I write a lot, on different places and different platforms: there’s discussion posts on several forums I visit or keep track of, blog posts here and on the school blog, product reviews, papers, and emails & letters.
Both the output’s quality and volume vary wildly of course. On some days, I could write 8 to 9 blog entries, and they all get queued up for posting. For instance: the ten mind-numbingly long blog entries I wrote on the Ph.D experience were done in a morning and part of early afternoon. Then there’re lull periods when I’m too busy with other things; and days can go by without posts here.
By far though and not unexpectedly, the hardest writing is for academic papers that’s published, or for presentation at conferences. That sort of writing is governed by a lot of rules: sentence construction, tense, idea progression, structure, and of course referencing. All of which are necessary but it also means that the writing style I use for casual purposes (like here) aren’t suitable anymore.
This month I’m working on two: the first is on the use of retail games in tertiary education (which is turning a lot more difficult than I thought), and a second that’s in the pipeline on instructor perspectives on the use of education technology, also in higher learning. Both are for international conferences, but thankfully are spaced reasonably far apart that I don’t have to consciously think too hard about both at the same time. Then there’s also the invitation to speak at a national level conference in October – which I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I only need to speak and not write a paper also for.
But academic writing is one thing that I can manage. Now, preparing the requisite Powerpoint presentations are a different matter, and involving a skill I’ve yet to master. I look at Ling’s teaching slides and I always marvel how she creates all those interesting animation effects. Mine are just drab by comparison!
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