Daily Writing
For the semester we are together, this course requires you to commit to daily writing. By "daily" I don't actually mean every day: you need to write five days a week. You are welcome to take the weekend off or perhaps to take off two days during the week when you have particularly intensive coursework.
But you must keep the same schedule every week, so decide early which are your two days off. This is because I think the mental energy around renegotiating the schedule each week could easily bleed into procrastination. Set your schedule and stick to it, and know that you're welcome to come and talk with me if you're having problems. Part of the point of this exercise is to help you become comfortable with writing when you don’t want to, or don’t feel like it. As we’ll learn, scholars who wait to write until they’re in an ideal situation tend not to write enough to get or keep their jobs. Therefore, as a group, we need to become comfortable with writing even when it’s not what we feel like doing.
The daily writing is measured by one of two things: either you write for 30 minutes each session, or you write a set number of words in each session. If you would like to use the word count measure, please let me know before our second session what your word count will be. I recommend at least 300 to 500 words, but it is your choice.
During "spring" break, you are not required to write, but you do need to write before and after it (i.e. you will have a week of daily writing to report and reflect on when we reconvene after spring break).
Before and after you do your daily writing, you need to write a very short reflection in your writing journal, described here.