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All Writing is Writing
It may not look the same, but it’s words to paper! Most of my weekly writing never ends up in essays, conference papers, or chapters. Half the time, it isn’t even academic; it consists of journal entries, long texts to friends, emails, teaching notes, and postcards or letters sent each Sunday as part of the… →
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Writing with AI
Without Losing Your Voice AI is a hot topic at universities and colleges everywhere. In the past six months, I’ve heard a history professor say, “AI is evil,” while a sociology professor said she loved that her students could use it. Both are right. AI can take over your voice, and it’s very obvious when… →
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How to Organize Your Essay Writing
An Undergraduate Guide. Writing is challenging. It does not matter who you are or what you do. Skilled writers can feel overwhelmed! As an undergraduate, you can’t always be perfect, but you can set yourself up for success. Writing can be hard. Frustration can stem from multiple classes, unclear instructions, procrastination, or perfectionism. And that’s… →
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Build a Sustainable Writing Routine
Routines are hard to establish, so creating a writing routine isn’t something you can decide to do one day and expect it to work instantly. Academic life is demanding and pulls you in different directions every day. Your writing routine needs to fit within that push-and-pull. For example, if today is Wednesday and you decide… →
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Conference Reflections
A Personal Update from SECOLAS In Fall 2018, I took a course called World War II: Germans/Lat Amer in Texas. In that small seminar, we built a series of interconnected papers and eventually submitted them to SECOLAS, where we presented them the following March in Oaxaca, Mexico. I’ve attended SECOLAS every year since—except for… →
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How to Read a Scholarly Article
without drowning in it At first glance, reading scholarly articles might seem simple, but it can actually feel confusing. Dense writing, new terms, and lots of citations can make it hard to get started. Often, the real challenge is your mindset, not just understanding the content. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed. Try to develop a… →
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From Raw Sources to Real Insights
How I Turn Archival Material Into Usable Notes You have your archival materials and sources ready, and now you’re prepared to write. To simplify the writing process, step back and review your archival materials with your main research question in mind: turning your primary sources and notes into a coherent narrative or argument is essential.… →
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Inside the Archive
How I Approach Research Entering an archive always feels like crossing into another world that is part sanctuary, part maze. There’s a quiet thrill of possibility, the sense that something extraordinary might be hidden in the next box. The familiar overwhelm of fluorescent lights, strict rules, and the sheer volume of materials all remind me… →
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My Academic Momentum Map
Finding Your Way Back Into the Work To start the month, we worked through a clear set of steps. But what do you do when you keep trying and it feels like nothing is working? That’s where my Academic Momentum Map comes in. That’s when my Academic Momentum Map comes into play. It’s a tool… →
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Building Academic Momentum
The Mid-Semester Slump It’s that time of the semester – the slump/slip/dip/mid-semester blues. The name doesn’t matter; what matters is recognizing what’s happening and knowing how to help yourself. Research shows that undergraduates experience an energy dip between weeks 6 and nine. They let assignments stack up, worry about x, or are unsure about what’s… →
Wendi Kavanaugh 