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Dr Steve Joy This is a re-posting of the second piece I've written for the Guardian Higher Education Network . You can read the original piece here . The classic counterpart to a CV, cover letters are standard in almost all job applications. Academic cover letters are typically allowed to be longer than in other sectors, but this latitude comes with its own pitfalls. For one, many cover letters are written as if they were simply a retelling in full sentences of everything on the CV. But this makes no sense. Selectors will have skimmed through your CV already, and they don’t want to re-read it in prose form. Instead, approach your cover letter as a short essay. It needs to present a coherent, evidence-based response to one question above all: why would you be an excellent hire for this position? 1.        Start with a clear identity Consider this sentence: “My research interests include Thomas Mann, German Modernist literature, the body, the senses, Freudian...

Dr Steve Joy This post is the working through of a personal bugbear - one which only riles me so much because I am fully aware that every piece of academic writing I have ever produced has fallen victim to the same syndrome. Even so. Do not as I do, but as I say. The pesky syndrome is this: woolly, imprecise phrases when describing the importance of one's research, i.e. its contribution or significance. It happens in cover letters, grant applications, articles and papers, research statements - it's reached pandemic proportions. Here's an excellent example of just such offensive wooliness: "There has not yet been any attempt to survey the senses in a more comprehensive fashion [in Thomas Mann's work]. This study aims to begin that (re)appraisal, which will hopefully give rise to a more nuanced conception of Mann’s bodies, and demonstrate that the corporeality of his fiction is at the core of the author’s aesthetic project." In the words of Mary Poppins: 'Dr...

Most of my family members identify as fundamentalist Christians and political conservatives. As my own religious and political views have evolved over the years, this has made for some lively conversations, especially around the holidays. Back in my college days, it seemed like these discussions regularly ended up in raised voices and ad hominem attacks. Maybe you can relate. Doesn’t everybody have that one annoying family member who always wants to argue? But as time has gone by, I think we’ve found that some of those old arguments have become a bit tired and worn out. After all, how many times can you argue about baptism or gun control? It’s almost as if, without us really knowing it was happening, our different opinions quietly faded into the background, leaving behind the thing that’s been there all along. It’s the thing that makes us a family in the first place. The thing that never goes away: love. And the truth is, when I look around at my family at Easter or Christmas di...