, so sitting on the desktop as I logged in was the word document.
- Put a sign on the door DO NOT DISTURB !
Anyway the following signed up to the challenge:
Law – Hannah Jones, Rhona Hammond-Sharlot, Jo Beswick,
Business – Zedias Mutema, Hazel Squire, Ahmad Mlouk, Mark Wordley, Andy Hanks, Carol Southall, Stephen Kelly, Andras Kenez, Carl Cattell, Ganess Dirpal.
Education – Katy Vigurs, Sarah Misra,
I can’t recommend Boice highly enough and we have copies in our library. Quite frankly this book should just be issued to all academics when they start working at any University. Anyone who accepted the challenge will find it useful.
Good luck to all those that accepted the challenge.
£10 for 10 days writing challenge