Joseph H. Wycoff

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After completing his BS and MA at Arizona State University, Joe earned a doctoral degree in US History from the University of Washington with an emphasis on business and consumer history. He has worked as a higher education administration and research professional for over twenty years. During his career, he worked as an institutional research and effectiveness officer in three different sectors of higher education: a community college, a private nonprofit, and a public Research I university. His first book, Outsourcing Student Success, offers a critical analysis of institutional research scholarship from the past one hundred years and delivers his personal insights into the barriers to student success at American colleges and universities. ...more

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Joseph H. Wycoff I don't know that I have ever had writer's block. I wrote what I had to write for my education. I write what people pay me to write so that a corporat…moreI don't know that I have ever had writer's block. I wrote what I had to write for my education. I write what people pay me to write so that a corporation can sell more product to consumers or a college can put on a good show to "evidence" data-driven decision making for the accrediting agencies. And, I write things that occur to me as worth writing at my own discretion.

I suppose the question refers more generally to the latter kind of writing. In that case, I definitely have had reader's block. My master's committee chair once told me he would not tolerate postmodernism in a thesis written by one of his graduate students. lt took me six years to work through that reader's block! "Write what you know!" all the advice books tell me. Friends and family on the other hand become afflicted with reader's block when they think that some shameful secret may be revealed in my writings. Agents and publishers of course have exercised their professional responsibility for reader's block. It is hard to fault them for that. Most recently, when I sought a publisher for _Outsourcing Student Success_, the reviewer acknowledged the thoroughness of my archival research and the lacuna in higher education literature on my subject, but nonetheless wielded the power of reader's block because of the "tone" of my narrative. I purposefully set the story arc of the historical narrative as a tragedy, so perhaps the reviewer wanted to read a romantic, comedic or satirical historical narrative about institutional research and higher education. Ultimately, you know, reader's block is highly subjective.

That is a useful insight, I learned, because the only way to overcome reader's block is to distance oneself from the reader. I have reached a sufficient age now to have attained the appropriate level of social alienation from readers and intellectual disdain for reader's block that I could not let pass the opportunity to self-publish.(less)
Joseph H. Wycoff I only know the worst things about being a writer. I imagine that better writers only know the worst things about being a writer more acutely. Therefo…moreI only know the worst things about being a writer. I imagine that better writers only know the worst things about being a writer more acutely. Therefore, it is best not to consider the best thing about being a writer. In fact, I am asked these questions because after nearly fifty years as an unpublished "writer" I finally found the right admixture of narcissism and disillusionment to regard self-publishing as a viable option. Now, there are plenty of good things about being a self-publisher including the opportunity to answer these questions. But, a writer? Writer should be ranked somewhere between pest control worker and newspaper reporter on CNBC's list of 10 worst occupations since 2017 (link: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/27/these...).(less)
Average rating: 3.44 · 9 ratings · 1 review · 3 distinct worksSimilar authors
Arcane Cage: Being a Histor...

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Outsourcing Student Success...

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Honors of Inequality: How C...

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Illinois Grant News | September 2025

Notices of Funding Opportunities and Awards

Featured Funding Opportunity

Washington, D.C. | September 29, 2025 | Accelerating Research Translation (25-548) | The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to increase the scale and pace of advancing discoveries resulting from academic research into tan...

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Published on October 07, 2025 16:53
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Illinois Grant News | September 2025

Notices of Funding Opportunities and Awards Featured Funding Opportunity Washington, D.C. | Se Read more of this blog post »
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