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Most of us have to produce bio-notes. The bio-note is a little verbal selfie that goes with a book chapter, a journal article, or sometimes a conference presentation. Book authors also have to provide brief bio-notes which might go\u00a0in<\/em>\u00a0their book as well as on the publisher\u2019s website. The bio-note tells the reader some key information about you, the writer.<\/p>\n Most bio-notes are short. They often have a word limit of 100-150 words. So there is not much space in a bio-note to communicate a lot about you. And there\u2019s not much room to be creative with them either.<\/p>\n Many doctoral and early career researchers struggle with bio-notes \u2013 they think that they have nothing to say about themselves that is particularly noteworthy.<\/p>\n But quite often, when you look at bio-notes, say in the beginning of an edited book where all of the contributors are listed, it is the early career researchers who write most. The more experienced researchers write less about themselves. This is perhaps because they don\u2019t feel anxious, or maybe they figure a lot of people already know who they are.<\/p>\n However, those newer to publication, the people who write all the words, can be read by mean readers as trying too hard to make something out of not much, or of elevating publications or activities to a level of prominence they don\u2019t quite merit. (Am I making this up? No, I\u2019ve heard this said, a lot. There\u2019s a lot of mean out there.) But I think that the problem of not knowing what to write is not about this. I reckon it may be related to understanding the bio-note.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the bio-note actually about?<\/p>\n Bio-notes do lots of work, but they\u2019re not primarily about self-promotion. They\u2019re not an opportunity to tell people everything you\u2019ve done and how good it all was. They are not the best place to peddle your wares, if you are so inclined.<\/p>\n The bio-note serves multiple purposes including being (1) a small service to the reader and (2) a way of adding \u2018street cred\u2019 to published writing.<\/p>\n Let me explain:<\/p>\n And of course, thinking about the reader additionally points to the fact that there might be different bio-notes for different readers. \u00a0Bio-notes not only change over time, as the work you do changes. They also change because different readers may be interested in different things and it may be important to foreground some things and not others.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll just make this personal as a way of illustrating this point.<\/p>\n While all of my bio-notes start much the same way, with my name, what \u2018s in and comes after varies. For instance, when I am presenting at a conference or writing about academic writing, I always mention my blog in my bio-note. If I am writing about schools, I sometimes mention my former life as a headteacher. And if I am writing about the arts, then I signal the ongoing research I have been doing and the arts organisation partners I have been working with.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s three of my bio-notes, to show what I mean, written for different readerships and to different word lengths.<\/p>\n Pat Thomson PSM PhD FAcSS FRSA was a headteacher in Australia for twenty years. After a brief stint in a senior public service position she hightailed it into higher education. She has been a Professor in the School of Education at The University of Nottingham for the last fourteen years, researching entanglements of school and community change, the arts and creativity and alternative education. She also researches and writes about academic writing and doctoral education. She has twenty-one published books, a further four in various stages of completion, and she dreams of her very own library bookshelf. She blogs at\u00a0patthomson.net\u00a0<\/strong>and tweets as\u00a0@ThomsonPat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n So here I\u2019ve highlighted my qualifications and esteem factors to show that the university I am speaking at invited someone who knew what they were talking about. And I talk about my own professional history as a\u00a0means of connecting my experience with that of the audience, but I also say I\u2019ve been in higher ed for quite a bit of time too. And I\u2019ve tried to be a bit lighthearted to indicate that the presentation might not be completely dull.<\/em><\/p>\n Pat Thomson<\/strong>\u00a0is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her work centres on the ways in which educational practices can be made more equitable; her research currently focuses on arts and cultural education in schools, communities, galleries and museums. She is a former school leader of alternative and disadvantaged schools.<\/p>\n Again as this is a book about practice, I am saying that I know about this topic from both research and practice perspectives. And that while alternative education is not my main area of research it fits with my broader agenda.<\/em><\/p>\n Pat\u00a0Thomson is a\u00a0Professor and Convenor\u00a0of the\u00a0Centre for\u00a0Research in Arts,\u00a0Creativity and\u00a0Literacy (CRACL)\u00a0at the\u00a0University of Nottingham,\u00a0UK.\u00a0 Pat is\u00a0known for her\u00a0interdisciplinary engagement with\u00a0questions of creative\u00a0and socially just\u00a0learning and\u00a0change.\u00a0 Much of\u00a0this work has been\u00a0in collaboration with\u00a0Professor\u00a0 Christine\u00a0 Hall.\u00a0 Pat has\u00a0had a long-term\u00a0research partnership\u00a0with\u00a0Professor\u00a0 Barbara\u00a0 Kamler\u00a0with whom she\u00a0writes about academic\u00a0writing.\u00a0 Her academic\u00a0writing\u00a0and research education\u00a0blog\u00a0 \u2018patter\u2019\u00a0 is\u00a0archived by the British\u00a0 Library\u00a0and\u00a0posts are\u00a0frequently republished\u00a0elsewhere.\u00a0 She tweets\u00a0as\u00a0 @ThomsonPat\u00a0 and\u00a0has an academic\u00a0writing\u00a0 \u2018patter\u2019 facebook page.\u00a0Her research activities can\u00a0be seen on\u00a0a\u00a0range of\u00a0websites\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 the\u00a0TALE\u00a0 project,\u00a0 the \u00a0Signature\u00a0 Pedagogies\u00a0project,\u00a0 I\u00a0 worked\u00a0at\u00a0 Raleigh,\u00a0 the\u00a0Get Wet project,\u00a0Performing\u00a0 Impact, \u00a0Cultural\u00a0 Value\u00a0and\u00a0 Live\u00a0 Art,\u00a0and\u00a0Quality in\u00a0Alternative\u00a0 Education.<\/p>\n More words here, but written in anticipation of a reader who might also be interested in academic writing as well as arts and creativity. I\u2019ve established my street cred by listing a research centre and a number of research projects. I\u2019ve also laid claim to inter-disciplinarity, again like the reader I imagine buying the book And there\u2019s talk about long-term collaborative work, something that is key to a lot of arts activities.<\/em><\/p>\n I\u2019m sure you can see in my three bio-notes that I\u2019ve deliberately selected\u00a0some things to say and some to leave out. You\u2019ll also see the difference in the formality of the writing.<\/p>\n But how does knowing this help you, if you are\u00a0wondering about writing your first bio-note?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, first of all you need to concentrate on a bio-note which helps the reader. Forget the publisher, forget self-promotion. Think about your reader.<\/p>\n The reader wants to know a bit about where you are, and perhaps how this particular text is related to your research track record and your general research and\/or professional interests. They may be interested in other things you do that are related to what you\u2019ve written.\u00a0Or they may\u00a0like\u00a0to know about\u00a0your long-term research agenda.<\/p>\n The conventional bio-note format meets these readers\u2019 interests. It says who you are, your stage of career (position) and any institutional affiliation you have. Then there is something about how this text relates to other work \u2013 your research interests, current projects and any other publications. The bio-note signposts all these things \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t explain them in great detail.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s the content you need if you are an early researcher writing a bio-note?<\/p>\n String that information together in a few sentences and that\u2019s it. Bio-note done.<\/p>\n And because the bio-note is just headlines, it doesn\u2019t have to be long. It doesn\u2019t have to take up all the words. It\u2019s not all there is. It\u2019s not all you\u2019ve done. It\u2019s not all there is to you. It\u2019s just a verbal selfie taken on a particular day to do a particular job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
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