A big decision

I've talked before about my efforts to get stuff together for the job market. (If you're not a comp/rhet person, then you may not know that the grand list of job openings was published on Friday.) After looking at that list, and taking a hard look at my progress on the diss and my other activities, I've decided not to go on the market this year.

I've been keeping my options open since this summer, getting the application materials together just in case I saw jobs that I felt I absolutely must apply for. But in reality, I need to get more work done on my dissertation before I can talk definitively about what I do in the project and what I have found.

Now that I've decided to take another year, I'm excited about what I can do in that time. Instead of cobbling together a makeshift dissertation in the next 7 months or so, I can take more time and do this well-- and submit an item or two for publication while I'm at it.

In the meantime, I am still writing. I will also be applying for fellowships. Rest assured that I am not resting on my laurels-- indeed, I am not even sure where my laurels are. But I'm planning on the RNF at CCCC in New Orleans-- maybe I'll find them there.


Cross posted at Intent/Effect.

Comp/rhet job market wiki

The wiki is here.

(I forget where I saw this link. Oops.)

Update: I saw it at The Blogora.

New to the Boot Camp, But Not to Dissertating

Hi everyone. I took up Billie's suggestion and decided that it would be helpful to post my progress and carouse with the other dissertating soldiers here. I'm in Rhet/Comp and have been developing a rhetorical theory focused on motivating people to intervene by applying psychological studies to rhetoric. Then I examine what this rhetorical theory means in three sites: an activist site, the site of writing for intervention, and the writing classroom.

I was lucky and got a really neat post-doc-type job for next year, so I have to hurry up and graduate in August. I've managed, actually, to turn in second drafts of all the chapters to my advisor. She's gotten me back three chapters, which I'll turn over to my readers this week. It's a crazy process. For a long time I was working and working and working and never feeling like I got anywhere. Then suddenly things were getting done.

My readers have very little time to turn things around. And I've been working crazily every day. In fact, the only reason I sound at all calm right now is that I am ready to send out my chapters to my readers, and my advisor hasn't gotten the other chapters back to me yet. So I'm actually in a lull. For the first time in ages, there's no reading or writing to be done. I could read for fun. I could write a poem. Of course, I'm watching TV. It feels luxurious. I can't wait until this is O-V-E-R.

Good to be here with the other PhreakeD out people!