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ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
How can I help you?
Show me something complex and I will show you something simple. That was at the heart of my own studies, pivotal in helping me connect and work with a vast number of clients across various sectors, fostering collaborative engagements with academic departments and institutes, as a well as a host of public bodies and private sector businesses. It was opportunity from adversity, par excellence. A multi-disciplined and holistic approach to life can set you up for any task, helping you to adapt to any situation in your professional development.
Not everyone will need all the services below, but everyone will recognise the need for them all the same. Whatever service you want, I can accommodate.
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Let start with the basics first:
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Fixing Spelling, grammar, punctuation, typographical, and flow and coherence issues for you, using Track Changes (proofreading and editing). For examples, see my videos here and here.
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ESL (English as Second Language) issues
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Thesis Formatting problems: spacing, Table of Contents, margins, graphs, figures and tables alignment and consistency, aesthetics, etc.
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Bibliography and reference style inconsistency and confusion
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Journal and book publication issues (and there are many!)
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Viva Voce exam preparation (PhD)
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AI and ethical research
Okay, now we’re cooking. Let’s up the ante!
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Academic coaching
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Tailored learning and development plans to suit you
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Overall thesis structure and flow problems
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Academic writing issues
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Plagiarism and copyright
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Literature review going nowhere, in terms of critical analysis and engagement
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Systematic Review and Scoping Review spiralling out of control
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Methodology and framework confusion
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Action Research, with no action!
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Thematic analysis and IPA...but nothing of the sort!
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Misalignment of discussion chapter in terms of its relationship with Literature Review
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Structuring of results chapter goes nowhere
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Research question and objectives never answered fully
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A lack of clear conclusion and recommendations
Sometimes, we have to go deeper though …
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Imposter syndrome
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Lack of supervisor support, and/or college/office politics
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A confusion as to how best to supervise students, and teach! (Supervisor Training)
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Public speaking and Media presence
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Returning to education after a long absence
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Distance learning isolation
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Dyslexia and other learning difficulties
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Anxiety and depression, and sick leave
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ATTENTION: This service and others are completely confidential and everything between myself and yourself is kept strictly private. Under no circumstances will I ever write a person's thesis, nor alter it substantially that it becomes my own work. The goal of the service is not to replace a student's input but to guide it. As such, this service stays within the lines of academic regulations and rules and is a thesis proofreading/editing, review, and support service, using Track Changes and comments (see below), rather than a thesis "creation" service. If you are struggling with any of the issues below, let's talk. And certainly let's talk before you engage with any unethical practices or AI. As you can see from my testimonials, Career Projections works in line with college regulations, not against them.
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A pledge ... a promise!
A picture paints a thousand words, especially when “every frame is a picture”, moving at 24fps (frames per second). Long winded way of saying, have a browse of my YouTube channel and look at the titles of the videos. I can help with all those issues and more.
Also, have a quick look at my About page; down the bottom there, you will find a handy list for everything I do.
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Maybe you don’t know what’s wrong? That’s why phones were invented 😊
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​What do you get back?
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Your thesis/project complete and in good shape, of course; with a clear roadmap and a clear path to follow for going forward!
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Better time management; time saved working on your thesis and assignment is time refunded back in your career and social life. Remember the 5 P’s: Prioritize, Plan, Procrastination, Productivity, and Positivity
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Better understanding, not only of why we research, but also how to research “smarter not faster”
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A better understanding of how workflows can be utilized effectively
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A better way of regulating your emotions and thoughts during the academic process; it will happen, so you might as well prepare; stress management is very important here
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The ability to think critically and solve problems; when I help my clients, a little piece of me is given over; learning the same way I learnt from my supervisors/mentors in college: through example. This service can also be invaluable for any supervisors and researchers who want to broaden their learning and professional development.
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The ability to demonstrate information literacy, to understand and espouse ethical and civic responsibility, and of course, to communicate effectively.
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How to build collaborative relationships in college and make contacts with the right people who can help you. Who are the key movers in college that can help you research quicker? Use the resources you’re paying for in college, wisely; more importantly, use them in the first place!
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Your biggest prize: A purpose!​
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These are traits fostered in college and which are expected to be fostered in todays’ workers. This is what you’re supposed to get from college? Have you? Personal responsibility here is very important. You have to want it.
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But if you’re on my page, then you’ve already taken the steps necessary to want it.
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So, well done! 😊
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Now, make the next step!
Are you struggling with college?
I promise you, you don't have to!
It’s a tough part of my job to torpedo ideas and passion projects; it’s an even greater responsibility landed at my door to torpedo large scale projects such as theses or development plans. However, I have to assess all avenues and corners, all blind spots, so that the advice I give is laser focused, that it, not only critiques a client’s work, but lets them down gently; with learnings to take forward. Nobody ever leaves with nothing. Indeed, the absence of something in one’s life can be far greater than the presence of a burden in it. I won’t waste your time; and you won’t waste mine. Together, something will come from it, not least a path: but a purpose!
It may surprise you to know but learning never stops, and just as many students pass through my hands, so too do many academics, those who are newly qualified (or more senior) lecturers whowish to improve their supervision techniques and time and research management. Things are always moving quickly and sometimes getting a colleague' or predecessor's "notes" on how to "do the job" can be outdated and worse, detrimental to both time and stress management. So no matter where you are on the academic ladder, I will be there to pull you up.
There are many things of course we can list as issues we have whenever we go to put pen to paper, or finger to button, but all of it essentially stands in service of a goal: a reason for why you undertook this particular project. One of my favourite questions to ask anyone doing a thesis or other large scale project is, "Why are you doing this?" Get past the usual answers, such as career, up/re-skill, and "they made me do it", and a gap emerges, a space I ask my clients to fill. Deep down there is an actual reason for what led you here. I often tell my clients, find that, and you’ll never have to see what I ask you to do as "work" again. If you can’t find it, then maybe it’s not to be found here in the first place. In my videos, I often discuss the notion of the academic vs the non-academic, the person seemingly and, often times, unwittingly tasked to return to education, often against the will, it seems. I understand. I repeated the Leaving Cert and first year of college. Why? Because I was unfocused, I spent hours in the library studying (the wrong thing), learning pages upon pages of material (for no purpose), only to turn up the exams and have nothing I learned come up (for good reason).
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Doing research can be a particularly stormy sea, and so, when we lose more and more of our humble boat, we began to sink lower. Often times, we submit and let go, banishing ourselves to the great academic abyss of "what-could've-been"! I've been there myself, so I'm uniquely positioned to get that ship of yours back to port, that ship of course being your thesis. Let me show you what I learned over the last 15 years about working smarter and not faster.
Don't think about what's the worst that could happen ... Think about how you can get back your life, now!
I’m more interested in structure, the presentation of your work, how your sections hang together, how they utilize one another to answer your goal/research question. This is why I leave the actual content, the expertise of your field to you and your supervisor, focusing instead on the seams and threads within, which of course are universal and have their basis in methodological and literary/structural forms. Indeed, how your words work beyond what simple sentences can do interests me very much. In this case, “a little goes a long way”. As author, Bernard Shaw, once said, “I'm sorry this letter is so long. I didn't have time to write a short one”. Muddled thoughts and muddled structures can derail a person’s work or thesis, often when done in a rush. If a person scrapes through, barely surviving the academic experience and heads back to work, they bring with them the tendrils of this way of thinking. Work projects they supervise then become muddled and bloated, with unclear goals. Ultimately, the worker becomes muddled and siloed, unable to unlock their full potential, stagnating in their own career, or worse, leaving it.
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You see, it’s all about that research question in your work, itself a stand-in for a great many things in one’s career (goal, purpose, synergies, alignments, competencies), all of which beg the question of why: Why am I doing this?
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More importantly, what is anyone else getting out of this!
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That's why academic coaching and facilitation are so important for your professional development, to guide you where you supposed to be going, to bring down those stress levels and get you your life back painlessly and easily; to tease out new ways of thinking.
If you feel like your research is going nowhere, then get in touch with me and let's have a chat!