You've Been Commissioned! or Finally, a Decent Publication

The Minnesota Review has asked me to write a 3000 word article on "academic blogging."  (I told you blogging isn't career suicide.)  If you want to see your name in The Minnesota Review leave an impressive comment and I'll cite you.  Possible topics include:

• Blogging as a research tool.
• Blogging as a networking tool.
• Blogging as a pedagogical tool.
• Blogging as re-re-re-igniting the Culture Wars again and again and again.

Maybe not that last part.  I want to accentuate the positive and touch lightly upon the negative.  No need to frighten anyone away.  I may point to some of the drawbacks of being a quasi-public intellectual.  (By "drawbacks" I mean "John Bruce and assorted self-important cranks.") 

Should I charge some nominal fee for a mention?  How much would a mention be worth?  If I mention a group blog should all the contributors chip in or should I ask them to pony up individually? 

I obviously won't post the article here (although I would hope they made it available online) but if anyone wants to read it before I send it out I would appreciate the feedback.  (Not that I've written it yet.  My quarter starts tomorrow.  I've been busy writing other things.)

Comments

[Laura]

Well, I taught a whole class about blogs, using blogs. You could say I'm a little obsessed with blogging. Seriously, I really think that using the blogs really helped my students become better writers and thinkers. When they had to face a real audience who constantly pushed them to see things from different viewpoints, they couldn't help but get out of their black and white thinking. Most of them. It's not a panacea, of course. The ones who took the audience seriously and wanted to influence that audience really pushed themselves to write well about interesting things.

[Martin G.L.]

Jill Walker and Torill Mortensen have written a short paper called Blogging thoughts, which you might want to have a look at. It's about using blogs to do academic research and discussion.

[academic coach]

Scott,

I'm very interested in seeing your article and would be glad to provide my 2 cents worth of pre-pub thoughts.

My own contribution would be in regards to dealing with the isolation and need for support -- especially for junior faculty members.

BTW, thanks to you I've been teasing Scott Jascik (sp?) about the bird shit ;)

[johnflood]

I have followed your blog since the notorious "office" incident, which was mentioned only very obliquely in the British academic press. One had to track you down, but it was worth it.

I am a legal blogger in the UK. Unlike the US, we are in a minority. It has been slow to take off. I have two reasons for blogging, both quite normal. One is commentary; the other research. I find it extremely useful as I work on my research projects to be able to jot down a series of thoughts that don't have to be as refined as is needed for an academic journal. Moreover, of course, they are published immediately. Doing this actually helps me clarify my thoughts in my research. When writing the academic journal piece, one is always rephrasing, rejigging, and never quite committing until the deadline so insists. The blog releases me from that pressure.

Since I've started blogging, I have found it a way of doing research. I hadn't realised how many blogs there were or how informative they could be. So without doubt they are now a necessary part of my research equipment.

With commentary, I like the immediacy of being able to respond to events, announcements, and so on. For example, today Prime Minister Blair introduced a new program dealing with "anti-social behavior" which, if brought in, will remove any right to due process. Since the UK has no constitution in the American sense, it's important to be able to argue in a public forum about these things. And usually, there are connections with my research as well, so the research and commentary go together.

From next year, I'm going to use blogging as a teaching tool.

With best wishes

John

http://johnflood.blogspot.com
http://www.johnflood.com

[John Emerson]

It's obvious enough, but I've never seen anyone mention the superiority of links to footnotes. If you want to follow up on a footnote it takes a trip to the library, and time.

The internet also picks up the pace of research, and it's scope, manyfold. Everyone in the world interested in a specialized topic could be in instant communication all the time. That's just a theoretical possibility and hardly a desirable one, but things are really quicker.

Once a blogger has a quality group of commenters, the conversations become very rich. I recommend "language hat" for an example of what can happen. Not every thread catches fire, but the best ones are amazing. There was quite an expert but nonspecialist discussion of certain points about Australian languages recently.

As a research tool the internet is like an imperfect archive with strong parts and missing parts. It's better for secondary and peripheral interests than for primary interests, and better for scouting sources and details than for the actual research.