Blog Articles 6–10

Late Work

A white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and looking at his pocket-watch, running late. From Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland.
White Rabbit from The Nursery Alice, illustrated by John Tenniel.

As long as I have been teaching, I’ve used a “late day” policy in most of my classes. I designed this policy after learning about universal course design while taking Preparing Future Faculty at the University of Minnesota, but I don’t think I’ve ever publicly written down the motivations and design of this policy. So here you go!

Academic Portfolios

A stack of files.
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

A few years ago, early in my first faculty position, I wrote about how I tracked academic work. I still implement the core ideas of that piece, but most of the details have changed; I thought now, after working on my first annual review after applying for tenure, would be a good time to write an update.


What Is a Dissertation?

A loose manuscript.
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

If we can aggressively simplify for a moment, earning a Ph.D has three primary components:

  • Do research.
  • Write it up in a dissertation.
  • Convince a committee of faculty that what you’ve done and presented is worthy of a research-based terminal academic degree.

There are some other things in each program, such as courses and qualifiers, but this is the heart of what earns the degree.