Get Clear. Get Into Grad School. Get On With Your Life. by Dr. Khia on August 18, 2011
A former classmate of mine shared an article that I think the ENTIRE WORLD should know about. The oh-so-important topic? Shame in academic writing.
You know the feeling. You’ve lost sleep, worked super duper hard on an important paper, spent hours of your life that you will never get back trying to capture your eloquent thoughts in standard 12-point Times New Roman font. You turn it in, hoping to get an A, but halfway fearing that it might not measure up. Or at worse, your professor will laugh uproariously at your best effort.
I remember once working through the night on a draft of my master’s thesis. The feedback on my great piece of theoretical work was less than stellar. MUCH less than stellar. So un-stellar it was that I immediately burst into tears after reading the professor’s comments. It is still a blur to this day, but I remember something about “disjointed and disorganized.”
You may have figured that the fear of incompetence, incoherency, and lack of brilliancy eventually goes away. Sorry to burst more bubbles… but nope it doesn’t. Don’t believe me? Read on for the anecdote of a tenured professor who felt the same exact way! [click to continue…]
Get Clear. Get Into Grad School. Get On With Your Life. by Dr. Khia on August 11, 2011
Hurray! Your Grad School Coach is growing! You may have noticed that there’s a brand spanking new Testimonials page! Now you can keep up to date with what actual coaching clients have to say, in addition to the valuable information posted here on the blog.
I had the pleasure of working with a client who set aside dedicated time this summer to work on her statement of purpose for graduate social policy programs. And talk about getting started EARLY! Applications are due by October 1st and we were working together in JULY to add some polish to her essay. She seriously deserves an e-round of applause for being so proactive.
The First Read
She was off to an incredible start – and I said so after reviewing her first draft- but she shared that she had a nagging feeling that something was missing. Some oomph, some impact, some something, but couldn’t quite put her finger on what else was needed.
Enter Your Grad School Coach. Together, we were able to pinpoint areas that needed improvement, and go through several rounds of edits – three rounds, to be exact – in order to produce a polished essay that she felt confident was submission-ready. What was the final verdict on the coaching services? In her own words: [click to continue…]
