Why grad schools should push public scholarship (opinion)

If you’ve ever attended graduate school, you probably have a list of things you wish your program had done better—or at least differently. Some of them may have been identifiable when you were there, while others might have become more apparent years later.

A case in point: It is only now, as a full professor, that I see how essential it is that graduate programs require that students publish at least one piece, preferably related to their research, in a respected national media outlet geared to a general audience. During my doctoral program, I had no way of knowing how important that can be. In fact, some people immediately bristle at this proposition, especially since it is so outside of the traditional configuration of how graduate school unfolds. Yet the merits are many, and I will explain seven key reasons why.

1. It’s essential to know how to successfully translate ideas for more general consumption. Anything worth researching and learning about is worth sharing and passing along in digestible ways so other people can gain insight and inspiration. And it’s the “Who cares?” factor that’s most important. Readers need and want—and deserve—to know why they should care about what you’re writing. They need to understand why it matters.

For example, how might your research on the water crisis impact public policy? Or, how might you make your expertise on tourism matter to both corporate executives to make the case for more responsible development and to average citizens who love to travel and want to do so more responsibly? Or, how does poetry impact people’s ability to read more effectively? Moreover, how does the overreliance on family caregivers affect physical and mental health as well as family dynamics?

2. Writing for a general audience will change what you write for the better. When you write for the larger public, you have to avoid jargon and communicate in a way that others can understand and appreciate without prior knowledge about your specific field. We must essentially communicate that way when we teach, and it is a valuable lesson to know how to do that in writing, too. Publishing in nonacademic outlets enhances your repertoire, versatility and fluency. Don’t be surprised that it helps you better express ideas when you teach, as well.
3. Writing for a national media outlet will reshape and improve your writing process and practice. Most outlets want pithy, snappy, substantive pieces that run between 600 and 1,000 words for a newspaper op-ed and about 1,000 to 1,500 for articles in magazines or other outlets. Learning how to write concise yet cogent pieces that are densely packed with key insights, richly nuanced and layered, and that invite readers to self-reflect can be deeply challenging yet also supremely rewarding.

When I was in college and graduate school, I had two terrible tendencies: I overwrote everything, and I procrastinated. Every paper I turned in was longer than it needed to be, and I was one of those annoying people who tested the boundaries of fonts and margins. A tyranny of perfectionism weighed heavily on me, and as I see it now, some of my waiting to the last minute was a warped way to deal with fear and impostor syndrome. If I didn’t do as well as I knew I could on something, I could attribute it to not devoting endless time to it. I know I’m certainly not alone as an academic who struggled with those two tendencies at one time or another. Procrastination and long-winded writing are basic love languages in academia. But they don’t serve us well.

Many years later, when I started to want to write for a much larger audience through the national media, those habits had to change. I got comfortable with the rhythms of writing in a way that’s more edited, that tells things more plainly yet, arguably, much more elegantly and creatively as well. And I now meet deadlines with far greater ease.

4. Submitting work to a national media outlet is good practice for developing a thick skin. In order to maintain writing and publishing momentum, you must be able to deal with rejection and criticism. When you submit an article for publication to a popular media outlet and it wants to publish it, someone there might get back to you in as little as a few hours or within a few weeks. It’s generally a far more streamlined process than submitting work to scholarly journals for example.

That swift pace is advantageous for several reasons. First, knowing so quickly where things stand puts you in a great position to either have your work out in a timely fashion or to know sooner that you should try and send it elsewhere. Second, you learn to regularly deal with failure and to keep pitching your work regardless, and the act of doing so can help you value and protect your work. Finally, such a quick turnaround time with an acceptance also means that editors want changes fast. That can motivate you to meet a deadline and help you stay less attached to your every word and idea. The key is to keep your work moving on an assembly line of your own making.

Not only must you deal with pointed feedback from an editor, but having your work available to many more eyeballs means that more people might critique it. Whereas a scholarly article may garner zero to 100 reads over a lifetime, a single article in the popular media may attract thousands or millions of viewers in a day. That can be exciting or daunting, depending on your perspective. But, in general, writing and publishing involve you in a larger conversation, and the possibility of so many more people interacting with your ideas is a good thing. It does necessitate letting go of perfectionism and embracing ideas in progress.

5. Publishing in a well-read outlet can be transformative for your career. Vibrancy and aliveness come from crafting shorter pieces for a wider and more diverse audience. The energy of ideas in those articles can ignite curiosity and connection that leads readers to reach out. Writing for a national media outlet can give you exposure among new audiences, expand your networks and even present opportunities for scholarship, teaching and service you had never imagined. One of the most fulfilling aspects of writing for a larger audience is hearing from people across the world with comments, questions and invitations. I’ve received emails from academics, senior administrators at other colleges and universities, average citizens, and everyone in between.

As a result of writing for the general public, I’ve been invited to speak, facilitate workshops, serve on dissertation committees, participate in webinars and conferences organized by institutions in several other countries, and author chapters in anthologies. I’ve been interviewed on television, radio and podcasts. A literary agent even offered to represent me because she liked an article I wrote.

6. Public scholarship and mentorship reinforce each other. Whether by choice or by circumstance, many people finish graduate school and do not go into academic jobs, and many others transition out of academia to pursue other lines of work. So it makes sense for graduate students to have the preparation and experience to write for a general audience.

Of course, for that to happen, senior faculty will need to know the ropes of how best to navigate this different writing landscape, so they can then mentor graduate students to successfully do this. While some may presume it is much easier to write and publish for a general audience, a good number of faculty members may find themselves surprised by the multitude of different challenges involved. It would be a positive step to see funding and other institutional support flow in the direction of professional development for these endeavors.

7. Publishing outside of the traditional constructs and confines of academia can ultimately benefit higher education. At a time when higher education institutions are under constant scrutiny and attack, and when the public is questioning if anything of worth, value and practical application is happening within these structures, it makes sense for faculty members to communicate with a larger circle and to write for the greater good. It also behooves us to mentor and encourage graduate students to do this regularly. At its best, engaging in public scholarship helps build bridges and increases trust between colleges and universities and their constituencies.