Help needed for our "my writing advice" group?
In this group of editors and proofreaders, we have many members who are certainly qualified to support our group for " my writing advice ".
I would be deeply grateful if anyone here can offer to try activating and building this group, as an assigned (publically recognised and appreciated) administrator/moderator.
I would also be grateful for comments here, in reply to this message, about the merits or demerits of:
(i) the title, "my writing advice" It is meant to give the group a more personal, friendly tone, but maybe this is lost on people who need writing advice. Are there better alternatives?
(ii) attempting to develop this group, given the growing number of academic writing education centres and websites around the world.
Personally, I would like to develop something in our own style, as part of the eclectic design and composition of our own network. This leads to my final question.
How can we add some flair and style to this network?!
I do what I can as sole creator and administrator, but a single voice is doubtless tedious for anyone who actually tries to follow what am doing and saying.
My intention in creating this network has, all along, been to create a platform where many voices can be heard.
On that note, let me say that my own Skype address is: cooperative.
If you use Skype, and find that I am online, you are welcome to give me a call and talk. I live in Japan. You can check the time difference on our page " What time is it? ". Or send me an email using the "Send message" function on my profile page, or by direct email: researchcooperative at gmail dot com.
Thanks,
Peter (Admin., Kyoto)
Dear Wendy,
Thanks for the suggestion, and encouragement.
So... now the group is simply called " Writing advice ", and is located under the Projects tab in the main menu. That is a good context, because it is also where I have pages set up to try and give support to particular publishers and journals.
Twittering is not my forte. I need to focus on the network itself, and hope that others will twitter on our behalf! I prefer sketching... though have little time for that too. Last week I attended a life drawing class for the first time in 30 years. Our model was a PhD student from Europe who had reading dyslexia in her teenage years, but is now a keen reader and good speaker:
Hello, Peter. I have given this all of 4 minutes thought -- not because I think it unworthy but because I am busy editing citations and footnotes and creating a bibliography for a PhD student with dyslexia (it is not only language difference that 'gets in the way' of success in academic writing). I think this is a great concept. The name is fine, but you might like to consider simply 'Writing Help' or 'Writing Advice'. ('My' reminds me of government departments attempting to be 'friendly' i.e. 'My Account'.) Growing the group is probably the biggest challenge. I think the Research Cooperative is a wonderful concept and deserves to be far more active. Perhaps making use of social media (e.g. Twitter) to spread the word may help?