World Bank Gives Pakistan $300-Million Loan for Higher Education

http://twitter.com/grammarissa Karissa K.

I drafted my master’s thesis in longhand using two notebooks. One was for notes from books and articles, as well as my own thoughts as they occurred to me. (This notebook took a lot of wear and tear; I carried it around for almost a year.) The second notebook was where I began drafting my argument. I outlined the paper, redid the outline, and formed the sections of my final product in this notebook. Having my notes in the first notebook helped me when it came time to flip through pages for reference material. When I had what I felt was a good draft of a section, I’d type it, but I’d try to type exactly what I wrote because I wanted to keep tabs on my revision process. (I always do a “Save As” for the documents I edit so I can always recover text I’ve changed if it turns out I liked the original better.)

I used to do something similar in my undergraduate years. I found that when I made time to do things this way I often liked and felt more confident about my final product.

englishwlu

Most of the time the speed gained from typing trumps the flow and deep concentration that I get from handwriting. However, when I am stuck, I formulate my conundrum to myself in the form of a “mock midterm” and make myself sit as if taking an hourly examination, writing longhand (bluebook optional). It’s incredible what can come out of such an exercise. I’ve always thought of it as a product of the situation–the mock midterm–but it might well have to do with the fluency and flow of writing longhand.

http://www.erikmarshall.net Erik Marshall

I used to write everything longhand, but I have moved away from that process. I have recently gone back to writing to do lists by hand instead of on my phone, and I find that helpful. I think I’ll go back to writing articles longhand and see what happens, as I suspect a lot of the blocks I encounter are related to staring at a screen.

paigecm

I write quite a lot in longhand — enough, actually, that sometimes the transcription process feels like it’s slowing me down (though at other times, it is, as you say, a really helpful revision technique).

Three days ago, I bought my first SmartPen — a 4g Livescribe Echo. I’m excited about being able to use it when I’m attending talks, but I think I’m even more excited about being able to easily digitize my notes in a searchable format, because when I’m drafting, I produce a ton of writing that doesn’t end up in the chapter, but that may include insights that I’ll want later on.

Even the drafting that I decide fairly quickly isn’t going to make it into the chapter proper gets saved — and then to find it later, if I need it, I don’t have to shuffle through pages and pages of notes, trying to remember what the paper it was written on looks like. An ultra-disciplined filing system would solve that problem, too, but I’d rather use my energy elsewhere.

http://twitter.com/cliotropic Shane Landrum

I draft in longhand with a fountain pen when I’m stuck on something, often while looking at my primary sources on a screen at the same time. (A wide, angled writing surface– in this case, a desk I built out of leftover cabinetry– makes a huge difference in comfort, but scribes have known that for centuries.) Then, when I turn that draft into a computer document, I use dictation software so that I can just read my longhand draft in quickly, making a few oral corrections to the written text as I go.

eetempleton

It has always been important for me to do my class prep and notes in longhand though until I read your post, I couldn’t articulate why. I still do most of my writing (articles, ProfHacker posts, conference papers, etc.) on the keyboard, but sometimes I use longhand as a way to brainstorm and generate ideas. I find it very helpful, and as you have suggested, more pleasant.

drnels

A major reason I no longer keep up with my blog is because I now keep a private journal in a spiral notebook, and the feel of handwriting really helps that writing flow. I also take almost all notes in longhand and revise by longhand. I draft on the computer, but it’s my least favorite stage of the process. In other words, if it’s a stage of writing I like, I switch to longhand.

kaitlinwalsh

I’ve never used longhand for draft, but I do use it for notes. I’ve had a few oral exams during my graduate career, and one of the things that helps me to prepare is to recopy parts of my notes into a new notebook. The act of writing helps me remember the material, and I feel more confident if I can answer a question without referring to my notes.

graphei

I wrote my master’s thesis by longhand, as well. At first it started as a way to get around writers’ block, but I found myself turning more to my notebook and fountain pen. It became a little ritual for me to sit down with a cup of tea, my pen and notebook, and a source and work through it by hand. While many of my peers started to hate writing, I actually fell in love with it all over again.

thornwhistle

I like the article a lot. I have written 4 books and all of them have been longhand. I write a draft, then refine it and produce a second,more finished draft. Someone types it up for me (i do like to see the typed version) and then do a final edit of the typed copy. It seems to work for me.

I love to see the pen on paper and the feeling of writing. Typing stops my process because I am a slow typist

Thanks for sharing. The essay you suggested is very interesting and that process is worth a try some day.

nmhouston

It’s great to hear from other people who also write by hand. I’m really struck in so many of these comments about how writing longhand allows greater enjoyment of the writing process. This seems important.

nmhouston

This is a great idea! I know you’ve mentioned using dictation software before, but I didn’t think about how that could be combined with longhand drafts. I may have to try this sometime.

carefree1

If you had an electric typewriter in college, you are not as old as you think!

CF

cdanm3

I have made such a strong transition to the keyboard, that I think in terms of QWERTY when it comes to composing new thoughts. But, the downfall for me is that in so doing, I am thinking about the process of “recording” my ideas, not the creation of them. For creative work, I find writing more helpful.

http://twitter.com/breana breana

Thanks for this article–I am fascinated that there are so many longhand devotees! I never think to write anything longhand, not even grocery lists. For writing, I make use of a widescreen monitor to have several windows–a primary source, my running notes/reflections with quotes pulled from the sources, and an outline of the manuscript I am working on–open at the same time. I read, reflect, construct my argument, and “fill in” the outline as I go. I also often use voice recognition software, particularly when I feel stuck with typing, to get unstuck or just to give my hands a break. Perhaps because I haven’t written longhand for any length since high school (with the exception of those blue book exams as an undergrad or note-taking in class) and through my masters and doctoral programs have always used a lap-top in-class, I feel far more comfortable and fluent sitting in front of a computer than a notebook.

I am really interested in the SmartPen that another commenter mentioned–I’d love to hear more about how they work, how useful they are, etc. Having a digital record might convince me to try longhand out once in a while!

petrmatous

I recommend my students to structure their ideas first by handwriting and sketching. Two dimensions of a blank sheet give more freedom for creativity than fixed word processor lines.

sesamest

I wish I liked writing longhand, but I have a lot of tension as soon as I pick up the pen. I grip the pen tight and clench the muscles all the way up to my shoulder. Any suggestions for how to unlearn that? I occasionally try to keep notebooks of ideas or reflections, but the physical stress is an impediment.

danbloom

Well said and it’s true. The same applies to reading on paper versus reading off screens. The latter is not reading. It is screening. Future MRI and PET scan tests will show that reading off paper surfaces is superior for processing, retention and analysis, and that paper reading lights up different and superior regions of the brain for these three items. Research going on now. Just as handwriting by hand is better for thinking things through, same applies to reading on paper. Screen reading, while convenient and quick and skimmable, is not really “reading” — it is screening, and i have coined a new word for this — screening. Google it.

simonl

Curious to hear if any longhanders have found an increased efficiency in their writing? I’m the kind of person who can endlessly wrangle with a single sentence for far too long if left unattended, so the notion of removing the backspace key from the writing process is somewhat alluring.

I still haven’t been able to adapt to task apps or phone checklist programs, the crumpled post-it in the pocket still seems to work best for me.

nyhist

As a left-handed person I have always found writing in longhand difficult. I have never been able to write with a fountain pen without smearing the ink, and even with a ballpoint my handwriting is atrocious. When I was in 7th or 8th grade I bought a manual typewriter with money I earned at my first job. My father, also an academic, told me then & there to start composing at a typewriter. All through college I wrote on that same typewriter. In graduate school I acquired an electric typewriter. In the 80s I got my first computer. I have never looked back. I cannot ‘see’ what my words look like on the page nor can I revise properly if I use longhand. So I am a dissenter in this comment thread.

nmhouston

There are various ergonomic pens and pen holders that might help. I haven’t used it myself, but I know people who use and like the Pen Again which is fairly inexpensive and available at Amazon and elsewhere.

drjeff

Likewise, I “write” anything long at a keyboard. While I always have “my favorite pen” with me, I only use it for short writing, like taking notes or making lists. It’s odd — I really LIKE pens, and don’t mind spending $30-40 for one, and usually use the same one for 5 years or more, but I always type longer things. It probably started in undergraduate days: when I had a paper (up to 12 pages) due, I’d make notes and an outline during the week before it was due. The night before it was due, I’d take my notes, electric typewriter, a stack of erasable typing paper, and a Pepsi to the lounge or living room, and type the paper. (Like you, I used a manual typewriter in high school — my Mom’s from college — and got an electric for college.) I tried, once, writing a whole paper with a pen and then typing it; that was the one I didn’t get an A on, so I quit experimenting.

bazyliszek

Like nyhist (though not left-handed), I used money from odd jobs to buy my first typewriter in the 8th grade, because I could never measure up to the nuns’ expectations for Palmer-method handwriting, and I’ve never looked back. I still use longhand for taking notes during meetings, and have sometimes used voice-to-text software, but mostly I stay with the keyboard. I find it far more flexible for going back and inserting a random thought relevant to paragraph 3 that occurs to me when I’m on paragraph 21. I have to admit, though, that I recently ordered a smart pen and will be interested to see how it and I get along once it arrives.

http://twitter.com/jasonshaffner Jason Shaffner

I feel the need to brainstorm using pen and paper — the blank page is so much more inviting in some ways. Unfortunately, the sheer awfulness of my own penmanship makes it challenging to compose anything of length in longhand. As an extra quirk, I feel compelled to revise on hard-copy — there’s something really satisfying about red-ink strike-through that Track Changes can’t replicate.

http://twitter.com/richardveryard Richard Veryard

… and at a standing-up desk …

fdonoghue

Except for memos and ofther ephemera, I’ve always drafted everything in longhand using a fountain pen. For me, there has to be something ritualsitic about writing, and composing at the screen just never feels that way. Interestting post

raymond_j_ritchie

I wish people would stop pretending that donations such as these are loans.
What sane person in the World Bank thinks they will get their money back? Furthermore, the recipient knows that: they do not even have to pretend to repay them or spend the money on what the donors intended it to be spent on.
It is just another well-meaning but misguided aid project.

raza_khan

Fact 1: It is truly sad that World Bank is giving out donations / loans to corrupt system such as HEC that has no administrative responsibilities or even powers in that country.
Fact 2: It is truly sad knowing fact 1, the World Bank then puts in unimaginable conditions on the country to repay the loan by raising the prices of commodities that affect the poorest families.

Raza

__________________

Dr. Raza Khan

Chemistry Faculty

Dr.Raza.Khan@gmail.com

drjennycrisp

Editing to add: I just noticed this is an old entry; sorry.

I occasionally resort to longhand when I’m stuck. I, too, am lefthanded, and that contributes to the messy smear I find on my arm if I use a pen for anything lengthy (if I use a pencil, the smear is dusty instead). My handwriting is terrible, too, and I’m incapable of cursive because I quit as soon as my teachers would let me in response to the smear factor. Since my “longhand” is actually print, I’m almost painfully slow. So I limit my longhand, but when I’m well and truly stuck, there’s no substitute.

I don’t do this often; I’m no longer exactly young, but I come from a family of early adopters and wrote my first lengthy essay on a word-processing machine with a tiny amber screen. So my composition skills were shaped by the keyboard.I can and do edit on screen, but I print really important documents for editing.

IkeRoberts

I’ve typed since 5th grade because writing by hand does not work with composing for me. I take notes by hand, and I edit manuscripts by hand (profusely). They are two different mental processes, and each goes very naturally with a different writing medium.

laurelin

I definitely use handwriting when I want to learn something new, re-surface what I used to know, or re-structure what I know for a paper or presentation/lecture. Handwriting slows me down, giving my mind enough time to properly connect to all the mental schemas I need to use, rearrange, or correct. I also use handwriting when I want to integrate emotions with what I
know, as often happens when writing for a personal journal.

I strongly encourage my students to write material out by hand when studying. I think the more sensory modes you use, the stronger the neural network and the more neural net connections form to other neural networks, making it more likely that you can retrieve the material under pressure (exam, paper deadline, presentation, etc.). Handwriting adds a kinetic aspect to learning. I well remember when my fingers learned a piano piece, and my mind only needed to add emphasis or vary the style to the basic music piece as written.

nico108

One of the issues your post brings up—and I think it has not been discussed much elsewhere—is that when we turn to our computer screen, we turn on the world. It is a portal to a vast amount of information, stories, distractions, queries and tasks which is fundamentally a different space from when we turn to a pad of paper and pick up a pen. Since writing began it has been a tactile, solitary experience, one whose relationship is fundamentally unitary.
With the age of the internet, our experience is radically changed. Even if we use the Freedom or Antisocial app, all of our work is still there. I can (and do) check PDF’s, look at music, check my calendar, even after having been driven to sign out of the internet. The computer inevitably multi tasks us.
What has this done to a writer’s imagination? We are never lost in our thoughts anymore; we are instead encaptured by someone else’s. For centuries a writer was forced to turn inward to find his muse; now we inevitably turn outward, or at least allow for some very promiscuous intermingling (enough so that Bacchus would blush). Can we continue to create as we know the world, or, as Jonathan Lethem has written, must is all be about aggregating, ordering, sorting?

jschuste711

As someone who was born in the 80s, people are surprised when I tell them I draft writing in longhand – essays, term papers, my entire dissertation has started with pen on paper. I think it comes from years writing journal entries in notebooks. I was once presenting my work to a bunch of colleagues (all non-native English speakers) who remarked, “Your text is just so clear to read!” I told them I write longhand and they nodded, as if the conclusion were intuitive: “That must be why.”

Amy_L

Anything important I write by hand first and then type up. I think much more clearly when writing by hand. I really recommend Levenger’s annotation-ruled paper. It has regular lines on the right side of the page, and a window running down the left where you can comment on your writing. The texture is smooth and creamy.

quack

I agree with the article in principle. Resign early, be generous, and remain tight-lipped about one’s new position. This said, there are circumstances when a graceful exit is perhaps unwise. Consider, for example, institutions that offer only ten month contracts and which systematically retract health coverage for summer should a faculty member resign “gracefully” during their final semester. Yes, it’s an institution’s right to do this, and yes, Cobra is an option, but neither reflect the nature of academic positions, which function on 12 month cycles. In these instances, it simply does not behoove a faculty member to give fair warning. Better to incur the wrath of administrators and wait until the last minute to resign. Granted, it’s neither graceful nor honorable, but expedient institutions that hamstring faculty in this way reap what they sow.

galway

While I agree that leaving gracefully is the best thing to do, I question the idea that someone leaving a troubled institution/department should say nothing about the current institution. Do you not want to know why you might have a faculty retention problem? You can assume that you know the reasons but it’s quite possible you’re wrong in those assumptions. This isn’t really a about what’s best for the person leaving – they’re leaving and the situation does not continue to affect them – but the institution should be asking those questions so it’s strange to me to hear this “keep quiet” advice. I believe ‘academic leaders’ should be asking for leaving faculty to speak – at least to them.

megginson

I agree with quack on this. I worked in industry for eight years before heading off for my Ph.D. and academia, and I still find it interesting how many workplace lessons were learned by industry decades ago that haven’t yet percolated into some college and university practice. It was once not uncommon in industrial lower to middle management positions to find that if you let your boss know as a courtesy that you were going to resign in the near future, you would be escorted back to your desk, supervised while you cleaned it out, and tossed out the door with your last paycheck in hand (compensated through the end of that day) and your office and building keys in someone else’s hand. The usual argument given to try to justify this suicidal practice was that an employee headed off for another job could do a lot of harm before departing, either through malice or espionage. Of course, the actual, obvious result was that most bosses found out at 5 pm on Friday that the employee would be working for someone else at 8 am on Monday. Things have thus become more gracious, since it is in the interest of both employer and employee to make that happen.

megginson

And I agree with galway also. Another standard industrial practice (again, in lower and middle management positions, at least) is the exit interview. Besides their obvious value in gathering information, they can give an unhappy employee a satisfactory way to vent, which is great since the employee will likely find a way in any case. But it’s important that the employee be assured of confidentiality in a believable way, since an employee may also not want anything entered into a personnel file that would shout “disgruntled”. I know of one really nasty situation that I had to deal with in a previous position that might have been headed off if an employee headed out the door had been given a chance to tell us the reason for the departure in a confidential way that would not boomerang on the person.

rutan

There’s also the flipside…the administrator serving at the pleasure of his or her supervisor is always subject to a resignation that may not be of his or her choosing.

mkni4658

I agree with galway and megginson on this. At the end of my two-year VAP appt, I used the exit interview as my one and only way to reveal the dysfunction in my department and also as a hedge against any continuing personal attack by my so-called “supervisor” in the dept. (The Chair was supportive of me but did not want to run afoul of the tenured faculty member in their tiny dept, who was powerfully connected with admin/dean’s office, and with whom he would have to work long after I was gone.) The dean never asked to speak to me, and his close relationship with my supervisor at the small SLAC made it difficult for me to feel I could do anything but keep silent, or use the exit interview and ombuds to get my side of the story out. Even today I don’t know if I did the right thing but I am glad I had a choice, at the very least.

Query: Can I see or ask to see my personnel file to see how that exit interview may have left a mark on my records? How might HR use that in the future when I apply for new posts, I wonder? I assumed confidentiality but if I am wrong about that, then really there was no choice all along…?

http://dagblog.com/blogs/doctor-cleveland Doctor Cleveland

I agree with quack, galway, megginson, and mkini4658 that good individual behavior usually stems from a work environment that supports good behavior (and that workplaces that punish employees for candor will generally not get it). In that spirit:

The department chair who never gets completely blindsided by a faculty member’s departure is the department chair who wrote that faculty member a letter of recommendation.

I have never gone on the job market without my department chair’s knowledge. I have kept my chair in the loop when my candidacies advanced, and let him/her know when my candidacies ended. I can do this because my chair never penalizes me, or hints at penalizing me, for going on the market; in fact s/he has furnished me with strong references. I can also do this because my contract year runs through the end of summer (my summer pay being deferred payment from the school year). And because I am treated well, I apply to fewer outside jobs than I would otherwise.

If you run a department where people know you will support their careers, you will seldom be blindsided. If your approach to retention is to show your displeasure to anyone who contemplates leaving, you will have your faculty applying for jobs behind your back, and more of them will be applying.

http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines Robert Talbert

I was in this situation at this time last year. Other than the usual advice about being gracious, which is good advice, I would say that it’s important that — before you tell anybody you are leaving — you have a plan for whom to tell, when, and how. For me, it went like this:

1. Inform the Dean and President through a formal memo.
2. Inform the department chair through a face-to-face meeting.
3. Inform the other members of my department through face-to-face meetings.
4. Then, inform the rest of the world through an email message and social media postings that are all done at the same time.

I was at a small liberal arts college with 60 faculty. Initially I wasn’t going to do the mass email — I sent an email around to my closest friends on the faculty — but then I had a colleague who let me know he was offended that he had to find out about my resignation second-hand through Facebook. There are people out there who will get offended because other people find out first, and even though that’s silly, the point is to be gracious and not give offense when you can avoid it. So I followed up my email/social media announcement with a general email to all faculty. (I wouldn’t try this at my current institution, which has 25,000 students and hundreds of faculty.)

In all my announcements, I kept the tone positive, stressing gratefulness for support and collegiality and keeping the details of my new position to a minimum. (Especially: There’s no need to talk about why I was leaving in a venue like this.) Here’s my blog post where I announced my new job: http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2011/04/21/news-of-the-day-im-moving/

There’s a time and place for getting down to brass tacks about why you’re leaving a place, and the place you’re leaving can learn a lot by hearing these things. But I think it’s wise to wait until you are asked for that information. For my part, my previous institution’s VPAA and President declined to give me an exit interview, delegating that task instead to an associate dean. We had a very frank 90-minute interview where I did most of the talking. I cannot say whether the information made it up to the top brass, but I hope it did and I hope they heard me out at least indirectly.

http://who-will-kiss-the-pig.blogspot.com Richard Grayson

I recommend this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWn5AJPm2kk

meldenius

As a dean, I agree with the author regarding the importance of leaving well. Having been on the other side of this, of having left an institution, I do understand the temptation to cut and run. But people tend to forget that administrators network and a person’s reputation is real currency in the world of higher education, especially among private institutions. My advice to departing personnel is always this: make us wish you were still here. When people mention your name out there, the first things that should come to mind are the good things. Breaking contract to get out of Dodge is not necessarily going to help that.

1800peregrinus

I have no advice, but merely questions:

What, then, of junior faculty where their department/unit is highly disorganized and dysfunctional with extensive morale, overload, pay, and support issues and a departmental chair that is at one breath a bully-pulpit-inhabitant and at the next pleading for communion and collegiality? How do those younger, tenurable faculty make a “graceful exit” from sticky and unforgiving (and, yes, extreme) situations? It occurs to me that faculty members in such positions are not likely to trust their administrative supervisors regarding disclosing job-hunt activity, or asking for any recommendation with any degree of confidence from a chair or unit supervisor (as Robert Talbert and Doctor Cleveland above discuss). I agree that it is not wise to burn bridges before they are crossed, but in instances when fire might be the best cure for the ails of a program or unit or a department, what is the true worth of grace when practically the entire program or unit or department want to jump ship as well?

beverlyfields

Excellent article!

mnogojazyk

I have a different experience with the exit interview. I once asked my supervisor as te was preparing a case against me when it came time to lay off staff whether te had any responsibility in the low morale in the office. Tis reply was a resounding no.

By the time I left a few months later, there were nine grievances and lawsuits against tim, and still te didn’t recognize, much less acknowledge, that te was at least partially responsible for them. (Mind you, none was from me.)

When the chief of staff of the university’s president came to me for an exit interview, I decline. I concluded that if the university didn’t recognize it had a problem in the professional behavior of my supervisor, whatever I said during my exit interview would be dismissed as sour grapes or used to disparage me once I was gone. In shore, the exit interview would be useless.

Others have different outcomes from an exit interview, of course. Mine has left me leery of them. I can only conclude that it depends on how sincere and honest the institutional leadership is about them. If they’re perfunctory or worse, I wouldn’t bother.

josa33

I don’t have any advice folks who are in the process of exiting an institution, but I would like to thank them. I am grateful to those who, after a long and productive career (or not), decide to retire and open up a space for the hundreds of new PhDs who are desperately looking for work in academia (like me). I’m even more grateful when academics in my field retire at, say, 65, rather than 70 or 75–which seems to be a growing trend. (But I do understand the need for lead-time for replacing retirees).

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