Day 5 - 322 -- Pen and paper or Keyboard and screen?

Writing. Many of us do this in one way or another -- notes on a fridge, shopping lists, e-mails or even a real letter or postcard. For some people, writing is a required part of the job. It might involve project proposals, evaluation reports, or published books or articles. Today I was immersing myself in the writing world, working with a colleague to get the ideas and thoughts we'd discussed into a file in some logical fashion. The goal of knowledge translation involves sharing research or practice findings. Once published these become available for anyone to read to inform their future work. Not only is publication required for academics, it also is part of ethical research practice. Findings of studies should be shared whether they were as expected or not. All parts of findings should be shared.

Finding the time to devote to the writing process can be tricky. We each write in somewhat different ways. I need to focus for an extended period to work through ideas. Others may find short spurts of writing work best of them. Understanding one's writing persona will help minimize angst and disappointment when deadlines aren't met as planned. We write the way our brains work, so doing it differently may create a disturbance in the force. <smile> So, this week, I have set aside with a colleague to focus on the larger chunks of time I need to complete the writing tasks before me. A very rough draft of an intro and background were spewed out today. There is a lot -- like a lot - of polishing to do, but major points have been typed into and e-file, transported to the printer, and now lie on paper awaiting my edits. See it on paper is so different than on screen. I can edit with either, but find better composition occurs with paper edits. Perhaps that happens since I feel I can 'see' the thing as a whole without the need to scroll up and down and back and forth. Maybe not. I just know it works for me.

A song title came to mind when thinking through the productive part of the day. I was reminded of  the line, "Folks will be reading ehse words long after we're gone," which made me giggle. I like the video shared here. It shows that fantastic smile in all its glory. Enjoy!

Write This Down -- George Strait