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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson
@patthomson.bsky.social
3.2K followers 1.6K following 150 posts

Academic, educator, silversmith. Researching arts ed, school change, leaders work. Patter academic writing blog - Patthomson.net. Semi-retired. Working part-time @ U Nottingham & U South Australia. #FAcSS

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Arthur Frederick Thompson, known as Pat Thompson, and A. F. Thompson, was an academic historian specialising in 19th-century British politics and the trade union movement.

Source: Wikipedia
Education 38%
Art 20%
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 1h
If you’re writing a discussion and conclusion it helps to know their relationship difference between claims and conclusion patthomson.net/2025/10/11/c...
claims vs contributions
If you’re deep in the throes of doctoral work, you’ve probably had that moment where someone asks you about your “contribution to knowledge” and you freeze up like a deer in…
patthomson.net
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

thesiswhisperer.bsky.social
Thesiswhisperer @thesiswhisperer.bsky.social · 4d
Can you help us boost this signal? UTS colleagues are doing a governance project to talk back to the consultant led 'reform' of their university.

Please repost!! UTS people please have your say!

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
UTS Governance Project Survey: A Staff-Led Collaborative Project
The UTS Governance Project is an independent, staff-led initiative to strengthen transparency, accountability and participation in how our university is run. Inspired by the ANU Governance Project, ...
docs.google.com
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 7d
It helps to understand the difference and relationship between research results and claims patthomson.net/2025/10/04/r...
results vs claims
Research results are not the same as research claims. This is one of those distinctions that sounds simple but can trip researchers up. But understanding the difference can be really helpful. …
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 14d
Dealing with a toxic review? Write a Dear Reviewer letter… patthomson.net/2025/09/27/d...
Dear Reviewer
Every academic writer knows the sting of a harsh review. Every one. Including me. We’ve all had them. The review that is scathing, brutal and toxic. The immediate impulse is often to fire bac…
patthomson.net
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Reposted by Pat Thomson, Lesley A. Hall, Jack Stilgoe

bnerlich.bsky.social
Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 15d
Today's post delves a bit into the history of #sociology, memories of Erving #Goffman, and his use of #metaphor as method makingsciencepublic.com/2025/09/26/e...
Erving Goffman: Memories, method and metaphors
If you do sociology or, indeed, any social science whatsoever, you’ll come across the work of Erving Goffman. I have done too but never engaged with it as much as I should have done. This was…
makingsciencepublic.com
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

bnerlich.bsky.social
Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · 20d
For weekend readers, some reflections on community engagement with #AI and #ELSI makingsciencepublic.com/2025/09/19/p...
Participation at the core: AI, ELSI and community engagement
Alondra Nelson, a sociologist, STS scholar and expert on AI policy and ethics, recently published a letter in Science proposing that artificial intelligence (AI) should adopt the Ethical, Legal, an…
makingsciencepublic.com
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 20d
Some pointers to writing a series of papers from the same project patthomson.net/2025/09/21/w...
Writing multiple articles from one set of data
So you’ve got this mountain of “stuff” that keeps revealing new secrets every time you look at it. Or maybe you’re doing a PhD by publication and panicking about how to sort out the art…
patthomson.net
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

tobygreany.bsky.social
Toby Greany @tobygreany.bsky.social · 25d
We launched our UK Survey report from the #esrc Sustainable School Leadership research project today.

Big important findings on leaders' work (& workloads), well-being, career journeys & plans, professional learning, views on school contexts/ cultures & more!

www.nottingham.ac.uk/research/gro...
Sustainable School Leadership: Comparing Approaches to the Training, Supply and Retention of Senior School Leaders Across the UK - The University of Nottingham
www.nottingham.ac.uk
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 26d
Claude does satire. Who knew! @thesiswhisperer.bsky.social
emollick.bsky.social
Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 26d
Claude, "We all know among Sauron's many evils was that he ran Mordor using an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs. Show me the spreadsheet"

It made 12 tabs "so bureaucratically complex that even the Eye of Sauron would need reading glasses to review it." Some very funny stuff. Creative, even.
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Reposted by Pat Thomson, Francesco Nicoli

emollick.bsky.social
Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 26d
Claude, "We all know among Sauron's many evils was that he ran Mordor using an Excel spreadsheet with multiple tabs. Show me the spreadsheet"

It made 12 tabs "so bureaucratically complex that even the Eye of Sauron would need reading glasses to review it." Some very funny stuff. Creative, even.
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Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · 29d
If you’re a doctoral researcher
You need to understand and practice criticality patthomson.net/2025/09/12/w...
what is criticality?
This is a post for all the people just starting their doctoral programmes. And for those supporting them. Criticality in scholarship is the practice of approaching all knowledge claims, including y…
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Sep 5
A whimsy. Writing with the support of patthomson.net/2025/09/04/e...
emotional support objects
my favourite BIG mug, made by Robyn Cove Academic writing can be a pretty solitary pastime. Lonely even. There’s nobody to talk to in those moments when you just can’t seem to think your way throug…
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Aug 30
Use little windows of time to progress your academic writing patthomson.net/2025/08/30/f...
Five steps towards writing in fragments
The myth of ideal academic writing time persists. We all long to be in a quiet office, surrounded by books, with hours of uninterrupted time to craft elegant arguments. But the reality is very diff…
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Aug 22
Academic publishing can be a hot mess of mixed emotions patthomson.net/2025/08/21/i...
I’ve just been published and I feel…
When Dr. Sarah’s first peer-reviewed article appeared in the Journal of Sustainability and Urban Policy, her social media announcements said: “Delighted to share my latest research on ur…
patthomson.net
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

drhelenkara.bsky.social
Helen Kara @drhelenkara.bsky.social · Aug 18
Are you, might you become, or do you know a transnational scholar from the Global South? Or do you work with one or more? If so, this insightful, creatively written book will be of interest. It's part of the series I co-edit with @patthomson.bsky.social www.routledge.com/Insider-Guid...
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Aug 15
I’m secretly plotting a campus novel

patthomson.net/2025/08/15/t...
the cabinet of unrealised ideas
Ever thought about writing a campus novel? I often play with plots but never get around to the writing. And I get stuck on endings, just as I do when I write an academic paper! I recently dipped in…
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Aug 8
Why are conference nerves to be taken seriously? patthomson.net/2025/08/08/c...
conference jitters
You know that feeling, right? It’s two days before your big conference presentation and you’re lying in bed at 3am, staring at the ceiling wondering if anyone will turn up. And if they …
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jul 30
Latest post on writer voice and identity complete with exercises patthomson.net/2025/07/30/w...
writer identity and voice
Still reading. This month it’s Schmit, John S (2022)The sociolinguistics of written identity, Constructing a self. Cham, Switzerland: PalgraveMacmillan. Schmit is a writing and linguistics professo…
patthomson.net
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

bnerlich.bsky.social
Brigitte Nerlich @bnerlich.bsky.social · Jul 26
For weekend readers, my first Making Science Public post on my own blog site, reflecting on the current state of and challenges to science communication #scicomm - feel free to press 'subscribe'! makingsciencepublic.com/2025/07/25/m...
Making Science Public in a chaotic world
As you know, I am now gradually moving from my old ‘Making Science Public’ blog home at the University of Nottingham to my new personal blog home here. This wasn’t easy and lots of people supported…
makingsciencepublic.com
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

deevybee.bsky.social
Dorothy Bishop @deevybee.bsky.social · Jan 18
New blogpost: gobbledegook papers as canaries in the coalmine- and more bad news for MDPI
deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/01/toma...
Tomatoes roaming the fields and canaries in the coalmine: another embarrassing paper for MDPI
Many publishers are getting nervous about infiltration by paper mills, who can torpedo a journal's reputation when they succeed in publis...
deevybee.blogspot.com
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

raesnape.bsky.social
Rae Snape (she/her) FFCCT, NPQEL, Honorary Fellow Suffolk Uni 💛 @raesnape.bsky.social · Feb 18
Could I have a copy of this please @patthomson.bsky.social
I'm on a panel event soon at Kettle's Yard Cambridge on the importance of the Arts in Schools, and it would be great to understand what the research says.
patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Feb 11
@sairskay.bsky.social I’d like to send you a copy of our arts rich primary school research project not sure how?

Reposted by Pat Thomson

asauthors.bsky.social
Australian Society of Authors @asauthors.bsky.social · Mar 21
❗️Authors and illustrators: have your books been used to train AI? Today the Atlantic published a search tool allowing authors to search for their books in the LibGen dataset, which has been used to train Meta's AI system.

Search here: www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jul 18
Ive come home and immediately lapsed back into the vernacular …
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jul 16
Please see the report I’ve talked about in the post, it’s really not that simple any more.

patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jul 16
What to do about predatory journals and conferences? patthomson.net/2025/07/16/o...
on predatory academic journals and conferences
I’m often asked about predatory journals. So I recently went on a hunt for something other than lists and found a 2022 report on predatory journals and conferences from the InterAcademy Partnership…
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jul 10
Build your academic writing repertoire fifty strategies at a time patthomson.net/2025/07/10/5...
50 ways to get your writing going
A couple of times a year I write about strategies for getting going with your writing. But I’ve made a big list this time, just for a change. Fifty things to do to help yourself with your wri…
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jul 3
A musing on the great unread… patthomson.net/2025/07/03/a...
About the unread
Most academic writers are regular readers. There is of course a strong connection between reading and writing. Reading and writing feed each other. But I’m not focused on the connection right now. …
patthomson.net
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Reposted by Pat Thomson

anitaholford.bsky.social
Anita Holford @anitaholford.bsky.social · Jun 28
Fascinating & useful article 'What if we think of the arts as knowledge rich' by @patthomson.bsky.social on Cultural Learning Alliance website.

Useful for anyone working in #artseducation.

How do we translate into practical framing/messaging?

www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk/think-of-art...
www.culturallearningalliance.org.uk
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jun 25
Some academic writing advice is not good for everyone patthomson.net/2025/06/25/i...
Is writing every day good advice?
The most common piece of writing advice given to doctoral researchers is “write every day” or some variation thereof. This advice appears consistently across academic writing …
patthomson.net
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patthomson.bsky.social
Pat Thomson @patthomson.bsky.social · Jun 19
Oh no. More cost cutting? Hope you can move it all to a new place. I’ve always paid for my own Wordpress site. Easy to use and I get to decide.
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