The Habit of Writing

From Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches by John W. Creswell, 3rd edition, page 80-81: 

Establish the discipline or habit of writing in a regular and continuous way on your proposal. Although setting aside a completed draft of the proposal for a time may provide some perspective to review your work before final polishing, a start-and-stop process of writing often disrupts the flow of work. It may turn a well-meaning researcher into what I call a weekend writer, an individual who only has time for working on research on weekends after all the "important" work of the week has been accomplished. Continual work on the proposal is writing something each day or at least being engaged daily in the process of thinking, collecting information, and reviewing that goes into manuscript and proposal production. 

Select a time of day to work that is best for you, then use discipline to write at this time each day. Choose a place free of distractions. Boice (1990, pp. 77-8) offers ideas about establishing good writing habits: 

- With the aid of the priority principle, make writing a daily activity, regardless of mood, regardless of readiness to write. 

- If you feel you do not have time for regular writing, begin by charting your daily activities for a week or two in half-hour blocks. It's likely you'll find a time to write. 

- Write while you are fresh. 

- Avoid writing in binges. 

- Write in small, regular amounts.  

- Schedule writing tasks so that you plan to work on specific, manageable units of writing in each session. 

  - Keep daily charts. Graph at least three things: (a) time spent writing, (b) page equivalents finished, and (c) percentage of planned task completed. 

- Plan beyond daily goals. 

- Share your writing with supportive, constructive friends until you feel ready to go public. 

- Try to work on two or three writing projects concurrently so that you do not become overloaded with any one project. 

It is also important to acknowledge that writing moves along slowly and that a writer must ease into writing. Like the runner who stretches before a road race, the writer needs warm-up exercises for both the mind and the fingers. Some leisurely writing activity, such as writing a letter to a friend, brainstorming on the computer, reading some good writing, or studying a favourite poem, can make the actual task of writing easier. I am reminded of John Steinbeck's (1969) "warm-up period" (p. 42) described in detail in Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters. Steinbeck began each writing day by writing a letter to his editor and close friend, Pascal Covici, in a large notebook supplied by Covici.

Math-phobes

"Here's how to relax your anxieties if you have them. Understand that Mathematics is a language ruled like other verbal languages, by its own grammar and system of logic. Any person with average quantitative intelligence who learns to read and write Mathematics at an elementary level, will, as in verbal languages, have little difficulties picking up most of the fundamentals, if they choose to master the mass speak (?) of most disciplines of Science. The longer you wait to become at least semi-literate, the harder the language of Mathematics will be to master, just as again as any verbal languages, but it can be done at any age."

Some thoughts...

I've been thinking about it... I noticed I've been quite pro-dictatorship... Is it because I grew up in Singapore under a good "dictator"? And perhaps coming from a middle-class family, I have never had much economic struggles and seldom question the status quo... Is this why I am less interested in politics? Had I come from another country and I realised I am not given equal chances for education because of my skin colour, and I wanted to immigrate to a country that would give me equal chances... would I be more politically active? Because poor governance affects my life and the lives of my friends greatly? Had I come from a poorer background and am forced to consider the reality of meritocracy, whether it really works or am I destined to be stuck in poverty because of a poorer footing at the beginning of life... would I care more for equity and the disadvantaged of society? If I lived in a country with a bad "dictator", would I feel helpless to change my situation? Would I fight for democracy? Would I immigrate? Am I a phenomenon of Singapore? Or am I one of a kind? Can statistics tell me? What about being a citizen of a nation that has undergone contestation? Would it cause me to be more politically aware? Does how free the media is make a difference? Or what if people are like me who generally don't read the papers? Am I the minority that conducting a quantitative research would not reveal more people like me? Or should a qualitative research be conducted to pick out anomalies like me, should I really be an anomaly?

"I have identified four general classes of discontinuity between learning in school and the nature of cognitive activity outside school. Briefly, schooling focuses on the individual's performance, whereas out-of-school mental work is often socially shared. Schooling aims to foster unaided thought, whereas mental work outside school usually involves cognitive tools. School cultivates symbolic thinking, whereas mental activity outside school engages directly with objects and situations. Finally, schooling aims to teach general skills and knowledge, whereas situation-specific competencies dominate outside." - Lauren Resnick

"Nothing I have seen published using OLS, MLA, or any other technique suggests to me that the predictive power of pupil SES is identical in all countries. It differs by subject matter of the dependent variable. It differs by level of educational institution - primary, secondary, higher. It differs within different ethnic groups. It differs by school availability. And it differs by school quality. No academic debate, or any new piece of computer software, can negate what is perfectly obvious to every minister of education in every developing country, including Zimbabwe - that even parents of low socioeconomic status want more education for their children and will sacrifice a great deal to keep their children in school. While we may argue over the relative importance of one effect versus another, such arguments are irrelevant in the world of policy, where the only relevant questions are how to raise the availability of school quality inputs and how to distribute them more fairly. No one seriously argue that they should not be raised because academic achievement is conditioned by the home." - Stephen P. Heyneman, Multilevel Methods for Analyzing School Effects in Developing Countries, November 1989, Comparative Education Review :O I think I'm starting to understand why I do what I do now...

Thinking out loud

I've been thinking about Hong Kong students excellent civic knowledge scores. Recently, I learnt, they are not only good in political knowledge, but also in the core topics of Math, Science and English. I'm impressed. Besides being excellent, they also have a very equitable education system, meaning these high fliers come from all social backgrounds, immigrant or not, rich or poor... There is little link between excellence and social background. How do they do it? Previously, I was thinking, perhaps the reason for their high civic knowledge scores could be because of the political and social situation of the country, the handover from British rule and a lot of talk in the media etc., but this thing I found about Hong Kong's education is so compelling. Could it be that their civic knowledge scores are simply an offshoot of the excellent education system? I.e., with a good system, good leaders, good teachers, you just simply produce all rounded good students? Who are good in this and that and including political knowledge. Could the answer be so simple? How can we find out the truth behind this? God please give me divine wisdom to seek the truth.

"The most important personal characteristic interviewers must have is a genuine interest in other people. They must be deeply aware that other peoples' stories are of worth in and of themselves as well and for the usefulness of what they offer to interviewer's research. With a temperament that finds interest in others, a persona has the foundation upon which to learn the techniques of interviewing and to practice its skills."

- Irving Seidman