Overcoming Resistance to Academic Writing
By Annette Finley-Croswhite, CFD director
"Write No Matter What" is a marvelous training manual for academics who too often find themselves facing blank pages, overcome with the anxiety created by the pressure within the academy to produce. It's a publish-or-perish world for most academics, and what is perhaps most refreshing about Jensen's work is her acknowledgement that our higher education eco-systems don't necessarily prepare us for the pressure to publish nor do they create environments where writing is easy. Jensen is the Hazel Rogers Professor of Communication at the University of Tulsa and directs the Henneke Faculty Writing Program. In producing the book, she draws on 30 years of experience with academic writing and references her personal and professional challenges. Her father was also an academic who suffered from writer's block.
A work of 28 short chapters broken into five parts, the book is a delightful read. Jensen begins by identifying why academic work spaces may not be ideal locations for scholarly writing. Faculty members struggle with heavy teaching and service loads and noisy offices where it is often difficult to manage time. Finding space for personal and private interests and responsibilities can also be overwhelming in what Jensen refers to as the "chimera" of work-life balance (5). "The tragic truth of academic life is that everyone I know is constantly trying to be more productive while feeling anxiety and shame about not writing 'enough'" (4). The answer is to give up the shame and approach academic writing like a craft, one that takes time to learn over the course of a career. "A craftsman attitude puts the focus on performing the work, rather than performing the self," she states (13). In this model, academics become apprentices who practice writing from the perspective of getting a job done. Writing is not their whole identity.
To guide apprentices to more effective writing strategies, Jensen offers three solutions. First she advocates that everyone create a "project box" to organize files and keep projects from becoming "dark, amorphous cloud[s]" (17). By this she means an actual box of hanging files that one can see. She cautions against digital files that might give the illusion of work, but can be easily lost or sit unattended without much notice. She also advocates for a "ventilation file," as a place where hostile thoughts about a project can be housed. She encourages writers to use this file as a way to write about their project anxiety or why they are avoiding certain kinds of work. This technique indicates that even writing that isn't specifically produced as publishable can be helpful in the writer's toolbox. Academics can even use the ventilation file to write about why they don't want to write, and this can aid individual understanding about writing-avoidance. Finally, Jensen also encourages every academic to write for at least 15 minutes per day, which often stretches into more than that and helps writers overcome writer's block. Jensen stresses, "Just as most diet advice is some version of 'eat less, move more,' most writing advice is some version of 'fear less, write more'" (21).
Personally, I am cautious about Jensen's emphasis on writing for 15 minutes a day, although I agree this is an excellent strategy and encourage faculty to follow it. I've heard it explained that using this method "Lego by Lego" one crafts a paper over time. Writing can be discipline-specific, however, and writing every day for short periods is often geared toward disciplines that don't involve massive research materials at close proximity to write. Some faculty need to be in labs, on physical sites, attached to huge data-sets, or, for me, a historian, close to hundreds or sometimes thousands of documents. I can't drag those items to a coffee shop or a writing room; I must write in my study at home surrounded by my documents (and it might take me well over 15 minutes just to find the right document to include in a project). That being the case, I find dedicated days to writing work better for me. Instead of 15 minutes a day, I might choose every Friday for the whole day or a good chunk of time at the beginning or ending of every day. We can all edit anywhere, but the creative process starts with the blank page, and while some faculty include research as part of writing, research does not in fact put words on the page. Writing spaces are personal choices tied to writing habits and the specifics of disciplines. What we all need is dedication to our individualized writing schedules and, as Jensen points out, a willingness to talk with others about writing and writing strategies. One of the most insightful conversations I've had at Old Dominion University about writing was with a colleague who runs a writing group. We discussed the "process" of writing and the multiple ways academics structure successful writing. Whether it's 15 minutes a day over many weeks or eight hours a day over a period of time, the point is to find the "process" that works for you and then hold yourself accountable for that writing time.
Jensen's work is a marvelous acknowledgement of the pressures that academics face in terms of expectations to publish. Her representation of the colleague who always talks about the project being produced that never materializes is spot-on, just as her discussion of the ivory tower as not conducive to writing is also a reality for many. In short, the book offers wonderful tips on how to be more productive and shut out the noise of academic life. "Write No Matter What" is a must-read for all academic writers.
