TADA (Dissertation House) Winter Break Challenge
TA-DA! Winter Break Challenge begins January 18, 2010
Mark Victor Hansen, Ph.D. co-author to the Chicken Soup Series writes
“It’s not the size of the step that gets you there. It’s the fact that you’re taking the step.”
Even if you don’t blog at least take 1 important step to complete your Master’s thesis or dissertation. Use the TADA Certificate to set a deadline. Print it out and post it on your wall as a daily reminder to do something no matter how small it is to move your thesis or dissertation forward. Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect it just has to get DONE.
Now that you did 1 thing can you do more than one? Are you ready for TADA’s Winter Break Challenge? Are you planning on completing your Master’s thesis or dissertation this year? Are you looking for thesis help or dissertation help?
A group of students at the University of Maryland will be participating in “Dissertation House on Campus” for one weeks. Some will be participating on-line and others will meet daily from 9:00am-5:00 pm. Join us, as we work on our proposals, theses, or dissertations.
Many people use the TA-DA! Challenges to take a step on getting one thing accomplished and setting a schedule to get that one thing done. They get that one thing done and then are able to enjoy their break without the sense of guilt looming in the background. Other people set out to see how much they can accomplish in 4-5 days.
Many of you already work with deadlines. If you’re joining this challenge, your deadline is January 22, 2010. Let’s see how much can you get done in 1 week! Are you ready?
In the “Comment Section below” Post the answers to the following questions:
- What will you work on?
- How much time will you spend daily working on it?
- Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
- At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day
Here are some helpful tips:
- Breakdown your tasks into bite-size manageable chunks and make a list and post that list in a public space.
- Make a daily commitment to work on your thesis or dissertation. Set aside a reasonable amount of time each day to work on your thesis or dissertation. You can get a lot done in 15 minutes a day.
- Work within your limitations . . . if you are a morning person by all means make yourself some coffee and spend 15 minutes with your dissertation before everyone else rises . . . if you are a night owl . . . turn the TV off 15 minutes earlier and write for 15 minutes.
- Celebrate small victories when you accomplish your tasks for the day. Spend the rest of the day guilt-free enjoying your Winter Break knowing that you have done something (no matter how small) on your dissertation.
- Whatever you do, don’t spend the week constantly worrying and saying to yourself ‘I really should be working’. Above all, enjoy your Winter Break.
January 4th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
It’s that time again. I will be joining 11 students at UMBC for a face to face Dissertation House event. We will be working on our proposals, data, and or dissertations for the next four days. They will be posting their goals, struggles and accomplishments here. Please join us in your quest to finish your document.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
I did finish the thesis for my Masters in November, thanks TA_DA for all of your tips. I received the grade the week before Christmas vacation, an A-. I am so happy to have this weight off of me. It is so important to take it one step at a time, and never stop pushing forward. I plan to start my Doctorate in March 2010.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Congratulations! Wow now you have some skills that you transfer to writing your dissertation.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Dr. Carter,
I could use some motivation/support/encouragement in this process. I am currently trying to get through my dissertation proposal. I work full time and will not be able to participate in the Dissertation House. Do others (who do not attend the House) post, participate in goals, etc? I can use all the encouragement I can get…
Thank you!
January 4th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Yes others have use this Online Dissertation House to help them finish. The previous post used this blog last summer to get his Master’s thesis done. If he can do that so can you check out last summer’s TADA challenge. Join us on the 18th….
http://www.tadafinallyfinished.com/TADA-Challenge/2009/06/hello-world/#comments
January 5th, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the Winter Challenge! I’m sure that you will be able to get lots done in one week! In the past, we’ve seen people who were so motivated, that they started posting their goals early to get a head start! I won’t be at the DH with you this time because I’ll be working at Universidad Metropolitana in San Juan, but I will be checking in with you.
Best wishes!
-Dr.Tull
January 14th, 2010 at 12:08 am
Dr. Carter,
I am a doctoral candidate at Pepperdine University. Would you be interested in sitting on my committee? Of course, I will share the particulars. I created a informational DVD and wrote a book. My plan is to develop a support program.
I want to join the winter challenge!
January 14th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Nicole Welcome
Thank you contacting me in both places. Please give me a call after the TADA challenge is over. Before then I am quite busy preparing for the DH and writing a report as well.
January 15th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
At the beginning of December I successfully defended the first three chapters of my dissertation and have been approved to proceed with my research. I have been dragging my feet on the easier part, getting my HSRB forms together for approval. Although I cannot be at the DH nor can I be on line all four days from 9 to 5 because I work full time, I do plan to participate. It will definitely help push me. Thinking of my goals for the four days already. Great idea!
January 15th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Welcome Holly see you on Monday
One 15 minute task might just be to download the forms
Another can be just fill in your name and contact information.
I look forward to your participation.
Dr. C
January 15th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
What steps can you take when your chair states that your entire three chapters are “a great study” but “re-word” starting with Chapter one?
January 15th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Hello John
It sounds like he wants you to do some editing of your chapters in other words read it with a critical-eye. He is saying that you have captured the big picture but the details need work….I would start with the problem statement. I always say that if the reader doesn’t know what you are going to do by page 3 the reader doesn’t care and doesn’t want to read further to find out.
January 15th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Hello! I am nervous and anxious and excited to have this next week as a challenge! I will be doing the challenge online. I have actually reserved a hotel from Monday through Friday, so after I check in to the hotel on Monday, I am meant to be away from the world of distractions for four whohle days — although I will have to work a couple nights away from my ‘cave’, I figure those will be my breaks since I am morning person anyhow!
My struggle has been getting my dissertation proposal done — for lots of reasons. I already wrote about half of it and my advisor said ‘sounds good’ and gave a few other comments, mostly positive and helpful. Then… I stopped… I need to get finished and move on … so this is my week to get my proposal DONE! (Well at least a full and complete draft to my advisor – I do not think of revisions as rewriting – or hope not!!)
It has been almost a year since I last touched my paper so I will need to update the research section but I have faith I can ‘marathon’ my way through this paper.
TADA CHALLENGE GOAL: Full & complete dissertation proposal draft to my advisor.
END GOAL: FINISH MY DISSERTATION AND DOCTORATE and WEAR THAT ROBE IN 2010!
Wishing best progress to everyone and THANK YOU for TADA, Dr. Carter!!
“See” you next week!
- Moira
January 15th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
We are so there with you. See you on Monday. Consider reading my newsletter on writing a proposal. It is one of my more popular ones that students find quite useful. Here’s a link
http://tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/news0305B.htm
January 16th, 2010 at 12:20 am
Hi, I identify with Moira in the time it took me to finish my proposal. I’m happy to report that I defended my prospectus November 11, 2009. I had to do some revisions but my committee signed off on my PhD candidacy form prior to the break. I am now officially and finally a PhD candidate. Yay!
My goal for next week will be to change the tense in the now first three chapters in my dissertation from future tense and add all the formatting for the dissertation as indicated in my schools guide. I will review my IRB and update it in preparation for a pilot study. I am meeting with my advisor next Thursday. We have agreed to meet every other Thursday with the aim of my finishing by the end of this semester. I will spend at least 30 to 60 minutes a day on average. Thanks for these challenges Dr. Carter. I bought your CD several years ago and it has been very helpful.
Thanks
January 16th, 2010 at 9:48 am
Hi Peggy
Happy New Year!!! Let’s get it done this semester…
Congrats on reaching candidacy. I knew that when I saw this post that this was you even before I saw the email address. Sounds like a good plan…when you think about taking a break create your cover page etc.
See you on Monday
January 16th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Well, not exactly sure how I will use this challenge – I can’t be online the entire time as I teach during those hours. Perhaps I will throw some questions out to the group.
I am a PhD candidate and need to get my survey instrument DONE, with the associated activity, by February 3. I am in a time crunch because I only have my school’s computer lab reserved from Februrary 4-14 and I have been spinning circles trying to make that set of perfect survey questions.
January 16th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
•What will you work on?
Survey instrument
•How much time will you spend daily working on it?
3 hours
•Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
I feel like I am running in circles. I need to keep the instrument questions “simple”, as well as the associated activity, having a hard time narrowing it all down.
•At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day
Compile results of comments made about my instrument questions.
January 16th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Kerri
Glad you joined us. You might considering looking at previous studies on your topic to see what survey questions they used if any. You might also consider your hypotheses or answers that you expect to get and work backwards to the questions.
January 17th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Dr. Carter-
I woke up this morning, dreading yet another full weekend day spent running in circles.
Your suggestion of working backwards to the questions is BRILLLIANT! I am continually amazed at this writing process, how one can get “tunnel vision”, stuck in a rut (my choice of words was spinning in circles), and sometimes can’t see the obvious (work backwards…why hadn’t I thought of this earlier!)
THANKS! Now I can work my 3 hour hour goal AND enjoy watching my Vikings football game today, guilt-free, as I know I can make progress!!!
January 18th, 2010 at 8:12 am
I am new to the challenge as well and don’t quite know how it works, but here are my goals:
•What will you work on?
Literature Review
•How much time will you spend daily working on it?
3 hours
•Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
I HATE to read. As a result, the literature review is proving very challenging to me. However, I have reviewed about 17 articles or so, but am having trouble putting everything together to prepare for my proposal defense.
•At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day
I would just like to see some meaningful progress on my literature review.
January 18th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Hello Katrina
Welcome to the challenge; Here are my 2 suggestions: To organize your literature review you might consider answering the same questions for each article so that you are able to compare apple to apples;
As You Read — Ask the Following Questions.
* What is the Research Question in the Study?
* Did the Researcher Focus on the Wrong Group/subjects?
* Did the Research Leave Some Group/Something Out?
* Is the Methodology Faulty?
* Were the Findings Faulty?
* Can I Pursue the Author’s Recommendation for Future Research?
* What Are the Limitations of the Study?
My 2nd suggestion is to create an Excel spreadsheet with the bibliographic information in the first few columns i.e. Title, Author, Year, Publication etc….
Next columns should be The Research questions, sample, findings, limitations, type of methodology and the last column should be labeled “Your Research Question”..
With every article that you enter in that column you have 3 options:
” +” which means the study supports your research question
“-” a minus means the study does not support your RQ
“=” the study does neither just draws even.
If you do this you can then organized your articles (sort the studies) based on similarities (+) and or differences (-).
Once sorting look at why they are similar or different is it because of the samples, findings, population, etc are similar?
I hope this is clear.
Also you can check out my newsletter on writing a literature review
http://tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/newsdec06B.htm
Good luck.
January 18th, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Hello all,
I had participated in the previous summer challenge but do face a lot of challenges with my motivation and disciplining myself to write everyday. I face a lot of difficulty in the writing up phase, though I have done a couple of passes at 3-4 of my chps and shown them to my DA. Currently though am stuck on re-working of my analyses and tightening the focus of 2 of my manuscripts (am a perfectionist to the core, and need to just do what I can)
Here are my goals:
* What will you work on?
Write the findings portion of chp 3
Do some re-working on analysis and write the findings portion of chp4
Rework on some figures for these chps
* How much time will you spend daily working on it?
4 hrs, 2 hrs on each chp
* Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having. am doing a repeated measures ANOVA and a multi-factorial analyses (as decided in my proposal). One of my hypotheses was confirmed, but the results for the other is a bit wishy-washy.
and there are a couple of confounders like covariates and practice effects, because of which am restructuring the data to adjust for the same.
- hate having to do statistical analysis and so much critical thinking esp since right now a lot of things dont make sense to me. get de-motivated easily.
* At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day
for now, am just making time-based goals, of putting in 4 hrs each day.
January 18th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Ankita welcome back…remember at TADA we believe a good dissertation is a done dissertation not a perfect one.
The Chicago guide to writing about numbers is a good tool for writing about stats and creating tables as well.
January 18th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Is anyone aware of free downloads for factor analyses?
January 18th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Kerri
Are you looking for software like SPSS that could do factor analyses or looking for some type of explanation?
January 18th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Thanks so much dr carter, am finding that making shorter tasks does help a lot. have so far completed 50 min of work on chp3 in terms of redefining main purpose of my chp
, so that definitely feels good.
can you explain what is this chicago model of numbers? maybe I missed something here…
January 18th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
The Chicago Guide to Writing about Numbers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) (Paperback)
http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Writing-Numbers-Editing-Publishing/dp/0226526313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263865332&sr=8-1
January 18th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
thx again, so here’s my progress so far.
completed 2 hrs of work on chp3,
and put in abt 25 min on chp4. so far so good
January 19th, 2010 at 6:41 am
Good Morning All
My TADA FinishLine newsletter went out yesterday “How to make a good impression in your department.”
http://www.tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/2010/newsJan10B.htm
If you haven’t signed up a get a FREE monthly copy yet what are you waiting for…..sign-up and check that off your to-do list.
Ankita has got the hang of the challenge she has post what she accomplished on day 1. What about Katrina, Peggy, Moira, John????
Today begins the face to face portion of Dissertation House. It’s early at I am already on campus. Many of you know I am not a morning person so hang in there with me this morning. I am here early with printing out the handouts. Many of them are from the TADA on-line resource tool..www.Tadafinallyfinished.com
You should expect 13 more Maryland Students to join you in about 2 hours. Best of luck today as you begin another day in the challenge. Even if you got nothing done yesterday…..
Today is another day to get it right or almost right…can you get the cover page of your dissertation done today? How about the acknowledgment page? any part of the bibliography? you get it….. there is something you can do today to move your thesis or dissertation forward. No more excuses.
January 19th, 2010 at 7:18 am
Here’s my daily goals again:
2hrs on chp3 (flesh out the outline & plan out figs)
2hrs on chp4 (work with data, look at effect of covariates one by one in ‘rough’ passes)
and thx to your challenge, feels great to being early in the morn (am so not a morning person)
January 19th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Good Morning Dissertation House participants!
I’m back for round two of the DH. I’ve been here since 8am and am ready to get cracking! I’ll be working on the seemingly endless chapter 2 of my dissertation. I am not sure how much time I will spend daily working on it. My guess is that the bulk of my time we’ll be directed towards working on it or something related to it. I had a pretty productive weekend and cranked out about 12pgs of writing, but had to stop to focus on breaking down the articles into groups (per my chair’s instruction) before I resume writing.
•What will you work on?
•How much time will you spend daily working on it?
•Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
•At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day
January 19th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Good Morning Dissertation House participants!
I’m back for round two of the DH. I’ve been here since 8am and am ready to get cracking! I’ll be working on the seemingly endless chapter 2 of my dissertation. I am not sure how much time I will spend daily working on it. My guess is that the bulk of my time we’ll be directed towards working on it or something related to it. I had a pretty productive weekend and cranked out about 12pgs of writing, but had to stop to focus on breaking down the articles into groups (per my chair’s instruction) before I resume writing.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:34 am
I’m up for the challenge, and although I might not remain in the face-to-face group for the entire week, I will be here online vigorously!
What I’m doing this week:
Building a rough draft of my candidacy proposal
Finish advisor’s corrections to the document
Study and think further about my retention time standards
Email advisor my downtown to go over paper
Email colleagues to get time for practices
Here goes nothing!
January 19th, 2010 at 8:36 am
qk update
2hrs on chp3 (flesh out the outline & plan out figs;
1 hr completed: ended up having to double-chk dataset, which took longer than I thought.
2hrs on chp4 (work with data, look at effect of covariates one by one in ‘rough’ passes)
January 19th, 2010 at 8:43 am
Good morning! I will be working on my Proposal this week and my goal is to finish and hand it off to my advisor before I leave the country Saturday.
CH1
-Rewrite Motivation
-Finish Background
-Finish RQs and Impact
CH2
-Re-outline with new lit
-Fill in existing written content
-Write new content
CH3
-Rewrite introduction and transitions
-Edit Methodology
-FINISH and email to my advisor!
January 19th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Goals for today are to work on analyses related to first research question, enter results into tables and then write up results. If I have time I want to then work on analyses related to my second research question. I want to have a draft of analysis section by the end of the weekk.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Greeting all- I am in public policy and will be working on the following this week:
1.Finish advisor’s corrections/comments on recruitment/analysis and make corrections.
2. Decide on the figures/tables to include in analysis.
3. organize and write discussion section 4-6 pages
4. formulate and begin policy implications section 4-5 pages
5. check in with advisor & committee concerning progress by end of week
6. fill in time with 12 minute tasks
January 19th, 2010 at 8:48 am
* write the outline for the two chapters of the dissertation: (1) “the role of Arg5…”, and (2) Lys28 role and inhibitors.
* write the two chapters, including: introduction, methods, results and discussion.
January 19th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Good morning all!
Day one: I begin the methods and materials section of my dissertation.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:04 am
For the upcoming Dissertation House week, I am hoping to accomplish the following goals:
* Develop workplan to complete analyses. (I am not sure how to transition from the proposal to actually completing the analyses, and will find it helpful to break this section into measurable pieces).
* Meet with chair to finalize proposal and schedule defense (Wednesday/Thursday).
* Meet with two committee members to confirm methods revisions.
* Download MEPS dataset, convert to STATA.
* Explore dataset, preliminary variables and frequencies.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Hello all,
I am working on my dissertation as well as a paper that I would like to submit by end of this week for publication. Just start it, hopefully I will get most of my lists done this week!
And, thanks to Dr. Carter for all the help.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:06 am
Thank you Dr. Carter for organizing the Dissertation House!
My goals for 19 Jan 2010 are
1. Prepare the poster for presentation (2 hours)
2. Add information and edit the solid phase synthesis report. (4 hours)
All the resources are available…lets see how I fare.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Hello Dr. Carter and all,
I’m getting a late start on this week’s challenge, but am ready to put in 4 solid hours of work today. I’ve been feeling a bit discouraged about the pace of my work, as I require a very methodical and detailed working process in order to organize my thoughts (which can be frustrating), so this challenge comes at a good time.
My goal for this week’s challenge:
make much needed revisions to sections of my third chapter and continue taking notes on additional sources.
I plan to spend 4 hours each day–2 hours on each task.
The difficulty I face is with my writing–I am a very slow writer who needs to continuously re-write everything I have written in order to gain clarity in my thinking. Often get very frustrated and discouraged as a result because the process is so painstaking.
That said, I am grateful for this challenge and the opportunity to report back on my daily progress. Thank you, Dr. Carter!
January 19th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Well, my goal for today was to finish Chapter 1 – kind of lofty! I didn’t finish during the day today but I am almost there and I may finish it tonight. I was slowed a little because I inserted all references as I went along so that I wouldn’t have to do it later – definitely a tradeoff in terms of short-term productivity, but I think it’s worth it. Good luck if you’re working tonight and sleep well for tomorrow!
January 19th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
overall update
2hrs on chp3 (flesh out the outline & plan out figs;
1 hr completed: ended up having to double-chk dataset, which took longer than I thought.
2 more hours towards fleshing out intro section
2hrs on chp4 (work with data, look at effect of covariates one by one in ‘rough’ passes)
40 min on working with data and 10 min brainstorming on next line of action
January 19th, 2010 at 9:41 pm
Good job keep going
January 19th, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Valerie
Happy New Year and Welcome. Do what you can in these next four days and forget the rest. What’s wrong with hiring an editor? That allows you to get your thoughts down with out worrying about every single sentence or rewriting every single sentence…Get the ideas down on paper.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Well the first day of the DH is over.
We got our goals posted on the wall.
The Dean of the Graduate school stopped by to say hello and Welcome.
50% of graduate students never get their degree. She reminded the students to start with a deadline and be open to this process of getting your dissertation done.
I am exhausted. Our mini lecture was on how to prepare for your defense. Here is the newsletter for those of you who are on-line.
http://www.tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/news1105b.htm
Tomorrow we are looking forward to our discussion with the Director of the counseling services center.
January 20th, 2010 at 12:50 am
I am working on transitioning my prospectus to my dissertation. I printed out a hard copy so that I can work on it even on the bus or train. I am also getting additional feedback from two of my committee members who want to give me additional feedback to incorporate into my dissertation.
I plan to use an existing survey instrument. One of the researchers I sited in my lit review had developed a shorter version. So, I wrote and asked if I could use the shorter version.
My next step is to solicit candidates to pilot the instrument as well as the questions for my indepth interviews. I also have to learn how to use nVivo 8 to analyze my interview transcripts.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:41 am
Good for you Peggy
First step in transitioning is the printing out then changing the tense from future to present. It is so much easier using someone else’s survey! Thanks for checking back in.
January 20th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Good Morning Again Day 2 of Dissertation House and Day 3 of the TADA Challenge.
So good to hear that you are all making progress. Another early morning start for me; I was out of bed at 5:45 (ouch).
This morning we are going to work on the university’s dissertation template and work on how to manage your committee members. If you read my recent newsletter you already have this information. Don’t wait until the end to deal with your university’s guidelines like margins, font size, etc. Start using it with your proposal. Fill out some of the necessary paper work when you are tire of writing.
This is another day to get it almost right. Have another great productive day.
Valerie waiting to hear back from you. Lisa is almost finish with chapter 1 and is getting reading to sent it to her advisor! good for you. Hit send and move on to chapter 2.
Dr. Carter
January 20th, 2010 at 8:01 am
Things went great the 1st day a lot of good ideas on formatting and presentation of tables from Dr. Carter, still working hard to finish this analysis section. Looking forward to a hard day’s work.
January 20th, 2010 at 8:01 am
Good morning! Last night I worked on the last two sections of Ch1 and finished a draft! It’s not perfect, but it is better than nothing. This morning I read over it and made some edits for flow. Today I am going to move on to Ch3 since it shouldn’t require much original thought. I will also revisit Ch1 to edit and send to my advisor.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:04 am
Good Morning,
I fell short of yesterday’s goal – finishing the Methods and Materials section, but (the silver lining) I am further along than I was… and I’m optimistic that today will be better because I am better prepared.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Good Morning Dissertation House!
After a rocky start yesterday, I am ready to tackle the 2nd day of work on my dissertation. I forgot that I had to put in some hours at school immediately after dissertation house yesterday, so I did not get to spend additional time working on my articles like I had hoped. Today I will resume where I left off yesterday, with the focus remaining on completing stages 1-3 of the article sort/summation for non-African immigrants
January 20th, 2010 at 9:19 am
Good morning,
Yesterday was a productive day with the DH. I returned home to work on work projects while I was out at the DH all day, and this morning, completed work projects before coming in to the DH.
Goals for today include running preliminary descriptives and cross-tabs for study variables. I have a meeting scheduled with my advisor at 5 p.m. to finalize proposal revisions and schedule the proposal defense.
Thanks.
January 20th, 2010 at 11:53 am
Hello Dr. Carter and all,
Yesterday was an o.k. day–took notes on additional sources, but had a hard time concentrating on the writing. Felt overwhelmed by the revisions. They were slow-going at best. Thankfully, today is another day, and I am looking forward to devoting 4 hours again to the writing. I am open to the idea of an editor–it would definitely take some pressure off–but I don’t quite feel ready for one yet…my ideas for the chapter are still confused and in gestation, even with several outline drafts. There is something I am trying to capture that is still eluding me.
Thanks again for the encouragement, Dr. Carter!
January 20th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
I sent Chapter 1 to my advisor! Hooray!
On to Chapter 3!
January 20th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
hello all,
made good progress so far
got in about 75 min of reading today
30 min work on intro of a chp
a quick synopsis of findings for 2 of my main manuscripts
pending:
brainstorming to help with fleshing outline for one of my chps
some more writing work coming up
January 20th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
Dear DH Participants!
Hello from Puerto Rico! I’m logging in to encourage you to keep pushing forward. Stick to your goals, and resolve to accomplish them. Don’t be distracted. Turn off your email if necessary. You can answer email before you come to the DH, and then again after you leave.
This is your time. From 9AM to 5PM, you have “time off” from everything else this week except for time that you’re spending on the dissertation. Use your time wisely. For those doing the DH on campus, we purposely feed you so that you don’t have to worry about food. You have a place to go this week, so you don’t have to worry about where to go to work. You have a specific time to be present … 9:00, so use this an an opportunity to be disciplined.
All the best as you work this week!
Renetta Garrison Tull, Ph.D.
Co-Founder, Dissertation House
Director: PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP
Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Development, UMBC
January 20th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
I am a late blogger today so this is an update on progress on this second day of dissertation house. So far I have run my analyses for the first two hypotheses for my first research question. One more to go and then I will have completed 50% of my analysis! I also wrote a (very) rough draft of the narrative for the results section for the first hypothesis. I am meeting with my advisor next week and I plan to have a draft for her review by the end of the week.
January 20th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Another day ends the DH. Today Dr. Dawn Ward stopped by; she is a former DH Alumni. She talked about her experience in the DH and also thanked Dr. Carter for (her words )“pushing” her. I smiled because I am glad to help in any small way possible. She started writing her dissertation last year this same time and also had an outside proposal to write at the same time. She said she finished that proposal in June and the dissertation in October. You can do it too. Some of you can finish in May.
I have no problem “pushing” people to where they say they want to go. I am just not going to drag them, kicking and screaming. You want a PhD? You have to be willing to do what it takes to get there…What are you willing to sacrifice and for how long. It’s not going to be forever but you will have to endure some sacrifices. As they say “No tests no testimony”
Today in the DH:
We discussed techniques on how to get past Procrastination. Here is the newsletter ” Making Progress when you don’t feel like writing.”
http://tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/news1005b.htm
Making a Plan and staying Motivated
http://tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/news0905b.htm
Today we also did the “Raw Drafting exercise:”
You should all try it.
Set a timer for 15 minutes.
Pick a section of your dissertation that you are going to write about.
And start writing with abandon, no editing, no use of the spell check, no backspace to delete nothing. Just type.
If your mind starts to wander type what your mind is wandering about and then comeback to your original purpose. You can edit out that junk later.
Best of luck this evening and see you all again tomorrow.
Same bat time same bat channel (this comment dates me back to when I was a child watching the Batman cartoon….just in case you are too young to know what that means. )
January 20th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Good evening,
I had an excellent meeting with my advisor after the DH this evening. We met from 5:00 – 6:45 to discuss the final revisions to the proposal before it is sent to the committee members. I had not expected additional feedback, and the clarifications she suggested were excellent and very helpful. In preparation for ‘blogging in’ tomorrow a.m., I am noting the following goals/revisions that I need to complete between this evening and tomorrow COB:
(1) Add three clarifying paragraphs to Chapter 1,
(2) Add 2-3 pages of background demographics on PWD for the beginning of Chapter 2,
(3) Clarify IVs and regressions in Chapter 3.
I am meeting with two committee members on Friday to discuss final revisions to the methods section, and again with my advisor after the DH. She will be scheduling the proposal defense for the first week in February.
It will be a busy day to get things completed and sent out.
January 20th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Dr. W-
Yes, a program like SPSS
January 20th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Sorry Dr. Carter, didn’t mean to say Dr. W…long day and it is late at the moment
I just finished writing 4 questions for my data collection instrument, since Sunday I have written 16 questions and sent it off to my advisor tonight for comment. Tomorrow:
What will you work on?
Writing questions.
•How much time will you spend daily working on it?
3 hours tomorrow
•Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
I am much further along than I was 1 week ago
•At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day.
I want to complete 8 more questions.
January 20th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Good Kerry
Did she approve your survey questions…the fact that she set a date for your proposal defense is good, great even. Looks like you are making great progress.
January 20th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
late but happy update,
today I ended up working 10 hrs (and didnt even realize it)
did a lot of work towards looking at prelim findings for 2 of my chps and brainstorming on analysis strategies to account for covariates
one of them is 80% done and the other is in progress, and even tho’ I dont have all answers at least I can see the light, so guess that counts.
also worked on fleshing outline for one chp. caught up on some reading too.
and the best part, am not even feeling exhausted (blame it on the extra caffiene) but knocking on wood anyway
!!!
January 21st, 2010 at 6:51 am
Good for you the night owl.
80% is always better that 0% I say.
January 21st, 2010 at 7:02 am
Good Morning All
Welcome to another day of TADA’s Winter Break Challenge. Day 3 today is not the day to get tired and give up. Today is the day to push through whatever it is and work even if you don’t feel like it. There will be many more days like this so you have to make a decision. What will do on days that I feel like this?
Can you spare 15 minutes? What are you going to do today to move your thesis or dissertation forward. I have 6 minutes before I leave my office to head over to the Dissertation House. It’s early still for a non-morning person such a myself.
Ankita and Kerry stayed up late to work…Valerie checked back in with us…Lisa sent her chapter 1 off….Katherine is close to 50%…Richard is working on his edit, Ben’s almost 70% percent there…all in 2 days…
We have 2 more….come on join us if you haven’t yet.
What can you get done in 2 more days?
Have a good day…push…dig deeper….pull on your cape and tights and write.
Do what ever you need to do to get going even if it means finding your lucky T-shirt, pen, coffee mug…etc.
January 21st, 2010 at 8:05 am
Good morning!
Today will be focused on Chapter 3 – Methods. The meat is there but I need to fill in things like definitions and assumptions and timeline. My goal is to be able to send this chapter off to my advisor before tomorrow morning.
It’s so nice to see everyone’s great progress – keep it up!
January 21st, 2010 at 8:09 am
Feeling energized this morning- I have been so productive the past 2 days! Looking forward to day to:
running a few new regressions, more modeling, more regressions, and finishing up my analysis/findings.
I hope to begin my discussion by the end of the day.
January 21st, 2010 at 8:33 am
Good Morning,
Today will start as a “fill in the blank” kind of morning… but we’re still moving forward.
I’m finding that the method and materials section requires a lot of information from my notebooks back in the lab. So I am highlighting the places with missing details…. I therefore have a very colorful document. But I’m moving forward, easier to fill in the blanks once I’ve written the frame.
Okay, enough whining….
January 21st, 2010 at 8:38 am
Good morning,
I had an early morning start today, working on a work project before coming in, work e-mail, etc… It is very good to be able to focus on the DH this week, but a little hard being out of the office also.
Goals for today include the following (some of which were I posted last night):
(1) Add three clarifying paragraphs to Chapter 1,
(2) Add 2-3 pages of background demographics on PWD for the beginning of Chapter 2,
(3) Clarify IVs and regressions in Chapter 3,
(4) Add proposed significance/outcomes section to proposal (per one committee member’s request),
(5) Send final revisions to advisor and two committee members this evening.
(6) Confirm time to meet with final committee member today via e-mail.
Per Dr. Carter’s suggestion, I will see how to import MEPS into STATA prior to leaving the DH.
Kerry
January 21st, 2010 at 9:12 am
Good Morning Dissertation House!
I can’t believe it’s Day 3 of the DH! Yesterday was quite productive for me. Today, I hope to keep the momentom going as I strive to knock out writing the section for my non-African immigrant group and if timepermits, begin parts 1&2 for the African immigrant group. Good luck everyone!
January 21st, 2010 at 11:09 am
lol, agree on the night-owlie part
.
today is a slow part, but not going to slack off. got one very rough draft of intro section ready in a chp. wrote a qk but complete update of findings so far and sent it to my advisor, who surprisingly responded quickly and with encouraging comments.
so my current task is to work on completing the chp draft. and also devote 2hrs of work on another chapter.
January 21st, 2010 at 11:10 am
and also wanted to thank you for the links and helping us benefit from DH, even in an online mode….much, much appreciated !!!
January 21st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
I finished a full draft of Chapter 3! I took a break to pat myself on the back, and now I’m off to add a little bit to Chapter 1, edit Chapter 3, and outline Chapter 2.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:35 pm
It was a bit of a “mad” writing day, but I finished everything that I was asked to accomplish by my advisor for final revisions. I am meeting with one committee member at 4:45, and the final two tomorrow to review the final methods section prior to the proposal defense.
I received a reply from AHRQ with additional information on how to import MEPS into STATA. I will work with this tomorrow in the DH with the intent to complete it by COB.
Thanks.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Good for you those boots are even closer
They’re pretty! and they’re on sale… what an incentive to finish sooner rather than later
http://www.zappos.com/lucchese-n1592-5-4-chocolate-mad-dog-goat
January 21st, 2010 at 3:36 pm
No problem you are most welcome
January 21st, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Good for you Kerry sounds like a plan…
Thank you for posting what you will work on tomorrow here.
January 21st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Still plugging and chugging along with my analysis. I had to re-run some analyses and clean up my tables after meeting with Dr. Carter but now things are flying. Still expecting to be through the first half of the analysis by the end of the week. (that means tomorrow- Yikes!)
January 21st, 2010 at 3:50 pm
I met with my advisor today. I had copies of my updated consent form, survey instrument, and interview protocol. I got feedback and suggested changes from my advisor. I also recived suggestions on participants for the pilot. I will now submit an IRB for my formal study so that I will be ready to go once the pilot is done. So when I meet with him in two weeks, I should have pilot interviews done and mostly analyzed. I should also have the study IRB submitted. Moving right along. Yes!!
January 21st, 2010 at 3:52 pm
A lot of progress today, great!!
Tomorrow I am going to finish up the discussion and conclusion!
January 21st, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Thanks for blogging Liwei…see you tomorrow.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Katherine
It’s helps to know you are flying in the right direction….thanks for posting the blog.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:34 pm
Peggy
That’s worthy of repeating… “I should have pilot interviews done and mostly analyzed”…wow…once you do that, that should give you some new ideas or confirm to you that you are going in the right direction.
Keep going.
January 21st, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Good evening,
Didn’t have a chance to log in earlier today; put in a good day’s work and have made very good progress on revising my third chapter and got some additional reading in too! Thanks for the “Staying Motivated” link, Dr. Carter. Very, very helpful!
January 21st, 2010 at 6:08 pm
Thanks Valerie…..Whatever it takes to get you to the FinishLine…
January 21st, 2010 at 9:27 pm
today has been a slow day, but at least I put in about 1.5 hrs on chp3. am now switching focus on lit section. put in 30 min or so org my notes.
for now am putting in 2 more hrs, will then see what more needs to be done.
January 21st, 2010 at 10:04 pm
2 more hours good for you I am headed to bed I have 1 more early morning to the DH on Friday.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:39 am
Well, inspiration struck at midnight and I couldn’t sleep so I got up and wrote out 4 pages on paper of what I think is a much better way of framing my motivation at the beginning of chapter 1. We’ll see if it still makes sense this morning!
I need to add appendices to chapter 3, do a once-over, and then I can send that to my advisor, too!
Plan for today:
-appendices for ch3
-rewrite parts of ch1 in accord with “midnight revelation”
-edit ch3
-edit ch1
-stop to admire boots
-outline ch2
-send ch1+3 drafts and ch2 outline to advisor
Yahoo!
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:31 am
Good Morning Dissertation House!
I can’t believe it’s the last day of DH! Yesterday was productive, but not as productive as I would’ve liked. I had a minor setback and had to redo some of the stuff that I had completed yesterday. Thankfully it wasn’t too bad because I caught the issue early and got help from Dr. Carter. I was able to get some writing done for positive outcomes in the non-African group, and am also done with that. Today I plan to finish up that section and move on to writing the section for the negative and mixed effects outcomes for the non-African group. If time permits, I would like to move on to parts 1 & 2 for the African group.
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:06 am
Hello All
Last day in the DH. Yesterday we had a visit from Dr. Ingram in the University Counseling Services Center: Below are the tips she gave for “Successful Project Completion or How the Heck do you Get it Done”
10 Tips for Finding Balance:
1. Develop Organizing Systems
2. Focus on Key Tasks
3. Learn to say “No”
4. Take your full lunch break every day
5. Find a Trail: Hike (Find ways to relax)
6. Make Personal Commitments Concrete
7. Listen to music. Appropriate musci
8. Develop & Utilize a support system (your own Board of Directors)
9. Talk to your supervisor about your needs
10. Maintain your sense of humor.
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:20 am
Good morning,
To do/have done:
1. I just finished e-mailing current proposal drafts to committee members.
2. Rescheduled meeting today with one faculty member (at her request due to health problems).
3. I received additional edits/comments from my advisor late yesterday, and I need to incorporate these in the proposal.
4. Begin exploring MEPS dataset.
That completes the list for the week, with a few additional things besides! I am happy this was such a productive week, but am also very… tired from full days and working on work projects when I return home in the evening/early morning.
Many Thanks!
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:13 pm
What a busy week! I enjoyed meeting everyone in the DH and wish everyone the best on their next dissertation steps!
Have a good weekend.
Kerry
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Met with my advisor yesterday evening. Outlined a plan for the next 30 days to finish this !@$!#@$ thing. It will not be easy, but it will be done!
Today 1/21 I am going to finish running my revised regressions.
Make other changes suggested by my advisor- tables and correlations/regressions
finish findings and send to advisor by the end of this weekend.
Outline and start the discussion chapter.
I also outlined my next 30 days to get out the final draft to the committee before the end of Feb!
Ambitious, but the plan is there and it WILL get done.
Thanks again for this opportunity with dissertation house!
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Today I finished my first two goals for the week, I completed 50% of my analyses and entered the data into tables and dropped those tables into my results chapter. I am now working on my narrative in preparation for a meeting with my advisor on Monday afternoon. I still have a lot of work ahead but I am well pleased with this week and all I was able to accomplish.
Thank you Dr. Carter for all your support!
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Thank you so much for this opportunity! I came into this week with disjointed fragments of chapters and I am leaving with (what I think are) solid drafts of chapters 1 and 3. I can’t remember the last time I worked this hard, but it has been worth it!
Plan for tonight: Do one last read-through and send drafts to my advisor
Plan for tomorrow: Fly to India!
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:44 pm
made a bunch of notes yesterday which seemed for the most part rambling. but today I ended up incorporating 2 subsections in lit review
also for one chp, did a couple of passes at intro, spruced up the results section and only need to re-work the discussion section along with layout of figs.
Yay!!! progress feels so good.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I just did the final read-through and edits of chapters 1 and 3 and sent them to my advisor. I can’t wait to sleep tonight!
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:48 am
Lisa
Good for you, get to bed and get some rest. Have a good trip to India for all of us; now you can do it without the sense of guilt that you should be working on your proposal…Have fun for me. You can also send me a card to the Graduate School so that it looks like I know someone who travels to India
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:53 am
Excellent Ankita
At the end of the introduction of each chapter you can go back and add a “roadmap” for the reader based on the outline that you have for the chapter. Meaning “This chapter is organized as follows… First …..Second…. or We begin with a description of X followed by a presentation of Y. Afterwards we conclude/ sum up etc.”
Look at what time I make this post I am truly a fellow night owl.
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Wow the Dissertation House and the TADA Challenge is over. Many of you have made substantial progress over the past 4 days.
In the DH on Friday:
We discussed How to Manage our Dissertation Committee members
and practiced our “elevator pitch” about our dissertation topic.
You should try this exercise as well. You should be able to talk about your research in non-technical terms for 2 minutes without the ums, ahs, and so…etc. Could you convince someone to give you money for your research project? Could you do it in 2, 5 or 10 minutes without the other person prompting you with questions? You will need to do this at the beginning of your dissertation defense. You should have this spiel down before you get to your defense. At TADA we always say practice, practice, practice.
In addition, we discussed How to find an Academic Job.
See the corresponding newsletters:
http://tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/news1205b.htm
http://tadafinallyfinished.com/newsletter/2007/newsmay07B.htm
To find a job be a frequent visitor to the following periodical links, which include job listings of interest to scholars in all fields. (You can search by state and academic discipline.) Some of these links send daily or weekly updates directly to your email if you register with them. Registration is FREE and you can unsubscribe any time you like.
The Chronicle of Higher Education/Career Network
HigherED Jobs.Com
Academic360.com
Diverse Issues in Higher Education
Inside Higher Education
Science Careers.org
Nonprofits Professional Advisory Groups
If you are interested in taking the road less traveled by PhDs consider reading Gaberiela Montell’s article on Finding a Non-Academic Job, in Chronicle Careers. She provides a list of Web resources where you might find useful information and job listings on a variety of alternative careers.
We stayed in the DH on Friday until 5:00 until they kicked us out. No snow showed up.
I appreciate your participation in this blog; please feel free to continue to use it beyond today. I will continue to moderate your comments and post a reply if you have a question.
All the best to you in the New Year
Dr. Carter
January 26th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Dissertation House may be over, but the dissertation process must continue. I’m going to try my best to keep my DH productivity and strategies going. I didn’t do so good with that on Sat-Mon following the DH, but I am officially ready to go. I was able to cross off one more thing from my DH task list though! I was also able to cross off a few things on the list that I made this morning (I met w/the IRB liason, set up my next committee meeting, blogged in, & picked up some study documents)
My new strategy is to make my list of things to do at least the night before so I don’t waste time trying to figure out what I need to do in the morning. That being said, my task list for tomorrow is:
1. finish revisions for non-african grp-positive outcomes section
2. write non-african grp-negative outcomes section
3. complete parts 1-2 sort/summary for non-african grp mixed outcomes section
4. write non-african grp mixed outcomes section
5. email perot about report
I’ll be back tomorrow to report on my progress & make my list for the following day.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Hello Maria
Keep going. Glad to see you posting. Use this forum to get what you need to get done. Well done I believe that taking what you have learned from the DH and making it work is great. We always end the day with a plan for the next day… see you tomorrow.
Estamos aqui para a ti
January 27th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
Today was quite the busy day! Since today was my GRA day I had less time to spend on my dissertation.
I was SO tired when I got home and I had an awful headache…BUT after a nap and a healthy serving of Ben & Jerry’s, I was able to finish up the revisions for the non-african grp-positive outcomes section. Earlier in the day I was also able to get in touch with perot and got two good contacts from her about some materials I need for my study. So all in all, I wasn’t as productive as I would’ve like, but I’m glad I got some things out of the way!
I put in about 5hrs of work on the dissertation tonight which is a significant improvement for me since I’m usually too tired to write when I get home from school. Hopefully I’ll keep improving. I’m also trying to keep my DH bedtime hours (in bed between 12-12:30am at the latest so I can get up early)…so far I’m doing okay with that (the night owl in me is itching to revolt though)
My task list for tomorrow is:
1. write non-african grp-negative outcomes section
2. complete parts 1-2 sort/summary for non-african grp mixed outcomes section
3. write non-african grp mixed outcomes section
I’m not sure if I can get to #3 since tomorrow is another GRA day, but I’ll see what happens. In the meantime, off to bed I go!
January 28th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Working late at night builds character I say
You have a tight schedule to get to your deadline everyday you should say what can I do today to move my dissertation forward. Do you have 15 minutes. Take 15 minutes to create some 15 minute items so that you can do something even on the GRA days
January 28th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Another busy day, even worse than yesterday and I got home much later!
wasn’t able to touch any of the task items…on my way to bed now, so tired…as evidenced by the incomplete sentences. Was able to spend 15+mins doing dissertation related activity…reserved the room & phone for my committee meeting…turned out to be more work than it should of been, but i guess it counts for something. tomorrow will be better. thanks for the encouraging words Dr. Carter.
Task list for tomorrw: repeat items from yesterday plus a few new ones:
1. write non-african grp-negative outcomes section
2. complete parts 1-2 sort/summary for non-african grp mixed outcomes section
3. write non-african grp mixed outcomes section
4. conference call w/chair
5. set agenda for meeting & send out materials
6. complete aschi registration
7. send latest draft to chair before meeting
8. read proposal documents prior to meeting
January 29th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Maria good use of your 15 minutes. It shows that some tasks that we think will only take a minute will take even longer than 15 minutes. That’s why it helps to create a check list because just holding even the simplest tasks in your head adds stress. You should leave room in the brain for the heavy lifting such as writing, analyzing, and interpreting the results of your research.
Have a good day.
January 31st, 2010 at 2:58 am
Yes, I’m still alive! I missed a night of blogging because I worked into the wee hours of the morning and fell asleep on the couch.
Sooooo I went to bed around 11:30 Thursday night, which was the last time I blogged in (yes, I was really that tired!) which resulted in me waking up by 8:38am on a Friday (I felt like I won a Grammy when I realized how early it was
) I was pretty productive and worked from about 9am that morning to 3:30am Saturday morning. Funny enough, I didn’t mark off anything on the list from Thursday’s blog! This was because I realized that the previous section I thought I completed writing needed more work. I beefed it up based on what I discussed during my one-on-one meetings during the DH. It’s a lot better now! My Friday meeting with my chair got pushed back to Saturday which is why most of the other items on my list didn’t get crossed off. I just wrapped it up now around 3:30am (Sunday morning). I was able to complete tasks 4-8 on Saturday (Allelujia!) and now I’m off to bed!
My task list for tomorrow (Sunday…yes I refuse to accept that it is already 4am on Sunday morning as I’m writing this) is:
1. write non-african grp-negative outcomes section
2. complete parts 1-2 sort/summary for non-african grp mixed outcomes section
3. come up with 15-minute task lisk suggested by the wise Dr. Carter
4. come up with schedule for the upcoming week
January 31st, 2010 at 9:11 am
M, Good to hear that you are still alive. Were you able to make that meeting with all of the snow we’ve been having in MD? Keep up the good work. Did you see PROMISE announce a Feb DH Retreat?
February 17th, 2010 at 8:36 am
Good morning Dr. Carter,
–I so needed that and appreciate your encouragement.
Thanks for the blood-quickening and spine-straightening nudge yesterday
My goal is to have chap. 3 done by March 7th, so for today:
I will finish tracking down relevant citations, which I had started yesterday;
clean up/edit what I had written yesterday
revise/re-read relevant material that I’ll need to write the section on metaphysics of nature.
Have a great day!!
February 17th, 2010 at 9:45 am
Hello Valerie
Sounds like a plan. Feb 28th is you day to get the full draft done. Please write the section on metaphysics of nature FIRST and then go back and edit what you wrote yesterday. Try something new and see how that feels. Don’t forget to call yourself and see what happens with your voice mail.
February 18th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Good morning Dr. Carter,
Yesterday I spent all of my time tracking down citations and references. Glad that at least that’s done for now. This means that I did not edit what I had written the day before (will take your advice on moving on and dealing with the editing later), and it also means that I did not revise/re-read relevant material needed to write the section on metaphysics of nature. That will be my job for today. I did, however, have a productive a.m. as I have spent the past 2 and 1/2 hours brainstorming and raw drafting the section I will be writing tomorrow and part of the conclusion. Had a creative burst this morning.
Hope you are having a good morning!
February 18th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Valerie
Good for you onward and upward.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Hello Dr. Carter,
Yesterday was a somewhat productive day–after the raw drafting, only got half of the re-reading I needed to get done….perhaps I overshot my goal. Something did occur to me, though–prompted by your question about what I have learned for the next chapters. What slows me down considerably is assembling and re-assembling my notes for each section I have to write. Must come up with a more efficient system.
Today, will spend a few hours writing rough draft of this section and then resume re-reading relevant material for the section.
Happy Friday!
February 19th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Valerie
Ok sounds like a plan but I don’t see where you have built in a plan to not have to assemble or reassemble those those. Figuring that out will also be good time spent especially if and or when writer’s block happens. Perhaps color coding i.e. highlighting might help.
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:41 am
Hope you had a great weekend, Dr. Carter….Thank you for your suggestion that I organize my notes when I have writer’s block–I wish I had seen your reply earlier on Friday, as I spent a good part of the day struggling with putting my ideas on paper. Though at the end of the evening I manged to write a decent page and a half, many of the hours before the breakthrough would have been better spent on those notes! I have a tendency to hunker down, especially when I am stuck and frustrated–I will keep that suggestion in mind.
Today, my plan is to do some more writing on the met. of nature section, to go over relevant material for the section (didn’t do that on Friday) and make brief plan of section I will be working on tomorrow.
Have a great day!
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:46 am
Good for you Valerie
Keep it up…PROMISE is going away this weekend for Dissertation House Retreat in Rocky Gap
March 5th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Hello Dr. Carter,
Late start today–had several appointments earlier. Thanks again for checking in yesterday, I really appreciate it.
Plan to work late into evening today reading and writing for micro-section on structure of cognition. Had to back track a bit to make my argument stronger. Also decided, that in order to keep things from getting out of hand, it might be useful to work on very small sections at a time. So, to the best of my ability, I’ve gone through the outline and what I’d written so far and broke the argument down into very small sub-sections, each with a thesis/topic statement to help minimize my tendency to get lost and scattered. Plan to repeat this as I continue to write to keep some control on the flow of the argument.
Have a great weekend.
March 5th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Valerie
Excellent approach we at TADA strongly encourage people to break unmanageable tasks down to bite size pieces. I agree wholeheartedly.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:03 am
Hope you had a wonderful weekend, Dr. Carter.
My plan today is to write on the structure of cognition section. I’m working towards having that done tomorrow, as I need another day or two to finish that up.
Enjoy the sunshine!
March 8th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Hello Valerie
I am trying to “enjoy the sunshine” but I have to finish my grading first. That will be my reward and incentive to get it done. What is your planned reward for having the cognition section done? You have to have something to look forward to.
March 9th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Hello Dr. Carter,
Working on the cognition section again, and hoping to have it finished tomorrow. Haven’t given much thought to a reward…. but perhaps, I’ll catch one of the academy award winners that I missed.
Have great day!
March 9th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Reward reward reward yourself….no one else will.
March 10th, 2010 at 9:51 am
Hello Dr. Carter,
Not always good about the rewards….but I agree it’s important.
Had a productive day yesterday–the cognition section is coming along, so I will continue to work on that today. Also have to track down some sources that I realize I need to shore up my claims.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:06 am
Valerie
Good work on making some progress as long as you are moving in the forward directing that is the point.
Remember it doesn’t have to be perfect it just has to be done!!!!
March 12th, 2010 at 8:33 am
Good morning, Dr. Carter!
I apologize for not checking in yesterday–had a very busy day and did not get time to write or do much on the diss. yesterday. Today, though, I plan on continuing writing the cognition section, which is proving to be a bit longer (and taking more time) than expected. Going to put in as much time as I can today so I can enjoy my reward this weekend!
Have a great weekend!
March 15th, 2010 at 9:44 am
Hi Dr. Carter,
Got a good amount of writing done on Friday and hope to do the same again today. The cognition section is coming along well–its longer than I expected, but I’m pleased with it. It will need some revisions, but I’m okay with that and will worry about that later. Today is my last day working on it!
Thanks for all the words of encouragement!
March 15th, 2010 at 9:49 am
Valerie
“It will need some revisions, but I’m okay with that and will worry about that later.” This line alone shows progress and promise!!!!!!!
wow to all perfectionists writing dissertations
You make me smile. Keep up the good work!
Last week, 1 student told me she successfully defended her proposal, anther defended her dissertation and another has scheduled a dissertation defense date…
What a good week; you are next in line.
Spring Break!
March 16th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Hi Dr. Carter!
Thanks for the encouraging words–they are just what I needed today after a difficult time with writer’s block yesterday. This always happens just when I think I’m about to finish something….I’m definitely working hard to not give into my perfectionist tendencies, and so far I seem to be doing okay….just want to get this section done though! That’s my goal again for today, although I don’t have as much time to devote to it–we’ll see what can happen with the time I have.
Thanks again for your uplifting note. Hope you are enjoying your Spring Break! It’s a spectacular day outside!
March 16th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Valerie
Keep going I hope that you are still doing something while you are experiencing writer’s block. Are all of the front matter pages done? title page…acknowledgment page, dedication page etc? What about the bibliography/references…there is plenty to do even when you can’t write.
March 17th, 2010 at 9:47 am
Hi Dr. Carter,
! Good practice for keeping her in check…
I managed to write for about two hours yesterday–that was all I could devote to the diss–but I felt that I got something done. I don’t have much time for the rest of the week to get a good block of writing done, so I plan to take your advice and work on organizing my references and footnotes (which are a mess and in desperate need of proper formatting). The hardest part is pulling myself away from the writing–feels like I’m not getting done what needs to get done. But that’s the stubborn perfectionist in me
March 17th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Good for you finding something else to do but it all moves you forward in the right direction.
March 19th, 2010 at 11:41 am
Hi Dr. Carter,
Didn’t have a chance to log in yesterday–didn’t have much time to work on the chapter, but did spend an hour and a half late last night working on references…Today is another busy day, but will try to put in two hours on either finishing the cognition section, if I can have a good block of time to concentrate on it, or roughly draft some thoughts that I’d like to include in my Intro.
Hope you are enjoying yet another beautiful afternoon!
March 19th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Good for you Valerie
You did something to move your dissertation forward; welcome back.
March 23rd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Hello Dr. Carter,
I finished the cognition section!!! Yea! Though it still needs revising and editing, I am glad it’s written and pleased that my argument, for the moment at least, seems coherent. Will work on the revisions later. For now, I am moving on to the next section on spontaneity of thought and plan to review my notes for this section and write what I can today.
Hope all is well.
March 23rd, 2010 at 1:18 pm
Valerie
Glad you posted today because your name came across my mind today! Spring Break is over for us here at U of MD. Keep it moving forward; good for you.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break, Dr. Carter. Thanks for the encouraging words…I am working on the spontaneity section, doing some additional reading and hope to have half of it written today. Trying to push ahead as far as I can today.
Have a wonderful day!
March 25th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Hello Valerie
Good to know that you are still working. Is this still the same chapter? Have you learned anything from writing the previous section that you can use to write this section. Remember you are not always building a new wheel every time you start a new section. You are suppose to be building confidence as you go; it is suppose to get easier. Finishing each section should provide you with a moment of reflection.
Dr. Carter