I recently had a conversation with a PhD student who is trying to find a thesis topic. I shared my own journey to finding my topic, as well as some bits of advice I’ve heard from others along the way. For what it’s worth, here are a few thoughts: Start broad and then focus. Ask,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Scholarship
SBL Releases Jobs Data from 2000-2010
The SBL has posted Jobs Data here. As you would suspect, the data reflect a sharp decrease in tenure-track hiring around 2008, around the same time as the global economic downturn. A few tidbits: In 2008 81.6% of positions listed were tenure track, but in 2009 51.1% were listed as tenure track and in 2010… Continue Reading
Great Words on Writing
Excerpts from Theodor W. Adorno, a great (but sometimes difficult) writer, Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life (Pages 85-87): A first precaution for writers: in every text, every piece, every paragraph to check whether the central motif stands out clearly enough. Anyone wishing to express something is so carried away by it that he ceases… Continue Reading
Words to Avoid: Substantial(ly)
Substantial and substantially are sometimes used in overestimations of supporting evidence for one’s thesis, idea, etc. “A substantial number of scholars have suggested that . . .” or “a substantial amount of evidence lends to . . .” or “substantial attention has been paid to . . .”. In a context in which “substantial” is unpacked,… Continue Reading
Biblical Studies Quote of the . . .
Most people don’t realize that their PhD thesis has already been written until they are two years into it. Anthony Le Donne via The Jesus Blog Continue Reading
Word(s) to Avoid: (un)doubt(edly)
Last week I gave a few reasons for avoiding the overuse of famous(ly) in writing. This week’s word(s) to avoid: no doubt, doubt, undoubtedly. I often read in scholarly writing something like, “This conclusion is no doubt . . . ” or “Scholar X is undoubtedly . . .” etc. To be fair, the sense… Continue Reading
Biblical Studies Quote of the Week
It is scarcely progress when one mode of Uberinterpretation is laid to rest, only to have others take its place. Richard J. Dillon, “Previewing Luke’s Project from his Prologue (Luke 1:1-4),” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 43.2 (April 1981): 207, fn 5. I might add that Dillon’s proposal for Luke’s composition from his thesis was a bit “Uber”… Continue Reading
Words I'll Avoid in Thesis Writing
I spent a great deal of the previous week reading and began to notice a few words and phrases that authors (especially biblical scholars) like to use, and in my opinion, abuse, by either overusing them or misusing them. So here starts a new series perhaps. Word(s) to Avoid: Famous(ly) The truth is that when… Continue Reading
Micron PIGMA Pens for Taking Notes
I was happy to find some Micron PIGMA pens for sale recently here in the UK. They are great for a variety of things. I could use them for all the writing I do, though because they are a bit costly (they are manufactured in Japan), I mainly use them to take notes in my… Continue Reading
Loving Scrivener
A while back I mentioned using Scrivener for writing a thesis. Thought I’d share a few more thoughts on what I’ve enjoyed about it this week: Organizing various docs for my thesis all in one .scriv file. Very powerful organization features. For example, I can attach pdf files of scholarly articles, nest various files on X… Continue Reading