neuroscienxe

You did it! You finally did it! You graduated and got a job and everything has been so worth it. But I know saying “things will get better, trust me” doesn’t help in the moment, so instead I will repeat the following points, which I know you know, but it always helps to have a reminder every now and then because you’re super busy always have so much on your mind:

Just like how a house is built one brick at a time, take your journey through grad school one task at a time, one day at a time. And remember that there’s no need to worry about the color of the roof tiles when you’re still pouring the foundation. 

Don’t forget to talk to other grad students when you feel the imposter syndrome creeping in. There is so much power and comfort in realizing you’re not going through a tough time alone. 

Effort will never betray you. Keep working hard, and keep working smart. Persevere baby, because only you can do what needs to be done in order to finish this degree!

And whatever hardship you’re going through right now–whether it’s a dreaded long experiment or slogging through the millionth draft of your dissertation–remember that time will always move forward. This too shall pass. 

Don’t forget to rest. Grad school is a cross-country back-packing trip, and no one completes a back-packing trip without stopping to rest and recharge!

Comparing yourself to others will only lead to negativity. And you ain’t got time for that! Be proud and supportive of your friends and classmates, not just because they are also proud and supportive of you, but when one of us succeeds, we all benefit.

Stay kind. Even the smallest act of kindness could have a major impact on someone else’s life. Keep that close to your heart and your actions.

And things will work out in the end because we make it work out in the end. Don’t forget that all those past rejections and failures in your life did not destroy you; you still made it to where you are despite those set-backs. 

You got this, and I am so proud of you. 

Sincerely,

I know that I don’t study well when I’m just annotating on slides because I don’t learn from just reading. I learn from doing. Taking notes on paper of everything on the slides seems kinda pointless and it’s hard to keep up :/

Warm and neutral colors 

I need more stem-based studyblrs to follow!! literature is wonderful and all, but I can’t relate

Flexible Time Blocking: A More Breathable Way to Get Things Done

I’ve met a lot of people who struggle with sticking to a schedule - myself included - so here’s one way you can get things done without restricting your spontaneity.

Linked: The ABCDE Method: Accomplish Tasks More Efficiently

Planning

Determine primary sources/bibliography.

Determine secondary sources/bibliography. 

Find title.

Brainstorm a table of contents with as much detail as possible (with chapters, sections and even paragraphs and sub-paragraphs - see How to Write a Thesis’ own table of contents as an example at the end of this document) (if the first drafted table of contents is good enough, it will not be necessary to start the writing from the beginning).

Do a first draft of the introduction.

Note-taking and research

Use Google Scholar to make sure you do not miss important sources.

Keep the table of contents in mind when researching and take notes of which sources could go where.

While note-taking, differentiate which parts could be used as quotations from the ones that are simply important for the argument.

Eco underlines the importance of what he calls reading sheets, which can be understood as your notes on your readings. According to him, these should contain:

information about the author if he is not a well-known figure;

a brief (or long) summary;

they should mostly consist of quotations (accompanied by all the corresponding page numbers)

any commentaries you might want to add;

an indication of which part (or parts) of your table of contents the information mentioned belongs to.

Keep reading sheets on primary sources (which should be the longest) separate from those on secondary sources (which should only be 1-2 pages long).

In the end, re-read the notes and color-code all the different parts according to where they would fit in your table of contents.

Writing and editing

A good place to start would be by redrafting the introduction.

Define every key/technical term used/mentioned unless indisputably obvious.

General writing tips:

keep sentences short;

do not be afraid to repeat the subject twice (ex: Roberta went to the shop (…) Roberta bought carrots and tomatoes);

avoid excessive details;

avoid subordinate clauses (orações subordinadas);

avoid vague language;

avoid unnecessary adjectives;

avoid the passive voice.

While drafting, write everything that comes to mind. Leave the editing for the end.

Use your tutor as a Guinea pig. Make them read your first chapters (and, progressively, all the rest) well before delivery is due. 

Ask for as much feedback as possible. Ask colleagues, friends and/or family to read your work. They will provide you with more diversified feedback, as well as allowing you to know if your writing is clear to anyone.

Stop playing ‘solitary genius’.

Don’t insist on starting with the first chapter. Start with what you know best and feel more comfortable writing about, then fill in the gaps.

Leave time for editing and try to take at least a one or two days long break in between writing and editing. 

Do not forget to fill in the gaps. When you revisit your writing, go through it with all these writing tips in mind as well as a conscience of what your most common mistakes are.

Use Hemingway in the final editing phase.

Quotations and footnotes

Since there are two kinds of sources (primary and secondary), there are also two kinds of quotations: either we quote a text which we will interpret, or we quote a text which supports your interpretation.

Some quotation rules to know:

“Quote the object of your interpretive analysis with reasonable abundance.”

 “Quote the critical literature only when its authority corroborates or confirms your statements. (…)  when quoting or citing critical [aka secondary] literature, be sure that it says something new, or that it confirms authoritatively what you have said.”

“If you don’t want readers to presume that you share the opinion of the quoted author, you must include your own critical remarks before or after the passage.”

“Make sure that the author and the source of your quote are clearly identifiable.”

“When a quote does not exceed two or three lines, you can insert it into the body of the text enclosed in quotation marks. (…) When the quote is longer, it is better to set it off as a block quotation. In this case the quotation marks are not necessary, because it is clear that all set-off passages are quotes, and we must commit to a different system for our observations. (Any secondary developments [like the quote’s reference] should appear in a note.) (…) This method is quite convenient because it immediately reveals the quoted texts; it allows the reader to skip them if he is skimming, to linger if he is more interested in the quoted texts than in our commentary, and finally, to find them immediately when need be.”

Some footnote rules to know:

“Use notes to add additional supporting bibliographical references on a topic you discuss in the text. For example, ‘on this topic see also so-and-so.’”

“Use notes to introduce a supporting quote that would have interrupted the text. If you make a statement in the text and then continue directly to the next statement for fluidity, a superscript note reference after the first statement can refer the reader to a note in which a well-known authority backs up your assertion.”

“Use notes to expand on statements you have made in the text. Use notes to free your text from observations that, however important, are peripheral to your argument or do nothing more than repeat from a different point of view what you have essentially already said.”

“Use notes to correct statements in the text. You may be sure of your statements, but you should also be conscious that someone may disagree, or you may believe that, from a certain point of view, it would be possible to object to your statement. Inserting a partially restrictive note will then prove not only your academic honesty but also your critical spirit.”

However, I would like to start reading humanities academic papers on media and phenomena that interest me- problem is, it’s a completely different style and focus, so my ability to separate wheat from chaff is limited.

You can also check out the JSTOR Daily blog by @jstor​. One of my personal-professional goals is to write for it one day…

Other publishers with regular reading suggestions, often curated and arranged by topic, include NYU Press’s From The Square, the Columbia University Press blog, Duke UP blog, UC Press blog and Harvard UP blog.

07/07/20

the first week of my new spread ✅ ft. the sky 

They made an excellent point that this is something we can fix by just starting the conversation. It’s so important to me that this be something we discuss in our communities. I’ve shared bits and pieces of my journey before but I’d like to share a bit again and also highlight what it has meant for me academically.

My sophomore year of undergrad (‘16/‘17) I started getting so dizzy I couldn’t walk straight. I was constantly fatigued and my hands shook all the time. I saw multiple medical professionals and they told me it was just a new manifestation of my anxiety and didn’t offer me much in the way of trying to treat it. At this point I was hardly treating my general anxiety disorder. They sent me for a CT scan and it came back clean so they said I was fine and sent me off.

The middle of winter quarter it was so bad I was failing classes, vomiting every day, and so dizzy I was struggling to walk anywhere. I finally went back to the first GP I had seen who was my primary and she finally referred me to a neurologist when I said I was pretty sure it was something to do with migraines. The neurologist ran tests and did an MRI (which was clean, no tumors! yay!). He diagnosed me with acute migraines. At this point we weren’t even sure how many I was having since they rolled one right into the next. I got on medication and scheduled regular check ups.

I went back about my life while we continued to adjust medication dosage and I started experiencing side affects. I’m not going to talk more about the medication and treatment journey and instead I am going to jump ahead to junior year.

After a summer of being constantly sick but somewhat better as I learned my triggers and kept on meds (which had their own issues) I started fall quarter incredibly optimistic. Then I took a class where exams counted for almost my entire grade. Exams had become nearly impossible for me and in all of my classes I had been passing by doing well on homework. Then my ability to do homework started to drop as junior year got increasingly more difficult. In my program junior year is one of the toughest years as you have to balance all of your regular work plus a lab based project. I failed the exam based class and got put on academic probation. During this time I was also taking a class with an amazing math professor.

On her quizzes and exams I kept writing “I ran out of time, I know how to do it but I’m out of time.”, she was such an amazing teacher. The rest of this could be a love letter to her honestly. She started grading my quizzes based on effort and she asked me to come by her office to chat. When I did she asked me what was going on, and asked if running out of time had always been part of my academic journey. I told her everything and just sort of unloaded on her. She comforted me, told me she saw how hard I was working, and then she told me something that rocked my world (it may seem small). She told me “You can ask for help in academia, none of your professors are going to think less of you for asking for what you need.” she gave me the email for disability services and explained that sometimes academic disabilities are different than what we typically think of.

She was the reason I was able to go to disability services and ask for what I needed. I got extended test time, the ability to reschedule a test if I was having a migraine episode that was severe, and it opened up the conversation with my professors to talk about what I needed. My grades started to go back up, I felt more confident, and I was even able to get the F removed from my transcript and taken off academic probation because of medical exception.

I say all of this because I want to be clear; I struggle a lot because of my migraines, anxiety, and depression. My migraines even managed to give me an eating disorder that I will always be recovering from. But by being open about my struggles I was able to get the accommodations I needed to even the playing field. It’s still hard, some days I feel like I’m working twice as hard for a C. My neurodivergence and learning issues aren’t something that I will have to talk to much about in the professional world. I’ve managed to get my self to a place where even as hard as it is I can make myself seem “normal” even if that takes a lot of effort. I am lucky in that. I know how bad it is for my friends who can’t hide their neurodivergence and “pass”. But I want you to know that whether your divergence is obvious or silent; you can ask for help and support. You should demand it until you get it. I will always advocate for fair practices in academia. And I want you to know that if you’re thinking “Wow, more time would make all the difference for me.” or “I wish I was able to ask for extensions on my bad days.” but you aren’t sure where to start. Send me a message or an ask and I will help you figure out how to get started.

there’s no-one-size-fits-all answer, i’m afraid. i do a few things--

i’m protective of my weekends. i’ve been sloppy with it lately, but once classes start in 9 days (aahhh) i’m going to start doing it again! weekends are for things for which i am not getting paid. that’s the rule. no teaching, no research, no academic writing, not even the fun stuff. REGARDLESS of whether i’ve gotten “enough” done before friday. i have literally never gotten enough before friday. the limit does not exist!! i will always have a reason to work on the weekend! i just... refuse to. i mostly don’t even answer emails on the weekend.

similarly, i try to shut it off after 5 or 6pm, regardless of whether i’ve gotten through my whole list before then. these strategies are stolen from one of my good friends who works as a counselor at a methodone clinic, where she literally can only work from 7-3, M-F; nothing’s allowed to leave the office and the doors are sealed when it’s closed. she has the best work/life separation of anyone i know.

i ask myself why i’m doing what i’m doing. i’ve had diss tunnel vision for the past year so this hasn’t actually been much of an issue lately, but while i was in grad school i would often find myself sort of panicking and sitting at my computer, about to embark on some kind of vaguely-rational work task, and i would just... stop. take a breath. ask myself what i was doing, and why (usually i freewrite through my brain to find the answer). the answer might be, i’m making my seventh trip through the internet to find fellowship opportunities this week. at which point i would ask myself, do you... want to apply for more things? and sometimes the answer would be yes. but if it was no, not really, then guess what! i did not continue to do that task. do you actually want to go to four conferences this year? (no. no i do not.) great. you do not have to apply for this one. let the deadline pass.

i make some concrete, strategic guiding goals. otherwise i tend to spiral out and try to do literally everything my tiny little brain can come up with. here i’m talking about biiig, long-term goals; obviously a to-do list is quite concrete for daily stuff, but at the beginning (and end) of each academic year i would meet up with my supervisor and be like, okay, what do you think i need to have done by the summer (or next fall)? and we would make a little strategic list! and those would be my work priorities for the year; when i didn’t have anything immediately pressing, like abstract deadlines or applications, i would work on accomplishing those tasks. 

so in that example (the only one i can find saved atm) the goals aren’t just "get an article out” because that is... capacious! there are some specifics--get out one (theory-heavy) article to x or y journal, and try to get out a very different kind of article to a or b journal, one that will appeal to hiring committee members who are older and less theory-oriented. for the record, neither of those actually happened that year, but pursuing them gave me a lot of direction and kept me from just sort of flailing around at anything that seemed like it would give my CV a boost.

similarly, be realistic about what’s going to help. could i have taken an additional courseload and gotten a teaching certification through my school? yes. would it have been of any benefit to the kinds of jobs for which i was applying? no. and i was interested in taking it!! but i eventually was like, this is something that will be a huge drain on my time and it is not gonna do anything to up my odds, even if it might make me feel good while i’m doing it. a more everyday scenario: i am very tired and do not want to drive to pasadena to go to a saturday morning talk on X subject. how many of these have i already been to? who’s currently at the huntington and is likely to show up to this thing? how close is the subject to my interests? sometimes i made myself go, and it paid off! sometimes i let myself stay home, and that was also fine.