Category Archives: Productivity

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What is unit of analysis and why is it important for qualitative dissertations

All researchers must deal with questions related to their unit of analysis and the related idea of unit of observation. Unit of analysis helps the researcher define what is being studied as well as what aspects are being studied. For dissertations, the importance of this concept is that it provides guardrails to know what is in the scope of your dissertation and what is outside the bounds of what you are examining. More specifically, the unit of analysis describes the level at which you are conducting your study. Are you researching states, universities, schools/colleges, departments, presidents, deans, professors, or students just to name a few levels. If you determine that you are studying universities, this leads to a different focus than if you are studying departments. In this post, I will describe unit of analysis and why it is important for qualitative dissertations.

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How to create your first CV

Creating a curriculum vitae or CV is something every academic has to do sooner or later. In Latin, CV means “course of one’s life.” While there are no major right or wrong ways to construct a CV (disciplinary norms are most influential here), I want to provide some suggestions that may be helpful for knowing how to create your first CV.

How to create your first CV

Photo credit: David Clow

Before discussing the specifics of how to create your first CV, it can be helpful to consider the differences between a CV and a resume. A resume is a short summary of your experiences with the primary purpose of getting a job.

In contrast, a CV is much more detailed catalog of your academic work and experiences where length is not a concern. Some CV’s may stretch 20 or 30 or even more pages long.

A CV captures the full range of work and activities that you engage in as an academic rather than boiling down your experience to a page or two as you would with a resume.

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Academic writing tips from Stephen King

One of my favorite things to do to improve my writing is to read books on writing. I particularly try to read about writing when I’m struggling with it. Lately, I’ve been transitioning between two large writing projects and my writing has suffered as a result. To help get my writing chops back, I re-read Stephen King’s wonderful book “On Writing:  A Memoir of the Craft.” In his unique style, King packs a tremendous amount of writing advice in a couple of hundred pages. For today’s post, I want to share academic writing tips from Stephen King that will help you get your writing going again too.

Photo credit: Stephanie Lawton
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How to know you are finished with qualitative data collection

In qualitative research, there is no clear beginning, middle, and end to the research process. Data collection, analysis, and writing phases of research projects are often blurred and inherently iterative. This presents big challenges for doctoral students trying to complete qualitative dissertations. Each of the phases of research informs one another and introduces a messiness into the process that doctoral students undergoing their first major research project can find disorienting and confusing. While you will not necessarily “finish” data collection and analysis before moving forward with writing up the findings and results of your dissertation, the reality is that many students tend to move toward the significant writing of their findings following the competition of data collection and analysis. In today’s post, I want to provide some suggestions for how to know you are finished with qualitative data collection.

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Effective goal setting for the new year

Every time a new year rolls around, gyms are packed with new members ready to get into shape. New Year’s resolutions are the talk of January, but will they still be around by July? Sadly, research suggests that less than half of New Year’s resolutions are successful by July 1. Even an earnest desire to change isn’t enough to make a difference. We have to manage stimulus control, positive thinking, and reinforcement management (or increasing a desirable behavior). Many in higher education dismiss goal setting as administrative nonsense or a management fad. However, research on students demonstrates that setting goals can lead to increased achievement. I have no reason to doubt the same is true for faculty and administrators in higher ed. In today’s post, I want to describe the process that I use for goal setting and recommend you undertake to lead to effective goal setting for the new year.

Photo credit: Jeff Tidwell

The SMART Goal Method

Writing what are called SMART goals has been around for decades and provides a concrete approach to setting goals. The approach helps you identify specific actions to take toward achieving your goals. One of the reasons that I believe people struggle or dislike goal setting is that it seems an academic exercise that fails to lead to action. The SMART method avoid this problem by identifying specific actions that you need to take to meet your goals.