Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Division K Graduate Student Seminar
AERA 2006 Conference
Having the opportunity to work and share with others that are going through the same process you are is invaluable. Having the opportunity to hear others’ successful experiences is inspirational. That’s how I felt last Thursday and Friday when participating of the seminar indicated above.
As Dr. Alfredo Artiles said, "the best dissertation is a completed dissertation." It does not matter if you have issues of translation, or how differently you want to do things. At the end what is important is to finish. So, to get into a system that will move you toward your goal, you need to write often &— writing to understand, writing to report.
It can be a painful process, feeling isolated, feeling you don’t have the skills to do a good job. And then, it is just about keeping at it, not stopping, writing, and rewriting, until it is done. A little every day, doesn’t seem much, but putting it together over a long period of time, you’ll see how it turns out to be a finished product. Dr. Bill McDiarmid suggested to write "a thousand works every night," that is probably two to three pages every day. Nothing much if you look at it individually, but over a two-month period it can be a whole chapter!
Other suggestions that were presented at the seminar include:
Finally, this is the general advise I got from the seminar: Your dissertation might be part of your research agenda after your graduation, but it might not be. So, take time to do something you are proud of and realize that it is just one step in your professional journey. And remember, at the end it is about having three or four people (your committee members) approve your work!
Working with the dissertation is a stressful time!
You want to do well.
You want to show you have what it gets.
You want to prove that doing well in your courses and
passing your qualifying exams was not in vain.
You want to make your professors proud!
And most of all,
you want to make your family proud!
You want to make sure,
the time you have spend away,
really moves you one step ahead,
really gets you closer to your dreams.
As Dr. Alfredo Artiles said, "the best dissertation is a completed dissertation." It does not matter if you have issues of translation, or how differently you want to do things. At the end what is important is to finish. So, to get into a system that will move you toward your goal, you need to write often &— writing to understand, writing to report.
It can be a painful process, feeling isolated, feeling you don’t have the skills to do a good job. And then, it is just about keeping at it, not stopping, writing, and rewriting, until it is done. A little every day, doesn’t seem much, but putting it together over a long period of time, you’ll see how it turns out to be a finished product. Dr. Bill McDiarmid suggested to write "a thousand works every night," that is probably two to three pages every day. Nothing much if you look at it individually, but over a two-month period it can be a whole chapter!
Other suggestions that were presented at the seminar include:
- Meetings every two weeks with a group of colleagues and sharing what we have written.
- Having an informal support system: friends you can talk to about how you are feeling, about your ups and downs in writing, in finding the "right" ideas.
- Parallel writing – sitting at the library with a friend and spending and hour or two writing, each working on their own projects.
- Not to worry if it seems it is not working as expected, just keep writing – "writing to understand, writing to report."
- Try finding support at conferences, present your work, ask questions to receive feedback, talk it through.
- Set goals and deadlines, then reward your self when you have reached them.
- Once in a while, give yourself a break.
Finally, this is the general advise I got from the seminar: Your dissertation might be part of your research agenda after your graduation, but it might not be. So, take time to do something you are proud of and realize that it is just one step in your professional journey. And remember, at the end it is about having three or four people (your committee members) approve your work!
