Jensen - Write no matter what: advice for academics

The University of Tulsa has given me the institutional support I needed to create and direct the TU Faculty Writing Program. In particular, I want to thank Denise Dutton, director of the Henneke Center for Academic Fulfillment, for her encouragement, advice, and administrative skills, as well as Provost Roger Blais, Dean Kalpana Misra, Lauren Wagner, and Janet Cairns.

My departmental colleagues Mark Brewin, John Coward, and Ben Peters have graciously accepted my increasing commitment to faculty writing, and Bens enthusiasm for this project has been particularly encouraging.

The seeds of this book go way back. I thank the graduate students I worked with in the Radio-TV-Film Department at the University of Texas, as well as undergraduate students in the TU Honors Program, for sharing their writing struggles with me. This book began thanks to a passing remark from historian Ed Linenthal, visiting from Indiana University. He told me I should turn a class handout called Myths We Stall By into a book. Never underestimate the power of an encouraging word.

I have received many encouraging words during the writing of this book. In particular I want to thank my TU colleagues Jennifer Airey, Susan Chase, Lynn Clutter, Lars Engle, Eduardo Faingold, Randy Fuller, Al Harkness, Brian Hosmer, Jennie Ikuta, Holly Laird, Peggy Lisenbee, Lee Anne Nichols, Kristen Oertel, Kirsten Olds, Teresa Valero, Kate Waits, and Helen Zhang for their support, along with the TU colleagues I consulted with in confidence. Outside of TU, Rabbi Marc Boone Fitzerman, CSU Writes! founder Kristina Quynn, Ray Blanton, Karen Christensen, David D. Perlmutter, and Sue Redwood have offered valued encouragement.

Thanks also go to Vitae, the Chronicle of Higher Educations online career hub, especially to editor Gabriela Montell, for the chance to circulate some of these ideas in essay form.

The University of Chicago Press has been an ideal home for this project. It has been gratifying to work with editors David Morrow and Mary Laur, along with editorial associate Susan Zakin, manuscript editor Ruth Goring, production controller Skye Agnew, designer Kevin Quach, and promotions manager Lauren Salas.

I am grateful to have grown up in a family that values scholarly writing. I thank my mother, Janet Kepner Jensen, for her lifetime of support. As this book took shape, I was especially buoyed by my brother Michael Jensens insights on academic publishing and my brother David Jensens insights on writing in the sciences. This book is dedicated to the memory of our father, Donald D. Jensen, who inspired all of us and encouraged me to find ways around writing obstacles.

Finally, I am deeply grateful for the love (and copyediting) of my husband, Craig Walter, and our sons Charlie Walter and Tom Walter. They continue to encourage me, even though I sometimes shut the door on them (at least for a few hours a day) in order to write.

Readers are invited to visit my webpage: jolijensen.com.