signalnoise

I'm reading over my introductory chapter right now, and I'm trying to make it *better.* The argument and so on are there, and need relatively little work. (That's not wholly true. The argument probably needs a lot of work. But there are two kinds of dissertations: done and good. We're focusing on the former right now.) What I'm really working on is the flow of words and phrasing. While academic writing doesn't have to be High Art, I would prefer that it not at least sound god fucking awful. So that's the laborious phase I'm working on right now. It's actually pretty hard to slow down and read for style. I tend to plow through, with an emphasis on structure, clarity, and claim. This is a different muscle that I haven't exercised in a while.

I'm also going crazy at the academic bookstore later in the week. Huzzah! I've been so immersed in writing and data work, I've not READ in months - not seriously anyway. My plan next year is to start working on the book manuscript. But, as a first year assistant professor, that's *hard.* My time will be really sucked up in course preps. So I plan to focus on catching up on my reading. I'm *excited.* I've missed digging into ideas.