MISSING AN "E". BY V. JOLENE MILLER
READING ON THE RUN Binge reading on the run because everything else can wait. ABOUT THE COLUMNIST
In Alaska, I’m a behavioral health instructor by day and a Ph.D. student by night. When I’m not teaching, I have my nose in a textbook or a scholarly article. These days, my writing is nonfiction and my puppy, Omar, is lucky if I can spare ten minutes to play fetch. I still carry a book in my purse because I hope to get a few minutes to read. Fifteen minutes before dawn, in between assignments, or right before falling into bed. Reading is my resting place.
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As we transition to spring, another semester of doctoral courses looms on my horizon My mind is on closereading. Take, for instance, a 52-page paper I recently submitted detailing my plan for researching the influence of formative assessment on student autonomy. I spent a week writing it and knew there were inconsistencies regarding the population and potential research sites in its pages. Yet, it was difficult to think about rereading it to make corrections. I took the approach that any exhausted doctoral candidate would. I requested the proofreading assistance of my doctoral student husband. Knowing he too was in the last stretch of the semester and just as tired as I was, I assured him he didn’t have to examine the paper for every grammatical error or misspelled word; all that was required was a close read for flow. My goal was to get some help with the one problematic area of the paper without taxing too much of his energy and time. After all, one thing 2022 has taught me, is that grace must be extended during a close read. I didn’t anticipate 2021 would leave with a vengeance, taking with it my mother-in-law. We were devastated. Two months is not near enough time to prepare for such a loss. As my husband and I traveled two days into the new year, my one goal was to support him, his siblings, and their father. This goal consisted of small tasks like repeatedly asking if they were okay, making sure there were snacks and drinks as the siblings cleaned out their childhood home, helping sort, fold, and sack items for donation, and proofreading some of the paperwork they encountered.
