I am glad to have had another thoughtful conversation with all of you last night, and I am very pleased with the progress you are making thus far. As we covered “shout outs” based on your blog “progress reports,” it is evident to all that each of you is now well on their way….forging your own ground in a unique/individual process. At this stage, it is more clear that each of you is pursuing a customized approach to the discovery of material and readings of influence. You should all be more deeply engaged in the ebb and flow of your own writing and research at this point.

In addition, I am also glad we took the time to do some active listening with the Structured Dialogues protocol. I want you all to keep considering the significance of learning from each other as we move forward, especially as we continue our presentation cycle, because so much of the inbuilt accountability comes from our small group dynamic. Overall, peer feedback and active listening are critical to all of you.

Our class slides:

Thank you to Kerri for an inspiring presentation. It is clear that your project is indeed a trailblazer (in the sense of combining a familiar genre — fantasy, magic – with a topic that is seldom consider in such depth – grief (and the rituals we struggle with to address human grief). Your readings (thus far for your Lit Review) are a strong compliment to what you are setting out to achieve with this project. (I recommend again The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion as another text to add). Your own reading of Chapter Two of Memento Mori was a wonderful “taster” and our first group foray into your powerful world-building and rich imagination. Melia is an enigmatic protagonist and we all look forward to discovering the rest of this story with you.

Your to do list:

Next week Theresa will take her turn in our presentation series. Remember we are meeting online, and I will provide you with that zoom link via email. We will also discuss organizational strategies you are developing.

**Remember to blog your individual progress. Please highlight new discoveries, the organizational methods you are developing, and report out where you are on your Lit Review process.  

Enjoy another week in the autumn sunlight!

It was good to connect last night as you all try to build some thesis momentum now. I am glad we discussed the Literature Review process, and that you now understand how to approach this element of your overall MA thesis work. Building and revising your Lit Review will be a work-in-progress from here on in.

Your literature review process for your MA in Writing Studies degree will inherently be recursive. That means you will be constantly updating, revising, and ultimately transforming this “live” document over the course of your thesis development (both semesters). I presented the “funnel concept” for all of you to consider when thinking about how you engage in overall research while narrowing your scope and focus over time. Most of you are in the “purple phase” of research at this stage, but as we move forward, you will have a clearer sense of what material is superfluous, and what material is central to your own research.

Class agenda slides:

Thanks to Valerie for kicking off our “Thesis Presentation Series”. Although it is still early in the overall development process, Valerie was able to share her new framework concepts for her project – “the frozen storyteller” and the eventual growth into a “freedom writer”. These concepts are compelling and exciting pillars to her thesis, and I believe the group was able to offer some good notes/feedback and “food for thought” as Valerie further considers how this project will shape up. What is the clear pathway from “frozen writer” to “freedom writer”? How will she map this evolution out?  What might this journey entail in terms of transformation and process? What emotions, steps, corrections, and practices are entailed in realizing “freedom” when earlier experiencing “frozenness”? And what role will her own memoir work play in mapping out this dynamic? I believe these foundational questions will help shape her forthcoming research/reading for sure.

By now you should be all be in reading and research mode, taking notes mode, and perhaps you are also discovery mode with your own personal writing. Remember that moving forward, you will have regular opportunity to work together in a peer-feedback format, and you will also have periodic invitations to read your work-in-progress to each other, in order to refine certain evolving concerns and/or questions. Therefore, each week you should be collecting/organizing your work as it unfolds, so that you have easy access and recall as the work manifests and grows exponentially. The overall accumulation of thesis materials and artifacts will require certain organization that you should be mindful of – from the start. Be sure to keep things organized in a way that makes sense for you – there should be folders, notes, and systems (digital and hardcopy) that keep track of everything for you as your process unfolds over time.

To-do list:

Next week on 10/9, Kerri will present her work thesis thus far. You will also have some peer work to help consider your on-going progress with this project.

-As always, please blog on your thesis progress.  Report out on how the Lit Review process is working for you in its early stages. What materials have you gathered? What materials have you actually read? What kind of note taking process are you engaging in? What have you eliminated in your accumulation of research?

See you next week!

Exploring SCRLA

Safe to say our visit to SCRLA – the Special Collections Research & Library Archives (SCRLA) was a successful field trip. Part treasure-hunt, part “memory lane”, our brief exploration of the holdings opened up our imaginations together. I appreciate your engagement and enthusiasm last night as we explored artifacts and documents of our shared past. As you now know, archival sources can be manuscripts, documents, records (including electronic records), images, artifacts, recorded sound or moving images, or other materials. Archival data can provide access to material and voices that are hidden or missing from the established sense of history, opening up a rich and diverse range of information that may not be available elsewhere.

What is held in the archives can become “hidden treasures” – portals that provide a glimpse into a complex past. There is so much research opportunity, and hopefully our archival glimpse has inspired you all as writers. Kean’s “SCRLA” plays a crucial role in preserving our collective Kean memory, while fostering knowledge and appreciation of our shared local/regional/national/global history. What might be in store for us in terms of contributing to the Digital Commons? I look forward to providing artifacts for the collection that represent the curricular contributions and scholarship that has been produced by the MA in English, Writing Studies program and community.

Slides meant for last night:

For next week:

Next week we will pick up where we left off.

We will review the “Lit Review Guidelines”, we will kick off the Presentation Series w/Valerie, and we will do some Conferencing (if time permits).

• Make sure you devote at least 5 hours of time to thinking and working on your thesis.  Are you generating new ideas through reflective writing?  Start to think about what kind of research is necessary to deepen your ideas for this thesis project? What steps/processes must you take to start the development of your thesis “Lit Review”?
• Please blog about your thesis process this week, including an update regarding of the research component of your thesis. How is this starting to share up for you? What kind of reading do you think you need to be doing in tandem with your early exploration of emerging ideas?

See you in CAS 406 next week!

I am glad we took a bit of time to check in this week, and it was a pleasure to imagine our different ideal writing spaces together. What’s the Ideal writing environment? Some people mentioned the importance of light, either dim or bright, some mentioned the time of day or night. Some like nature; some like solitude; some need familiar/intimate space while others prefer unfamiliar/public space. Some mentioned the level of relative ease (cozy spaces) while others do well with formality (more structured and formal) – we all have our own unique way of leaning into our most “writerly” self.

Where we write can make a huge difference to what we write, how we write, and even how we feel about the finished product. It’s a part of the writing process that’s often overlooked but plays an imperative part in every stage. But the key thing to remember – there’s no right or wrong place to write. We all have our sense of the environments that make us feel comfortable or uncomfortable to commit our ideas. To be honest, different people’s writing processes always fascinate me. What I discover in each of your stories is a small bit of what makes you-as-a-writer ‘tick’. Please note: **this is important for YOU to know about YOURSELF. So remember to make the adjustments necessary to find your way into the most conducive writing environments you can as you work on this thesis project.

On a related note, I want to remind you that it is also critical as a writer to understand your own energy levels, and the things that help you replenish surge capacity, and the things that are really taking a toll. There is ebb in flow in life, and ebb and flow in writing. Be mindful of this in order to be successful in the big picture sense. Remember to “check your battery”.

Here are our agenda slides from class:

It was a great conversation last night regarding your initial thoughts for your work. I am so glad we did the check in regarding each of your burgeoning projects. Each of you now has a sense of where your peers are headed, and remember, the blogs are your weekly update to keep each other abreast of your progress.

**Please remember our “campus field trip” next week for class. Go directly to the Liberty Hall Academic Center where we will convene at the Special Collections Research Library Archives at 4:30pm. LHAC is located on the east side of campus adjacent to the Liberty Hall Museum.

Now that you have an idea of the Thesis Presentation protocol, I look forward to kicking off the presentation series the week after our field trip with Valerie. And next week, I will be sure to check in with Valerie, Kerri, Giselle and Erik directly while all of you connect in small groups to discuss your on-going process through the “Structured Dialogues” protocol (see slides above).

What are all of you currently working on for the next several weeks? The majority of you are in the “discovery and invention” phase of this process. This means you are still brainstorming/exploring/researching in the more generalized sense. With the exception of Erik & Giselle (who are aware of what they need to be doing at this stage) the rest of you are really in earlier stages of thesis development, and I have directed you to think about developing a proposal document while continuing to discover your project overall.

So said another way, you can always be working on early drafting of your proposal while you further identify and develop your work through brainstorming/reading/researching/exploring. This ongoing process of articulating your thesis proposal will help you in starting to map your thesis project effectively. Think of your ongoing drafting of the proposal as the anchor to your exploration work.

Each of you should have an idea about what would be productive for you to accomplish this week. I think your blog should articulate a goal (what will I get accomplished this week for thesis), and the blog should also report out on how that is actually going, and what parts of that goal setting have you been able to accomplish. Remember – your weekly blog is a self-assessment/progress report to the thesis community. It helps keep you accountable and reflective about what is working or not working.

Have a restful weekend. I will see you all next Wednesday!

It was great to check in again yesterday and get this proverbial ball rolling. I am pleased we continued our early thesis time together with a “Spiral Journal” protocol to help sharpen your perception about the development of your MA thesis work.

As mentioned in class, please remember the importance of the Library aka the Kean University Learning Commons in terms of resources for developing your thesis. We will connect with Craig Anderson on 10/23 for an in person workshop. Craig is one of Kean’s excellent reference librarians, and we will participate in his workshop geared towards MA students doing research. You will be reminded about how to search the vast resources at your fingertips, which is most certainly an important step for your MA thesis work. I hope you will try a few other workshops there in the future that might be supportive, and also get to know a librarian or two at Kean, while you work on your thesis overall.

Here are the agenda slides from last class:

After settling the presentation calendar together, we also discussed the concept of an Early Proposal. Hopefully this helps you start to narrow the focus at the start of your formal journey with this big project. Please remember to write your first blog, after engaging in some free-writing, mind mapping, and some possible reading/research. Generate lists, and start your own process of discovery and invention.

I will see you next week in class!

Welcome again to “the embarkation” of your MA thesis experience. I am glad we have all connected again for this Fall semester of ENG 5698. We are truly “underway” now. Moving forward, I hope you will think of “Thesis Class” as a special “accountability community” – a supportive writing group dedicated to co-learning and peer support, helping you refine your own development of a significant writing project.

As we embark on this process, we are setting the tone with weekly connection and check-in-style discussions. You will all be at different “places” during the thesis experience, of course, and each of you will bring different perspectives and concerns. Thesis time together is a unique opportunity. It is a special chance in your life to have a close community of like-minded writers working with you and alongside you, in tandem. Although your work might be different, the process you are all experiencing is shared.

Here are the slides from last class for your reference:

With the exception of Erik & Giselle, each of you is starting the process of “discovery and invention” at this stage. Some of you have a clear notion of what you would like to do, and you might even have some elements “in the can.” But you are all still apprehending certain dimensions of your MA thesis (more conversation on this to come next week).

***Please remember, each of you will learn a great deal from considering each other’s evolving work. The peer support approach for thesis development will rely heavily on the feedback you offer, as well as the feedback you receive. It is critical to keep in mind the significance of both roles you play in this class – writer AND reader, author AND editor. Your own growth as a thinker and creator relies on both sides of this equation. Consider each of the roles with equal measure.

I look really look forward to “jump-starting” our collective work together next week.

For our Next Meeting

• Submit to this form your blog URL
• Your first introductory post: Include an update about you, how was the summer?  What thought do you have at this stage regarding your thesis?

See you then,

Dr. Zamora

Welcome back everyone!

We are now setting off on a challenging journey together. I am happy with this Fall 2024 group in particular, because you will all benefit from a diverse group of fellow writers and peers – a previously established community of support for your MA thesis development. Please remember how invaluable (and rare) having a writing community is. Your time together will be a blessing for all of you.

A couple words of wisdom at the precipice of our journey together:

Writing a thesis is not easy. There are many twists and turns in the road, roadblocks do come up, and there are unforeseen landscapes that cannot be imagined until you cover ground and truly travel. That said, the more time you have on the road, the more of a chance you will have to discover. I have no doubt that each of you will eventually “arrive” at the place of your own design. A place of insight and learning. A place where perhaps the outcomes were not the ones you originally anticipated.

I look forward to working with each of you as you set a course and cover some significant ground on your own terms as you develop your culminating project for your Masters of Arts in Writing Studies degree. I am here to provide suggestions, feedback, resources, and insight; to prompt you to refine your thinking, deepen your research, and take your work to another level. Sometimes you surge forth in the process and cover good distance “on the road” due to insightful feedback during a conversation. And sometimes you surge forth due to extended sessions of engaged independent reading & research. Oftentimes, inspiration hits at the most unlikely times. I hope you will experience all of this.

The MA in Writing Studies @KeanUniversity is inherently a “customizable” degree, and I encourage each of you to follow a course for which you feel a spark of commitment and passion. I also encourage you to take risks in pursuing forms of learning that matter to you personally. In my own experience, this is the place from which meaningful transformation is born. And if you are going to work hard at something, why not make it both meaningful and transformative?

Your peer learning process and our sense of community will continue to be significant, and I hope you will lean on each other for both accountability and self-reflection. That is the inherent design of this seminar class. We will also use our time as a group to enhance and augment the asynchronous/autonomous work that you will shape throughout the two semesters of your work on this project. Our website here will serve to organize some shared resources for supporting your writing process while connecting our learning. It is also a showcase of your (in-progress) work for the year.

Sincerely,

Dr. Zamora