I had this vision that summer would bring an increase in my blog writing. I would write a new post 5 days a week, post them 2 days a week, and come fall, I would have a great store of written posts that I could use to fill in the weeks I didn't have time to write. You know where this is going, right?
There are no back-up posts. There is a list of blog ideas, and that's it. The list grows; the back up posts do not.
On sabbatical, I vowed to bring sabbatical thinking more to my summers. As many people know, most faculty are not paid in summer, although we are expected to get work done in summer (although I did recently receive the facebook comment, "You work in the summer?") I have a part administrative position so I have a requirement of a certain number of hours for that. I am trying to get some bigger writing projects done in the summer. And of course, everyone else is trying to get writing done in the summer, so I have a back log (so much worse than back-up posts!) of other people's work I owe feedback on.
I've been mildly successful with sabbatical thinking. I have been working from home more. Evidence that I rarely do so was the recent email I received to "get better soon!" when I told our administrative assistant I would be working from home for the second day in a row, if she needed me.
All of this preamble is to say: Working from home more; getting some writing done; mostly working on other people's stuff.
In some recent conversations, people have said things like, "how long does it really take to read someone else's paper?" A legitimate question. So I decided to start tracking it given how much of my summer has been engaged in this very act. My conclusion: I just about never spend less than 3 hours on someone else's manuscript (or thesis). I can easily spend 4-5 hours on someone else's manuscript (or thesis). And, if the manuscript is a revision, and thus also includes a letter to the editor, I may spend a bit longer.
Now I'm a bit of a perfectionist (this poorly written at 1:00 AM blog post notwithstanding), and so I do spend a fair bit of time microediting. But it would be great to get data from others about how long you spend reading/editing co-authored manuscripts. Please share in the comments.
“The post Time spent editing other people's manuscripts (and other things keeping me away from blog posts) first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on July 11, 2014.”
There are no back-up posts. There is a list of blog ideas, and that's it. The list grows; the back up posts do not.
On sabbatical, I vowed to bring sabbatical thinking more to my summers. As many people know, most faculty are not paid in summer, although we are expected to get work done in summer (although I did recently receive the facebook comment, "You work in the summer?") I have a part administrative position so I have a requirement of a certain number of hours for that. I am trying to get some bigger writing projects done in the summer. And of course, everyone else is trying to get writing done in the summer, so I have a back log (so much worse than back-up posts!) of other people's work I owe feedback on.
I've been mildly successful with sabbatical thinking. I have been working from home more. Evidence that I rarely do so was the recent email I received to "get better soon!" when I told our administrative assistant I would be working from home for the second day in a row, if she needed me.
All of this preamble is to say: Working from home more; getting some writing done; mostly working on other people's stuff.
In some recent conversations, people have said things like, "how long does it really take to read someone else's paper?" A legitimate question. So I decided to start tracking it given how much of my summer has been engaged in this very act. My conclusion: I just about never spend less than 3 hours on someone else's manuscript (or thesis). I can easily spend 4-5 hours on someone else's manuscript (or thesis). And, if the manuscript is a revision, and thus also includes a letter to the editor, I may spend a bit longer.
Now I'm a bit of a perfectionist (this poorly written at 1:00 AM blog post notwithstanding), and so I do spend a fair bit of time microediting. But it would be great to get data from others about how long you spend reading/editing co-authored manuscripts. Please share in the comments.
“The post Time spent editing other people's manuscripts (and other things keeping me away from blog posts) first appeared on Eva Lefkowitz’s blog on July 11, 2014.”
RSS Feed
