Dissertating

How to Focus on Your Writing: Making Yourself and Your Writing Process More Visible

2011-06-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here's something from the conversations going on in our dissertation wiki.

Someone so rightly said that other people's needs and demands are more real - and certainly more urgent - than our own slow burning fuse called the dissertation. The danger of all these external demands that are urgent and time-sensitive is that our more internally driven dissertation that is important becomes less urgent and falls out of time. Suddenly it's 4 weeks and we have not done very much at all for our dissertation! And yet of course we all know that our dissertation is also time-sensitive and urgent in a deeper way; we need to complete it so we can get done and move on to shape the rest of our lives. So ... balancing our internally driven dissertation against external demands becomes a critical skill. Four powerful principles for doing this are

MAKE YOUR GOALS AND PROGRESS VISIBLE TO YOURSELF AND IF POSSIBLE TO OTHERS
GIVE MORE MENTAL BANDWIDTH TO YOUR WRITING JOURNEY
CELEBRATE YOUR MILESTONES NO MATTER HOW SMALL
MAKE THE DISSERTATION WRITING PART OF YOUR VISIBLE IDENTITY

Here is a way to work with a physical schedule or journey map for your writing process:

Put up a timeline with milestones marked in for tasks that need to be completed (essentially, these are Gantt charts).I make mine of large sheets of butcher paper and pin it up on a wall in my room.

You can also set up your milestones using post-its so that you can move them around on your timeline - this helps you re-set goals and tasks.

Check off milestones you reach - use a bright colour, give yourself stickers. Whatever ... as long as you make this clearly visible and celebratory. And as Mary has found out, giving yourself rewards for reaching milestones also makes this process fun.

Write notes to yourself on the timeline - motivational ones, reminders, things to think about. Interact with your timeline.

I also find I am more connected to my work if I stick on occasional images I cut out from magazines, or doodle on it while I am communing with it. Doing this is one way of making sure my mind is constantly connected to my timeline or journey map. I have found I am so much better at balancing my time against all the external demands on me, simply because my journey is uppermost and most exciting of all the things I am involved in.

Tell people about your timeline; talk about the task you are currently working on. We often remain very silent about the work we're doing for our dissertation - it's too far in the background. Pull it forward a little - find occasions to speak casually about the thing you are writing about now, your goal of getting 30 pages done by the weekend etc. Make this as much a part of your social/professional identity as everything else about you. I've found that this has increased the support I get from others.

For those who are happier keeping track electronically, you can do the same using Excel to make a planning chart (called Gantt chart in project management circles). Here are some links to explore if you're interested:

Youtube video on making one using Excel - click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW_wGSFavTc

A web-based project management tool. Check out SmartSheet at www.smartsheet.com. I've used this for other projects and it's a super easy way to set tasks, start and end dates, add sub tasks and make changes as needed. But it works best for those who like having their timelines and schedules on line.

For the artist in all of us

2011-05-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

A fun and thought provoking talk by Austin Kleon

My husband sent me this while I was in the middle of the mad dash to dissertation proposal. It's a wonderful blog post by an artist Austin Kleon. He has 10 things about the process of making art. In my eyes these are also 10 things about writing a dissertation. Here is the list - but check out his post here because he says it much better ... and he has pictures!

Don't worry about originality ... it's all really a mash-up
Just do it ready or not
Write what you have a connection to
Don't forget your body - it's part of the process
Don't lose side projects and hobbies
The secret of good work - sharing it
Geography is not our master - you do not have to be in this alone
Be nice ...
Be boring ... routine, routine, routine
Creativity is subtraction - know your limits, less is more

Something Fishy....Academic Publishing Scams

2011-04-19T09:53:00.001-07:00

Hello Dissertators, from the Other Side! (Also known as CGU alumni!)

I apologize for not posting much since graduation...as I’m sure many of our recent graduates have also surmised, finishing is exhausting, the job search is all-consuming, moving out of Claremont and starting over somewhere new is a full-time job, and you just can’t look at your dissertation in any kind of meaningful way for a good 6 months (at the earliest) after graduation.

You’ve got enough to think about, but if at some point people would like to hear about Plan Bs for after graduation, I’d be happy to talk about some of the things I have been doing since graduation (In addition to adjuncting, I’ve been a Standardized Patient, a Dean, a handywoman, an editor, and an actor over the past year!) I’m also currently in the process of sending my book manuscript (dissertation!) for publication. Which brings me to today....a spam e-mail I received on my CGU account ostensibly from a publisher wanting to publish my dissertation (which the e-mail manages to call my “paper” – first red flag!)

Along the lines of “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.....

There are many, many publishing scams out there. Because I teach Creative Writing, I often warn my students about Poetry and Fiction scams, as they are the most prevalent and tend to prey on the most hopeful. However, this week I received the following e-mail to my CGU e-mail account and I suspect that everyone who recently filed a dissertation with CGU (mine was spring 2010) probably got the exact same e-mail.

Here is the spam e-mail I received:

Dear (my name),

I came to know about your academic paper entitled "(my title here) submitted in 2010, while I was performing research at the The Claremont Graduate University's repository.
We are currently planning publications in this subject field and therefore we would be glad to know whether you would be interested in publishing the above mentioned work with us.

LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing is a member of an international group having nearly 10 years of experience in the publication of high-quality research works from well-known institutions worldwide.
In addition to producing printed scientific books, we also market them worldwide through more than 80,000 booksellers.

Kindly let know if you would be interested in receiving more detailed information in this regard.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
--
Yedisen Ramasamy
Acquisition Editor

I googled the name of the company and found several other people who also write about this particular scam. It’s kind of fun to see the different variations on the “acquisition editor’s” name:

http://chrisnf.blogspot.com/2009/06/academic-spam.html

http://crankycon.politicalbear.com/2009/07/10/now-this-is-a-brilliant-scam/

http://hjhop.blogspot.com/2008/12/shady-academic-publishing.html

Right now, all you are focused on is finishing. But after you finish, and after you celebrate, and probably about 8 months afterward when you can finally breathe and be normal again, it will be time to think about publishing. And that’s when an e-mail like this could really get you.

When you eventually get to the publishing stage, it is important to remember that you want to publish your dissertation with a reputable academic press. You will have to work on a query letter and proposal and choose the presses you contact very carefully, looking at the books they have published recently and whether or not your manuscript fits with what they publish.

Alas, the reputable press won’t just come knocking on its own. You will probably have to send out a lot of letters before you get any possibilities. But you’ll be an accomplished dissertator by then...if you can finish a dissertation, you can do anything!

Getting out of your head

2011-04-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Notes from our discussion at the last Dissertators group meeting.

I wanted to get us talking and thinking about things we do that make us feel good. Because most of the time, we think and talk about the big D - what I've done, what I have to write, feedback I've received, why I am putting the next chapter on hold ....

In between of course life is happening, we're experiencing and doing far more than just our dissertation. But in our memory all that becomes part of a generally cloudy background. So I thought I'd switch perspective and we could talk about things we do that make us feel good. The dissertation process is about being slow and steady. Nothing much to celebrate. Well, sometimes we stop and feel good that we completed a paragraph, a page, a chapter; these are important milestones along the way. But the distance of the journey stretches out always ahead of us.

So, having something whole and entire to celebrate is important so we can experience, and remember, and breathe in the feeling of completion. It’s important we do not forget how this feels.

And we can give it to ourselves by paying attention to and celebrating the small but powerful things we accomplish. Here are some things that came up in our conversation:

The weekly yoga/pilates//gym session
Completing a scrapbook (Anne said it’s like a legacy, and therefore in many ways like her research and dissertation)
Hiking – the accomplishment of starting out and getting to a specific place; there is enough effort to make the reaching of the destination a cause for celebration.
Learning a new song in choir practice and getting to the aha! Moment of ‘getting it’.
Starting a philanthropic project to build more communication in extended family and hearing from a family member after 15 years of no contact
Getting back in touch with an old friend
Walking the dog.

Also we noticed that quite a few of these things we recalled, that stood out for us as something that made us feel good, were things that involved us physically – walking, singing, breathing, scrapbooking. There is movement and a mind-body connection in all these activities. Others were activities that connected us with other people. All of them are activities that take us outside of our heads and definitely outside of our work.

Read more about the importance of remembering and making time for your whole self:
The NHS (UK) - article on a study of how physical activity reduces stress
The Franklin Institute - information and tips on stress relieving methods that take you outside of your head.

To outline or not to outline

2011-01-25T23:27:00.000-08:00

To create a good outline you need to have a pretty good idea of the flow and structure of the chapter/section/dissertation.

But ….. one gets a good idea of the flow and structure of the chapter/section/dissertation by making an outline. I think of this as ‘messy outlining’.

The proverbial chicken and egg dilemma.

The first option rarely seems to work for dissertations because part of the writing process is about surfacing your ideas and making discoveries (even though we live with the illusion … delusion? … that we have it all worked out when we become ABD).

The second option might work better for dissertators. We write at different levels of detail; sometimes we’re thinking about the larger argument that spans an entire chapter, and other times, we focus on the flow of ideas within a section. So here, ‘messy outlining’ works really well.

Let’s say you’re in the middle of writing and the section you’re working on just does not feel like it’s coherent; the direction of your ideas is not clear. This is where you can stop and make a mini outline:

1. What is my claim or the main idea I am asserting?

2. What are the different points I am making that leads to this claim?

3. In what order should I arrange these points?

I like to do this by printing out what I have written for that section and then numbering different chunks of writing to identify the discrete points or thoughts. Then I consider the best order for these numbered chunks. Sometimes I end up cutting out the pieces and moving them around! It really helps my tired mind to think more clearly to physically move the ideas about. I’ve tried doing this on screen, but scrolling up and down, and cutting and pasting is not as effective as laying out a few printed pages and scanning it visually … and actually cutting and re-arranging. I seem to see better (especially when I am tired and have been grappling with the ideas for a while) because all the ideas are laid out within my range of vision. Chad shared that he does something like this as well and finds it works.

Give it a go and see if it works for you. And share any variations you discover that work.

Advice for Dissertators

2010-09-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

Stumbled on a very informative page about dissertations on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when I was avoiding the writing pact I had made with myself.

The page is a great resource for tips and techniques on how to manage life after ABD to keep yourself on track to write your way through to the end of your dissertation. Check it out here.

The UNH page also has some fun stuff - here is a list of dissertation idioms from their page. I've added a few more from our Boot Camps.

A good dissertation is a done dissertation.
What do you call a grad student who barely squeaks a lousy dissertation past her committee? Doctor.
You ain't painting a masterpiece.
It's not the last word on the topic; it's the first word.
Dare to be adequate!
Life happens ... and sometimes so do dissertations.

2010-08-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here's an informative and entertaining website. The person it belongs to seems to be a statistics or math professor who is generously sharing his experience getting his Ph.D.

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/
He has a really comprehensive website - here are just a few items from the list of posts/articles:

The Illustrated guide to a Ph.D - really puts what we're doing in perspective. I think I will print this series of drawings out to reinforce the idea that a good dissertation really really is a done dissertation! There is an entire world out there waiting for us to continue exploring.

Other posts that look intriguing:

A Ph.D. thesis proposal is a contract.

3 qualities of successful Ph.D. students.

3 shell scripts that can improve your writing.

Productivity tips for academics.

Tips, tricks and applications for the iPhone.

HOWTO: Use Skype for home phone line service.

Recommended books and papers for grad students.

Academic job hunt advice.

There are also TONS of links to statistical methods and short cuts for those interested

Writing Journeys & Goal Setting

2010-07-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

Here’s a way to think about goal setting accountability.

I like to think of a long piece of writing as a nice adventurous trip (comes from my fondness for road trips and hiking I guess – best way to see any country). As with any kind of journey, there will be stops and starts and you may find your goals need revising, re-routing etc.

So our Monday meetings are just great opportunities along the way where you meet fellow travellers and share where you’ve been and where you’re going. It’s not about reporting a perfect arrival at a goal, and therefore feeling guilty about route changes. Don’t get stressed out by shifts and changes. It’s just the process of logging the journey with fellow travellers, which really helps you navigate.

You learn a great deal about your writing process when you pay attention to the kinds of goals you set, your patterns of revision, the distance between your milestones etc. If you keep with the practice of goal setting-reflecting-revising, you’ll find yourself getting better and better at moving happily along your writing journeys.

Dissertation Boot Camp June 26th & 27th

2010-07-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

Slide show from Boot Camp on the weekend of June 26 and 27. This was a quick, put together Boot Camp, but we had 10 people who showed up to writewritewrite and we all managed to get a lot done.

Take Aways From This Boot Camp

Make Goals Visible - write them out, put them where you can see them as you work. WRITE THEM LARGE. They will gently nag in a most friendly way, especially if you use colours - crayons or markers. We had 'pure colour pencils' - imagine only the inside of a colour pencil without the wood!

Write Mini Goals - on the way to the main goal for the day. If you want to complete a chapter, you might want to write some interim milestones to get to that goal like the different sections for the chapter. That way you can track your progress to the end of the chapter through the day. This also makes the writing process more concrete and gives you specific writing tasks to work at. Do them, one by one by one ... and voila! Suddenly you're at Chapter's End!

Cross Goals Out along the way. As you meet each mini goal, what satisfaction there is in crossing them out with a big fat marker! DONE! .... on to the next.

Hydrate. Remember to drink water as you work. When you're feeling tired, more often than not it's a lack of water. Keep a large mug or bottle of water next to you so you can take large swigs from it as you work. Coffee's ok, but really .... your body desires water.

Breathe. You'd be surprised how often you stop breathing when you are really focused on writing. Take Breathing Breaks: Stop - Sit up straight - Focus on your breath - Breath in and feel your ribcage expand - Hold - Breath out through your mouth for a count of 8. Close your eyes through this process to give them a rest from the screen/paper. Repeat a few times. This takes just a few minutes, but can re-energize your body and mind to work again with renewed focus and energy. Especially if you have a drink of water before you resume work.

Partying On is such Sweet Parting!

2010-06-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

No party is complete without the cake. Attention dissertators: there IS cake at the end of the tunnel. Our co-travelers, co-captains and co-miserators have shown us the path. It's up to us to hold up the tradition. Keep up the writing. Keep the coffee coming. Keep on keeping on!

The summer is short but life is long. Take the long view by making small steps every day.

Greetings from Boot Camp / Writing in the Summertime

2010-05-17T06:22:00.000-07:00

Dissertation picnic

Our recent Boot Camp was a great success and we welcomed several new first-timers to the dissertating ranks. As we all head into summer, that long stretch of even-more unstructured time, with even more tantalizing things to do other than write your dissertation, here are a few things to keep in mind to help you keep writing (using photos from the most recent Boot Camp!)

Many thanks once again to Nancy Sassaman, helping us make time for Vitamin D.

So much of the writing process happens indoors, cramped over a desk, carpal tunnel extravaganza. Make time for getting outside for brief walks and stretch breaks. You can continue thinking about your work. You can hop on the cell phone and call someone who is supporting you in your writing efforts. You can even bring a draft with you and look over it as you go. But it is important to make time to get outside. It may not seem like much, but it can recharge your batteries.

At the start of each reading / writing /editing /dissertating session, determine what your goals are for that day and write them down.

Choose reasonable, doable goals. Prioritize them. Then start chipping away at them. In the beginning, you'll pick goals that are too ambitious. Everyone does. Don't worry about that. Do your best, and over time, you'll start to refine your sense of what can be achieved in a given period of time. A lot of the process of writing your dissertation is discovering how you work - what you need, how long it takes, what you can reasonably expect. Make goals and fake deadlines, do your best to stick by them, and adjust them as necessary.

Take each day at a time and step by step, you'll finish the diss.

The advice that nutritionists often give to people trying to lose weight: If you have a day where you just blow your diet and go to town, you might feel like you've just lost all the ground you've gained, ruined your diet forever, and should just give up. But it's just one day. So what if you have a bad day? You can start over the next day.

Dissertating is the same way. Have a weekend where you fall of the wagon and get absolutely nothing done? Have a whole week that you just blew off? A whole month that got by?

Then put it behind you and when you wake up the next day, begin again. You can't control the time you lost last week / month / semester / year. But you can control what you do with the time you have left. So don't continue to beat yourself up - it isn't productive. Instead, focus on what you can do NOW.

Dissertating...the universal language

Write your goals in whichever way speaks most clearly to you. Use whatever language, colors, words, images etc that best helps you to directly and clearly motivate yourself. Do you like checkboxes? To Do lists? Rewarding yourself with bits of chocolate? Now is the time to find out.

Whiteboard ode to Stuart Smalley: You're good enough, you're smart enough

Remember when you were younger and a Ph.D. just sounded so grandiose, so intelligent, so far away? And isn't it nuts that you are now about to get one? It can feel so surreal. At times, it helps to play it down in your head, so that the doctorate feels more normal, more doable, because everyone else around you is doing one too. At other times, it's nice to just take a moment and take it all in...what you are doing is incredible. Very few people actually get this far. It's amazing! It's wonderful!

Dissertator, Thou Art Loosed!

Take a moment to take it all in. You're doing this!

Catherine typing on a laptop balanced on a bag, balanced on a sidedesk chair.

One of the great things about the image above is what you can't see: that Catherine here began her day at the Boot Camp by typing on a cardboard box. That's right, a cardboard box. On the first day of the Boot Camp, we had more people than desks, so Catherine was a good sport and found a long box that, when put on end, was just about the right height for a desk. So she balanced her laptop on it and began typing away. Later, she graduated to using another chair with an attached desk as her mobile laptop desk.

This is great for two reasons. One, it shows you that really, when you have to, you can write anywhere. And two, it shows that having a sense of humor and being flexible can help shake up your patterns and keep your writing interesting.

If you feel like you're in a rut, try shaking up your routine. Write in a new coffee shop. Find a different part of the library to make camp. Try your bathtub. Lie on the floor. Take a draft to the gym and read it on the stationary bike.

The next time you find yourself making excuses for not working on your dissertation ("Oh, I can't write now, I don't have my favorite pen"... "Oh, I would work on my dissertation now, but I forgot my laptop".... "I can't actually work now, because I forgot my iPod") Just remember: Cardboard box.

Encourage your friends to make you "dissertation music" mix CDs and playlists!

If you concentrate better with wordless background music, here are some sample "Writing Music" albums that dissertators have recommended:

The Piano Soundtrack- Michael Nyman
Gattaca Sountrack - Michael Nyman
Last of the Mohicans soundtrack
The English Patient soundtrack
Lost in Translation Soundtrack
The Essential Yo Yo Ma
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - Mozart
Vivaldi
Philip Glass
Bond (violin group)
African Suite - Abdullah Ibrahim
One Cello x 16 - Zoe Keating
Creating Pandora stations based on instrumental songs you like

And remember....even though it may feel like it, you're not alone

So the summer is here! You've got good weather to write in. You can do a beach day of research (Six words: To Do List in the sand!) There are so many opportunities to make headway on that dissertation. Go for it!

"I'm graduating...so now what?!"

2010-05-11T19:29:00.001-07:00

Do you find that everyone thinks you're supposed to be super happy now that you're done....but you're too freaked out about the future?

Today's post is dedicated to all of you dissertators, past, present, and future....who finally reach The Big Day and all you can think about is how you're going to answer the next person who asks, "So what are you doing next?"

Here are a few nitty gritty details to help you navigate your immediate future if you're graduating or about to graduate from CGU:

What happens to my library privileges?

The good news: you can purchase an annual alumni card for $35 a year.

The bad news: You can't access databases off-campus. You can't use ILL or Link+ any more. Might be a good time to make friends with a fellow CGU student who isn't graduating...

What happens to my health insurance?

The good news: if you paid for it already, you're on it until 8/27. (source: Nusha in Admissions)

The bad news: After that, you're on your own.

What happens to my cgu e-mail?

The bad news: They cut you off 6 months after graduation.

The good news: You can forward your mail through Outlook.

Who to contact for more information: The Dean of Students office, carol.toscano@cgu.edu

Can I still use the Writing Center?

The bad news: The CGU Writing Center services are only for current CGU students, faculty, and staff.

The good news: The Writing Center maintains a list of editors and proofreaders in the area who can offer all kinds of help for pay. Rates vary, so you must contact the editors to learn more. One recommendation: TWEED editing, which is run by CGU Writing Center tutor and CGU doctoral candidate Katrina Van Heest.

What if I never get a job?

The bad news: the economy is really, really bad, and everyone you know will just love to forward you articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education talking about how you'll never get a job.

The good news: You can stop reading the Chronicle of Higher Education. You can stop opening those forwards. And you can know you're not alone.

The Writing Center may be offering a CV workshop soon to help students network and continue polishing their application materials. Stay tuned!

Getting Your Dissertation Bound

2010-04-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

Pretty, pretty books

After all that work, you finally finish...and you might be surprised that you don't get a copy for yourself!

(unless you are in SBOS, which will pay for you to have your own copy. Nice!)

If you want a copy of your bound dissertation for yourself, or to give as gifts to family or committee members, you have two main options. You can have it bound through ProQuest when you turn in your forms for the dissertation to be filed, but it is costly and the turnaround time is very long.

If only my bookshelves were this intersting

Another, local option, is to take your dissertation to the same place where the library gets its copies bound: Kater-Crafts in Pico Rivera.

Tucked away on a side street just off the Whittier exit on the 605, the marvelous 1950s design of the Kater-Crafts building.

It's a local business, has a fast turnaround time (4-6 weeks), and has a really amazing office about a 30 minute drive from campus. (10 West to 605 South, take exit 15 towards Whittier, take a Right on Whittier, a Right on Gregg, and Kater-Crafts is at 4860 Gregg Road). There are also ways to submit your dissertation to them digitally.

After spending $300 on photocopying my dissertation at Kinko's, I might as well have bound the thing in dollar bills!

I went on a little field trip to Kater-Crafts this week and fell in love with their custom book displays:

I don't know what a Whiskey Bible is, but after a year of dissertating, I think I need one.

They also do custom faux-book fronts for cabinets and shelving, which is way cool:

With the 100+ Honnold library books all over my workspace, my apartment almost already looks like this...

Walking around their front office reminded me of how very much I love books. Which is a rare feeling, after having felt completely overwhelmed by books for the past year. Maybe that is a side effect of finishing the dissertation... remembering the things you loved that got you started on this crazy process to begin with.

Oh yes. If *only* my dissertation were titled "Crawly Things From the Deep"

I wish I could say that I had my dissertation bound in something truly awesome and weird, but alas, I just went with the standard library binding, in deep blue Buckram, with gold foil lettering.

Speaking of weird....Darwin's Origin of Species bound in (I hope faux) monkey fur

The Tournament of Roses bound in football leather

I also ordered a copy for the Writing Center, so future CGU dissertators can take a peek at a sample.

So there you have it! Contact Kater-Crafts for pricing info. My dissertation, at 377 pages, only cost $25 to be bound. I also sprung an extra $11 for the gold lettering of the title to appear on the front cover as well as the spine. One copy will be going to the Writing Center, so stop by and check it out!

Best edition of Leaves of Grass ever?

Next Boot Camp: April 24 and 25

2010-04-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Feeling stuck in your process? Giant pencils are scientifically proven to help lift writing mood.

Is 2010 or 2011 starting to look like a great year to graduate? Then let us help you reach your dissertating goals!

The CGU Writing Center is offering a Dissertation Boot Camp on Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25. It's free, it's motivating, and it's two whole days to stop beating yourself up and come and get work done with people who know exactly what you're going through!

The Boot Camps fill up fast, so get thee to the Writing Center to put down a refundable deposit to hold your space.

You bring the laptop, the books, the paper, the work: the Boot Camp provides the coffee, lunch, yoga, space, and occasional reminders to TURN OFF THE INTERNET. :-)

Hope to see you there!

Demystifying the Defense

2010-03-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

Tis the season to defend dissertations! Since a number of us are defending this semester, as Tara warmly pointed out, the group's been exchanging ideas and information on defense preparation and strategies, and were lucky enough to have Marc Redfield, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities and Professor of English, come speak to us. (For previous posts on defense prep, check out the defense tag.)

Planning for your dissertation defense can be an anxious time, but it doesn't have to be the harrowing experience many of us build it up to be. The key, according to Prof. Redfield, is to approach the defense as the last chance to get some quality feedback on your work so you can file the strongest final dissertation draft possible--exploit the opportunity to your advantage.

Remember you're now the expert on your dissertation, so you're in a position to speak confidently about your work and its larger ramifications. At CGU, each school organizes its defenses a little differently, so make sure you speak with your dissertation chair about what's expected of you at each part of the defense. Typically, this is your opportunity to hold a meaningful conversation with your committee about the value of your work--relish it! It's not every day you can sit in a room and talk about your work with people who know about it and are interested in it! Prof. Redfield reminded us that if your dissertation chair allows you to schedule the defense, that's a clear sign that s/he believes it's defensible. At American universities, the defense may seem like a ritual, but you should prepare to speak about your work. This begins as simply as making sure you've read through your entire dissertation at least once. Another great tip is to attend someone else's defense, even if it's not in your field; the experience will help give you a better sense of how the process works. If your department is known for rigorous defenses, practice your presentation and try to set up a mock defense to help you prepare.

So what can you expect to happen the day of your defense?

Typically (and remember, each chair and department is different so make sure to talk to your chair!), the chair will introduce you and talk a little about your work, then you will be asked to talk about your work. At CGU, this ranges from a few minutes to a 20-25 minute presentation that gives an overview of your project. After this, comes the Q&A--possibly the most anxiety producing part of the defense. Your committee will ask you questions that will help you elaborate on points in your dissertation, and expand on what you chose to include or not, and why. As Prof. Redfield reminded us, at this point, it's appropriate to defend your work, and it's also appropriate to acknowledge any weaknesses. If you don't know, say so, don't pretend you do. It's ok to admit you don't know something but that you'll find out--that's how we learn and grow. This is also why it's appropriate to acknowledge a glitch you hadn't addressed--this is all part of the conversational exchange. At this point in the dissertation process, you should know what you set out to prove, what surprises you found along the way, and how your research differs from that of other scholars, so draw on these ideas as you weave together your responses.

Throughout the conversation, help yourself out by taking time with your responses. A good strategy is to write down the questions you're asked, and to ask for clarification on a question if you need it. Jotting down questions gives you the double advantage of helping you remember what was asked, and allows you to direct your responses as you move between questions. Your chair or committee members may also ask you what you'd change about your project if you had to do it over again, or what you're most pleased with, or consider your most original contribution to the subject.

Towards the end of the defense, your chair will ask you to address what future projects you envision developing out of your study. This is your chance to talk about the journal articles, conference papers, and books you have lined up or are planning. More importantly, this is the time to talk about how you plan to turn your dissertation into a publishable book, and get practical advice from the published scholars on your committee about how to best go about this.

That's the basic process! Once the committee confers in private, they'll then tell you whether or not you've passed. It's very rare that a dissertation is passed as it's submitted for the defense, so don't be surprised if your committee passes you with minor or major revisions. Once again, if you've gotten this far, it's because your chair thinks you're ready to defend. At CGU, we have a window of approximately two weeks after the last-most day to defend to file your final dissertation draft with the Registrar. Often, candidates have about 30 days after their actual defense date to file, so don't put off scheduling it!

Congratulations for finishing this milestone! We'll be calling you Dr. --- very soon!

***

Useful defense preparation tools:

"Defending Your Dissertation: Advice from a Doctoral Program Director and Journal Editor" by Mary Renck Jalongo, Ph.D.

"Perform Your Best at Your Orals" by Judith Schweiger Levy, Ph.D.
(aside: the ABD Survival Guide has lots of good tips for getting through the entire dissertation project)

Surviving Your Dissertation by Kjell Erik Rudestam and Rae R. Newton

The Portable Dissertation Advisor by Miles T. Bryant

Congratulations to Everyone Defending!

2010-03-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to send warm wishes and astonishingly astute thoughts to the members of our group defending their dissertations in the near, near future!

Marie - March 23
Tanya - March 25
Fay - March 25
Tara - March 26
Sandra - March 26
Aya - April 9

Just a note - even though defenses are open to the public, it's always considered polite form to ask the dissertator first if he or she would like the support. Some people would prefer a private or small defense, and others may have small rooms and large families. So if you're interested in attending a defense, just ask.

And if there is anyone else scheduled in the group, just send an e-mail.

Congratulations everyone!

Drop and Give Me 20 Paragraphs: The Dissertation Boot Camp

2010-02-16T14:03:00.000-08:00

Dissertating: like Les Miserables, only without the singing

On Saturday, February 6 and Sunday, February 7, the CGU Writing Center hosted its most recent Dissertation Boot Camp! There were a few changes this time around, including booking two houses to hold more campers.

At the end of the first day of yoga, Marie reminded the class of an important dissertation adage.

All grad students are perfectionists...to some extent, that's why we've succeeded this far in academia. But there comes a point in the dissertating process when perfectionism will cripple you. You have to let go - dare to be adequate. The dissertation doesn't need to be the best document known to man, it just has to be finished.

It has been scientifically proven that snacks bring words to the brain

As usual, the campers toiled the day away fueled by chocolate, coffee, and miscellaneous fruit.

Harrison Ford made a brief appearance.

Marie pie-charting the day away

For this Boot Camp, we booked the Graduate Student Council House as well as the CGU Writing Center. The GSC house has a full kitchen, several rooms, comfortable couches, a relaxing backyard, and great atmosphere. Thanks for opening your space to us, GSC!

The balancing act... a skill dissertators must use all the time.

For this Boot Camp, we were graced with not one, but two days of yoga! Marie lead the group on Saturday and Nancy Sassman returned to lead the group for Sunday.

Fearless leader pose.

While it rained and hailed outside, boot campers practiced yoga inside the dry comfort of the GSC house. Thank you again, GSC!

Give the baristas a chuckle! You might even get a free cup o' joe out of it.

We also have some Dissertator T-shirts left! Come by the Writing Center to buy one. They cost $12.50. They are available in several sizes, in white and red.

Use a fabric marker to check off the year of your graduation. Surprisingly, this feels like more of a commitment than any of the official forms!

Once again, the Boot Camp was a great hit! Thanks to everyone who came and shared their experience and brain power.

The next camp will be in April! If you've passed your qualifying exams and are working your dissertation, come join us!

2010 CA Community Colleges Job Fair

2010-01-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this picture doesn't make a lot of sense here. But it's prettier than a C.V.

For those of you interested in teaching at the community college level, you may be interested in this job fair:

2010 California Community Colleges Registry Job Fair

January 30, 2010
Westin Los Angeles Airport
5400 West Century Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045

It's free, no registration required.

Colleges that will be recruiting include: Cuesta College (SanLuis Obispo), El Camino College, Highline College (WA State), MiraCosta College,Portland College (OR State), Santa Barbara City College, Santa Monica College, SouthOrange County Community College District, Yosemite Community College.

for more information, click here.

If you're interested in carpooling, we'll send around a sign-up sheet at the next Dissertation Workshop meeting.

Deadlines for Spring 2010 Graduation

2009-12-19T19:28:00.000-08:00

Manuscript Deadlines

Several members of the Writing Center's Dissertation Workshop have their sights set on May graduation, which means defending in March / first few days of April. Depending on your discipline, you may have a much earlier deadline for the completed manuscript.

Did you know that some schools at CGU have official departmental manuscript deadlines for the dissertation, while others do not? (Everyone must make the final submission date to Edris, of course) If you don't know if your discipline has its own deadlines, talk to your department secretary or chair.

For example, manuscript deadlines for Spring 2010 graduation:

School of Arts and Humanities - no departmental manuscript deadline

School of Politics & Economics - full diss must be given to all committee members by February 1.

School of Religion - has a deadline for a style check. Religion students must submit a chapter to Betty Clements at the Claremont School of Theology approximately the same time, or at the end of the semester before they submit the complete preliminary draft to their committee (first day of the semester in which they plan to graduate). The style checker reads the sample chapter (fee $50) and sends a report to the committee chair and the chair of the School of Religion.

Defense Deadlines

February 19 - deadline to file Intent Form
March 22 - deadline to schedule defense for Spring degree
April 2 - deadline to defend for Spring degree
April 16 - final draft filing deadline

Is there a manuscript deadline for your school? If so, e-mail me and I'll add it to the list.

Mistakes are the portals of discovery

2009-10-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

Damn You, Microsoft Word

2009-09-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

This post can help you avoid the tears and/or pure fury
associated with some problems in Microsoft Word.

Since we've been talking about revamping CVs, the next logical step would be discussing what happens when you try to make neat little columns in Word. You know, you have the job that you had on the left of the line, all neatly lined up, and then you want the date you worked all the way on the right.

Something like this....

Research Assistant for Dr. Joe Schmoe, "Intro to Brain Surgery"

Fall 2008Research Assistant for Dr. Jane Main, "Underwater Basketweaving"

Spring 2008

(ironically, in blogger, I can't put them on the same line...but you get the idea)

You'll want "Research Assistant" flush against the left margin, and "Fall 2008" on the same line, flush right.

So you manually space the date all the way to the right margin, and it looks great!

Until you print it out. And for some reason, all the dates are slightly off, so it looks something like this:

Fall 2008

Spring2008..

Spring 2009

And it is maddening.

And then you try to make columns, and suddenly, words are jumping all over the page in every place but where you want them...

Research Assistant for Dr. Joe Schmoe, "Intro to Brain Surgery"

Fall 2008

Research Assistant for Dr. Jane Main, "Underwater Basketweaving"

Spring 2008

You start fiddling around with it, get evil messages like "The number must be between 1 and 45," and the stuff you want on the right column is still on the left no matter how many times you hit return, and you scream,

"I JUST WANT THE DAMN DATES TO BE ON THE RIGHT!"

So here's help.

How to Make Columns

If you need one thing on the line to be justified left, and one thing on the line to be justified right, the solution you need is to put the text into columns.

Highlight the text, then go up to "Format" and select "Columns." From there, you can choose if you want 2 or 3 columns. But what if your left hand column needs to be bigger, to fit more text, and your right hand column just tiny, for dates only? Well, funny you should ask...

How to Make Columns Different Sizes

1) Go up to the top of the screen, where it says "Format." Open the pull-down box.

2) Click on "Columns."

3) Deselect the check box that says "Equal Columns Width."

4) Now you can change the width of the boxes.

Formatting problems can seem so meaningless and small...
and yet insanely frustrating

How to Get the Stupid Column Things to Work

When the Words Are Bouncing All Over the Place

1) Put everything into 1 column first. Highlight the body of the text that you want in columns. Don’t highlight empty lines above or below text.

2) Go up to "Format."

3) Click on "Columns."

4) Choose either 1, 2, or 3 columns, or Left (2 different sized columns, with the one on the left being shorter / thinner than the one on the right) or Right (shorter on right)

5) Now once your text is in columns, put the cursor where you want the first column to end.

6) Go up to "Insert."

7) Get the pulldown menu and select "Break..."

8) Click on "Column Break"

9) Put the Column Break in at the end of Column 1!

Work-Arounds for the Problem of Merging Files

Recently, a dissertator wrote to the Writing Center, desperate for help:

"This is a formatting problem: when I put all my chapters together into one document, I got some dotted lines which, no matter how hard I try, I can not remove. They look like page breaks or something. Please help!"

The matter of whether or not to save individual chapters as individual word document files or to merge them into one big file has come up in the Dissertation Workshop before. Because this problem happens from time to time, here are some suggestions that might be useful:

1) You might consider not merging all the files into one file. One woman in the Dissertation Workshop who just passed her defense mentioned that she never merged her files into one file. What she did was save all the chapters as their own files, then she used the page function in Microsoft Word to get the pagination correct.

For example, say Chapter 1 is 32 pages long. Then you'd go into Chapter 2 and tell Microsoft Word to number the pages, starting with 33. It may be a little cumbersome, but if you're pulling your hair out over

2) Try talking to someone in IT at the Help Desk. Help Desk - helpdesk@cgu.edu, or toll free at (800) 630-8893, local number (909) 621-8174 or 18174 on campus. Sunny (Training Manager, sunny.chau@cgu.edu) is really helpful!

3) Have you talked to Edris Stuebner, the Registrar? Even if she can't help you specifically with this problem, you'll have to meet her anyway when you're ready to submit, so may as well stop by. She might be able to refer you to someone else who can help.

4) Have you tried printing out a dotted-line section to see if it only appears on-screen? It's possible that they're just showing on screen but won't print.

Still Need Help?

If you're still having a problem, please don't e-mail the Writing Center about tech issues. We don't know either!

You might try posting your tech problem on Yahoo Answers. Surprisingly, tech questions on there are often answered within minutes.

If any of you have run across solutions that have helped you in Microsoft Word, please post 'em!

Interfolio Planetary, Planetary Interfolio!

2009-09-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Mailbox in front of the Claremont Post Office

(If the title of this entry makes you need to hear the Beastie Boys, here's the link!)

Now that hiring season is upon several of us, it is a good time to start thinking about ways to organize your application documents and promote yourself as a candidate.

When she came and talked to our group, Jackee Engles from Career Management mentioned Interfolio as one option for preparing your job applications. And with Philip Clayton returning to speak to our group about CVs next meeting, it seems like an appropriate time to discuss Interfolio.

So what is Interfolio? What does it do? What does it cost? Should you try it?

That's what today's post is all about!

I joined Interfolio last night to gather information for the group and see how I like its functionality. It's too soon for me to know yet how much I like it, but here is the initial information you might want to get started.

The breakdown:

Where do I find it? www.interfolio.com

How much does it cost? $19 for 1 year, $40 for 3 years, $57 for 5 years. Fees for sending individual documents based on pages and mailing (priority, overnight, overnight express)

Doesn't our school offer a free service? Nope. The service our school recommends is Interfolio.

Why would I need it for more than a year? In case you don't find a job during this round, in case you go on the market again, or in case you get a good "starter" job, but want to move on to something else.

What's it do? Holds all of your documents in one place (letters of rec, transcripts, statements of teaching philosophy, etc.) and will mail them or e-mail them for you when you ask it to! (for a cost, of course)

Of course, you could store your documents yourself...

Does it do anything else? It currently has an online portfolio webpage system in beta testing, which is sort of like your own website where you can advertise whatever you do. Because it is in beta testing, it has some quirks (for example, not being able to change font size, links to enlarge pictures not working). But it's also FREE at the moment (when you subscribe to interfolio's dossier service)

Click here to see a sample portfolio page to see what it looks like.

It's a little buggy at the moment, but once they get the kinks ironed out, it should be a really fantastic tool. When it goes live, they will charge for it, so it would be advantageous to get on and try it now while its free.

How does it work? You upload your documents and you send requests to your letter writers to upload their docs. When you're ready to send off applications, you click on which documents get sent where, in what form, and how fast you want them to go (you can pay for expedited service, tracking, etc. if you need to.)

What if I'm a technophobe? What if my letter writers are computer illiterate? You can send documents to interfolio by mail as well. The interface on the system (so far as I can tell) is very basic - only a few buttons to choose from, very clearly designed.

Will it look as nice as it would if I did it myself? What about university letterhead? This is something I'm still waiting to see. Since your letter writers can still send interfolio letters by mail, it would seem that the letterhead would be scanned as well. And at the end of the day, the weight of paper or the precision paperclipping that you do probably does not matter that much - certainly not as much as having all of your applications materials in order, presented together, and submitted on time. If you are particularly paranoid about paper, you could use interfolio for most of your applications, and then do the most important, long-shot application by hand. Interfolio could save you a lot of time on applications, allowing you to just focus on your #1 job.

What if I still have more questions? Their help page is here.

If you have any experiences with Interfolio or tips that you'd like to share, please leave a comment. Happy job hunting!

Boot Camps for the Fall

2009-09-15T00:31:00.000-07:00

Come on by the Writing Center on Tuesday, Sept. 15, from 3-6 for our Open House!

Due to the overwhelming success of the Dissertation Boot Camp, the CGU Writing Center is proud to offer not one, but two more Boot Camps for the fall semester!

That's right! More coffee, more yoga, more real-determined-people-typing-like-demons on a weekend morning!

The next boot camp will be:

Saturday, October 3rd and Sunday, October 4th

You can come for one or both days. To register for the boot camp, please stop by the Writing Center and bring a $50 deposit check, which will be returned to you when you come to the boot camp.

Due to the size of the Writing Center and to help foster a tight-knit sense of community over the weekend, the boot camp is limited to 12 people. Because there are far more people who want to participate than we have room for, it is really important that those who sign up come - which is why this time we are requesting a deposit to hold your place.

If for some reason you cannot attend either day, as long as you notify the Writing Center by 9 a.m. Friday, October 2nd, you will receive your deposit check back. Otherwise, your $50 will be used to buy more giant pencils for the Writing Center. (kidding?)

The Writing Center's entry in Claremont's 2009 4th of July parade

If you can't come to this boot camp or it fills up before you can sign up, don't worry! There's another one scheduled for the winter:

Saturday, December 12th and Sunday, December 13th

Hope to see you there!

Conducting Interviews

2009-09-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

In addition to his many talents, Bennett McClellan is a raw food chef
and has shared his delectable creations with our workshop.
Photo courtesy of Raw Food Chef.

Today's guest blogger is Bennett McClellan, member of our workshop and soon-to-be CGU Ph.D. in Management. Bennett was kind enough to type up his thoughts and processes for conducting interviews for his dissertation research:

Tips for Getting Interviews Done

Here are some of the ideas I’m using to complete the 40 interviews I need as primary research for my dissertation:

1. Get a big (wall) calendar and decide how much time you need to get all of the interviews done. I need to complete forty interviews. If I do one interview per weekday, I will need 8 weeks total. I decided I needed about two months. August and September. I will try to compress my interviews, front load them into August so that September becomes a safety month. But my goal is one interview per day for eight weeks. The math works.

2. Block out a period for each day you intend to work that you will commit to the interview process. Let’s say you committed Mondays through Wednesdays, 9 am to 1 pm, for interviews. Even If you do not book an interview in this time, you will work on some aspect of interviewing during this period. This will include looking for contacts, sending out emails, making phone calls to schedule interviews, editing notes, abstracting data, or sending thank you letters. Something. For the entire period you have committed. No carving around the edges. Potty breaks only!

3. Draft all the solicitation materials and thank you materials you need to set up and follow up with the interviews. This includes an abstract of your proposal, a consent form, a brief email summary of what you want, a thank you letter, etc. (Some of this needs to go to IRB as well.) You will simply cut and paste these materials as you need them. Resist the temptation to edit or modify each message for your intended recipient.

4. Enlist a “lap coach” to whom you will report progress daily. This person is not your academic advisor and is NOT your spouse. Just someone who kind of understands what you are trying to do and who can say “why not?” if you don’t get it done or “good job!” if you do. And whose nudging will not piss you off after 5 weeks of interviews.

* * * * *

“Enlist a 'lap coach' to whom you will report progress daily.”

- Bennett McClellan on accountability

* * * * *

5. Make a report each day at the end of the day to your lap coach. What did you get DONE that day? Don’t go into what you did not get done. Do not mention excuses. The reports look like this: “Dear Lap Coach: 5 people called, 1 interview completed, two interviews scheduled, 1 note edited. Thank you for keeping me honest!” That’s it.

6. If you have a friend, spouse, research assistant, or someone willing to take on the task of scheduling interviews, this will save you an ENORMOUS amount of time. You provide the contact list, the texts for solicitation, and the windows of opportunity on your interview schedule. It helps to set up a separate email address so that interview scheduling is the only thing that comes and goes to this address. Then you give your scheduler control of your interview schedule. You do NOT change the interview schedule to accommodate your whimsy. That privilege is reserved for those you interview. Your scheduler must feel in control of your time. Otherwise, it’s why bother?

7. Give your interview schedule lots of room at the edges. I’m happy if I complete one interview a day. I’m in heaven if I complete two. And I’m in hell if I complete three. Really! Each interview takes about a dozen email exchanges to set up, moves about 2.5 times, and takes about 6 hours from “Hello” filed as “Interview Complete”. You need to leave room at the margins.

* * * * *

“I'm happy if I complete one interview a day. I'm in heaven if I complete two. And I'm in hell if I complete three.”

- Bennett McClellan, on the need to build time into your schedule

* * * * *

8. Finish each interview note the day you have the interview. Yes, I know you will remember every detail of every conversation for the rest of your life. But you won’t remember much of anything about the last interview once you finish the next interview. Get each note done NOW! And if not NOW, then at 5 am the next morning before you take the next interview.

9. Make a completion chart for your wall. Like a big grid. Make a column for each of the important items you need to track (you can do this in Excel as well). Like Name, organization, phone number, email address, date you first contacted them, date & time the interview is scheduled, when you interview was actually completed, when the note was completed. This chart will help you track your progress. It’s also a great kick to see it fill up!

10. Plan celebrations at key milestones. One fourth of the way there. Half way there. Three fourths of the way there. Do this for interviews scheduled as well as for interviews completed. You have to do something to keep yourself going. This helps!

11. Buy a gift for your lap coach. Buy a gift for your scheduler. Thank these people profusely for helping you complete your interviews.

* * * * *

“Thank these people profusely for helping you complete your interviews.”

- Bennett McClellan

* * * * *

12. You now have the interviews in a binder (or electronic file, or whatever). Congratulations! Now get to work analyzing the data. You may want to keep your lap coach on the team for to keep your process on track as you report pages completed, chapters completed, etc. Having to be accountable to someone for your actions is a great way to keep yourself on track.

Thank you for the helpful tips, Bennett!

Writing 5 Pages a Week

2009-09-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

Recently, my dissertation chair advised that I make 5 pages a week my writing goal. It's a pretty feasible number, so when you sit down to do it, you don't feel overwhelmed. At the same time, each time I set out to do it, I always end up writing beyond the 5 pages. So it's been a successful guide, so far.

I shared this with the group a few weeks ago, and now several others decided to give this a try as well.

Depending on what type of dissertation you are writing and what stage you are in, the "5 pages a week" goal can be modified to fit whatever you need. Tanya, for example, is reading many, many pages of testimony for her dissertation, so she suggested she might make a goal of how many witnesses a week to finish, or how many pages of testimony to read a week.

Another goal might be a time frame, for example, "I will write for 2 hours every day."

Try it out - pick a number of hours, or a number of pages, or even a number of paragraphs if you're really struggling.

How do you keep writing a certain amount consistently?

You say to yourself, "Every day, let's pretend like I know what I'm doing!" Jumping around to different parts of your dissertation is fine - there's no rule that says you have to write sequentially, and just about no one does.

You might start with an introduction, just to get your mind started. John started off with a fascinating quote to get himself motivated. You can always cut and paste it and put it elsewhere.

You might also try outlining to get started - outline section by section the whole dissertation, or just the particular chapter you want to work on.

John said that he recently met with his chair, who said, "No more outlines! Put it in writing!" So he wrote 5 pages at once, then used the rest of the week to tweak them.

Soomi also worked on a schedule, but used data sets as her measurement instead of pages.

So if you're at a stuck place and need to make some fake deadlines for yourself, try 5 pages a week and see what happens!

Your Questions, Problems, and Solutions

2009-09-01T13:46:00.000-07:00

For today's post, the pictures speak for themselves. We had each group member write on the board a problem they've been wrestling with this week and then as a group we offered possible solutions.

Whether it's killing time on the internet, chowing down on chocolate, or struggling to organize chapters, you'd be surprised how much dissertators have in common.

Question: How do I stop playing internets? (grin)

Stop beating yourself up. The more you beat yourself up for killing time on the internet, the worse you'll feel, and the harder it will be to focus on your dissertation again.
Go to a cafe where there's no wireless.
Find the button on your laptop that turns the wireless off. TURN IT OFF!
If you're really serious about it, call your internet service provider and either turn your service off for a "vacation" or cancel it for good. (read: cold turkey)
Give yourself a designated time to check e-mail, etc. Then only check then. Stick to it.
Use the internet as a treat. "I will go on the net as a reward for finishing Chapter Two."
Set a timer with a buzzer. Then work until the timer goes off and you allow yourself some net time.

Question: How do I stop eating chocolate?

Figure out what's driving you to the chocolate. What's the payoff for you when you eat chocolate? If you can determine that, then you're more able to replace it with something else.
Try substituting gum or other chewy / crunchy foods for the chocolate.
Buy bite sizes of the chocolate, so it's easier to eat smaller portions and keep track of how much you are eating.
Drink water or tea instead.
Don't stop! If you're not gaining tons of weight and your teeth aren't falling out, are you really sure you need to stop the chocolate? Is it really doing you any harm? The dissertation really isn't the best time to make major life changes. You can always give up caffeine, chocolate, etc after you finish. It might be worthwhile for your stress levels and sanity to just let yourself have some vices during this time.

Question: How can I read faster?

Judge the book by its introduction. If you really don't like the intro, that can be a real indicator of the style of that author, the argument she is making, or the information in the book. You don't need to read every single page of every single book on your list. Consider moving on if you find a book that doesn't seem to be useful or accessible.
Determine what your goal for reading is before you begin.
Use the "cheap way" to read the book: Read the index, preface, table of contents, and chapter titles first. This will give you the big picture of the book. Then you can scan for the areas that are most important for your research. Remember, a good scholar knows what not to read. Don't waste time reading items that won't be useful for your purpose.

Question: How can I do the reading and writing at the same time?

One idea is to have your laptop out and spread your reading around you. Read for a bit, then go to the laptop to make notes, then read some more. You could do a synopsis of your reading or go into RefWorks and add notes on the material you're reading.

Question: What other verbs can I use?

Some professors will advise you to avoid jargon verbs, or recent trendy verbs or phrases, such as "to process" something (try "to reflect upon" instead) or "to unpack" (try "analyze" instead).
Use the list of "signal phrases" found in Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference. You can find the information online, check out a copy at the library, or look at the copies at the CGU Writing Center (also available for checkout).
Try declare, explore, further, demonstrate, study, examine, identify, imply, theorize

Question: How do I force myself to write about x?

Ask yourself, "What don't I like about x? Why do I think x isn't the main point?" Be critical. This could lead you to the way you're going to talk about x.
Take the opposite position of how you feel, defend the opposite side. This can be a great writing exercise to start with.
Recognize that critical trends change over time. Maybe writing about x was really important in the past, but is it still that way now?
You might be the new Judith Butler or the new Edward Said of your field - meaning, the person who breaks from the critical tradition with a whole new way of looking at the topic. Give x a brief mention or nod in your text, but then go on to what you see as even more important. Create your own brand of critical theory as the scholar who does x...or not!
Footnote x.
Suck it up and write about x!
Eat more chocolate.

Question: I have the big roadmap of my dissertation, but how do I plan out the smaller, more detailed close-up map?

Write the subheadings and guides first, then write around them. For example, write your table of contents, list your chapter titles, create your headings and subheadings.
Figure out your sequence. Imagine that your dissertation is a short story or a novel. What's the climax of the story? Who's your main character? Then start writing right there. Kill all the backstory - only include what's essential to set up the climax, which is what your dissertation is about.

Question: How do I start writing when I'm stuck on the first chapter?

Try starting with your last chapter, which may help clarify where you end up. Once you know the end point, it may be easier to start the beginning.
Define the terms that you will be using, or your methodology.

Protecting Your Time / Setting Boundaries

2009-08-23T18:56:00.000-07:00

It's hard to get a grip on time.

At a recent meeting, someone brought up the perennial problem of Other People.

You know.

The people who say, "You're not working, so can you do this for me?"

Or who decide that now would be a really good time to come and stay with you. For a week.

Or who find out that you quit you job to finish your dissertation, and say, "You're so lucky not to be doing anything!"

Or who keep asking you, "Did you finish that paper yet?"

Or even worse.... "You're still working on that?"

There can be a lot of shame and guilt wrapped up in writing a dissertation, which is compounded by people who just have no idea of what you're going through.

So how do you protect your time so that you have the time and space you need to get this thing finished?

This was the topic of a recent meeting.

"The dissertation's showing me that a lot of my relationships are actually lopsided," one dissertator in the group said. "I finally had to say, please don't call me before 5:00 p.m. Or tell them, 'it's best for me to talk to you at 7:00 p.m. And then don't pick up the phone if it does ring."

"I tell people not to call me when I am writing unless it is an emergency. When they did call, I let it go to voicemail, and then called them back after 5:00. I put it on me. I said, 'It's important to me to talk to you, but I'm not answering the phone until after 5:00.'"

"What we're doing, it's not like a 9 to 5 job like everyone else has. It's like you're self-employed. So you have to set the boundaries. I'll tell people ahead of time, I'm going to the library, so I can't talk. Or I use my weekends to write my dissertation, so I can't go to movies on weekends."

"It's not my friends that are the problem...it's my family! You just have to remind yourself, don't buy into the shame and guilt. Whenever people ask you to do things, ask yourself, what can you actually control? What can you afford to do right now?"

"You have to model for other people how to behave towards a dissertator. People always ask if you're done because they don't know what else to ask. Just tell them what you need right now, even if its space or not to talk about the dissertation at all."

Setting your boundaries can be one of the hardest parts of writing the dissertation. But being blunt and honest with your friends, colleagues, and family can make a world of difference. Even just using the phrase, "I have to protect my time to write the dissertation" can be extremely useful.

You can also bargain with people. "I can't come to the party on Friday night, because that's when I do my writing, but would you like to do coffee on Saturday instead?"

Cash For Clunkers (Printer Edition)

2009-08-20T22:09:00.001-07:00

Famous scene from the 1999 hit, "Office Space."

As many of you know, a few members of our group have been on a Quest For A Decent Printer. You know the drill...years ago, you were suckered into buying a cheap printer at Costco, because, well, it was cheap. And you've been paying for it in $40 ink cartridges and crappy, sideways-eaten paper jams ever since.

The cheap grad student in you won't allow you to throw out a printer that, okay, technically, sorta works.

But as Margaret, Tanya, and several others have noted, going into your dissertation, you're going to be printing a lot. So it's worth the investment to finally put the nail in the coffin and upgrade to a printer that doesn't make you homicidal.

The student loan checks for the fall semester will be released soon, so you might want to know about this deal:

Office Depot (location nearest to CGU is 2268 Foothill in La Verne, on the south side of Foothill near the Edwards movie theatre) is having a promotion where they'll take your crappy old printer - it doesn't matter what kind - and they'll recycle it for free and give you $50 towards a purchase of a HP printer. The promotion runs August 2nd through September 26th. Only certain HP purchases apply, there's a list on the website.

Traded in a much-despised Lexmark Z55 for a HP Officejet Pro 8500 (in its enormous box)

In addition, if you sign up as a teacher (adjuncting counts!) you get a 10% discount on top of the $50 off.

Price of the printer, minus automatic rebate, printer trade-in, and teacher discount

$50 for that hunk of junk ink-vampire that's cluttering up your desk and making your laptop announce "The printer is jammed" every five and a half seconds.

And they'll recycle it, so you won't have "I just gave a shitty printer to some poor sucker at Goodwill" on your conscience.

Who hasn't fantasized about dragging their printer out into a field and beating the living daylights out of it?

Wrapping It Up

2009-07-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Graduation cake of Dr. Sara Moslener, CGU Religion Ph.D. '09

Wrapping it up. There are still a few steps left in submitting your dissertation after a successful defense.

Edris Stuebner (Assistant registrar) came to one of our sessions (see April 7th blog) with a handout containing instructions for turning in the dissertation to the registrar, format, fees, microfilming, binding, etc. I tried to follow the information on the handouts to a T, and this helped on the day I actually submitted my dissertation to Edris (and yes, she does count all the pages!).

The handout can be located at http://www.cgu.edu/PDFFiles/Office%20of%20Records%20forms/Forms/Prep_Dissertations.pdf

On the day I decided to turn in my dissertation, I took one copy to Edris for her to ok before I made the second copy (no point in having 2 copies with mistakes). She okayed the format, etc. and I went to make the additional copy and fill out all the forms (there is a national survey and forms for microfilming and copyrighting).

I also needed a personal check and a cashier's check. One of the options is to copyright your dissertation. I decided to do this and therefore needed a $65 cashier's check with an expiration date later than 7 months from that day's date.

This was one of the most challenging aspects of the final wrap up.

Bank of America's cashier's checks have a 90 day expiration date (although they claim they can be cashed after the date, but I didn't want to take any chances). U.S. Bank's cashier's checks have a 6 month expiration date. Chase bank's cashier's checks have no expiration date, so I opened an account on the spot (with cash, or else my personal check would take 7 days to clear before I could access my new account and get the free cashier's check).

When I returned to Edris for final submission I mentioned how hard it was to get a cashier's check with a late expiration date and she said Stater Brothers (the grocery store in Claremont) would do them for a fee of $1. Had I known that, I would have saved myself the hassle of running around to 3 banks.

I also chose not to have the same company that officially microfilms and binds your dissertation, bind my personal copies. I chose Kater-Crafts in Pico Rivera to bind my copies. Their minimum charge is $75, but that binds three dissertations. The other "official" company that microfilms your dissertation charged something like $147 for two copies. Plus, Kater-Craft's turn around time is 4-6 weeks (much quicker than the "official" company). They accept dissertations in person, by mail, or by email.

I also should mention that I wished I had done my dedication and acknowledgments much sooner than after my defense (perhaps in one of those lulls when I couldn't seem to get anything written). By the time I was done with the defense, I just wanted to turn in my dissertation to the registrar, and never see it again. Instead, I had to take a couple of extra days to complete these items.

(note from Tara: this is a guest post by Margaret MacKenzie, newly minted Ph.D. Thanks for the great advice, Margaret! For more of Margaret's tips, see here).

Tips from the Other Side: Margaret Finishes!

2009-07-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

There may be days when it feels like you'll never finish...but someone in our group just has!

On July 6th, Margaret successfully defended her dissertation! As the most recent member of our group to pass the finish line, Margaret offered some sage advice about her experience.

Dr. Margaret MacKenzie

This included:

BUY A DECENT PRINTER. The little aggravations, like having a crappy printer? They're not worth it. I invested in a laser printer...I bought it for $800 a few years ago, they probably sell for a lot less now. I got a Hewlett Packard 3005 Business Printer. Prints 5000 pages on one ink cartridge. It's high volume - you can print up lots and lots and lots of pages and it lasts forever. (Tanya also bought a printer specifically for her dissertation). I printed 1,200 pages at home, which was was cheaper than going to Kinko's. You can get some printers that have the photocopying function as well.

MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR YOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS. I printed every chapter out all over again before giving it out to my committee members one final time before the defense. I binder-clipped individual chapters, and then gathered all the binder-clipped chapters together in one expandable file folder (since the whole thing is too big to staple). It was 326 pages long. I went to Staples, put each professor's name on a label sticker and put the labels on the folders, then put the folders in their mailboxes. The professors later thanked me for giving them their own binder-clipped copies. Ideally, I'd put these in their boxes 2-3 weeks before the defense.

On the day of the defense, I brought Some Crust cookies and cold bottles of water for my committee. If my defense had been in the morning, I would have brought coffee.
PRACTICE YOUR PRESENTATION. I slept the night before my defense, no problem, because I knew I was prepared. My committee chair had suggested, "PowerPoint is quite useful at this stage," so I put together a PowerPoint presentation and practiced it twice a day, every day. I don't know if that's typical for other defenses, but I made 60 slides and used them as notes / outlines for myself as I talked. The defense was at noon, so I set up my breakfast preparations the night before.
DRESS AHEAD. My defense was in McManus 31, a basement classroom, right after the 4th of July, so I knew the room would probably be warm because CGU turns off the air during holidays. So I wore layers. I dressed dressy casual (dress pants, sweater top, short sleeves), hair back. I get warm when I'm embarrassed, so I wanted short sleeves.
KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT. In my department, they announce the defenses to the whole listserve and invite everyone, so a totally random person came. But that was good - I could explain more basic material to her, and she didn't ask questions (although she could have). My defense lasted about 90 minutes. I got in there half an hour early to set up with AV - the secretary of my department reserved the room and AV.

BRING FORMS. The secretary had taken care of the official form, but had asked me to bring the title page and signature page to get them to sign then and there. It's good to remind them to sign it at the end, because they often pack up and leave soon afterwards. And who wants to track them down later?
THANK EVERYONE BEFORE YOU START. Thank them, then introduce everyone before you start.
GET EDRIS TO OKAY ONE COPY BEFORE YOU MAKE THE OTHERS. I took Stephanie's advice (Stephanie McKinney, recent CGU Ph.D. in History who came and talked to our group) and only took 1 copy in to Edris. Then, only after it cleared with Edris, did I go and make the other copies.

Congratulations, Margaret! Tullach Ard!

(the MacKenzie war cry)

Curious about Margaret's dissertation? She kindly made an extra copy for the Writing Center's library. Stop on by and take a gander at it!

Dissertation Boot Camp

2009-07-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Are you looking at this blog right now, when you should be writing?!

On Saturday, July 25th and Sunday, July 26th, the CGU Writing Center had its first official Dissertation Boot Camp, open to all students at CGU who are ABD and working on their dissertations. The camp filled almost immediately, so there is really a demand at CGU for this type of event.

The "hard core" writers in the back room.

The idea for the Boot Camp originally came from a trip Tara made to the Graduate Writing Center at Yale. (CGU's Writing Center and Yale's Graduate Writing Center are some of the only graduate-only writing centers in the U.S.) Tara met with the center's director, Elena Kallestinova, who told her about Yale's Dissertation Boot Camp. Tara liked the idea so much, she brought it back to CGU!

The philosopher and mathematician gravitated to the middle room.

Campers arrived early in the morning (8 a.m.!) and staked out workspaces in one of the Writing Center's rooms.

Campers came prepared with coffee mugs, book stands, laptops, and roller bags.

All of the tables were covered in butcher paper so that you could jot down ideas, sketch, or write notes to yourself throughout the day.

A sample work station.

One room had background music playing, the others were silent. Tutors Tara and Eric worked in the front room, making camp near a cabinet and on the sofa.

Whatever is happening in this picture, it is *intense*!

Some people like to spread out.

Like the earlier test run, the boot camp featured a very Californian take on the typical boot camp experience....yoga under the oak trees and fresh sushi!

On Saturday, Nancy Sassman lead the group in a one hour yoga session.

Nancy leads the crew in Warrior II.

On Sunday, boot camper Marie lead the group.

A shady respite from dissertating.

After stretching and relaxing, it was back to work!

Fingers furiously typing.

At 12:30, everyone broke for lunch. This was a great opportunity to meet other people at CGU who are also working on their dissertations, hear about their projects, and commiserate!

Sharing advice over chow.

At 2:30, everyone headed to the back yard for a stretch break, in this case, involving Affirmation Frisbee (great idea, Fay!)....where it doesn't matter how bad you are at throwing or catching, because everyone will find something positive to say about it!

A common sight during Affirmation Frisbee...picking up the frisbee.

It was a very productive weekend for everyone! The Boot Camp was so popular, we hope to offer it at least once a semester in the future. Stay tuned for the next one!

The end of a long, productive weekend!

Building a Winning CV

2009-06-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

Stop by Career Management, across from Harvey Mudd on Dartmouth,
and say hi to Jackee Engles!

At our recent meeting, Jackee McNitt Engles, Assistant Director of the CGU Office of Career Management, was kind enough to share her knowledge about curriculum vitae development. She even brought each of us a wonderful booklet, Building a Professional CV, to use for future reference.

CVs are much longer than resumes, tending toward completeness rather than being concise. It is acceptable for your CV to be as long as it takes to highlight everything relevant to the position. Name dropping is acceptable in CVs when it is relevant.

CVs have a very flexible format, although education is always listed first. CVs contain many more categories than resumes. List categories in order of importance, then use reverse chronology within each category. How you construct your CV says something about your personality. Regardless of how you construct yours, make sure that it is clean, consistent, and readable. Katie mentioned that she has a master CV that she tailors to each job. Jackee said this was a great idea.

The "heart and soul" of a CV is the accomplishment statement. This differs from a job description because it gives you the opportunity to describe what you actually did, rather than what the job required. It is extremely important to quantify your experience in terms of scope and results. The group took turns writing sample accomplishment statements. For example: "Increased sales 50% in the first year of business."

Jackee reminded us that your CV is one tool in your job search arsenal. By far the most important tool will be your personal contacts.

She recommended that if you use a portfolio, it would be appropriate to take it to an interview, but for the application it is better to post it on a website and list the link to it on your CV.

Jackee also told us about a service called interfolio, which applicants can use (for a fee) to store, manage, and send electronic and print files. http://www.interfolio.com/.

Is there anything I should leave off of my CV? Definitely leave off information that is illegal to ask. For example, leave out information about your marital status or age. There's a reason these questions are illegal. People do have biases. Typically, you would also leave out hobbies and personal information, but there is the exception to the rule - in some cases it makes sense to add them. And if you have volunteer work, definitely add that under a separate heading for volunteer work.

How far back should a CV go? CVs can go back forever if relevant, but at least ten years.

What font should I use for my CV? 12 point is ideal; 11 is the smallest. Any font that is standard in emailed documents will work, such as Times New Roman, Arial, and Garamond.

How should I send a paper version of my CV? Paperclip pages together and put a running header with your name, email, and phone number on each page except the first one.

How do you ask for an informational interview? Call the person and say that (your contact person's name) suggested that I call you. Ask for 15 minutes of the person's time, although it would be extremely rare for the informational interview to limit it to 15 minutes.

What if you aren't sure of your exact quantifications (in your accomplishment statements)? You need to feel comfortable with what you have written. If you aren't it will show in an interview. If you are not sure of your exact numbers, use qualifier words like "approximately" in your statemtents.

What additional services does your office offer? I thought you would never ask. Page 15 (of the booklet) lists our additional services, as does our website www.cgu.edu/ocm. Also, in my office I have a list of 500 alumni in various fields who are willing to conduct informational interviews.

Dissertation Boot Camp Test Run

2009-06-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

You didn't think it'd be *all* drill sargeants and pushups, did you?

On Saturday, June 6, we did a test run for the Dissertation Boot Camp, which will run Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26 (to give the most people a chance to attend, we may have different sign-ups for the different days - let's see how the RSVP list goes).

The schedule for the test run was as follows:

8:00 a.m. - Begin by writing out your goal for the day.
9:00 a.m. - Work, work, work.
10:30 a.m. - Yoga session with Nancy Sassaman
11:00 a.m. - Work, work, work.
12:30 p.m. - Lunch / phone / internet break (Sushi)
1:00 p.m. - Work, work, work.
2:30 p.m. - Outdoor "Affirmation Frisbee" break
3:00 p.m. - work work work

We met at the CGU Writing Center and made camp in the two tutoring rooms, each with butcher-papered tables. The rooms were stocked with candy and junk food (turns out, too much!) and the kitchen was stocked with coffee, tea, juice, and sushi.

We learned that sushi + wasabi = alert grad students.

We also learned that Cheddar Cheese Pringles are pretty much carbohydrate meth. So we're going to skip them next time.

The rules:

- No cell phones
- No internet*
- No talking

* Because using the internet is sometimes necessary during writing, we designated a time during lunch that allowed internet and phone use. The idea is: if you feel you have to get on the net, write down what you want to check up on, then move on. When the internet break comes, then you can look it up.

Fay had a fun variation on the internet rule: every time she was tempted to use the net, she drew a heart next to her laptop. The hearts added up pretty quickly!

Although we originally planned to have a "quiet room" and a "background music room," everyone wanted music, so we left the doors open and used iPods and a docking station to play classical / instrumental / wordless music (including Mozart, Irish trad, and cellist Zoe Keating).

This worked really well, so when we do the real deal, everyone should bring their iPods and their favorite writing music.

The group turned loose on the back lawn for energy / stretch breaks. We were incredibly lucky to have the talents of Nancy Sassaman to lead us in a yoga session underneath the oak trees.

Imagining what life will be like when the dissertation is done...

Nancy has agreed to come and do another session for the real Dissertation Boot Camp in July, and we are so thrilled to have her!!!

Nancy demonstrates "Happy Baby" pose, a great counter-pose to "Been Sittin' On My Butt All Day Typing" pose

The lawn behind the Writing Center is ideal for picnicing, group frisbee, and hopefully....croquet. If the Writing Center can get ahold of a cheap croquet set, there will definitely be some mallet-whacking at the next Boot Camp!

So, mark your calendars: July 25-26 2009: Dissertation Boot Camp.

Philip Clayton on the Academic Job Hunt

2009-06-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Prof. Philip Clayton tells it like it is

Professor Clayton, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at CGU and Ingraham Professor of Theology at the Claremont School of Theology, kindly joined our group to answer some tough questions about the job market for academics.

To learn more about Professor Clayton, be sure to check out his website, Clayton's Emergings.

Would you tell us a little about yourself?

In college, I dropped out, traveled around Europe for a while, did my first Master's, worked for a world hunger organization. I had an idea for my dissertation and wrote it out - I had a 200 page dissertation in hand when I came back to Yale.

They looked at it and said, "Your topic's no good."

"But I have 200 pages!" I said. I call that my "Black Monday."

I've been interdisciplinary from the beginning. I'm in the Philosophy Department at CGU, And the Religion and Philosophy Department at CST.

Before I begin my talk, let me mention this: The days of casting a wide net over the job market and picking the best job for you are over. You have to be specific and you have to be prepared.

* * * * *

“The academic job market is very rough. I advocate that you get very specific about the kind of job you want and create a paper trail for that kind of job.”

- Prof. Clayton, giving the main thesis of his talk

* * * * *

What kind of paper trail do you have in mind?

A portfolio on paper that shows you're more qualified than the other candidates. You create that paper trail with your CV.

Your CV should include:

Areas of specialization
Areas of competence
Publications
Papers
Teaching experience
Community organization or involvement

Those six phrases at the top are really crucial. All of the headings should show the kind of job you're interested in, to show you're the ideal candidate for that kind of job.

Then, you substantiate what you've said through transcripts, letters of rec, etc.

* * * * *

“Whatever you claim you're the best at - you substantiate that through your CV, transcripts, and letters of rec.”

- Prof. Clayton, on making an ideal application

* * * * *

The person who looks on paper to be the best person for the job is going to get the interview.

How competitive is it? Can you give an example?

I was recently on a hiring committee. We received 85 applications and chose 8 to talk to at AAR (Religion's national conference). Of those 8, we brought 2 to campus.

Gulp.

That's why tailoring your CV to a specific job is so important. It's all about fantasizing your way into the future and creating a paper trail for it.

What if you'd be happy with a multitude of positions?

It's so competitive, you need to take a targeted approach. Find the school you want to apply to, then find out the things they really need covered. What are the courses or areas they really need you to teach?

You can change the order of the items on your resume - the areas of competency, for example - to fit the needs of the school you're applying to.

What is the market looking for? You need to get a sense of the market and mold yourself to it.

Are there templates for a good academic job CV?

First, think of the kind of school you want to teach at. For example, let's say you want to teach at Swarthmore College. You'd go to their website and go look at the CVs of each of the faculty members, especially the junior faculty.

Look at the types of formatting they use, the skills they highlight, the types of journals they've published in.

(for a sample of a Swarthmore faculty profile, see here.)

For someone who has non-academic work experience, but little teaching experience, will this hinder a person's ability to get an academic job?

Yes. Academics can be snotty, its best to downplay nonacademic jobs.

People entering the field can be very idealistic, you can think you're going to turn the academy upside down. But to get a job, you have to play into their categories to get hired.

Look at the journals for your field. What are people getting hired in?

There's a ballpark you need to know in advance. You do want to keep this in mind when you pick your dissertation topic.

* * * * *

“No lover is more intimate than your dissertation topic. If you don't love that topic, its going to be really rough."

- Prof. Clayton, on strategically choosing your dissertation topic

* * * * *

Haha! That analogy is fun to play with over a beer some time.

(Note, for more great dissertation analogies, see the notes for our session with Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell, who likened writing a dissertation to being in love)

To give you an idea of the state out there - NIH funding for the sciences reached 30 billion in 2008. For the humanities - 350 million. We are seriously underfunding the humanities.

Throughout Europe and North America, we're seeing the crash of the humanities.

In a tough market like this, if you want to get in, you plan in advance.

I want to start preparing job applications for my field's national conference, which happens 5 months before I graduate. I don't want to skimp on job apps, but I also need to make finishing my dissertation my priority. How do I have time to do both?

You make time. This is good practice for what happens when have the job - as a professor you will constantly be multitasking. You might as well start now.

That sense of being hung out to dry, the dissertation writing depression, you can overcome that. Say to yourself, "I'm doing one of these other projects in the afternoon." Give yourself time for the dissertation, time for applications, time for other projects.

Your breakdown for a typical day might be 2/3 straight writing for the dissertation, 1/3 for other projects, which could include working on your job application material.

How long should the CV be?

Line by line on your CV, you need to show that you're doing more than the other applicants.

So its really important to put a lot of info on there. At the same time, if it's B.S., they'll see right through it.

The people on the hiring committee want to see pages - no more of that "a resume must be 1 page only" business.

First you pad your CV so that you can get at least 2 pages of paper....If you have a book review published, that's a real line, include that. Then as you get more experience and publications over time, you can drop off the weaker stuff.

I have very limited teaching experience. If I was to get an interview, do I focus on my non-academic work experience or should I focus mainly on my research and conference presentations?

Most definitely not the non-academic work experience. Focus on the conferences and presentations.

There are non-academic positions that could still support your application. For example, if you have community organizing experience, admin experience running a program of any kind.

I own my own business. Is that something I should mention?

Yes! Place that under the Admin Experience heading. Then you tell your letter writers, "Could you mention my business and how it fits?" Then, in your cover letter, "with my extensive experience...I would be able to...fundraising, etc."

A lot of people would see that and go, "Snap! Future Department Chair!"

Spin everything in a way that puts you directly in line with their needs.

What if you want to get more research experience? How do you go about it?

Approach the professor that you're interested in working with. Say, "I'd like to worth with you on your research. I'm really interested in what you do. I have 5 hours a week, I'd like to work with you on your project." You might even offer free services for a semester in exchange for letters of rec.

Once you get in, make yourself indispensable. You may get notes, co-author credit, etc.

You might even offer to run errands, drive for the visiting professors. The students who do the driving get the e-mails, contact information.

Take the initiative, do the networking.

How do I get publications?

Send a note, "I'm willing to do a book review for such-and-such, it's right in my area."

Being a book review editor is a thankless job. They're happy when you come by and offer to help them.

Go to your professors, ask.

Does getting published in popular publications (as opposed to academic journals) count?

That's changing. Popular publications are notable because they are read - less than 10 people read the average academic article.

Remember, online journals also count.

What exactly does "postdoc" mean? Is it something you only do if you can't get a teaching job?

A postdoc is a research position, usually assisting some other professor.

A postdoc is excellent. Hard to get, especially in the humanities. In the sciences though, now that is the way to go! What a great thing to have.

A CV places your most recent activities at the top and moves backwards. Imagine having a postdoc listed first.

Now, this isn't relevant for most people in the humanities. But if you win a 2 year postdoc, you still keep applying for tenure positions. You can always resign from the postdoc, so keep hunting.

Getting a postdoc does not at all look like "Oh, couldn't get a tenure job." Not at all.

Can we talk about adjuncting? It feels like they're just using you, it's slavery.

That classroom experience, it's holy for me. That time of being with your students is yours. You're learning so much during that time you're in the classroom. And each time you do it, you're cutting your hours of prep.

It's way up there from simply TAing.

Adjuncting is important. But if you have that first step and you've taught some classes and you want to stop to finish the dissertation, that's fine. I'm worried about the people with no teaching.

How do you get into adjuncting? I'm not interested in getting a tenure track job.

Get that first class. Once you have that, you're good.

Do you have friends in the department? Find out how it works. Is it only teaching the intro course? Then your task is to show your love of teaching, that you're ready to teach intro, that you have a calling for undergraduate teaching.

Who is the chair? What are her interests? Ask yourself, "How can I convince the chair to let me in?"

You've done a CV that says the thing you love best is teaching Introduction to (Insert). Now bring it to life.

A standard liberal arts teaching load:

1 class a year in your area of specialization
1 intro class a semester
1 2nd year class
+ something vaguely in your area

So if you don't love teaching, you're gonna die...

Remember, on paper - you're thrilled to be teaching that intro course.

What if you're really interested in research?

Then you should look for a research position, or something in industry.

Pure research positions are the hardest to get.

It can be just brutal, just brutal. The total nerd, she's the one who gets the position. She's the most brilliant in her field, she gets the research professorship.

It's all looking so bleak!

I'm here to talk realism with you. This is all true, but at the same time, I want you to know that I love being in this field.

What kind of mistakes do people make in interviews?

Often, they may appear like they're not very menschlich, not very human. For example, I once saw a candidate who only made eye contact with the other men in the room, disregarding the women. Afterwards, one of the women on the committee said, "I wouldn't hire this guy from a dead body."

Another common mistake is during the interview, you sit there and reel off the list of your dissertation chapters ("in the first chapter I argue this....and then I argue that...and in the second chapter I argue this....and then...."). You'll bore them.

What they want to see is a passion for teaching.

We've all heard about people being on the market for 5 years. How long before its time to give up?

We can't control how long it takes. We can only control what we put forward.

Usually, economics determines when you'll stop. You'll need to ask yourself, is it really worth it any longer? The feedback from the people in your life will also give you guidance.

You'll need to ask yourself, "Can I imagine myself happy anywhere else?"

A part of this is living for your dreams. It's like trying out for the Olympics.

Do you have to be willing to go anywhere for a job?

Yes.

What if you can't leave this area?

Then market yourself for getting your foot in the door as an adjunct at a place nearby. Once you get in, make yourself invaluable.

Run meetings, start a student club and offer to be their advisor, do everything.

Does being an adjunct mean that they tend not to hire you?

Depends on the place. Again, make yourself invaluable, that's your best shot at getting something more.

I'm thinking about getting into grant writing. Would that make me a more attractive hire?

Yes. If you have received any grants, put them on your CV, along with the amount. Did you get a GSC travel grant? Put it down. A CGU Dissertation grant? Definitely put it down.

Are there many schools hiring people who haven't finished yet?

Depends. What do your letters of rec say? This is a hot dissertation, she'll be competitive when she goes on the market, you have a chance now to snap her up. Ask your prof to say, "It is virtually certain that she will finish by... I have seen the draft and she's in her final revision stage."

If you're planning on graduating in May, have the draft in January. My advice, go on the job market one year early so that you can make all your mistakes that year and it doesn't matter.

If you're planning on graduating Fall of '09 - go on the market Fall of '08. Apply, get your letters together.

And then if you land a job, great, you'll make sure you finish that dissertation in time.

After graduation, what if there's a gap where you don't have an academic affiliation? Can you still get published?

Yes. In that case, you list the city where you live.

We really enjoyed having Prof. Clayton visit and hope he comes again to the workshop soon.

Dissertation Grants Have Been Announced - 5 Are In Our Group!

2009-05-27T10:06:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Yaeri, Soomi, Aya, and Lorie!

The winners of the CGU Dissertation Grants and Transdisciplinary Grants have been announced, and of the dozen winners, almost half of them belong to Writing Center's Dissertation Workshop!

(for those of you who won, there will be a Dissertation Grant application workshop next year, and it would be wonderful if you'd be willing to participate and give tips for the next batch of applicants)

The grants range from $8,000 to $10,000 and are awarded to advanced doctoral students in recognition of their dissertations and to help them meet their graduation date.

Winners of the Transdisciplinary Awards are marked by an asterisk:

*Robert Blagg. Religiousness, Community, Altruism, & Health: Exploring a Reciprocal Process

Justina Buller. The Reception of The Education of Henry Adams: Culture, Authority and the Literary Canon

*Thomas Crawford. Re-Presenting Gnosticism: Contested Scriptures, Canons and Meanings

*Justin Hackett. The Link Between Values and Behavior

Stacy Ann Hawkins. Family Relationships and Adolescent Behavior in Families Headed by Heterosexual, Gay, and Lesbian Parents

Yaeri Kim. National Culture, Transnational Imagination: A Transnational Approach to the Contemporary Popular Culture of South Korea

Soomi Lee. Institutional Impacts on Subjective Preference—Policy Congruence Across Countries

*Aya Nakagoshi. The Anatomy of Gifts: The Act of Giving and Living Donor Organ Transplantation

Lorie Obal. Vista/CPRS and the Veterans Health Administration: A Case Study on EHR Impact in Primary Care

*Julia Parnell. Stigmata: An Ethnographic Approach to Religious Tattooing in America

Tara Prescott. A Lyric Elixir: The Search for Identity in Mina Loy

*Chi-Shu (Nick) Yeh. On Both Sides of a Two-Way Mirror: Two Films' Representations of Hitler and a Group of Young German Nationals' Readings of the Films

CGU Health Insurance, Summer Therapy

2009-05-21T19:04:00.001-07:00

While you're driving yourself mad with dissertating, it's also important to take care of yourself.

This post covers two bits of information that might be useful to you: CGU Health Insurance and local therapists who take CGU insurance.

CGU Health Insurance

If you don't have health insurance, you might consider buying insurance through CGU, which offers plan for all students (including international students).

Rates for Fall 2009 are:

	Fall	Spring/Summer only**	Summer only
	(8/07 to 1/08)	(1/09 to 8/27)	5/17 to 8/27)
Students, 25 and under*	$422	$812	$314
Students, 26 and over*	$558	$1076	$414
Spouses, of students 25 and under/26 and over	$994/$1317	$1923/$2551	$734/$972
Child(ren)	$692	$1336	$512

Source: CGU Student Affairs

The insurance doesn't cover vision or dental, but does give you some peace of mind that if something really bad happens next year, you've got some coverage. It does cover some mental health (see below).

The plan is run through Renaissance Agencies. (although not incredibly generous, I have found the plan to be decent and easy to use. They cover most medications and it is easy to save receipts and send them in with claim forms for reimbursement, which comes quickly. -Tara)

Brochure
FAQ
2008-2009 Claim Forms

Health Care and Therapy Over the Summer

As we all know, grad students apparently aren't allowed to get sick or depressed over the summer...Student Health and Monsour Counseling are both closed all summer!

Short of holding out all summer to see a doctor in the fall (which some students do), you have a few options, including Central Avenue Urgent Care in Montclair, Planned Parenthood in Upland, or Pomona Valley Hospital.

But what about therapy over the summer?

There are lots of therapists in town (mostly clustered on First Street in the village) but cost can be prohibitive.

There are a few therapists who take the CGU insurance (usually charging a nominal fee, co-pay, or something on a sliding scale). A brief referral list from Monsour lists:

Valerie Jordan, Ph.D. (909) 625-7443
Kirby Palmer, MFT (909) 621-9023
Rick Rogers, Ph.D. (909) 621-9023
Kari Halko-Weekes, Ph.D. (909) 624-1997
Joanna Bendiner Horrowitz, MFT (909) 625-5506

You can easily do a google search for local therapists. When you call, ask if they are taking new patients, if they take the insurance you have, or if they do not, what their policies are for charging students. Many are willing to work with you to charge a fee you can afford.

If you are struggling to cope or feeling depressed or hopeless, please reach out to the people around you - family, friends, fellow dissertators in the workshop. Therapy is really expensive, but its important to get help if you need it. And there's no shame in it - it takes a strong person to know when to ask for help.

Take care of yourselves this summer!

(perhaps we need a post on the best therapy of all: massage therapy! Mmm.... If you have any local massage spots to recommend, please add them in the comments.)

Yes, this is a stained glass window of Mulder and Scully of the X-Files.
Why? The question is...why not?

Mary Martin: Tales from the Stacks

2009-05-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

Mary Martin, Librarian Extraordinaire

At our recent meeting, Mary Martin, Reference and Instruction Librarian for Business and Law, came to talk about ways dissertating students can make the most of the resources available at Honnold/Mudd and beyond.

What do you specialize in at the library?

My real speciality/love is government documents. I'm the Business / Law / Government librarian.

I also spend a lot of time at the reference desk and have handled students at the dissertation level a lot.

Recently, there's been a whole bunch of new librarians at the library.

You know, I'm afraid that I'll be bugging a librarian if I ask for help...

As doctoral students, you're after complete depth in a topic. You need to know everything that exists about your topic that you can find.

The most important thing for you to know is that we are here to help you (hooray!).

If I had a hundred bucks for every student who says, "I'm sorry to bother you..." You're not bothering us. That's why we're here.

Honnold never seems to have the books I need. How does the library decide what books to get? Can we make suggestions?

Faculty, classes, students--that's how we know what to get. We will get everything you want, no questions asked. We try to be open to purchasing books that a student is working on. Faculty show up the third week in August and tell us what books will be needed for their classes....it would be nice to know earlier.

So yes, tell us what you're working on, and we might be able to buy some of the books. Send an e-mail to the librarian, not the web mailer.

KGI, sometimes they want reports that cost $5,000 each. We can't quite do that. But we'll try.

It makes us sad in the library to hear students can't get what they need.

How can I make the most of Honnold?

Your first stop - visit the librarian in your subject area. Particularly when you're writing the proposal. How unique is your topic? You can look up full text dissertations in your topic, at least back to 1996.

For people who graduated from CGU, you'll have access to paper copies of their dissertations.

If you're doing Literature Searches - you'll use WorldCat. You can do a comprehensive lit search and see beyond what we have.

Visit the librarian specialist for your field and tell them about your topic.

What's happening over at Honnold? I heard they're moving the books and closing Denison?

The library is in a real state of change right now. The library is under new directorship - John McDonald. He's really committed to opening up the library.You may have noticed that there are no entry gates any more. The building itself will undergo a big transformation, I don't know when. This will include a cafe, a copy center downstairs, and hopefully, a 24 hour study space. That depends on whether or not they can secure the bottom floor for it. If they can secure a floor, they can staff it.

It's been mandated that the first floor must be cleared. To make room for the cafe and other services, they will me moving the journals off site. So there's an embargo period on journals right now - all bound ones are moving to storage. But they'll be retrievable.

The college that uses the library the most is CGU and we know you use the journals. Don't worry, the librarians are on this. I think there will be a 24 hour turnaround time for getting journals.

In June, they will possibly be closing all of the other library branches, including Denison. Nobody really knows for sure yet what is going to happen.

I had to look at medical journals for my dissertation, and I actually found it easier to go to UCLA, UCSD, or Loma Linda, where they have a medical school, to find them.

You can check ILL, Science Direct, Med. If you press a button on the article page it will immediately load into an ILL form. You'll get it in 7-10 days.

You can't request a whole issue because of copyright but you can get an article at a time.

I get confused trying to use the databases...there are so many. Wilson OmniFile, Lexus Nexus...they say there's no article for my search when I know there is. You can't search all the databases at once, can you?

Not yet. That's called a federated search engine - they're working on buying one right now. Vendors of the big interfaces are all competing with each other to sign contracts with these journals. It's a very competitive environment. That's why you need to check in more than one database to make sure you've covered all the possible material.

For example, JSTOR - there's nothing more recent that 4 years ago on JSTOR. Many students do not know this.

Google Scholar - it's imperfect. First of all, it's all over the place. It's not as exact as the databases with controlled indexing.

On the library home page, we list Databases by Subject. Some lists aren't completely up to date.

At the library, we've had a lot of changes with IT too. We lost the people who updated the webpage when IT moved out of the library to CUC. So this can affect the data on the website.

For an ILL request, if you think they've made a mistake, go in to the library and tell someone.

Remember Link+ and our system are all linked, but ILL is not. So if you get books through ILL, they won't appear on your list of books that you've taken out. You need to log into ILL separately to get to that list. This means when you hit "renew all" to renew your library books, it will not automatically renew anything you took out through ILL.

Where do I go for more help?

E-mail the librarian for your field. Not all of our reference librarians work at the front desk. Sometimes services desk answers librarian chat. They're not all trained in all specialties. So there can be spotty service at the desk, but it is something they are working on.

I always get lost in Honnold. What's the deal with the "new" library, the Mudd side, the Honnold side?

Over the years we've expanded into so many nooks and crannies. No one can find anything over there. The Honnold building was build in 1950. Then the Mudd building was build in 1970, and it had open space in the center of it. That's where the movable stacks are today. In 1987, they connected the two buildings. That's what lead to the bizarre entrance and lobby.

What's the secret to getting a study carrel?

Study carrels are very popular. On the first day of the semester, they open, and they're all taken in a couple of hours.

There used to be study rooms that could be used by graduate students, but faculty need them now.

I use Zotero. There's a Refworks export on BLAIS, but they didn't have the PDF button anymmore. When I use BLAIS, I have to enter my student ID number. Once I graduate, will I lose the PDFs?

The company in this case is ProQuest. E-mail me about this issue. Sometimes we can go back to the vendors and they might change it.

Once you graduate, you can purchase a card for $35 to check out books at the library.

Remote access to the database is out of our control - its the vendors.

I'm leaving for a research trip soon. Any advice for talking to librarians from institutions where I'm not a student?

Emphasize that you're there to use their great expertise but not take up too much of their time. Most librarians will be happy to work with you and glad to have outside scholars interested in their collections.

Edris Stuebner: Submitting Your Dissertation Q + A

2009-04-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bennett for the ultimate organized procrastinator supplies

During our last meeting, we invited Edris Stuebner, Assistant Registrar, to come and talk about the nitty gritty details of submitting your dissertation for final approval.

You may think that this is a step that is in a galaxy far, far away from where you are right now, but having this information at the beginning of the process can be really useful and help you to avoid last minute craziness at the end.

Without further ado....

Edris can be your beacon of hope to help you to the finish line!

Notes from Edris

How long does it take students to go through the whole Ph.D. process at CGU?

4 years is about the quickest I've seen a student go through the entire Ph.D. process....the longest has been 20 years.

What types of things do you do at CGU?

I order the diplomas, check to make sure you've got all your units and reached all your milestones, take the dissertation, and put your name in the convocation program.

I have an open door policy and I'm happy to talk to anyone.

Do you read all those dissertations that come in?

No. I check margins, pagination. I even had a case where a student spelled his own name wrong. Simple things can be missed, so that's why my eyes are there before it gets too far.

How many copies do we need? What are they for?

You make 1 original, with original signatures, and 1 copy.

I sent a copy to the library, then release one to Ann Arbor. It takes 7 months to process that copy into ProQuest.

Some day, this whole process will be electronic. But for now, you need these copies. Ann Arbor will go through it all again and check it. The most common problem they find is a missing page. So please, check pagination.

I will count your pages.

I send the original back to the library, then send it out for binding, then they put one copy in archives. If someone steals a copy off the shelves, they'll make a copy from the original.

That's the reason for the 2 copies.

What's the deal with the margins? What size should they be?

The binding is 1 and 1/2 inches on the left. I get 1 and 1/4 from students lots of times. I don't know why. They'll swear that their computer program was set to 1 and 1/2, but when you measure it with a ruler, it comes out to 1 and 1/4.

This is especially important for appendices.

Tables - remember, you don't want your table chewed up in the margin. You can reduce it to make it fit or have a foldout.

Can I use color?

Absolutely. It looks beautiful. Color graphs, color photographs.

What font should I use? What font size?

Type: At least 10 point, 12 is better. Times New Roman is best.

What about justifying the text?

Justified left, not necessarily the right.

What about running headers?

Running headers are okay.

How should I do the page numbers?

50% of all dissertations that I take in have the pagination wrong, usually in the first part. Look at page 3 of the handout.

Small Roman numbers look like this: i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii. They go on the Acknowledgements (optional), Preface (optional), Table of Contents, and Table of Figures (optional).

Arabic numbers look like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. They begin on the Introduction (optional) or Chapter One (if there isn't an Introduction).

Usually if I see this kind of error (goofing up the pagination), I will accept the dissertation temporarily. I don't want someone not to graduate because of page numbers. But I'll send them home to fix it.

Where you start putting numbers on the pages --> the Acknowledgements page
at the bottom, center bottom

Personally, I would like to see all pagination centered at the bottom. Why? If you make it into a book, its easier. But as long as whatever you use is consistent, I'll accept it. Ultimately, go by whatever your committee tells you.

Once, it took a gentleman 5 hours to figure out his pagination.

There are two ways to do copyright in terms of pagination - either on the title page or its own page (count it, but don't put a number on it)

Remember to double space everything. The abstract, Acknowledgements, etc.

Chapter One / page 1 ------> Arabic page 1

Don't take off from the preliminary pages. I see this happen about once a year.

Is there a way to format the margins and pagination from the very beginning so I don't have to fix all this stuff the week before my defense?

It's good to know that for some students, there is a discrepancy between what their software says is the margin size and what it actually prints out. It's always better to trust a real ruler and the page in front of you rather than assume the software is doing what it says it is.

Remember, there's the preliminary pages versus the text. Make two different files! Don't have a different document for each chapter, but make one document that has the Small Roman pagination, and one document where the Arabic pagination begins.

Margins should be: 1 and 1/2 on the left, 1 inch on the other three sides each.

I don't measure the right, but the left is extremely important for binding purposes.

Why is this all so complicated?!

You know, when you're at the end of the process, you're tired, you start reading into things, seeing things that aren't there.. Sometimes, it's a lot more simple than you think.

Title page - you count it, but you don't put a page number on it.

What's the format for the title page?

There's a sample title page on page 6 of the handout.

Title - The title of your dissertation does not have to be in all caps, but you should follow the usual guidelines for capitalization of words in titles.

Your Name - Watch out for this. I've received title pages that have "Your Name" instead of the student's actual name on them.

Name of Field - For example, you may be in Women's Studies and Religion, but you write down just "Religion." The degree is Doctor of Philosophy in Religion. You might think, "my degree is Urban Studies and Blah Blah Blah." Nope. It's Education. It's the school you're in. And it should be capitalized.

Just a note, if you are doing a degree in Music, the title pages are different. Music students turn in a project.

What's the deal with the abstract? How long should it be?

Abstract - You might be confused because on page 8, it says the abstract should be no more than 350 words, and later on it says 775 words. Why? I get a thousand phone calls about this!

It changed about a year and a half ago. I called and asked. 350 words...is that everything? Just text? Does it include your name? It includes everything. The title, your name, etc. It even includes the words "Abstract of the Dissertation."

The 350 word abstract goes in the Abstract Indexes. Then they take 20 pages, microfilm them, and publish them for the world.

I recommend doing the 350 words abstract and forgetting about it. If you do the 775 word abstract, they're going to truncate it anyway. When if you're working up to a great thought and -blip!-.

The abstract that you turn in at the proposal stage just goes into the CGU file. It does not get published.

On page 5 of the ProQuest handout, it has an optional copyright registration form. Do I need to copyright my dissertation?

I get this question a lot. You have to make the decision for yourself. I don't know what you'll do with your work after you leave here. If you have further questions, call UMI (the company that provides the service) and ask.

It's really copyrighted already, the date, defense. But if you have to go to court, you need a copyright. It's there for litigation reasons. It costs $65 to get the copyright. Once you have it, you can move the copyright to a publisher.

How many students opt for the copyright at CGU?

It's about 50 / 50.

What if you want your own copy of your dissertation?

The only school at CGU that allows this is Psychology. The other programs and schools do not. So if you want a bound copy, you're on your own.

Go to a book binder (there's one in Pico) to have it done. We do not have this service on campus. If we did, it would be through the library and they don't have the staff for it.

Wait...who is ProQuest again?

ProQuest - the people you send your dissertation to - It's good business for you. But you have to fill the forms out. You can opt out...but why would you?

You absolutely need this thing filled out for the dissertation to go to Ann Arbor. If I don't get it, it doesn't go on record with ProQuest.

I know when you see this packet of information, your immediate reaction is: "More reading! Legal stuff! Oh my gosh, what now?!" I sympathize.

Dissertation Submission Form
If you're going to do copyright, page 5.
Money order or cashier's check ONLY!

Wait - can't we pay by credit card or check?

$65, no credit cards, no personal checks.
Why is this? Because the whole process can take 7-8 months to clear.

Where can I get my own bound copies of my dissertation?

Bound copies of your dissertation - you can order them on the ProQuest form. It will be the size of a book. But it takes a long time. What if you want a copy of your dissertation to give as a gift to your advisor, your chair? You don't want to wait 6 months for the copy. And usually your school wants a copy too.

There are several book binders in the area, including Kater-Crafts in Pico Rivera. Any of the dissertation copies you see in the library are from there.

Go right to the source and call them. They're really nice people.

One of my committee members lives out of state. How am I going to get her signature?

As of now, I will take a fax if I have to for the Dissertation proposal signatures, but not for the dissertation. You need original signatures on the form for the dissertation.

If you have a committee member off-campus, send the form to that person first - send it overnight express. Then once it comes back to you, take it to the members of your committee that are on campus.

If you absolutely have to (for example, in the case of a committee member passing away after the form has been signed), you can have original signatures on different pages.

If I'm graduating, when do I have to start worrying about my student loans?

If you are planning on a summer degree, you should know that if you have loans, you will not be considered a student over the summer. If you're planning on a summer degree and it's July first, and you start wondering, "Why am I not getting an in-school deferment?" It's because you have to be enrolled to receive a deferment. As of May 16, your loans are going to kick in. During the summer, you're not a student, even if you're going for a September degree!

Thank you, Edris, for coming and talking to the Dissertation Workshop!

Please note, all of the handouts from today's talk are available online.

Intent to Receive a Degree form

Information Concerning the Preparation and Submission of Doctoral Dissertations (10 page packet)

Timelines / Deadlines for May 2009 degrees

ProQuest: Publishing Your Doctoral Dissertation with UMI Dissertation Publishing (14 page packet)

Lorie also noted that the AIS (Association for Information Systems) website has a page of information for doctoral students that is really helpful.

Dissertation Grant Deadline Changed!!!!!

2009-04-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

Please note, the CGU Dissertation Grant application lists “Wednesday, April 10^th at 5:00 pm” as the deadline to turn in your application.

Applications are due on Wednesday by 5:00 pm but the date is April 8^th, 2009.

Today's Post is Brought to You By the Letters I, R, and B

2009-03-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

Lorie Obal's IRB for the VHA

Compliments of Lorie:

Behold, the One True IRB - and it's companion CD!
Pray not to the CGU IRB, it is a false pretender. There is but One True IRB!

The IRB Haiku offering to the Gods

Softly printing spring
Despair rides butterfly wings
The CD burns bright

Don't Be So Defensive!

2009-03-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

The Elizabethan Stage in Ashland, Oregon. Your dissertation defense won't get a stage like this, you'll probably get some random room in Harper or Burkle. But still, a dissertator can dream, right?

'Tis the season for Dissertation Defenses!

If you're planning one, good luck on ya! But if you're not, you might think about attending some.

At CGU, dissertation defenses are open to the public (For more on why this is, and why it's not a bad thing, see Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell's earlier remarks). Many departments send out mass e-mail invites announcing defense dates, times, and locations.

You should definitely attend defenses in your field: they help you see what kinds of questions are being asked, how certain professors do their defenses (you might get to see someone on your committee in action), and be able to visualize it for yourself: you're going to be in that room some day soon!

However, it is the unspoken rule that you should always ask the person who is defending for permission before showing up at their defense. Some people really don't mind strangers at their defenses, others don't even want their closest family members in the room. Proper etiquette and decency requires that you ask the person first.

You may feel awkward about attending a defense of someone you don't know. If so, just send them an e-mail. Say hey, I'm really interested in your topic and I'd like to attend your defense. Would that be okay with you? I'm sure they'd appreciate the gesture.

Some people who attend defenses take notes and give them to the defending student (and newly minted Ph.D.!) later. Often they're so "in the zone" and stressed out during the defense that they don't remember all the details later, and many appreciate having the little notes you take during their defense. It also helps you stay focused - a defense on a dissertation you haven't read can be pretty arduous to listen to.

Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell Tells All

2009-03-09T20:45:00.000-07:00

Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell demonstrating how to plot out your foreseeable future

"Professor Lori Anne Ferrell (Ph.D., Yale University) holds a joint appointment in Early Modern History and Literature in the School of Arts and Humanities. Her research and teaching interests concentrate on the effect of religious and political change on early modern texts--theological, literary, theatrical, and practical--in the turbulent century before the outbreak of civil wars in Britain. Professor Ferrell has been awarded research grants from the Fulbright Commission, the Whiting Foundation, the British Academy, the Huntington Library, and the National Endowment for the Humanities” (http://www.cgu.edu/pages/1096.asp).

Professor Ferrell kindly stopped by the workshop to answer questions and give advice about the dissertation process. She's also provided her own list of guidelines for proposal writing, which you can find here.

What was your own experience dissertating?

Back in the late 80s / early 90s, I went through this. I was an anomaly in grad school because I loved grad school.

* * * * *

“You were expected to be Rapunzel…go away and spin straw into gold.”

- Prof. Ferrell on the process of writing a dissertation

* * * * *

Looking at the questions you submitted, I noticed that, at first, all the questions appeared process-oriented. But writing-oriented is process oriented. I noticed that the members of this group are either in early stages (proposal) or late stages (finishing, defending). If you were in the middle of writing, you’d have that haunted look. That’s a whole different phase.

When you’re just starting or just finishing writing, you focus on process. You’re managing a social group called "a committee."

You write a very different way before you have a Ph.D. than after. Right now, you’re trying to get approval. Later, your audience will be the editors who sit in judgment on your work, the bad reviews…all the unfairness, but in different places.

My dissertation became my first book.

What do people not realize about this process?

What you may not realize right now is that you’re an apprentice – there is a sense of instability and inequality. Your committee members see themselves as your mentors, they’re turning you into them, in some sense.

Writing as a demonstration of academic personality

Your writing is you. That’s why you get so crazy.

You’re the last in a line of a cloud of witnesses. Your mentors, their mentors. It feels personal. It is personal.

You’re asked to jump through hoops; this may not jibe with the kind of writer you think you are.

What are tips for working with a committee?

“I’m not going to invite you over to my house, I’m not going to bake you cookies. But when I’m on your committee, I will answer your e-mails within 24 hours, read your work, and help you improve it.”

What are tips for writing?

The habits you learn now you’ll take into your careers later.

Writing is not inspiration. It is a skill; you do it as a job. This is true for most people, most of the time.

How many hours a day should I be working on my dissertation? What’s the maximum recommended amount?

It does not matter how much you can do in one sitting. It matters if you’re consistent. Don’t binge-write. You don’t feel like you’re in control of your writing when you do that (do 6 hours at once instead of spread out over the week).

If you can't establish a routine:
Use a timer. Set it for one hour. When it goes off, stop. Next week, add 15 minutes more.

In the humanities, no chapter should be over 40 pages.

Create a Master Plan – plot out the year, the month, the week, the day.

Sample day: (When I was writing my dissertation)

9-12 Write

12-1 Lunch

1-3 Go Write

3-on Son comes home. Rest of day was for me and him.

I took every Sunday off.

You do your best work 4 ½ to 5 hours a day. After that, it’s diminishing returns.

Things that give you downtime will make you more productive on the uptime.

I still write on a regular schedule. But now I have to teach. I don’t have the luxury of time I had in grad school.

Now, I do an hour a day, 5 hours on Thursdays, 2 hours on the weekend.

You can do anything you have to do.

Novelists write this way. John Updike wrote every day from 9 to 12. Stephen King. One writer wrote give pages a day, stopped at the end of the fifth page, even if it was in the middle of a sentence.

That’s the only way that I felt I had any control at all. Making those schedules.

Or it could be, 9-12, research and take notes, then 1 to 3, organize your notes.

“Writing” means “your work” not always sitting at the laptop typing. It can be researching, taking notes.

Never read passively when you’re doing research!

“I wish I could still read passively!” joked someone in the group.

Some day you will! On your day off, read Jane Austen.

It takes about 5 weeks to develop a habit, and about 5 weeks to break one.

You don’t write like you preach and you don’t write like you talk.

My proposal is only 15 pages…it took me 2 months. What’s your advice for slow writers?

I have those days, but I show up to write anyway.

Slowness could be worrying, making a schedule could help. And fast writers have their own set of problems – blurting out everything.

How do I keep going?

Writer Anne Lamott writes about KFKD (“K-fucked”) – an imaginary radio station that plays in your head. The radio station that can play while you’re teaching, saying “That’s enough! They hate your guts! You’re going to get bad evaluations!”

* * * * *

“Listening to KFKD is a waste of time.”

- Prof. Ferrell on overzealous self-criticism

* * * * *

Should I have picked a topic that was better suited to the market?

You’ll learn to write by writing about what you love. If you picked a topic for the market and not for what you love, I feel sorry for you.

“What if your advisor says you must do x, and you don’t love it?” asked someone.

“Then you need another advisor.”

Of course, you want to get a job but never forget you are an amateur. In the oldest and best sense of the word. You do it because you love it. You have to. If you were doing this for the market, none of you would be doing the Ph.D.

* * * * *

“You do it because you’re in love but you have to be hard-headed about it. You can’t be all gooey and wait for the flowers and candy. Writing a dissertation is one of the most marvelously scary and supposedly-useless-to-the-rest-of-the-world thing…just like love.”

- Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell

* * * * *

You chose this topic for a reason. Trust your instincts on why you chose it.

What are some strategies for getting feedback from your committee? Do you have any strategies for busy / nonresponsive committee members?

The reason that we work here is to work with graduate students who do this.

Whenever I petition the Dean for a sabbatical, that’s when everyone wants to finish! When I’m on sabbatical, CGU exempts me from serving on certain committees but not from working with working on their dissertations.

Your committee members are supposed to be able to respond to you. If you haven’t talked to them in three years and now you want everything in two weeks, yeah, I’d get testy too. So cut faculty some slack.

What’s a good turnaround time for a chapter, a letter of recommendation?

I think its good to ask them that. A healthy timeframe is the time you’ve decided in advance.

Remember, they have other advisees besides you. If you say to everyone, “What do you want? How much time do you need? How do you see your role in this committee?”

Many students avoid asking hard questions. They’re afraid of offending.

With respect, you can ask anything. Ask the way you’d like to be asked.

When I am not on sabbatical, I will answer your e-mail within 24 hours.

You negotiate what you think is a fair amount of time.

Your chair is primarily responsible, should be reading the most.

If you don’t know this about your committee members, then you haven’t asked.

I won’t be a copy editor. That’s not fair. I’ll do that for only a few pages, and then make general suggestions on sound, tone, fluency.

What about committee members who are outside CGU?
I have some, and the relationship is tenuous. They’re not obligated to help us and we don’t want to lose them because they’re doing us a favor.

Your chair has to be responsive. Your chair is the one you have to worry about in terms of reading. The other members could just show up at your defense. The second and third readers? There’s no rule specifically for what they have to do. When I’m the third reader and I see something wrong, I’ll go to the chair.

How do I get a reader who is outside CGU? Is it inappropriate to say, "Listen, I really need just a third reader, I don't need someone who's really engaged or involved."

It’s rude coming from you. It should be coming from your chair.

Don’t cold-call readers. Say to your chair, “I’m happy to find someone, but I’d like you to write the note.”

Go with a letter of introduction from your chair. You should be introduc

ed first. It could be just an e-mail, ‘You’ll be hearing from a student of mine named Jane…”

I feel that there’s not much collegiality here. Should I be worried about going to the 5Cs professors?

The occasionally fractious relationship at the colleges is partly because too many CGU students just show up on their doorsteps.

One general remark for all of you: have an open, mutually respectful, candid, grown-up relationship with your chair. The chair should be running interference for you. If your chair will not or can not do that, you talk to the Dean. If your chair is the Dean, then talk to Jim Whitaker.

How many dissertation committees are you serving on right now?

In the next few years, 8, maybe 10. And those are ones I’m chairing.

I’m second or third reader on 6 or 7 more. I’m practically sitting on every committee in History.

Do you read it differently as a third reader…like, do you say, “I can’t be as vicious on this

one”?

I would prefer “interactive.” If the chair is happy, that’s not my job. If I see a deal breaker, I talk to the chair.

What would a deal breaker for you be, being a second or third reader?

Plagiarism, obviously. Grammar problems, you can go to the Writing Center. I’m looking at flow, seeing if you sound like someone in the field.

Is it risky if the student doesn’t contact the chair every week and just works alone?

I like being checked in with a lot. I won’t be angry if you don’t check in, but it is risky for you. The less you see your advisor, the less real this process will feel to you.

I love to look at people’s thesis statements. I’m a m

onster about them. If you can’t say what a chapter is about, you’re in trouble.

What advice do you have for the defense?

Avoid being surprised by the response. Ask your chair, “Are all the committee members on board with this?” Some professors like the pop quiz appro

ach / see you think on your feet. That’s fine too, but then know that about them.

Don’t answer immediately! Take out a pen and paper. “Can I repeat your question back to you?” Take a breath. Think! Buy yourself time. Don’t let KFKD play in your mind. Say, “When you ask a question, I’m going to write it down.”

Never go into a defense without talking to your chair the day before.

Don’t bullshit! If you don’t know, you don’t know.

What if I think the chair hates me?

If the chair hates you…that’s your chair. They’re working with you. If it’s too much for you, you can’t do it. If you can deal with the person not being war

m, etc, but they do what you need them to do, that’s enough. You need to have a working relationship. You can ask questions in writing, in e-mail. Not for litigious reasons, but just to remind the professor.

Is there more pressure on the student if it is an open defense? Or is your committee less likely to squash you if your grandma is there?

No. They’ll say the same thing either way. I have been to one where the person failed in front of everybody.

In that case, they took the student out and said, “We’re not gonna pass this.” The student did not use due diligence.

You’re all looking horrified, but it’s important to know it’s possible not to pass. Because what kind of school would this be otherwise?

I’m going to pull the defense if I think it’s not going to pass (when I’m the chair).

You can’t walk into the defense already knowing that you’ll pass. That would make CGU a diploma mill.

Defenses are never as awful as you think. There’s a variety of ways that a dissertation can squeak through. It can pass with corrections, lots of ways to negotiate.

My experience is that mos

t people pass. However, nobody goes in and they put a crown on their heads and praise them for two hours.

How long is a defense?

It can be anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours.

But why does the defense have to be open to the whole CGU community?

It’s a good thing that we have open defenses. The mystery of it is taken away when it’s open.

Just remember how much static is coming from Radio KFKD when you’re in there.

Take a break. If you’re getting upset, ask, “Can I stop for a moment? I feel like I’m going off base here.”

The way you’re seeing the world during the defense, is not as bad as you think.

You can say, “Can I have a different question? Can I restate that? Can you restate that?”

The worst they can say is no.

This is not a secret. This is an honest academic talk.

Your defense will be like prom, like quals: it’s always anticlimactic.

Is it easier when you have defense committee members that were also on your qualifying exams?

I’ve had some people on my quals that were also on my Ph.D. defense. I thought they were harder on the dissertation defense, as they should be.

What if you’ve heard about someone you could add to your committee, but that person is an outsider, or has a very different perspective that might conflict?

Do you want to work with this person? No? Then don’t.

Do you have any advice about getting an academic job afterwards?

The first thing – they’ll see how long it took you to write your dissertation. They’ll place that. So address that up front in your letter: “I was teaching, etc.” They’ll look at time in degree.

Give a professional reason: “I interrupted my studies for family, working, whatever.” Don’t expect to dodge it.

When I’m on a hiring committee, I look for time in degree, a finished dissertation. When someone’s ABD, I call and ask. If you’re not defending in May, don’t say you are. Don’t be slippery. I wouldn’t ask, but I’d think if a person in your field at your school is not on your committee, and wonder why.

Letters of rec: overrated or not?

I read them absolutely. I never look at transcripts or grades. Writing samples, talk to diss chair if they say they’re going to defend and I want to make sure that’s the case.

You’re almost always at an advantage if you have a defense date set (or done).

Remember: open communication = working relationship

Mutual respect, honesty, and trust – not necessarily friendly. You have a right to the first three.

My chair’s comments are crushing my soul. What should I do?

Say, “I’m having a hard time with this feedback.”

Address it. They might squash you, but too many people just quit contacting their chair. Silence doesn’t solve anything.

* * * * *

“Too many people just quit contacting their chair. Silence doesn’t solve anything.”

- Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell

* * * * *

You should be able to go them when you’re stuck. Not in a “child-saying-I’ve-been-bad” kind of way.

If you want to talk more, you can come and find me. I don’t want to hear names, and I don’t want to know who is on your committee, but I’d be happy to talk further.

* * * * *

“I actually love writing. I love my job.”

- Prof. Lori Anne Ferrell

* * * * *

CGU Dissertation Grants

2009-03-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

The applications have posted. They can be found on the right hand side of the link here.

Due date: April 8th.

You'll need, among other things, a synopsis, timeline, budget, and CV.

good luck!

Dissertation Tookit Online

2009-02-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

CGU Writing Center tutor Eric Hall wants to know: what tools are in your dissertation toolkit?

The Academic Ladder has a website called The Dissertation Writer's Toolkit which offers all kinds of goodies for free online, including:

How Academia Messes With Your Mind (and what to do about it) MP3
Steps to Avoiding Writer's Block (PDF)
Get Organized and Stay Motivated Tools
Frequently Asked Job Interview Questions

and much more!

It's worth a gander.

Lori Anne Ferrell: Proposal Guidelines

2009-02-24T11:13:00.000-08:00

A proposal? A proclamation? Here's some pilgrim for your progress

Dr. Lori Anne Ferrell, Professor of Early Modern History and Literature

Proposal Guidelines - Components of the Final Version of a Proposal

1) Statement of the problem
2) Methology and sources
3) Scope and limitations
4) Statement of thesis
5) Statement of significance of the problem

Appendices
a) Chapter outline
b) Bibliography
c) Review of relevant secondary literature *--in other words, a section that refers to work previously done in a summary fashion and a literature review that discusses the various literatures that impinge on the topic in a fuller way.

So this is what I look for most particularly at this stage:

--Coherence and clarity of proposal altogether (of course, this does not preclude your changing aspects of your approach as you write, but I need to see how well you are prepared to defend, explain, and go on to write this work)

--Clear mastery of secondary literature and draft of a literature review. I always ask my advisees to send around the proposal at this stage. The other committee members can chime in later, and choose to read randomly (unlike me, acting as chair), but they must approve of this bit of writing before I am comfortable with the project overall. We need their extended input to make sure that your lit review reflects sufficient research in the sources / archives to know if the proposed project is feasible. And if they like I can require revisions as necessary to make the project feasible.

********************************************************************
Lori Anne Ferrell
Professor of Early Modern History and Literature
School of Arts and Humanities, Claremont Graduate University

Your goal is getting your committee to sign off on the proposal

With apologies to Lori Anne for the completely historically inaccurate photos!

Early Questions to Ask Your Committee Members

2009-02-23T23:44:00.001-08:00

Now what do I do?

Today's discussion with Professor Lori Anne Ferrell was fantastic! Check the blog later for details of her talk. In the meantime, Tanya has sent in her list of questions that she used when putting together her committee:

Questions About Process

How does the committee usually operate during this process?
What do you think about having Joe Smith and Jane Doe as other members? Should I approach them now, or wait until I have a prospectus or draft of my proposal? (At what stage do I have the committee sign the form?)
Do you prefer emails or telephone calls for communication?
For written work, do you accept emailed drafts, or only US mail?
About how much time should I allow for your review?
Is it better to wait until I have relatively polished drafts, or do you prefer to see smaller chunks of writing more frequently?
Do you prefer to see each chapter when completed, or parts of the chapter? Should I submit each chapter as completed or multiple chapters at once? Do you prefer to see them in the order I write them as they are finished, or in the order they will end up in the dissertation?
When should I submit chapters to other members? Should I wait until after you have reviewed them, or submit them to all of you at the same time? Do I submit copies at each stage to all members, or do other members decide how they would like to see them?
How do I manage feedback from committee members- should I discuss their recommendations with you before incorporating suggestions? What if there are contradictory recommendations?
In setting up a timeline, what are reasonable goals for time to complete:
- Prospectus
- Proposal
- Chapters
- Complete first draft of dissertation
- Final dissertation with revisions
About how much time should I plan to complete the dissertation from start to finish? When should I plan to go on the job market relative to my dissertation progress?
What are the average page lengths for a typical dissertation?
Any other helpful advice or suggestions?

Final questions:

Is the next step a prospectus outline of the topic, or wait to submit a proposal draft?
Can we schedule our next meeting now? How much time before our next meeting should I send you the prospectus/proposal for review?

Thanks to Tanya for sharing these helpful questions!

Location, Location, Location

2009-02-17T15:08:00.000-08:00

You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but behold, the Fortress of Solitude

There have been some great responses to the earlier post about finding places to dissertate.

* * * * *

"Unfortunately mine's not public, but I've recently started squatting a vacant office at work as my 'Fortress of Solitude' - shameless Superman reference. So far the company owner is OK with it, but things can change around here without warning. I'll enjoy it while I can. It beats the heck out of my office in the cold, dim server room. I used to go out and sit at the vacant reception desk when I couldn't stand the noisy server room anymore, but people kept coming in the front door and asking me things. I have plenty of desk real estate, industrial strength color laser printer, view of the mountains and even a fake plant & picture of Hawaii."

* * * * *

"I hang out in Honnold...there is lounge downstairs with food and a TV...the library is where I usually actually get work done....I do my refworks and check email....all of the stuff...and sometimes I need a book or citation...etc. I feel like I am a real PhD student in the library where PhD's and scholars hang out....I am open to some other places as well...now that I have a new laptop"

* * * * *

Get a Job

2009-02-09T23:15:00.000-08:00

Another ongoing debate we all have with ourselves: at what point in this process do you begin looking for your new job? And how much can you work and still be able to finish your dissertation?

As Chad put it today, "I can leave now. When do I go?"

For those of us looking for jobs in academia, our annual conferences may force the issue of whether to apply for jobs at ABD stage or wait until we have the dissertation in hand. There are certainly instances of students who have landed incredible positions before finishing their dissertations and then needing to complete their dissertations in record time. (for a great success story of this type, see Dr. Devin Kuhn, CGU grad and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Women's Studies at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Devin also lead the Dissertation Workshop while she was at CGU!)

For those of us looking for jobs in the professional sector, there may be issues of trying to complete the dissertation once you've landed your dream job (and are putting in a lot of extra time to do really well and get noticed). There's also the issue that a lot of jobs will want you to be within a year of finishing your degree.

And then there's just the need to pay the rent.

There is no right answer for everyone for this question. So here are some things to keep in mind:

If you can afford to quit your job (or jobs) to focus on the dissertation, but are worried about the extra loans you may have to take out to do so, remember: the sooner you finish the dissertation, the sooner you stop paying fees to CGU. The money you save by graduating sooner may cancel out the loan you take out to finish sooner without working (or working as much).

That sinking feeling...

When considering taking any job, ask yourself, "Will it interfere?" If your priority right now is finishing your dissertation, remember to ask this question over and over.

Another question: will this job give you added experience that will help you in the job market? If you are an adjunct, for example, teaching a course you have taught multiple times already, it could very well be worthwhile to take the time off from teaching to go full steam ahead on your dissertation. Teaching one more section of Intro to Philosophy won't make a difference if you've taught it before, but finishing your dissertation will. However, if you have no teaching experience and are about to graduate, you are at a disadvantage if you want to apply for teaching positions.

An overall maxim: Adjuncting will kill your time. So if you must adjunct teach, be merciless with protecting your time. Structure yourself very carefully to make sure you make time for your dissertation.

Consider other options. Is is possible to get a fellowship in your field? Being paid to finish your dissertation = best case scenario.

Strategies to Get Committee Members to Talk

2009-02-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

"I do not think that they will sing to me"

At today's workshop, we discussed the difficulty in getting committee members to give you feedback in a timely fashion (or sometimes, in a fashion at all).

Committee members may have family obligations, professional obligations, be doing extra time serving on search committees, etc. They may be on sabbatical, they may be working on other large projects, and they are most certainly serving on multiple dissertation committees.

You don't want to piss them off, but on the other hand, it's been x weeks... x months....etc and you have to know where to go from here!

This is an ongoing discussion in the group, and one that guest speaker Professor Lori Anne Ferrell may address in our next meeting on February 23rd.

Here are some of the ideas we shared today:

Be assertive. Let your committee members what you need and when you need it by. Give them a few date / time options and let them choose what works best for their schedules.

For example, try asking: "If I submit _____ by this date_____, do you think you could get it back to me by _______?"

That leaves it open for the committee member to say, "No, I have this commitment on this date, but what about the following week?"

That way, the conversation becomes a negotiation, and you both know where the other side is coming from and what sort of expectations you both have.

Another idea (and this works for scheduling qualifying exams, defenses, everything!) is to give the person three options and let them choose which works best for them. For example: "I would like to meet on Monday the 15th at 12:00 or 1:00, or Tuesday the 16th at 3:00. Do any of those times work for you?"

When I was working at a florist, we had a wall full of possible ribbons to wrap flowers in. We found that if you asked the customer which color she wanted, she would stare at all of the choices and not be able to decide, or take forever to decide. But if you simply narrowed down the choices for her and asked, "Would you like the green, blue, or yellow ribbon?" the customer could easily decide. I think the same principle holds true for setting appointment days and times---if you leave it wide open until infinity, nothing will happen. But if you narrow the choice down, it's much easier for someone to check their calendar and choose one.

B.Y.O. IRB

2009-02-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

Aya attended the recent CGU IRB workshop and reported back about what she learned.

If you'd like a copy of the PowerPoint presentation given at the workshop, you can find it here.

If you'd like to see sample IRB forms and samples, click here.

Aya said some of the most useful information was about how to get your IRB to pass, such as the importance of not letting your target group know what you're trying to figure out in your research.

She also said they stressed the language of the IRB form - "no harm will come to you during this study" will not pass, but "we will minimize the harm" will pass.

Remember, the IRB is a contract between you and your subjects.

Dissertating in Public

2009-02-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

When you'd rather study anywhere than here:

If you're like me and sometimes you just need to get out of your house to read, study, or type notes into your laptop, you probably know all the cafes in a ten mile radius where you can study. And you're probably sick of the ones you have frequented.

So here are a handful of ideas around CGU you might want to try out, if you haven't already:

Le Pain Quotidien (175 N. Indian Hill, Claremont Village Expansion, right next to Laemmle Movie Theatre). Unfinished wood tables, incredible menu, coffee that comes in a metal teapot with a cup that's more like a bowl...bowls of coffee are awesome. Upside: did you see the bowls of coffee? Downside: It's a restaurant, so you really should order some food if you're going to be there for a while, and it is a little pricey. Also, you may not feel as comfortable busting out your laptop here, although people do. Just use good judgement / study etiquette. If the place is busy, don't hog your table. If it's empty, feel free to make camp but order food and tip your server well. I've found they're very student-friendly here.

Coffee Bean (101 N. Indian Hill, Claremont Village Expansion, next to Laemmle Movie Theatre neon sign). Spacious, unobtrusive music, outlets for laptops, totally fine with you making camp for three days while only buying one coffee. Upside: free wifi, cheesy jalapeno bagels, atmosphere conducive to studying, open late! Downside: is sometimes crowded, limited food selection.

Some Crust (119 Yale Avenue, Claremont Village). Small, but great coffee and incredibly delectable sources of sugar rush. High stool seating by the windows make for wonderful typing experience: good natural sunlight and excellent people watching. Upside: Supporting a local mom and pop business, nice feel, unobtrusive music. Downside: can be crowded, closes early.

Coffee Berry (2232 D Street, downtown La Verne). Frequented by University of La Verne students and faculty. Indoor and outdoor seating, good selection of snacks. Upside: near lots of shops for lunch or dinner breaks, lots of places to sit. Downside: can be loud, you will run into your students if you teach at ULV.

Home Brew (601 W. Arrow Highway in San Dimas. I always take Bonita to get there and turn into the parking lot before Bonita hits Arrow.) It's in a weirdly "Western" shopping complex, alongside Boot Barn and Big Sky Sushi, which has great sushi, by the way. (studying and sushi, what more could you want?) The sign for the cafe is tiny and I had been going there for years before finding out what the name of the place is. Upside: its huge, has great large tables and good lighting, outlets for laptops. Downside: sometimes has live music, tends to have a kind of sketchy contingent loitering there. Wireless can be iffy. (which, from my perspective, is a good thing - I don't need the temptation of the internet!). Get password for free at counter.

and there are multiple locations for Starbucks - eh, you know where they are. I'm just not a big supporter of Starbucks.

Over the weekend, I also studied at:

The Gypsy Den Cafe (2930 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, at The Lab "anti-mall" complex). I spent five entire hours here on Friday and have to rave about it. Lavish with hanging carpets, nude paintings, and gorgeous glass bottles, the Gypsy Den was the perfect study hideaway. Sparrows were flying in from outside, chirping around me and nibbling crumbs on the floor. I felt like some kind of dissertating Snow White. Amazing menu, outlets for laptops, wonderful staff. Upside: they were totally cool with my friend and I and our laptops clicking away for 5 hours. Downside: It was a little bit crowded, but I think it might have been due to people escaping the rain. The restrooms are also really far away, but a bit of a walk can be nice during a mega-typing-session

While on the topic of Getting Stuff Done...

Study Dates

Find people you know who need to get a lot of work done. It might be fellow dissertators from our workshop, it might be underclassmen you know who are studying for their qualifying exams, it might be people who need to grade or publish or get a job. Just people who are motivated enough that they can keep you motivated and won't talk to you too much. :-)

Call these people up, give them a day, time, and cafe, then meet them there.

Study dates can get you out of the house, away from the internet, socializing in public, and properly caffeinated.

Study Aids

When you're packing your materials for working in a cafe or other non-home spot, here are some things to keep in mind / possible solutions for I-need-to-type-quotes-and-the-book-won't-stay-open:Get two of the biggest size of black binder clips (steal them from work!). Binder clips are great because they're easy to throw into your laptop case, will definitely hold your pages flat, and are easy to bend open when you're turning the page. They can eat up your pages a little, so they are not the best bet for high quality books you're preserving for life. But who are you kidding? Your books are full of coffee stains, pen ink, and scone crumbs.

A friend of mine has this incredible traveling book stand that I saw her use while studying today, and I now officially want one.

Lightweight, small, easy to set up on a table top, only $28 from www.levenger.com. And you can personalize it! It costs extra, of course, but if you need "My Name, Ph.D." or "Dr. Me" as incentive to keep going, then by all means, put it on there! There are good pictures here.

Where do you go to get work done? What tips do you have for dissertating in public? Please post a comment and share!

New Writing Center House

2009-02-02T20:23:00.000-08:00

It's pretty darn exciting: we're out of the basement! The Dissertation Workshop will be the first workshop to warm up the new house: 141 E. 12th Street.

Q + A with a recent CGU grad

2009-01-26T21:58:00.000-08:00

This week we had a special guest speaker, Stephanie McKinney, a Ph.D. in History who specializes in modern war, history, and genocide memorialization. She finished at CGU in December. Her dissertation is titled “Speaking of the Dead: Reconstructing Identity in Post Genocide Rwanda."

Here are some of the questions from the group that Stephanie answered.

Q: Is there any advice you wish someone had told you about the process before you began?

A: “The final stages are really hard," said Stephanie, "I wish someone had said, 'It is not pretty and it sucks and it will be the most humiliating thing in your life.'"

Tanya mentioned how she's noticed that many people she's talked to about their dissertations are all in therapy. The room quickly chimed in about how great the free therapy at Monsour is, and how everyone should be going there.

Stephanie also related a story about attending a recent Halloween party for her kids. One of the other moms said, “I just finished my Ph.D., so of course my self-esteem has never been lower.” Stephanie said she wanted to say, “thank you!” to the woman for expressing the exact same way she felt.

CGU Flame Pumpkin Courtesy of Alexandra Dove, MA History 2006

Q: How long did it take you to write it?

A: “My husband says I wrote the whole thing in five months,” Stephanie said, “ But I had spent about a year and a half researching.”

Leading up to her defense, Stephanie encountered many obstacles. Her initial dissertation advisor left CGU for a position elsewhere. After she returned from research in Rwanda, her youngest child became seriously ill with salmonella poisoning, requiring surgery and a week in the hopsital. Stephanie juggled adjuncting at different universities, raising two children, and trying to power through her dissertatation. And she did it!

Q:Is a 4^th reader a CGU requirement?

A: "No. However, the rules about outside readers depends on your school."

Because CGU doesn’t have any European history specialists (Stephanie’s field), she had to look for outside readers to help her through the process. She made connections at conferences and ended up having a few top genocide scholars willing to read her dissertation and help her polish it.

Paula noted that only CGU people are allowed to serve on your quals committees, you have to petition (as she did) if you need an outsider member. Aris noted that in SBOS, you won’t know who your 4^th reader is.

Paula also reminded everyone to hold onto the CGU Handbook from the year you were admitted. That is a legally binding contract. As a student at CGU, you have to abide by the rules laid out in the Handbook, but so do the faculty members. So if you find yourself getting caught up in some kind of red-tape nightmare, it wouldn’t hurt to check the handbook and make sure you’ve fulfilled everything they originally said you had to, and that they fulfilled their end of the deal.

Q: Can you defend in summer?

A: The general answer was: Yes. You can defend whenever you can get your committee together.

Q: Was formatting it a problem?

A: "Formatting – so, so important." Stephanie noted that when you’re ready to file, they ask for three copies. But she recommends saving yourself a lot of money and frustration by only printing one copy first, making sure its good to go, and then making the other copies.

“These are consecutive pages, not chapter pages,” Stephanie explained, “You

don’t want to print out three copies of the thing only to find out there’s an error on page 2. Bring in one copy, get it okayed, fix it if needed, and then go to Kinkos and get the next two copies made.”

Q: Did you have to make an appointment with Edris to file?

A: "They sent an e-mail and said, 'This is when we’ll be available.' So I dropped in then."

Please note: Edris Steubner, the Assistant Registrar, is going to be your main contact for filing. She will be coming to the Dissertation Workshop on March 23 to discuss the rules for formatting and submission. Stay tuned!

Q: Are they particular about the margins?

A: “She does take out a ruler and she does measure,” laughed Stephanie, “Serious as a heart attack. Always be nice to the secretary and the registrar, they’ll work for you.”

Q: What do you do when you’re not hearing back from your committee members or you feel like you’re in limbo?

A: “Act like it's happening and keep shoving it forward,” Stephanie answered, “If you don’t, who will?”

Q: What was the sequence of your revision?

A: “I revised it chapter by chapter,” answered Stephanie. “I had one chapter out in circulation and one I was working on. The sequence was: first I’d send a draft to the Writing Center, then I

’d make corrections before sending that draft to my committee, and then I’d make revisions and have my revision draft.”

Stephanie reiterated how helpful the Writing Center was in getting feedback on her writing. As a reminder: you can send up to 50 pages a week to the Writing Center, with a 1 week turnaround, up to 8 times a semester. For more info about the Writing Center's services for dissertation reading, click here.

Q: What happened going into the final weeks before your defense?

A: Dec 12 was the paper signature deadline for January graduation. Her committee told Stephanie, “These are the problems in your dissertation…can you fix them in 4 weeks? Here are the problems. These are what you’ll have to fix for us to sign off on this.” At her defense, Stephanie laid out her strategy for addressing remaining problems in the work.

Q: Do you have any advice about writing proposals?

A: “The proposal saved my butt in the end. I had a chapter that had to be two chapters. But one part wasn’t that good. It wasn’t in my proposal…so that allowed me to take it out completely. I’d added a chapter that was underdeveloped, but it wasn’t in the proposal, so it was easy to pull it. Your proposal changes, but it can also save you.”

Margaret noted that in some fields, there is no wiggle room in the proposal. In other fields (particularly the Humanities) it is quite common to have a final dissertation that isn’t that close to its original proposal.

Q: Did you use Endnote or Refworks?

A: Stephanie answered, "I think you have to start that from the beginning. I wish I’d know about it before I started, but I didn’t, so I just typed my own footnotes and such. It’s easier that way when you know how to do it already. I did get a new laptop during my dissertation…and it did all kinds of things more easily!"

Q: What were your methods of backup?

A: "CGU gives you a free webpage – I put it up there. You can e-mail it to yourself, even the copy you send to the Writing Center will be saved."

Lynda reminded everyone to keep a backup flash drive, but don’t keep the drive with your laptop (if the laptop is stolen or damaged, the flash drive could be as well).

Margaret mentioned SuperDuper, a system recovery resource that makes a mirror image of your hard drive.

Q: I’m writing my bibliography, and it has 500 books! And there are more being published. How do you make it manageable?

A: "You hit the point where you decided you’re done. You know, 'our library doesn’t have it, I can’t LINK + it, it’s $127 on Amazon…I’ll let that one go!' At some point, you have to figure if you get something wrong, your committee will let you know. At some point, you just make an executive decision to stop," said Stephanie.

“My bibliography is about half of what it was at the proposal,” noted Lynda. “The same, same things kept showing up in everything I was reading. I decided that those texts had to be my foundation.”

"You hit the point where you have to throw it out there and see what happens.”

“There was a day when I realized I was done reading,” said Lynda.

“It’s like on Thanksgiving, deciding when you’re going to stop eating.”

Q: How do you decide what goes in the footnotes and what goes in the main text?

A: "That’s where your readers come in," replied Stephanie.

The group brainstormed places to get a quick glimpse of the current work in your field:

Wikipedia (no one will cop up to using this, but there it is)

Amazon lists ("very up-to-date")

Google Scholar

Dissertation Express ("You’ll say, well, if they got that published, I can get mine done.” "You’ll look and be surprised by the ones that aren’t very good. Makes you feel better.")

And remember, no matter how careful you are, small mistakes are bound to happen. “After I turned mine in,” Stephanie admitted, “I realized I forgot to print out the appendix. The dissertation refers to an appendix that’s not there. Oh well, that’s there for history.”

Rainbow over Harper Hall

Deadlines, Real and Imaginary

2009-01-26T20:21:00.000-08:00

For those of you planning on a Spring Degree:

Last day for students to file their “Intent to Receive a Degree” form in the Office of Admissions and Records for a Spring degree - February 20 (Friday)

Last day for scheduling final oral exams (dissertation defense) - March 23 (Monday)

Last day for final oral exams (dissertation defense) for Spring degrees - April 3 (Friday)

Final date for completion of all requirements including payment of any fees for degrees to be awarded for Spring. Final date to file dissertations final approval forms in the Office of Admission and Records. - April 17 (Friday)

Commencement -- awarding of Spring degrees - May 16 (Saturday)

For those of you planning on a Summer Degree:

Last day for students to file their “Intent to Receive a Degree” form in the Office of Admissions and Records for a Summer degree - June 18 (Thursday)

Last day for scheduling final oral exams (dissertation defense) - July 10 (Friday)

Last day for final oral exams (dissertation defense) for Spring degrees - July 17 (Friday)

Final date for completion of all requirements including payment of any fees for degrees to be awarded for Spring. Final date to file dissertations final approval forms in the Office of Admission and Records. - July 31 (Friday)

Awarding of Summer degrees - August 31 (Monday)

To see the full list of deadlines/ CGU Academic calendar, click here.

For those of you planning on a Degree Sometime Before You Die:

You need to start making fake deadlines for yourself.

Try asking a professor, "So, what would you like to see next time we meet?" or "So...how much time do you think I should give myself to write x?" Then when they answer, make that your deadline. For reals.

Look for Calls for Papers for conferences in your field. Use the CFP abstract deadlines as deadlines for yourself. That way, you have to write something by that date, and if the paper gets accepted, well, it looks like you're writing that chapter! The conference becomes your new deadline (and helps you make connections for outside readers from the conference, etc.)

The CGU Dissertation Workshop...workshops work! It's a ready-made set of deadlines: We're meeting February 9, February 23, March 9, March 23. Pick one of those dates and say, "By this date, I'm going to submit x!" Then do it.

Make an appointment at the CGU Writing Center, weeks in advance. You don't have to specify what you're working on when you make the appointment. But you know that date is coming up, and you'll have to show the tutor something, so you'll have to write something. You can also say, "I'm going to send something online to the Writing Center in two weeks!" Then do it. Rinse and repeat.

New Semester, New Faces

2009-01-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, everyone!

The CGU Dissertation Workshop is starting up again for the spring. Whether you spent the break sleeping, feasting, or reading, now is the time to get back on track!

For our first meeting of the semester, Monday, January 26, we will be having a guest speaker, Stephanie McKinney (CGU Ph.D. in History). Stephanie will come and share her experiences of cobbling together a dissertation committee despite several hurdles, researching in Rwanda, and completing a whirlwind dissertation and defense.

We'll also pass out...get ready....the infamous GREEN CALENDARS!!!! It's that exciting, people. How can you resist?

The first meeting may be larger than usual, so we're waiting to get a final headcount before assigning the location. The CGU Writing Center is also in the process of moving out of the Harper Basement into the above-ground world - a blue-grey house up on 12th street, across the street from the old CGU dorms:

Eventually our workshop will be held here, but the house may not be ready in time for our first meeting. Stay tuned!

Winter Boot Camp

2009-01-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

Knows what he's talking about, Yoga does.

Hello dissertators! Long time, no hear! The advent of job application season really threw a wrench into my dissertating, so I followed our group's advice about protecting time for the dissertation and took a break from the blog. However, the apps are mostly in, so now it's time to do some catching up.

Our latest Dissertation Boot Camp was over two very rainy days in December, and we all got a lot of work done as the rain came down!

Sam not only came back from the edge of the abyss after having to do some major changes to his data set, but he also fixed the Writing Center table at the start of the Boot Camp.

As usual, for two days the CGU Writing Center was transformed into Dissertation Central, where people set up camp in the various rooms, spreading laptops, papers, books, and files all around them.

Safety in numbers, Dissertators!

Dissertators used one of the white boards as a reminder to avoid the individual time-killing temptations that usually sabotage their work.

No, "World of Kittens" isn't actually a real website, although it should be. And the Academic Job Wiki is pure evil. If you don't know what it is, pretend you didn't see this. It's for your own good. Trust us.

As with our previous boot camps, this boot camp offered sushi, coffee, snacks, stretch breaks, and opportunities to just talk with other students who feel your pain.

Once again, the bendiest yoga master of all time, Nancy Sassaman, donated her time to come and lead the group in a much-needed yoga break. Thank you, Nancy! Because of the rain, we practiced yoga inside the Career Management building. (Thank you, Career Management!)

Whether you call this position "happy baby" or "dead bug" probably depends on how your latest chapter is going...

Our next Boot Camp is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February 6 and Sunday, February 7. The boot camps are free, but a $50 deposit is required to hold your space. Keep an eye on your cgu e-mail for sign up dates!

Teaching Myself Zotero

2009-01-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

When we discussed formatting / info gathering software such as EndNote and Zotero in the group, several people said they thought using one of these programs would have been helpful...but now that they're knee-deep in their dissertations, it's too late.

I dabbled in RefWorks years ago for a project, but after hearing Aya singing the praises of Zotero, I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm still in the buying-and-hoarding-and-sorting books phase of my dissertation, and already I'm starting to forget which copies of what I've bought online. I decided that I could start learning Zotero by creating a list of books that I've purchased for the dissertation.

I began by going to the Zotero website and downloading the newest version. It requires Firefox 3.0, which I have. I also watched the very helpful demos on the website.

Right off the bat, I couldn't get it to work. I couldn't see the "Zotero" logo at the bottom of the screen, the key point for accessing the thing. So I searched on the very helpful forums on the Zotero site, and sure enough, within a few minutes, found the solution to my problem (for me, it was simply going up to the "View" bar and selection "Status bar.")

Once I figured that out, I began going to amazon.com and the Honnold library site to find the books on my shelf. It's so easy to use Zotero for this - you find the book you have, then click on a little blue book icon next to the web address in the browser. And Sha-zam! It's sent to your Zotero folder.

I made a couple of mistakes where I uploaded the right book but the wrong edition. It was easy to fix. I also uploaded a few dissertations on my topic that I've printed out (and gloriously 3-hole-punched one night).

So far, so good. I also began adding notes on each of the books describing the covers of the actual books. Because so many of my books have the author's name as the title, it's helpful for me to remember, ah yes, this is the one with the peacock on the cover, this is the one that's orange, etc. I'm very visual.

It's too soon yet for me to know how well I like Zotero or how easy it is to use, but based on the helpful forums and my initial forays tonight, it looks promising.

Parodies of Job Letters

2009-01-05T20:22:00.001-08:00

Welcome to 2009! This is the year you're going to write your dissertation!

I've just come back from MLA (the Modern Language Association's annual conference and job smackdown) in San Francisco. While I was there, I noticed several job postings that somehow didn't look quite right...and upon closer inspection, I realized they were marvelous parodies by www.mlade.org.

For a little sampling:

"Unfortunately, my dissertation chair has decided that her perverse amusement is more important than my professional advancement. I agree that it is, mind you, but I would still prefer to have defended this semester."

- Anita Gedaclu

Even if you're not in English, Languages, Literature, or Cultural Studies (the target audience for these letters), you can still get a kick out of how these letters poke fun at academia, boiler plate cover letters, the desperation of job seekers, and the overall stress of writing a dissertation and looking for jobs.

"I feel confident that I could offer classes at the lover-division, upper-division, and graduate level in Homoerotic 19th-Century U.S. Critical Writing, The Fireside Poets, and transatlantic hemispheric New Jersey Literature. Techncially, I do not feel confident about anything, but I'm told that is a standard phrasing."

-Anita Gedaclu

There's this applicant to Riverdale University, who mentions writing his dissertation under the influence of Juan Valdez and Captain Morgan:

Click on image to enlarge

There are letters from Riverdale University, the Yemen Institute of Polytechnicality, and the State University of New York, Yonkers. Go to www.mlade.org to see all 5 letters. Enjoy!

To Do: Write This Post

2008-12-02T18:22:00.000-08:00

(if you have an odd fascination with reading other people's lists of chores, just click the images above to enlarge)

In a recent meeting, we discussed the power of the To-Do List. Properly done, a To-Do list can be a really satisfying experience.

Make To-Do lists of tasks you know you can/will accomplish, along with the things you don't want to forget. Mix in the household tasks and everyday business of life tasks with dissertating tasks.

I make To-Do lists on junk mail, random pieces of paper, and my datebook. Several people in the group make lists out of the basic green calendar pages that we hand out as part of the Dissertation Workshop.

The calendars don't look like much. But surprisingly, they can be useful tools if you write down goals you want to accomplish that week (especially easy / simple goals you know you can reach).

One member of the group mentioned that when the green calendars were handed out, she was nonplussed. "I initially thought, 'I coulda made a fucking calendar!' But I ended up using it. This allows me to relax. It says 'rest and decorate the house' this week, and I did it."

Weirdly enough, meticulously writing down the goals you want to accomplish, what you "can" and "can't" do for any given day or week, can feel great. And crossing off the items on the list can feel "almost as good as a professional massage."

We all have our methods of organization...according to Bennett, his method used to involve random milk cartons all over his house and car (he's since upgraded to 3 ring binders).

Paula uses RefWorks in the place of 3x5 cards. Lynda swears by color coding of highlighting.

Everyone finds their own kind of organization scheme during the process of dissertating.

What's yours?

Is that a jump drive, or are you just happy to see me?

2008-12-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

"You know that black cloud that hangs over Charlie Brown's head? I've felt that way for the past three years."

- On the strain of the quals and the diss

Coming on the heels of Lynda's post about having to evacuate due to the recent fires, the group talked about methods of saving your work on the dissertation.

The group discussed the importance of backing up everything you write in case of computer crashes, fires, alien attacks, etc. Lynda carries her dissertation on a jump drive in her purse.

In addition to the security of knowing that you have everything backed up, there's an odd comfort of carrying a bit of your dissertation with you, wherever you go. (although this might also become a memento mori??)

How to write when distracted

2008-11-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend my life was disrupted. There was fire on three sides of us and we had to evacuate. We did have a couple of hours to prepare, so we were able to do some packing. It is interesting what "things" really matter. First, of course, was my computer, my flash drive, and the paper copies of my dissertation. I figured all the library books could be replaced by insurance. Then I hit the cedar chest. Although the chest itself is an antique that belonged to my great grandmother, I knew it would never fit in my Honda Accord, so I took my wedding dress, my mom's baby quilt, my kids' baby shoes and other baby things, my father-in-law's letterman's jacket, the quilts my grandmother made for my kids, the afghans my mother-in-law made for my kids, and the quilt my grandmother did not finish for me that I have been trying to finish for about ten years.

Then we packed all the old photo albums, paintings I painted, drawings my mother-in-law did of my babies, and the framed photos dotting the walls of the house. My husband grabbed his most valuable baseball cards, went to his office (about a mile away) and grabbed the server. I packed the keepsake and most valuable jewelry, my daughter's laptop and a few clothes for her (she was at work) and the prescription medication we had for us and for our geriatric dog.

I then took digital photos of every inch of our house, in case we had to make an insurance claim and could not remember what we had. All the while, I was texting our relatives and trying to get a hold of our 22 year-old daughter who lives with us and who was working an outdoor PR event in San Clemente. She had no idea about the fire, but when I finally did talk with her, about a half hour before we were evacuated, she reminded me of the heirloom jewelry and her prized "Grover" stuffed animal which she has slept with since she was two.

That was it. When the squad car drove down the street with the bull horn telling us to leave, we were ready. Amazing what you take from your home of 21 years and what you can get into two mid-sized sedans. We took our smelly, aging 13 year-old "Sam" (a collie, golden retriever mix) and his equally smelly bed, and headed toward our son's rental home in Orange that he shares with 5 other college baseball players. We met our daughter there and spent the next few hours watching the news, trying to place the houses we saw on fire, and communicating with all of the friends we have acquired while living in Yorba Linda for the past two decades.

One of our daughter's high school friends thought her house had burned down, since her dad saw another house of the same model on the same street on the TV report. Her house was fine. Another friend watched her own car catch an ember and blow up. We had other friends in Pennsylvania for his mother's funeral. They left the mother-in-law at their home, which was then evacuated. We were worried about her, but found out later that another good friend of theirs came by and picked up "Nanny" on their way out. Amazing how important it is to have good relationships with neighbors and friends. We had offers from at least a dozen friends to come and stay with them, but we were able to find a nice hotel room with a good shower and two televisions.

For two days, it seems like all we did was watch the news, and then we spent a good portion of the second day trying to get back home, once we knew our house had been spared. We left the house at about 1:30 PM on Saturday, and arrived home about 4:00 PM on Sunday, but it felt like we were away for weeks.

All is well here, but I have a hard time finding the concentration to write about the predator Lucy Steele from Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

I spent the morning answering emails, washing all the clothes and towels that smell like a BBQ, reading the newspapers (our Sunday papers arrived today along with the Monday papers), and repacking the memories back into the cedar chest. It is now almost 1:00 and I have not worked on the dissertation. Monday is a designated writing day, and my deadline to finish Lucy is Friday. I need to find my way back.

When Tara suggested I add to the blog, I figured I would indulge myself and write a bit of a personal journal. Perhaps if I worked through the trauma of almost losing my home in writing, I might just find my way back to Lucy.

I have no more excuses. I WILL write at least 3 more pages today.

Lynda