Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Real Reason Research Doesn't Get Done

Do you want to know the real reason why people end up doing a lot more teaching and service than research? I've been sitting here, struggling with two sentences from the first paragraph of my article since 9 am. And I still don't like them. 

The temptation just to leave the whole thing aside and go grade some papers, plan classes, create the next mini-quiz, answer emails or prepare for a departmental meeting next week is definitely there. It would be so much easier to postpone revising the article and then blame the administrators, the colleagues, the students, the husband, the weather, or the "effectively gendered" research. Unless we recognize that we don't do as much research as we would like to for the simple reason that it's very very hard, we will not be able to move ahead and find actual solutions for the issue.

P.S. Sorry for the stupid alliteration in the post's title. I can only concentrate on making the article more or less stylistically acceptable for the moment. The posts will have to stay the way they are.

P.P.S. Finished the pesky sentences that had been giving me trouble since morning. Went to get a glass of pomegranate juice to celebrate. Drank the juice, came back, reread the sentences, and realized that they are crap. Back to rewriting the sentences.

1 comment:

Pagan Topologist said...

Taking a break, whether for Pomegranate Juice or for planning classes is an excellent part of the process.