As my new job will be home-based, I recently asked friends and followers on social media for their top hints and tips for productive home-working. They had lots of great ideas and I thought they might also be useful for anyone for anyone who doesn’t have an office or a comfortable office space (PhD students…
Tag: Sprout
Some news and the future of this site
Pastures new, geddit? (Not an accurate representation of Milton Keynes.) So, I received some rather stunning and unexpected news a couple of weeks ago. After nine years of precarity, someone round here has finally got herself a permanent, full-time academic job! From the beginning of November 2019, I will be joining the Open University as…
Sprout: REF and those elusive 4* triggers
So, by way of an update, I recently started working back in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester as a ‘REF Pathway’ Research Associate. Over the next six months (five months now, to be precise), I will be supporting the REF-able academics within the School to write and publish outputs judged to meet the…
Sprout: Reward yourself for writing
Yeah, I know this sounds like one of those scammy ads on social media but it isn’t, trust me. Inspired by this post on rewarding yourself for writing, I’ve decided to give it a go. If nothing else it might help me finish the paper I’ve been working on since 2015 and kick-start my efforts…
Sprout: Writing text for public engagement: my top 10 tips for success
Academics are not known for their ability to write readable and accessible text. It’s not something that most of us are trained to do, we deal in difficult and complex theories and concepts, and for the most part, we write for carbon-copies of ourselves – other academics typically working in our subject area, largely familiar…
Sprout: What’s your tendency?
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Do any of you recognise this scenario? You know what’s good for you. You’d like to do it. But there’s something holding you back. You find yourself resisting even though you know that seminar would be worth going to or that yoga class would do you some good? You…
Sprout: What coaching is (and what it isn’t)
A little while ago I mentioned I was planning on starting a coaching offer for final year PhD students and early career researchers (ECRs). It’s become increasingly clear to me that there is a real need for genuinely affordable advice and support. And, as a one-time PhD student, ECR and now precarious academic, I understand…