Goals for Friday, June 7, the last day of dissertation camp.
Now that I've got the travel-language learning-identity essay out to readers for feedback, get back into our collaborative survey study.  Read over what I wrote at the last camp--the first 2 sections and look at our data and start to analyze it.  Collaborate on the analysis with Deirdre and Sidney.

Goals for Thursday, June 7:
Finish editing and send it to first reader.


Assessment of goals:
I finished editing (for the time being), sent it to my first reader and to my brother and sister.

Goals for Wednesday, June 6:
Edit the ms for smoothness and coherence; work on the ending


Assessment of Goals:
I now have another version that I also edited on paper.  I will implement the changes, probably make more changes, and send it out to my first reader (a Venezuelan of Italian ancestry who is my Italian conversation partner).  Next week I will send it to another Sicilian American heritage travel writer, who lives in Michigan, whom I met at a writer's camp and we became friends.  I also might send it to my brother and sister.

Assessment of goals for June 5:
I finished an entire draft--it's over 4000 words and 12 pages, but I'm not happy with the conclusion, with the sustained conveyance of the tradition/experience theme, and parts of it are clunky and perhaps superfluous.


Goals for June 5:
Work on the above issues of conclusion and theme, as well as on awkwardness and relevance of details and events.  Read it over out loud (in my office) to make edits.


Assessment of goals for June 5:

Goals for June 4.
Finish a draft.  Try not to get too bogged down in editing what you wrote last week because then you won't finish the entire story.

Assessment of Friday's goals:  It's now over 2400 words, so I met my goal to double the length.   I didn't finish it, but I edited and added to what I had and then continued the story. I'll try to finish a draft today.

Goal for June 1:
My goal is to write about another 1000 words toward finishing the essay.  I might need Monday to finish it.

Assessment of today's goals:  I wrote 1200 words toward a draft of a heritage course-travel essay that might be appropriate for VIA.  I will probably write another 1200 words to finish it (dealing with the "incident" or the climax) before I try to shape and prune it. I'll probably need another couple of days of writing and revising before I set it aside for a while.


Last night, one of our research partners sent us some survey results, so I'll be ready to analyze them and write up the analyses next week.

Assessment of Goals for Wednesday, May 30:


It seems that Voices in Italian Americana would be a good venue for my essay because they have a call for both academic and creative work on the theme of tradition vs. experience, which would enable me to use my Italian course journal and also my Sicily travel experience journal and juxtapose their respective contents. I would represent the trip (and the course) as heritage journeys.  I talked over my trip and my plans for the essay with my Italian teacher and colleague.


Goals for Thursday, May 31:


To start the essay (write at least a page) introducing my relationship with my heritage and the course and trip as heritage journeys.

Goal for Wednesday, May 30.


I'd like to sketch out options for organizing my travel essay about visiting Sicily as a Sicilian American.  First I want to see if an academic and creative journal, Voices in Italian Americana, where I published another travel essay about Italy, is still publishing and if so, whether it still publishes creative work. 

Assessment of Goals: I found 4 places to send my Ecuador essay and sent it to them. I also proofread the essay again and changed the font for one of the places, plus wrote a short message and bio for each lit journal.  The magazines are: Leaping Clear, Two Hawks Quarterly, Orion, and Juked.  I had time remaining and a book I ordered about Sicily had come in, so I started reading it to prepare to write my Sicily essay.

Goal for today, May 29:


Find at least 2 new places for Ecuador essay and send it out.

Welcome to Summer 2018 Dissertation Camp! I'm looking forward to working with you.   I've been a prof. in the Rhetoric Dept and a Writing Center director for 28 (!) years.  In my recent research I've been using writing center data, as well as my own second language learning experiences to illustrate and explore concepts in second language writing and more recently second language acquisition.  I also write creatively, especially about travel, and teach a travel writing course every fall as a first-year seminar.


In this Dissertation Camp, I'll be working on a combination of academic and creative projects.


1) Finishing the draft of an article that analyzes survey results about second language writers' perceptions of their second language writing development.


2) Starting a draft of a travel essay about a recent "heritage trip" to Sicily focusing on when I used what I had learned in a spring Italian course to problem solve and get out of jams.


3) I will continue to send out a travel essay about a frequent bus trip I take in Ecuador from the mountains to the jungle.