Just a quick update about what’s been going on lately at the ‘A Happy PhD’ headquarters. Expect a change of pace in the next weeks: shorter, more regular posts, our new ‘Twitter Tuesdays’, and much more!

Shorter, more regular posts

As I mentioned back in the best of 2019 post, some of you have commented that the blog posts tend to be a bit on the lengthy side, and that you are all a busy bunch (and who’s not busy in research these days?). Since I am a keen proponent of clearer, briefer writing as the way to go if you want to become a good scientific writer… it’s time I take a spoonful of my own medicine! I publicly pledge to make upcoming blog posts shorter and more regular. My goal is to post every Friday afternoon, and to keep them under 7 minutes’ read. As Blaise Pascal used to say, that will probably take more time to write, but I truly believe conciseness and clarity are worth the extra effort… and your hectic calendars will probably thank me for it.

Twitter Tuesdays

I’ve also been pondering about other ways to get the blog’s ideas out to a larger audience (or, rather, to a larger portion of the same current audience – PhD students and supervisors). Eventually, I’ve come out with the idea of “Twitter Tuesdays” (yes, after our occasional Monday Mantras): every Tuesday, I will publish a pithy summary of the ideas of the blog’s past posts, in under 140 characters. This is gonna be a nice challenge, a good writing exercise, and lots of fun, too. Thus, if you get a sudden burst of activity from our Twitter feed (or our Facebook page) on Tuesday afternoon… don’t be afraid. It is just a reminder of principles, maxims or ideas you might have forgotten I’d written about.

And, of course, re-tweet and re-share them if you think they can help others!

… and much more!

There are several other things that we’ve been preparing in the ‘A Happy PhD’ backstage: results from our very own research study on improving doctoral education, a host of new exciting post topics, new doctoral and supervisor workshop formats to spread the message about the problems we all face in doctoral education and supervision, and the initial solutions and useful patterns that we’re starting to find. However, some of these initiatives are not yet quite ready for the limelight.

Stay tuned! Follow ‘A Happy PhD’ on Twitter, on our Facebook page, add yourselves to our post announcements by email… or use good-ol’ RSS to stay informed when those get ready.

See you around the interwebs!

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