Goal for May 31--start reading the latest issue of the journal that will publish my article that features topic related to mine so I can update the theoretical discussion. 


What I did today: I read the intro, a section of short essays and part of the lead article in the journal.  Most of my time though I spent re-reading (and editing) my article (I hadn't looked at it in over seven months) to see where this added discussion would go--mostly at the end of the article, I realized.  Tomorrow I will read some more of the journal.  There is also a special issue of another journal I need to read (I read the articles, but in draft form), as well as FB group discussions of translingualism and second language writing.  But I have two weeks :-)




Goal for June 1: Make a bigger dent in reading the special issue of the journal on globalization and writing and underline and annotate passages and ideas that could be included in my final discussion.
What I did today:  I found some really good ideas and quotes to use in the article and highlighted and annotated them. I enjoyed what I read today more than yesterday because it was less theoretical and more practical.  I still need the rest of the week to finish all the articles though.
Goal for June 2:  To read some more of the journal and to work on somewhat urgent administrative matters (e.g. a peer review of a colleague)
What I did today: I read some more useful articles and also knocked some of the administrative matters off my list.
Goals for June 3: Keep reading; get in touch with some major players in the debate; order books on it.
What I did; Exactly that and some administrative work.  On Monday I'll be able to start (re)reading a special issue of another journal on the topic.




Goal for June 6:  Over the weekend I finished the first journal and started re-reading the second one.  Today I will go back over my annotations and assess which would be the most usable.  I will also look at that issue of the journal that I printed out in draft form to see what I had annotated and to look up in the published version if they are the same for quoting and paraphrasing.


What I did:  I created a file on usable ideas and quotes.  I am just about ready to revise my discussion in the article tomorrow, which I'll do after I read the latest FB discussion from the transnational/translingual group.  I also need to hear from more major players in the controversy--via email and FB, but that is beyond my control. 


Goal for June 7: to group the ideas and quotes from my sources and start revising the discussion. If I finish or get bogged down, there are a couple of technical issues I need to take care of--a footnote I need to make manually and don't know how to do it, and checking a citation.


What I did:  I revised the discussion (easier because of my groundwork making a file) and took care of the technical issues.  I bolded what I added and will read it again tomorrow to see if it "flows."






Goals for June 8: To check my file to see if there were other ideas I needed to add and edit.
What I did: Just that and some major players on my side of the controversy got back to me and I asked if they would read the bolded sections that were my challenges to translingualism.  Deb asked if another scholar (Chris, a super-star) could be added to the discussion and I said, Of course.  I told Todd that a student of mine had written the review of his book in that journal and he wrote back that he appreciated the time she took and that she did a good job. I'm hoping soon I will get the go-ahead to send the document to them.  They would be the best ever audience and feedback-givers.  That will motivate me to edit one more time.


As a reward for almost finishing revising my article,  I read through last year's travel Ecuador travel journal (writing almost every day about my 3 weeks in Quito, the Gallapagos, and the jungle, one week in each place) to look for possible essay topics and themes.   It's hard because the Quito and jungle phases were intensely interpersonal and I wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings if the essay is published and the other "characters"  read it.  Upon first reading of the journal a year later, the centers of gravity were:


1) in Quito, finding out that the second week's workshop for the academic research arm of the Ecuadorian government, for which I was supposed to be paid, was cancelled when I had agreed to do the first week's one for free thinking I'd get paid for the second (and a plane ticket,  a place to stay, and two evenings of entertainment).  Feeling guilty that I indicated to my Ecuadorian colleague who had invited me to the first that I wouldn't have agreed to it if I had known the second wasn't going to happen.   Instead of wallowing in disappointment though, I booked a flight to the Galapagos.


2)  in the Galapagos, being so physically challenged by hikes, the sun, even the swimming that I had the idea to write something like The Old Gringo/a's Guide to Latin America.


3) in Tena, the-gateway-to-the-jungle city, hanging out with my granddaughter and her cousins and experiencing their strange behavior toward me: they were literally persecuting and disobeying me for fun; my granddaughter's then rejected me for reasons I'm still trying to figure out.  It was hard not to wallow in disappointment over that.


What would any of these experiences mean to an audience? What do they even mean to me?  I guess I could start writing and find out.  I should choose one (probably the aging traveler one) as a response to the weekend Summer Writers' Festival workshop where we will be using 800-word NY Times Magazine essays in the Lives section as models.  Many NY Times readers are aging travelers.


 The other, probably the more personal one about my granddaughter and her cousins and their disrespectful and mean behavior towards me,  I could choose for an exploratory essay.  The danger is that it is hard to write non-trivially or non sentimentally about a child in the way that an audience wouldn't dismiss by saying, "Well, what did the author expect?  Her granddaughter is just a child."  Another danger is staging a self-pity party that would be off-putting to readers.  A third is coming off as a privileged and intolerant Northerner;  I would want to describe the setting (my daughter in law's family and their house as well as their lagoon resort) in more detail, but not in such a way that the details about a large family and ramshackle house sound like they were chosen by an ugly American.  I think for the remaining two days I will work on this essay since I can do the Lives essay during the weekend workshop. 


Goals for June 9: Edit and send to colleagues my revised essay.  Start the Ecuador essay.
What I did: Accomplished


Goals for June 10: Continue writing the Ecuador essay.
What I did: Accomplished, it's about 5 pages long, but I'm not sure what the center of gravity or theme are yet.  Also, it lacks dialogue and scenic development, but I think that will come later after I get everything down that I want.


Goals for next week when Writing Center officially opens:
Try to finish a down and dirty draft of the Ecuador essay.
Look at colleagues' feedback on language learning article and implement what I think will work.
Over weekend I should look at Paul's article and Juan's book, as they may be additional sources.