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I wish i could just like, plug my brain into a scientific text and absorb the information immediately without needing to actually take the time and effort to do the extra needed dissecting, analyzing, and overall slogging lmao. i love the part of scientific paper reading where I learn brand new stuff and get to mull over what I read more as I go about my daily life, but scientific text IS dense out of like…definition lol

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my roommate’s on jstor and she just whispered “oh fuck yeah” so that’s the mood

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Gotta love that Grad School Feel™️ where 2018 hasn’t even started and you already feel behind on your work for 2018.

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you: why should we learn about critical theory? it’s useless

me: self-defense

you: what?

me:

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Is it just the people I hang around or do grad students use the word “utilize” way too much

like chill fam “use” works just as well in the sentence and you don’t sound like a dick when you use it

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Women be shopping writing final papers

(Don’t worry, the book the coffee is resting on is mine, not the library’s)

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I’m at this point in the semester where, after being on a reading slump for weeks, i suddenly want to read ALL THE BOOKS but i know the feeling is fake and it’s just my secret urge to procrastinate.

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What I was supposed to be doing tonight: working on 2 (two) research presentations I have to give this week and have barely started What I did instead: got drunk and looked up how much it would cost to fly to New Zealand

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Grad student: *checks email while at the bar*

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This is literally my entire Depictions of the Environment in Media class

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Honestly? Relatable

I’ve been in a reading slump for such a long time, and somehow it’s academic texts that have pulled me out of it.

I know this isn’t the usual kind of thing that a book blog talks about but seriously, academic books are seriously under-discussed on bookish social media.

Not all of it is dense and clogged with jargon, and unlike a mass market paperback one small article can send you spiralling back ten, fifty, one hundred years to someone interested in looking at things the same way you are, and there’s something really exciting about feeling like you’re uncovering new ideas and piecing together thoughts into something coherent and justified.

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In the midst of all these “Humans will packbond with anything” posts, I’m going to pause and give you some actual, real-world career advice

Ready?  Humans are packbondy creatures.  I mean, there’s just no arguing it.  They packbond readily, and quickly, and unbelievably strongly.  Once a human has packbonded with a thing, they will do anything to help and protect that thing.  

There’s a downside to that, not often mentioned.  It uses up a lot of their time and energy to build those packbonds, maintain those packbonds, and most especially to do the work of helping and protecting those with whom they have packbonded.  It doesn’t leave them a lot of time and energy for helping other beings.  If you want a human to help you – if you want to reliably get their best effort – you have to packbond with them first. “Yeah? So?” So you’re probably going to be working with humans for most, if not all, of your career.  No matter how good or bad you are at your job, there will come a time when you need someone else in your workspace to help you with something, whether that’s manning the fry station for 2 minutes while you pee, sending over those numbers from marketing, or dropping everything to teach you how to do a thing that your boss told you to do or else you’d be fired.   Not to mention the big things.  They don’t give promotions to just their friends – at least not so much any more. Promotions go to the people who’ve completed big, visible, important projects.  It seems fair until you consider,,,, who gets the big, important, visible projects assigned to them in the first place?   Humans give boosts to the people they’ve packbonded with.  They mention packbondee’s accomplishments to the boss (or the boss’ boss).  They cover for the mistakes of people they’ve packbonded with.  

“That’s not right! It shouldn’t be a popularity contest! It should be about who does the best –”  Listen to me.  Listen.

You may be right.  You may be the most correct creature to have ever spoken since the beginning of galactic civilization.  It does not matter Humans packbond. It’s what they do. I can’t stop it. You can’t stop it.  No power in the ‘verse can stop it. This is how the human do. All you can do is work with it.  If you want a human to help you – if you want to reliably get their best effort – you have to packbond with them first. “Look, I’m introverted and scared of people and I have social anxiety so I really don’t know how to –” Hey, my pal, I feel you.  I, too, am introverted. And I have social anxiety. And I have PTSD that actually – and I recognize that this is bizarre – has ‘business networking’ as a trigger.   For you, I have good news: Humans will packbond with anything.   Like, you don’t really actually have to do anything. You kinda just have to… exist. In their presence. They kinda do the rest.   If you can talk with them, that speeds things up.  But it doesn’t have to be, like, good conversation. Like, it can totally go You: boy, sure is hot out! Human: Man oh man, can you believe it? You: Wow, yeah Human: Totally You: …. Human: ….

This conversation – as awkward and uncomfortable as it felt to you, has caused this human to packbond with you a little more. If you repeat it weekly, you will get good results. 

THE TAKEAWAYS

You need to packbond with the humans you come in contact with

Taking time to do that is not only justifiable, it is an important part of your job, and should be treated as such

That is to say that, as much as you hate it (and believe me, I understand), you have to take time away from actual work and dedicate it to packbonding with your fellow workers

Tips

Plan out your packbonding time. It’s easier if you can initiate than if a human springs packbonding-time on you all unexpected.  In an office job I like to use Friday afternoon, but adjust according to what makes sense to you and your situation.

Keep some packbonding-time questions handy.  My go-to list is:

(If it’s Monday or Tuesday) How was your weekend?

(If it’s Wednesday) How’s your week been so far?

(If it’s Thursday or Friday) Any big plans for the weekend?

How’s your day been?

You don’t have to care about the answers to these questions. All you have to do is remember that if the human is answering questions, they are not asking you any questions.  Therefore questions are your friend.  If you ask follow-up questions, you may be able to get through the entire packbonding time without having to do any of the talking

Learn to disengage from packbonding.  You can use basically the same sentence (or variants on it), but you’ll want to practice it so that you can make it sound natural.  I use “Awesome! Well, I gotta get going. Have a good one!”

I know it feels overwhelming, but a few minutes of packbonding, once a week, is all you need.  Once you build it into your habits it can be no more annoying than doing dishes or showering.  

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chelsea, i'm a first year grad student (MA) and i'm in a seminar (my first, besides a research english grad class) and we have to take notes on articles. though i've tried, and feel like i'm understanding the articles, i cannot quite grasp them on my own and my notes are often lackluster (in grade, as well as content) -- any advice?

i am blessed with an advisor who has been really good about instilling effective reading practices – this is an important skill to have as a reader, but once you start writing articles for publication, it becomes even more important. so it’s awesome that you’re getting a chance to work on it now!! 

if you’re understanding the content of what you’re reading, then i suspect that what may be happening is that your notes do a great job of explaining what an author is arguing, but are maybe neglecting to analyze how they’re making that argument. some questions to think about:

how is the article structured? does it jump right in, or begin by providing context? if so, what kind – historical? critical? etc. you can break this one down even further:

how many sections? are they titled or just signaled via signposting within the article proper?

how long is each section? how many words is the author devoting to each? 

what kind of support does the argument draw on? literary? historical? primary documents or secondary? 

what discussion is the author entering into? with what kind of attitude?

are they making an intervention? providing a “yes, and��� or a “no, wait” or something else? 

do they seem like they wanna fight someone or something in particular? if so, why?

consider reverse-outlining the article. what’s the main claim? what subordinate points are being made in support or complication of that main one? 

this can seem super boring sometimes (unless you’re a rhet/comp person, idk, maybe you’re into this) but i promise that it’s actually really useful once you start comfortably reading on that dual what-&-how level. 

example: i really really hate working out how to structure my own arguments, so when i sat down to start drafting my qual exam article, i picked a journal that i thought might be interested in my work and read a few articles in its most recent issue, just to see how their authors were making their arguments. turns out most of them have a brief opener (~1k) and then three-ish sections where the argument is laid out and subsequently developed/complicated, finishing with a very short conclusion that gestures towards broader implications for the field. guess who doesn’t have to stress out about deciding on a structure now!!! it’s me. 

[eta real quick – what you pay attention to should also be informed by what you give a shit about. one of the things i’m often hyperaware of is who the intended audience is for an article. is the author writing in a register that nonacademics would understand? does it feel like they’re writing in an echo chamber, or are they engaging with broader ideas? are they using language that’s accessible or do they rely on jargon shorthand to communicate to a closed audience? i’m mostly aware of this because my own work focuses on questions of access and information distribution, and now i can’t help but see it in the things i write and read.]

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sometimes grad school notes look like this

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@ all the studyblr community: can we stop pretending that behind every studyblr is a girl? Cuz that'd be gr8

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She did tho it's @rosechristo1

the author of my immortal revealing shes on tumblr but not revealing her url is, by far, the biggest power move of 2017

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anyone else read a paragraph of academic prose and then stare at it blankly with no idea what you just read because it’s so clogged with jargon