Writing Progress?

For better or worse, my previous post has put publications on my mind in a major way. Over the past few weeks, I've started peeking at the dissertation--thinking about which chapters I want to turn into articles and which I want to revise for the book. Chapter Seven (the last case study) was pulled out last month for a conference paper. It is the least like any of the other chapters in the project. I hope it is selected for Major Conference--it is a "fun" piece and is really different from most of the work that I do. I know it needs more work before publication and because that work is mostly theoretical in nature, I'm just not ready to tackle it yet.

I've decided Chapter Six is the other chapter that would make for a good independent piece. Methodologically speaking, it is more in line with the type of work that I am most comfortable doing--it relies more heavily on textual criticism than it does theory. However, it is definitely more contemporary and most of my work. Chapter Six is also the "oldest" piece in my dissertation--the first version of it evolved not too long after 9/11. As a chapter, it probably represents some of my best writing in the dissertation, so on that front, it does not need a lot of polishing for publication. However, it does need updating since the political issues it covers have expanded and changed in important ways since the midterm elections. Most importantly, the chapter needs cutting.

So for the past few hours, instead of grading, I've been cutting Chapter Six. Almost all of the biographical/historical context has been cut out (or at least relocated to a separate document for the time being). I've also removed all references to my own framework that tied my dissertation together. This was necessary, but means that I need to rebuild this essay to demonstrate how the text I analyze is an important alternative to dominant political discourse at this moment. I've also started some of the work of updating this piece by researching the latest newspaper/scholarly sources on my subject. In doing so, I had a small epiphany--this text completely subverts conventional wisdom in our field on two genres of rhetoric. Therefore, I need to spend some more time talking about those two genres in this essay. I think that will go a long way to replace the pages I just cut out and to directly engage in a number of "ongoing scholarly conversations." I feel good about the new recent development of this essay and much better about my use of my Monday writing day.

Ok, I really need to grade now (hopefully writing that down will make it happen soon). Moments like this (when I finally get something going on my writing and feel a little excited about it) give me . . . well just gives me a lot to think about for future career developments.