I’m a weird person, my friends. A weird, weird person. Last year, I was criticized pretty severely by the reviewers of one of my articles for sucking something fierce at the writing of abstracts.
“This scholar seems to labor under the erroneous belief that abstracts should consist of sentences copy-pasted from the article,” one of the reviewers pointed out.
That was exactly how I wrote my abstracts because nobody had told me that this was not a good idea. I had no choice but to agree with the reviewers and decided to learn to write abstracts.
I thought that the way to do that would be to write a couple of proposals for collections of articles on different topics. “Nobody would accept the proposals, of course,” I mused, “but at least I will get to practice.”
So I sat down and wrote these proposals. To avoid the temptation of copy-pasting, I chose collections that addressed the topics I never worked on before. This was good practice for me and everything would be peachy, save for one little detail. Both proposals were accepted.
I mean, that’s great and I’m honored. Both collections are being edited by people who are well-known in my field and whom I always wanted to impress. The problem, however, is that I now need to do the following things before August 1:
1. Write two articles for these two completely different collections on topics I never worked with before. This means that I now need to familiarize myself with theoretical contributions to the fields of a) masculinity and b) space in literature.
2. Write a talk for my Oxford conference (that’s the third completely different topic).
3. Keep writing my book on the fourth completely different topic.
As they say, be careful of what you wish for because you might get it. I wanted an intense research year and I will have it in spades. I have had to create a very detailed plan that lists the number of words I have to produce every single day between today and August 1. This will be intense.
Clarissa's Blog 
That sounds like an excellent time. Fields you’re not quite yet familiar with are all the more exciting for it, aren’t they? I hope you share your progress on the blog as you dig in.
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You are always very kind. Thank you, my friend.
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Just out of curiosity, space as in stars and planets? Or space as in “this is my space?”
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Spaces of patriarchy. 🙂
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Congratulations! Sounds like an exciting time to be a scholar in Clarissa’s land. Exciting and busy. A similar thing happened to me recently – I submitted two different proposals on stuff I know nothing about (but thought could be really neat to learn) for work this summer, figuring I’d be lucky if I got one but not expecting it, and got both of them… busy busy busy.
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A colleague had heared a canned lecture I prepared on a topic that was necessary for a class I was doing, but which I have no great interest in and so I threw in a bunch of provocative unsupported stuff which made it more interesting (at least to me). Students always found it very interesting and the implications kind of unsettling). They asked if I would present it at a conference they were preparing on a related topic.
I said yes, and gave it as a paper (preceding it by saying I’m not qualified to really give an academic talk on the topic and that I would interspice a bunch of provocative unsupported stuff, that no one’s looking at, into it). Several people sought me out afterward to say how much they enjoyed it and how much it gave them to think about (including one person who was more qualified in the area than me, which was not hard).
The next thing I know I’m trapped into writing an article on the damned thing which involved reading a whole bunch of stuff I had very little interest in (and a lot of which I actively disliked very intensely and which I had tried to avoid ever reading). All the parts that interested me had to be mostly left out.
And now a few days ago, a different colleague (that I can’t just turn down flat) who had heard my talk at the conference has asked if I can give an expanded version (two or four hours I forget exactly how many) in Polish in a couple of months….
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Congratulations! I read a good book on masculinity in American culture once, and found masculinity as interesting subject as reading about women’s history.
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I once had the task of editing abstracts for publication in a journal. As a result I have seen most of the ways in which bad abstracts can be written and “copy/paste” is by no means the worst of them. What do you make of an abstract that says “the author makes three points and comes to a conclusion”? Expanded to fill the 150 words the part-time student abstracter is being paid for, but that is the gist of it.
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Thank you, I feel better already. 🙂
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When is your talk in Oxford? Is it open to anyone? 🙂
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I promise to post an announcement when the specific date and time are set. It will be in the second week of July.
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If you’ve been wondering why I’m only showing up every now and then to twist your leg a bit, it’s because I have my own research and writing projects …
Oxford, you say?
How late in the day would this be?
I’m trying not to leave my West Country writing cave for the summer unless I can make trips away last a single day without a stay-over.
I could make the journey if it isn’t too terribly late in the day …
Of course, I’ll leave the Secret Squirrels in Cheltenham before I board the train. Showing up all “Spy versus Spy” would be just a bit much for your talk, although perhaps I should attend in the style of a certain protagonist of “The Blacklist” …
In that case, I’ll be sure to bring my hat.
🙂
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I will post the program when I get it. But I’m thinking that maybe I should do a little meet-up event for my British readers while I’m there. 🙂
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