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Archive for the ‘Graduate school’ Category

Demystifying Dissertation Writing Part 1: Chapters 1-5

Posted in Being a scholar, Dissertation, Graduate school, Organization, Reading, Tools, Writing on July 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »

In order to move myself forward on this process I have been reading Demystifying Dissertation Writing:A Streamlined Process from Choice of Topic to Final Text by Peg Boyle Single.  This is a different type of book from many of the other dissertation-writing guides out there, in that it’s goal is to present an organized process [...]

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I will not become a statistic….

Posted in Academic life, Being a scholar, Dissertation, Graduate school, Organization, Productivity, tagged , , , on December 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »

They used to say that only 50% of those who start a doctorate finish.  Updated statistics in the social sciences says that number (10-year completion) is more like 56%, but that still leaves 44% unfinished and (in most programs like mine that have a time limit) unfinishable.  It isn’t the course work;  16% opt out [...]

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Perspective: Useful thing that…

Posted in Academic life, Dissertation, Graduate school, Productivity, Psychology, Stress, Teaching on October 4, 2009 | Comments Off

Often we are told to take a step back from things to gain some perspective.  It’s very hard when you are in the thick of things, particularly all-consuming things like a dissertation. This week, however, I got some perspective.  In order to enhance my qualifications for the classes I’m already teaching, I signed up for [...]

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Why are you going to grad school anyway?

Posted in Academic life, Being a scholar, Change, Graduate school, Jobs on August 20, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Over the past few years I have focused much of this blog on efficiently getting through graduate school.  Yet as I have started teaching and working on my dissertation, I have begun to question what I want out of graduate school. There are a ton of reasons people start a PhD program: They want to [...]

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The importance of a supportive partner

Posted in Academic life, Graduate school on August 16, 2009 | Comments Off

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary.  (Well, actually it’s the 8th anniversary of our elopement; the ceremony and party with friends was that November.)  This has led me to think about how important my husband has been to my progress in graduate school, not to mention my sanity. I’ve actually seen people recommend that you [...]

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Summer break?

Posted in Academic life, Graduate school, Productivity, Psychology, Teaching on August 1, 2009 | Comments Off

Ah, the good old days as an undergrad when you got your summers off.  I wish.  Summer for a graduate student is often as hectic as the rest of the year, and if some things (teaching) are reduced that merely means that other things (research) are expected to step in and make up the difference. [...]

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Networking as a graduate student

Posted in Being a scholar, Graduate school, Research on June 30, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Another grad student recently asked me about how to network with potential collaborators or committee members. These were people she had met either through course work, contacts, or conferences, and who she wanted to keep in contact with. At least two were people she was considering for her committee. I don’t think that networking as [...]

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Organizing a literature review

Posted in Being a scholar, Graduate school, Organization, Writing on June 7, 2009 | 3 Comments »

With my chair’s approval, I have begun working on my literature review, and one of the first questions I came up against was how to organize all that “stuff”.  The literature spans a wide variety of media; journal articles, think tank reports, books, popular media articles, etc.  How do you keep all that stuff straight? [...]

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Dissertation strategy

Posted in Academic life, Being a scholar, Dissertation, Graduate school on December 28, 2008 | Comments Off

There are two schools of thought when it comes to choosing a topic for ones dissertation.   says you should write your dissertation on something you LOVE and are passionate about, since you will be getting really really intimate with it over the next few months.  This school believes that regardless of the marketability of the [...]

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Three down, two to go

Posted in Academic life, Graduate school on November 13, 2008 | Comments Off

The third member of our writing group defended today.  Congrats Dr. Donna!  That leaves 2 of us left to finish, and we don’t even have our proposals done yet. I have to admit that this writing group was a bit weird – most form out of a group who are close to the same point [...]

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