The Scholar's Survival Manual

Martin H. Krieger

Description

How to succeed in the academy

Connect with Martin H. Krieger: Website Blog.

The product of a lifetime of experience in American universities, The Scholar's Survival Manual offers advice for students, professors, and administrators on how to get work done, the path to becoming a professor, getting tenured, and making visible contributions to scholarship, as well as serving on promotion and tenure committees. Martin H. Krieger covers a broad cross section of the academic experience from a graduate student's first foray into the job market through retirement. Because advice is notoriously difficult to take and context matters a great deal, Krieger has allowed his ideas to percolate through dozens of discussions. Some of the advice is instrumental, matters of expediency; some demands our highest aspirations. Readers may open the book at any place and begin reading; for the more systematic there is a detailed table of contents. Krieger's tone is direct, an approach born of the knowledge that students and professors too often ignore suggestions that would have prevented them from becoming academic roadkill. This essential book will help readers sidestep a similar fate.

Preface
Acknowledgments
A Way into This Guide
Glossary
Chapter 1. Graduate School (Essays #1-54)
Chapter 2. Writing (#55-95)
Chapter 3. Getting Done (#96-112)
Chapter 4. Getting the First Job (#113-150)
Chapter 5. Junior and Probationary Faculty (#151-174)
Chapter 6. Grants, Fellowships, and Other Pecuniary Resources (#175-183)
Chapter 7. Your Career (#184-219)
Chapter 8. Tenure and Promotion (#220-290)
Chapter 9. After Tenure—Associate and Full Professorship (#291-307)
Chapter 10. Scholarly and Academic Ethos (#308-391)
Chapter 11. Stronger Faculties and Stronger Institutions (#392-420)

Sujets

• EDUCATION
• Teacher education
• Higher
• Level
• School
• Higher education

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 octobre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253010711
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Scholar s Survival Manual is packed full of useful advice that applies to every stage in the academic life cycle. From applying to graduate school and writing dissertations to seeking jobs and coming up for tenure, then mentoring others, here are the tricks of the trade. All scholars can benefit from the chapters on writing and on academic ethos. The perfect gift for those who wonder how the academy works.
ESTELLE B. FREEDMAN, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR OF NO TURNING BACK and REDEFINING RAPE
Based on forty years of teaching, fifteen of sitting on university tenure and promotion committees, and blogging on these issues for more than fifteen years, Krieger s insights are smart, friendly, and presented in the most disarming manner. They are for PhD students and junior faculty in all fields, from applied sciences and mathematics to the humanities.
MOSHE SLUHOVSKY, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Original and insightful . . . Krieger provides a very demystifying account of how the university professoriat works and practical advice on how academics can successfully navigate through their university tenure and promotion process.
JOHN GABER, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS
Martin Krieger has a reputation for straight talk, practical advice, iconoclasm, and more; every academic writer should be curious about this provocative book.
JOHN FORESTER, PROFESSOR OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING, CORNELL UNIVERSITY
The Scholar s Survival Manual
A ROAD MAP FOR STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND ADMINISTRATORS
MARTIN H. KRIEGER
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Bloomington Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796 Fax orders 812-855-7931
2013 by Martin H. Krieger
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Krieger, Martin H.
The scholar s survival manual : a road map for students, faculty, and administrators / Martin H. Krieger.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-253-01055-1 (cloth : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01063-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) - ISBN 978-0-253-01071-1 (electronic book) 1. Universities and colleges - Graduate work. 2. Graduate students. I. Title.
LB2371.K75 2013
378.1 55 - dc23
2013013811
1 2 3 4 5 18 17 16 15 14 13
For
MARTY LEVINE
Quick Guide to Contents
Arabic numerals refer to essay numbers. Roman numerals refer to pages.
advisors and advice, xvi , 5 , 26-40 , 314-315
assistant professor, 110 , 151-168 , 185
associate professor, 291-307
authorship, multiple, 87 , 203-209
awards and recognitions, 187-192
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front), 72-80
bureaucratic drag, service and, 215 , 297
career, 184-186 , 327-328 ; difficult situations, 41-49 , 386-391; gaming the system, 370 ; overload and time management, 358-364 ; stress, xvi , xx , 91 , 189 , 190 , 196 , 269
conflict and rejection, 386-391
CV (curriculum vitae), 210-215
deans, 408, 409
decorum and focus, 41-54 ; ambition, 15 , 16 ; ethos, 308-331 , 365-385
dossier and committee reports, xxii-xxiii , 221 , 251-286 . See also promotion and tenure
excellence, xx , 10 , 155 , 226 , 236 , 332-354
excuses, 12 , 47 , 274 , 285
finishing, 101-110
focus, 152
football, 263
forced evolution, 58 , 322-324
getting done, 96-107
graduate school, 1-25
hiring faculty, 147-150
job: changing your, 166-168 , 216-219 ; offers, 141-150 ; job search, 113-132 ; job talks, seminars, presentations, 116-120 , 133-140 , 310 , 311 , 406
judgment, 11 , 28 , 240-247 , 329 , 401
markets, for faculty, 125-129 , 397, 398
mentoring and coaching, 37-39 , 416-420
mistakes and unfairness, 223 , 249 , 258 , 287 , 341
professor, full, 291-307
promotion and tenure, 169-171 , 220-250 ; denial, 172-174 , 225 , 287-290 . See also dossier and committee reports
publishing: journal articles, books, 71-72 , 85-95
rankings, 4 , 34 , 95 , 396
rats, talking to your, 51-52
reference letters, 3 , 111-112
reliability and punctuality, 355-357 , 359-363 , 376
research: contribution and impact of, 193-202 , 277 ; financing, 17 , 22 , 35 , 175-186 ; literature, 81-84
scholarly success, 365-385
teaching, 164 , 399
trust, 228 , 239
undergraduate and college students, 1-25
university: a low-cost, 414-415; a stronger, 218-222 , 248 , 392-413
Winnicott, D. W., xxvii
work, 82 , 83 , 98 , 198 , 308-325
writing and craftsmanship, 55-74
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
A Way into This Guide
Glossary
1 GRADUATE SCHOOL (Essays 1-54)
A. FUNDAMENTALS
1 I Can Do That!
2 What Is Graduate Education for?
3 Getting into Graduate School
4 Matching and Searching
5 Taking Advice
6 Students
7 Advice to New Doctoral Students
8 Why Get a PhD? Why Be a Professor? And Where?
9 For New Graduate Students
10 Excellent Work
11 Thinking Analytically while Reading a Paper or Listening to a Talk
12 Excuses
13 Getting Your Doctoral Degree in the Fabled Four Years
14 The Limits of What You Learned in College or High School
15 Graduate Student Ambitions
16 Advice to an Ambivalent but Strong Doctoral Student in a Practical Field
17 External Research Support in the Research University
18 Graduate Student Basics
19 Being Autonomous
20 Improving Your Work
21 Learning the Material
22 How to Write Grant or Fellowship Proposals: For Doctoral Students
23 Advice for New Students
24 Qualifying Exams
25 Writing It Down
B. YOUR ADVISOR AND COMMITTEE
26 Why Does My Professor Ask Me to Write a Memo before He Sees Me?
27 No Surprises for the Boss
28 Using Your Own Judgment
29 Delivering
30 On Choosing an Advisor and Building Your Studies
31 Choosing Your Committee
32 Firing Your Advisor
33 Memos to Your Committee
34 Success Is Not About Being Top-Ranked at a Top-Ranked School
35 Financial Support and the Subject of Your Research
36 Taking Your Mentors Advice
37 How Responsible Should Advisors Be for Their Doctoral Students?
38 The Good Advisor
39 Basics for New Faculty and Advisors: Avoiding Internalization of the Aggressor and Being Good Enough
40 Advisors as Scholars
C. STICKY SITUATIONS
41 Envy
42 I Would Never Want What Happened to Me to Happen to My Students or to My Children
43 Competition
44 Laptop/ Smartphone/Tablet Decorum
45 The Experienced Student, the Military Veteran
46 Judgment and Grades
47 Plagiarism
48 Steal My Ideas! : Impact, Originality
49 Excuses
50 Toward the End of the Semester
51 Doing the Scut Work
52 The Future of Data and Methods - Concreteness: Computation, Cinematic Arts, Statistics and Economics, and Talking to Your Rats
53 Data
54 Incompletes: For a Class, for Tenure
2 WRITING ( 55-95)
A. FUNDAMENTALS
55 Writing and Progress
56 Writing a Dissertation Is Chopping Down a Forest, Tree by Tree
57 Dissertation Proposals and Papers
58 Forced Evolution
59 Setting the Agenda: Independence
60 Storytelling and Focus
61 Using Design Skills to Write Research Papers
62 Draw a Target around Where Your Arrow Hits
63 Writing Advice
64 The Writing Path
65 More Writing Advice
66 The Basics
67 Usage Manuals
68 PowerPoint vs. Analytical Writing
69 Rewriting
70 Writing So Your Work Is Accepted for Publication
71 Editing Your Book Manuscript
72 Fixing Your Book Manuscript
73 What Is This Paper About?
74 The Big Idea, Lessons, Lists
B. BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT
75 Bottom Line Up Front = BLUF
76 If You Can t Say It in Three Sentences, You Do Not Know What Your Script Is About
77 The First Sentence Should Give Away the Whole Story; If Not, Do It by the Second
78 The Takeaway
79 The Layout Was Hard on the Eyes
80 Why Papers Are Immediately Returned and Rejected by Journals
C. RESEARCH
81 Reviewing the Research Literature
82 Boring Work
83 Craftsmanship and Film Editing
84 Rereading Is Illuminating
D. PUBLISHING
85 Grammar-Checking
86 Publishing Your Dissertation Work
87 Collaboration
88 Substantial Contributions
89 Reviewers Reports, Appropriate Journals, and Colleagues Pre-Reviews
90 Writing a Good Second Draft: Take Charge of What You Are Saying
91 Anxiety: Negative Reviews, Coauthoring
92 If You Write a Paper, Get It Published!
93 Why Do People Write Books?
94 Books or Articles
95 Rankings
3 GETTING DONE ( 96-112)
A. FUNDAMENTALS
96 Moses and the Promised Land
97 Brilliant Ideas Are Already in What You Have Drafted
98 Working Hard
99 Catching Up and Getting Down to Writing
100 Taking Notes: Reading Is an Active Process
B. FINISHING
101 Finishing a Project
102 Getting Done
103 My Professors Keep Asking for Revisions of My Dissertation Draft
104 Have You Spent Too Long a Time in Graduate School?
105 It Takes Twice As Long As You Planned
106 Focusing on Getting Done
107 Do It Now: Displacement
108 Projects: Doing Better without More Work; Exemplary Faculty
109 Scut Work and Publicizing Your Research
110 Moving to Associate Professorship
C. REFERENCE LETTERS
111 Asking for Reference Letters
112 Writing Academic Reference Letters
4 GETTING THE FIRST JOB ( 113-150)
A. FUNDAMENTALS
113 Now That You Have Your Doctorate
114 What Do I Do with My Degree?
115 Visibility in Graduate School
116 Job Talks
117 Giving a Talk at a Co