Recently, Erin, a blogger with UpbeaT, wrote about why she makes a point of sharing notes with fellow students when they ask. If whether to share or ask for notes is something you find yourself thinking about, check out Erin’s post, “Note to Self: Why I Don’t Mind Sharing My Notes,” as well as the [...]
Throughout my undergraduate degree, I struggled to keep up with my lecturers when I was taking notes. I always found myself a step behind and never had time to completely finish my thoughts before rushing to write down the next point. Borrowing friends’ notes didn’t really work, either, because what they thought was important to [...]
Last night, I was lucky enough to go to the screening of the People’s Choice Award Winner, “The King’s Speech,” at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film played to a full house at the Ryerson Theatre. One of the things I was struck by in this often quite moving story of a relationship between [...]
“Revision is a search for closer and closer approximation of the truth you seek…you will never reach the perfect text you’re striving for, because it exists only in fantasy. What matters is that you work your way toward that text, toward the truest narrative that you can achieve, one that speaks clearly and fluently to [...]
Summer Sylph slips silently Tween pages damp from heat And speaks in whispers softly through The tree leaves while you sleep Summer Sylph is waiting for you In your midnight mind Step out of doors and into gardens Campus nooks you’ll find Sparrows, dapples, blooms and breezes Wait for you out there Courtyards, stones and [...]
The other day I was browsing through my copy of Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, by Shunryu Suzuki. The subtitle of the book is “Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice” but it could easily be “ways of learning” or “ways of seeing.” That day, I stopped at the talk on “Mind Weeds,” in the section [...]
Getting ready to write that paper? Why not start with a 5 minute warm-up exercise? Surely Joannie Rochette and Sidney Crosby stretch before hitting the ice… So, before you settle into writing your paper, take 5 minutes to Freewrite: Write for 5 minutes without stopping, whatever comes to mind. Don’t edit or cross out or [...]
Read For the Gist For the juice, for the words that grab you and if they don’t—grab them. But not too frantically. Read as though you were walking down Queen Street and curious look at the stores, the signs, the skirts and smell the roasted coffee beans. Let your eye be taken to the things [...]
At a recent meeting of the Women’s Writing Support Group, participants spoke of how helpful it’s been to write for a short block of time each week during the workshop. Each week, we spend 20 minutes working alone on our academic writing projects. There is something about this structure—regular, predictable, and brief (just 20 minutes!)—that [...]
Although we’re into the exam period, there are still a fair number of students–and, admittedly, a fair number of those of us who work with students–who have writing projects that need to be finished. The other day, a friend who had been a graduate student at the same time as I was, and with whom [...]
