Six Months Later...

Can you believe that NOTHING has moved since late January?!

Yesterday, I reached out to Dr. B again.  His response was to ask if Dr. Z had approved my thesis as "This should have been done quite a while ago."

No kidding.

Still No Update...

I reached out to Dr. B again via email a week after I spoke with him.  I told him that a deadline was imperative as I'm going to have to take vacation days to review and rewrite.  He responds that he understands.  

So in the meantime, after almost a year away from it, I'm doing a big review on my own.  (Hmm..."almost a year away from it" - that, dear readers, is RIDICULOUS!)  

Speaking of ridiculous, the weather in the Washington, DC area this week is preventing my regular business travel. If I can get myself to bed early and take on my old pre-workday habits, I should be able to put a dent in it over the next few days.

I found another resource from dissertationwriting.com:  Writing Chapter 1 - The Introduction of Your...Doctoral Dissertation...  that actually tells me a bit more on what is supposed to go into the introductory chapter.  The biggest issue is - to give a synopsis of the findings or not to give a synopsis.  I vote "yes."  And since the school is unresponsive, I think I'll be my own thesis advisor and do what I want to do.  So there.

Conversation with New Dissertation Dean

Had a brief conversation with the new dissertation dean (Dr. B) last week.  He had assumed that we would be having the discussion I had with Dr. S TWO YEARS AGO! (See March 30, 2014 blog post.) That is, he thought I was trying to kick off the proposal process.

Needless to say, I quickly corrected that assumption...walked him through the entire process, when I turned things in, Dr. Z's (non)responses, etc.  I told him that my biggest concern was that my data was now more than a year old and that I wouldn't be able to get any more.  He assured me that I wouldn't have to start over, that I was "done."  Hallelujah.

Part of his role as the new guy was to circle around with all of the thesis advisors.  He plans to reach out to Dr. Z to see where we are in the process and how to get it all finished.  He promises to get back to me after that.

First Update for 2016

When I started this blog, I had absolutely no idea that I would be still in the process by January of 2016.

Dr. Z has reviewed about 70% of my work as of August of last year.  I have received no updates since.  I hesitate to start into making the changes warranted by the review because I don't have time to deal with it the first time around after only a partial review, much less go through it again.

Concerned that the data in the dissertation is now over a year old.  I realize that it is obsolete the moment you "publish" it, but now we're really getting beyond the "sell by" date!

The school has a new dissertation dean (no more Dr. S).  He is Dr. B, and I have an appointment for a Skype call with him later this week.  Stay tuned...

Semi-Final Review - #2

OK. I peeked.  Not too bad.

Semi-Final Review

Heard from Dr. Z late yesterday.  Though he's not quite finished with the review, he sent me my March 29th version back with 10 comments.  I haven't looked at what he has to say yet, but I really need a day off of work this week; and today is it.  I'll look at it tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that it's not too bad.

90 Days...No Update

The title of the blog says it all....

At least no one is waiting on me.  Would, however, really like to finish this thing!

First look

I heard from Dr. Z today. He is covered up with a project of his (I completely understand) and can't get to my final submission.  He has taken a cursory look and results are favorable. I have things to do in the interim while traveling a good bit for work over the next two weeks.

C'est finis!

At 1:00 pm local time, March 29, 2015, the dissertation is done.  The final chapter is being proofed, but it's time to break out the bottle of Prosecco!

Philippe Saisse / Rameau's Nephew

I don't know who Rameau is or his nephew, but this tune makes for good background music as I near the end of this work.  Hope you enjoy it, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNG4xSktA9Y

Numbers: 10, 56, 94, and 17,660

Here are the numbers for my literature review - though not final as hubby is proof-reading the latter half.

10 separate versions
56 pages
94 different citations
17,660 words

My back feels every one of those words, too.  Please note, however, that the literature review is done!

Reviewing notes...

Getting very near the end now of this work and finding old notes. This particularly note, while amusing, brings back no memory as to why I wrote it - heck, I can't even remember writing it except that it is in my hand writing so I know I did. It is a scale that I can't use, but amusing enough to post here.

100 = Most important
90 = Very important
80 = Important
50 = Ambivalent
10 = Damn near don't care
0 = Who gives a rat's a**!

Did I mention that I drink while writing on the weekends?

The Literature Review: Knowing When to Quit

My research companion, Practical Research by Leedy and Ormrod, has a section in the literature review chapter entitled, "Knowing When to Quit."  They say that the novice researcher (me) often asks, "When do I know that I have completed the review of the literature?"  

Their answer:  "In theory, the answer might be 'Never.' "

Lovely.

...and Damn, I'm good!

Dr. Z reported back this weekend that he is incredibly busy and couldn't get to my submission last week as he had hoped.  He did, however, read the beginning.  He said:

"I really enjoyed the beginning of your thesis, a good read." 

I guess that 17th version paid off.  

Damn, I'm fast! (?)

With the Introductory chapter completed, I decided to resend it attached to the already-completed Chapters 3 and 4 (methodology and results, respectively) to Dr. Z for his review.

He wrote back last night:  "Damn, you are fast.  I can't keep up with you."

This is fast?  I feel like it's been dragging on and on.

But I'll take the compliment!   

Above Average

Last night, I finally finished the introduction that made me happy.  That version was the SEVENTEENTH I had written.

An article that Dr. S gave me regarding "Setting the Hook," or writing the introduction to the dissertation, states that on average, award-winning academic journal authors rewrite their introductions ten times.

I guess you could say that I've always been "above average."


(Any wonder why I'm not finished yet?)

Risk! Risk is our business!

Could it be that, after 80,000 words on risk and risk management, the simple yet overly dramatic words of Captain Kirk in Star Trek say it all? 

"They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings, but he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this, but I'm not because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this, but I must point out that the possibilities - the potential for knowledge and advancement - is equally great. Risk! Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her. You may dissent without prejudice. Do I hear a negative vote?"

Captain James Tiberius Kirk

Starship Enterprise

Stardate 4768.3

Link:   Risk! Risk is our business.

(or does it reflect that in efforts to overcome the boredom of writing a literature review, one becomes a trekkie?)

Beefeater!

To raise my spirits a bit, I ordered my academic beefeater tam today.

How Focused Am I?

First Submission - Sort of...

I continue to struggle with finding an Introduction that I'm happy with. I am on my NINTH revision.

So as not to delay any further, I sent to Dr. Z a partial introduction (includes significance and justification of the study, the limitations, and the definitions of key operational terms), all of the Methodology chapter (chapter 3) and all of the results (chapter 4). It also has an appendix attached to it.

I'll wait for Dr. Z's comments before I start the conclusions/implications chapter (chapter 5).  For now, I've got about 25,000 words and 104 pages.  Need more...