Tag Archives: graduate students

Posted on

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
Posted on

Five advantages to write more with a writing group

Writing is hard. Whether you are a graduate student, pre-tenure faculty member, or a tenured full professor, the writing process often proves difficult. Yet, for many of us, writing represents some of the most important aspects of our professional work. One of the best ways that I have found to support my work is to write more with a writing group. In today’s post, I want to share the five benefits you can receive from an effective writing group.

Five advantages to write more with a writing group

Photo credit: Reuben Engber
Posted on

Tips for publishing with students

Graduate and undergraduate students can be tremendous assets to your research endeavors and can serve as the embodiment of a merger between your teaching and research activity. For all the benefits of working with students, some concerns and challenges exist. In today’s post, I want to share some tips for publishing with students that you can use to make sure that your publishing relationships with students go well for everyone involved.

tips for publishing with students

Photo credit: Alan Levine
Posted on

How to Effectively Recruit Graduate Students

Universities spend significant time and resources in recruiting undergraduate students. Unfortunately, graduate recruiting efforts frequently fall victim to ineffective and inefficient practices. As a faculty member and program director of various higher education graduate programs, I have spent much of my career recruiting masters and doctoral students. I have often been frustrated by the lack of attention, planning, and the lack of expertise in how institutions recruit graduate students. In today’s post, I will share the common causes of graduate recruiting problems and discuss how to effectively recruit graduate students.

Photo credit: Martyn Wright

While undergraduate recruiting often differs substantially by the type of institution, graduate recruiting suffers from many of the same problems across all institutions. Obviously some institutions have more money to throw at the problem or can rely on rankings differently, but few institutions do a strong job with graduate recruiting.

Posted on

Plight of graduate students: Labor Day edition

In 1894, Congress passed legislation making the first Monday in September a holiday celebrating the social and economic achievements of the American workforce. Each Labor Day, I celebrate by describing an aspect of academic work in American higher education. Previously, I’ve examined adjunct professors and tenure. In this year’s edition, I consider the plight of graduate students. The National Labor Relations Board has declared that graduate students are employees with a right to unionize. This post will describe the plight of graduate students by considering the implications of the 3-1 NLRB ruling in the case from Columbia University which gives graduate students employment rights.

Photo credit: GWC-UAW

The National Labor Relations Board ruled 3-2 in 2004 that research and teaching assistants at Brown University did not have the right to unionize. The board ruled that graduate students were primarily students and not workers. As a result, graduate students did not have the right the negotiate conditions of employment, wages, and benefits.

The Columbia ruling overturns the Brown precedent.