Like many of my fellow academics, I feel the pressure of having to continuously write scholarly papers, present them at academic conferences, submit them for peer review and publish them in highly-ranked journals. I share the same responsibilities. The other month, I found myself arriving to campus and walking to my office while talking on the phone, holding the phone in one hand while signing administrative forms with the other. A few months back, I posted on Twitter how I actually had so much stuff to do on campus that I literally did not have one second to eat lunch. I share the same pressures, even though I am single. I can’t even begin to grapple with the challenges facing academic parents/students and those who need to engage in care work, on top of everything else they have.

I’m busy. Super busy. Enjoyably ultra-busy. But one thing I can’t justify is NOT reading, because I have so much work to do. The two things I do Every Single Day is read (at least one journal article, book chapter) and write (however many words, sentences, and paragraphs I can). I am tired of the trope that “the time we spend reading isn’t writing.”  I am, sometimes, guilty of spouting this fallacy myself.

To test this trope, last week I experimented with literally writing out of thin air. I sat down and started typing words related to specific papers I’m writing. I was able to crank out 3545 NEW words in 5 days, which is what it is — as I’ve said before, I’m not obsessed with word count. I will leave the discussion on producing new words, edited words, and revised words for another blog post. I wrote 2545 words without using a prompt to help me write. This process was PAINFUL. I did not allow myself any reading. I was simply supposed to WRITE. 


During this last week, I wrote stuff that was associated with several of my projects but aided by prompts, specifically articles or books I had already read, or that I was reading to prepare for my next dissertation chapter. This integration really facilitated my progress, which I’m measuring not by the number of words I’ve written so far, but by the fact that I have begun to really grapple with some rather challenging concepts in water conflict (such as the fact that cooperation isn’t necessarily the lack of conflict). It’s really important that we realize that reading is legitimate, and engaged reading (such as highlighting, scribbling on the margins, writing handwritten or typed notes about a journal article, book chapter, book, report, or even data table) is part of the writing process. Reading is INTEGRAL to the academic writing process.

To share another example: this morning, I woke up, got my coffee and spent 2 hours reading a few journal articles relating to this specific section of my dissertation chapter. Reading this article, highlighting key passages, finding relevant quotations, and writing (by hand) important ideas.  Doing this allowed me to find some key ideas that I think are relevant not only to the chapter I am preparing, but also to my greater research as a whole. Taking the time to really sit down, read, and engage deeply allowed me to create new ideas that I am sure will further my project and help us move forward, both conceptually and methodologically. 

In sum, the entire point of this blog post was to remind my fellow scholars (and myself) that reading is an integral part of writing, and that if we don’t read, and make time to read, we will probably not be able to situate our scholarship within the global scholarly literature. I know we are all busy, but if I may be so bold to suggest, I strongly believe we ought to make time to read at least one journal article or book chapter a day. I know this is tough. I spent 2 hours on this particular article, and I am 3 pages in. But, hey, that is okay and better than yesterday.