Friday, May 07, 2004

Scholarly Writing as Adventure

One of the new essays on May's SBL Forum is:

Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, "A Brewing Thought, a Spot of Tea: Scholarly Writing as Adventure"
This essay considers some of my rubrics of writing in general, and writing a thesis/dissertation in particular, as a creative, fulfilling adventure.
It's a lively and enjoyable piece and ideal for you if you are struggling with writing a dissertation at the moment. The author explains her metaphorical strategy for avoiding writer's block and for enjoying the creative experience of writing. I have one query about the beginning point of the essay, though:
Writing tends to be the bane of existence for many teachers and students in higher education. Put simply, writing is often a necessary, but neither a sufficient nor a satisfying burden.
Is this so? I must admit that writing is pretty much my favourite part of the job; I just wish I could find more time to do it -- that's where my burden lies and I guess that that's the same for many colleagues. Would that we had the more time to indulge in the adventure that Kirk-Duggan describes!

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