The Role of Research and Writing in Career Advancement Carmel Parker White, Ph.D. Kansas State University

Purpose This workshop will help you understand the importance of research and writing in your career.

Question What are your individual career plans?

The Development of a Taxonomy of Career Competences for Professional Women Hackett, Betz, & Doty (1985)

Method and Procedure 50 female faculty members from a variety of disciplines Midwestern university Hour-long, semi-structured critical incidents interview Summarize career development, degree of success in field, and one or more critical incidents that were important to career development

Taxonomy of Skills Communication SkillsCareer Advancement Skills Interpersonal SkillsJob-Specific Skills Political SkillsAdaptive-Cognitive Skills Administrative and Leadership Skills Career Management Skills

Career Performance Skills In a self-assessment of career performance of family studies faculty, Bradbard et al. (1997) found that three subscales were most consistently related to achievement: – Job-Specific Skills – Administrative and Leadership Skills – Adaptive-Cognitive Skills

Job-Specific Skills Finding and giving career-support toward self or others Knowledge of subject matter Other area-specific skills (e.g., clinical skills) Teaching skill Advising skills Technical writing skills Research methodology knowledge Computer and statistical skills Knowledge of publication process Ability to generate innovative ideas Knowledge of funding sources

Apply these Skills to Your Future Technical Writing Skills Research Methodology Knowledge Computer and Statistical Skills Knowledge of Publication Process Ability to Generate Innovative Ideas Knowledge of Funding Sources

Underlying Attributes to Develop as an Undergraduate or in Graduate/Professional School Passion towards Learning Curiosity and Wonder Self-Motivation to Overcome own Inertia and other Obstacles

Underlying Knowledge or Skills to Develop as an Undergraduate or in Graduate/Professional School Active Learning Critical Thinking – Essential intellectual traits

Knowledge and Skills (cont.) Research Skills – Take a research methods course – Take a statistics course and learn statistical computing – Work with a research project (volunteer, for credit, or for pay) – Talk with faculty about their research interests and projects – Appreciate the time and attention to detail that conducting good research takes – Conduct an honors thesis or research project: Start early

Selecting Research Ideas (Benson & Piercy, 1997) TheoryConstructsMethodSample Questions/ Hypotheses ConclusionsFindingsAnalyses

Knowledge and Skills (cont.) Writing Skills – Write frequently with a specific purpose in mind or for a specific audience – Embrace the notion that all writing is revising – Obtain editing experience – Publish your work Masthead and example article Electronic journals Special issues Select an appropriate journal Journal article format Journal submission process

Free-writing Exercise: Talking on Paper (Saltzman, 1993) For the next two minutes, start talking on paper. Whatever is in your head, write it down. It does not have to be brilliant, or clever, or even make any sense. Your job is to simply keep talking on paper, having the freedom to go blah, blah, blah with no expectations for the final result. Your only goal here is to keep your hand moving as quickly as possible, to keep throwing words on the page, no matter what. Remember: Dont even think of it as writing. Think of it as talking on paper.

Personal Benefits of Research and Writing (Erickson, 2001) Career Connections Depth of Content Knowledge Personal Motivation Financial Reward Academic Credit Relationships with Faculty

Personal Benefits (cont.) Team Work Writing and Presentation Skills Published Research Self-confidence

Examples from My Career Evaluation Theme – Pregnancy prevention review publication and invited APA presentation – Grant evaluating child abuse prevention programs – Grant evaluating use of technology by teachers – Teaching a graduate level Program Evaluation course

References Benson, M. J., & Piercy, K. W. (1997). Multiple approaches to developing research: A flexible framework for students and advisors. Family Science Review, 10, Bradbard, M. R., Endsley, R. C., Duke, H. (1998). Self-assessment of career performance in female and male human development and family studies faculty. Family Science Review, 11, Erickson, R. (2001). Why involve students in research? Paper presented at the Schreyer National Conference on Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education, University Park, PA. Hackett, G., Betz, N. E., & Doty, M. S. (1985). The development of a taxonomy of career competencies in professional women. Sex Roles, 12, Satzman, J. (1993). If you can talk, you can write. New York: Warner.