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So, about that dissertation thing

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Well, being a PhD candidate means one thing and one thing only – now I have to write a dissertation. While yes I knew this was the next stage in the journey, I am not sure I am adequately prepared. I know that seems silly, I mean I have written a Master’s thesis and all. This one just seems (and is!) so much bigger and more daunting. I’m one of those people where the more daunting something seems the harder it is for me to get going on it. However, once I get going I’m usually FULL STEAM AHEAD! 

Now to just figure out how to get going. One thing I’ve tried so far is to buy a few books on the subject of dissertation writing. Since this particular piece of writing is more traditional than say my past ethnographies, I really have to figure out the ins and outs of it and what is expected of me. While I’m sure there is likely some dissertation writing class offered by the university, I am not local and therefore cannot take advantage of that.

So, this means I need to educate myself on it.

Here are the books I bought:

  1. Writing a Successful Thesis or Dissertation: Tips and Strategies for Students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences 
  2. How To Tame Your PhD (Thesis Whisperer Books)
  3. Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write and Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation (Palgrave Study Skills)

So far book 1 reads more like I textbook than I would like, but I’ll muddle my way through it anyway.

Book 2 seems good, but it has a lot of weird typo issues on the Kindle edition.

Book 3 I have yet to start. I’ll at least finish book 2 first before I try. Book 1 may take a little longer.

My goal is to have these finished by the end of September as I’d like to try to have my first three chapters written by the end of November so that I can defend my topic before the ends of this semester and hopefully get my IRB application submitted and turned in at the start of Spring (if not just before). This has to be done soon in order for me to start my research portion in January and hopefully be finished with the physical research aspect by end of February. Then analyze the rest of spring and into summer when I hope to finish and then start writing by fall to submit my first draft by the end of that semester or by the beginning of Spring 2015.

My goal is to graduate May/15. I’ll have finished my phd in 5 years if I can do that. That doesn’t seem so bad in my book. Especially given that I have a full time job and twins!

Phd Candidate!

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Well, it’s a go! My committee likes me, they really like me! /silly 

Yep! I passed. All that hard work paid off. I have two different dissertation ideas they were happy with. I’ll try running with the first one, if that doesn’t work I’m glad I have a fall back.

This summer I’ll be doing a lit review and this fall I’ll start writing. I hope to be done in 2 years. Seems like such a long time from now, but I know it will go by very quickly.

Now it’s time to pack for Hawaii as we are moving there in about 2 months!

And with that, I am done… for now.

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I have just submitted my #Phd qualification exam answers.

It has been one roller coaster of a week involving many outside distractions and though I have been up about 24 hours now (which included a 10 hour road trip with infants from west Texas to north Texas to visit family for the holiday), the feeling of elation is so great right at this moment that I’m not even sure I could sleep if I tried.

I may not get much opportunity anyway as I’m sure my infant twins will be up in a couple of hours.

Who needs sleep anyway?

I’m sure the ensuing dread of waiting to hear the results will likely keep me up many nights during the next two to three weeks. Oh, and of course working on the oral exam portion as well. Yeah…

*Twitch*

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Eyes burning, red, and twitching. I of course ended up going off in a totally new and previously unresearched by me direction for one of my qual exam questions which, while it has been exciting to do, has me also doing brand new research to write a paper that is due at 10am the day after tomorrow. Yes, I am a glutton for punishment. Why else would I be going for my PhD? *twitch*

One question left to answer!

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Alright, well I have 1 question and a little over 2 days left to answer it as well as go back and edit all of them for grammar, citations, and content. Trying to decide if my page lengths are the result of me being just that bad ass that I can answer them as concisely as I am, or if it’s because I’m not answering them fully enough. /sigh

This has been a very exhausting week. Add to this whole exam process the fact that I have twin infants to care for, a full time job, and we are taking a road trip basically at the same (cause it’s a holiday weekend as well!) and, yeah…

Day four of seven draws to a close…

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Well, I have two questions completed and I’m about half way through the third. I’m getting to that place mentally where I just keep rearranging the text on the page, so that probably means at this point it’s just best if I step away and look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow. My hope is that I can finish this one tomorrow and start on my last one before the end of the day.

That said, I found out today I have some serious work for my job to get done tomorrow as well. If I can find time to do both then perhaps some of that serious work can blend into Wednesday and Thursday while still making enough progress on my papers to be done by Friday without having to take time off. Otherwise, the option is to bust my ass at work tomorrow to get about 3 days worth of work done in one and then take the next two off to work on my papers. Right now, I’m just too exhausted to think about it. Again – something to look at with fresh eyes in the morning.

I hope I’m not too optimistic about my progress so far. For now I’m just going to keep it on the down low so as to not jinx myself.

All right, my right eye is twitching. Time to go to bed.

Second Question Complete!

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I finished most of Q4, the second question of my exams that I chose to tackle, yesterday. I just had to do some reassessment and rewriting of it today. I’m starting my third question (Q2) tonight with hopes that I can finish it by tomorrow and then the last question I hope to finish by Wednesday. This way I can spend Thursday doing edits or padding (come all we all do it) to meet minimum expectations in time to turn them all in Friday by 10am.

We’ll see how the writing goes tonight. If I get enough done I’ll try not to take Wednesday or Thursday off. I may not have much of a choice for Thursday. It’s the day we are leaving for Dallas and the day before a holiday weekend, not like much work will be done that day anyway! 

Day Three

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Time to get this party started again! I got the twins up, bathed, dressed, and fed twice. Now they are down for a nap. The husband is also still asleep. The hope is they can all get up at the same time and enjoy each other’s company (instead of the grouch fest that was yesterday), while I bust out at least 1 if not 2 more answers.

I’m debating taking Wednesday and Thursday off so I can get this stuff finished. I already have Friday off for a holiday, but it does me no good as we are driving into see family on Thursday night (yay 12 hour road trip with twin infants!) and my exam papers are due by Friday morning at 10am.

It will all depend on how today goes, so let’s hope it goes well!

I have a cup of freshly brewed vanilla spice tea in hand and am donning my glasses (they are my academic disguise – and they help make sure my eyes don’t tire out too fast).

Go go super Solli!

I can’t spell information!

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Is it too much to ask that my fingers figure out how to type out the word information? I mean seriously. It is one of the most typed out words in all of my qualification exams being that my degree is in information science.

For some reason though, my fingers keep typing it informaiton! I have enough other words that Word does not recognize that I have to type over and over again (interdisciplinary anyone?) making the ugly red line seemingly pop up every 4th word as it is!

End of the first night…

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Well, I’ve mapped out citations for 2 parts of the first 3 part question. What does that mean? It means I’ve broken up the question in all of its parts into different Evernote notes and then went through all of my materials (also on Evernote) and put relevant quotes with their citations on each one.

It’s part of my leanphd methodology that I do fully intend to map out for those who want to be in the know, one day. I just need to find time to do it. I usually do this mapping in scrivener, but since I am taking advantage of multiple computing devices to get this done I felt that Evernote was the better choice for the time being. Once I get all the information in one place, I may transfer it all to scrivener. I’ll have to see if that seems worth it or not when the time comes.

Alas, this is the end of the night for me for tomorrow I shall start anew and fresh and hopefully somewhat rested. I still have the rest of this question to map out and then the next three. Then, you know, the actual writing part.

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