Shonell in TCR Land

It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. Last semester was a tough one for me, but I managed to accomplish the things I had set before me. I took and passed the qualifying exams at the end of August, I wrote and had approved my full proposal, and I submitted my IRB proposal for review. I just received word that there were two minor things to fix, and I’ve since returned it. Waiting for that seal of approval from them now.

I talk a lot about the qualifying exam in my Diss This #2 post, so I won’t belabor that. I will say, however, that although there might not ever be a great time to take exams, I don’t think the very beginning of a semester is the best time. After those exams, my mind was spent. Truth be told, my whole body was spent, so I was definitely not on my A game. I’d give myself a B-…MAYBE, because I did write my full proposal and revised (6 times) my IRB proposal before submitting it, a B.

Now, with this new semester, I embark on several new phases in the dissertation process. I will be drafting and submitting my first three chapters to my chair for advice in revising and rewriting (Now-March). I will start conducting my research–interviews, survey, content analysis (February-End of semester, maybe into summer).

In my full proposal, I had to write a timeline for completion and defending of dissertation, and in it, I wrote that I’d like to defend next year and graduate in May 2013. That is totally doable. After talking to my dissertation chair a few days ago, I realize that late-fall may still be good for me, too–at least to defend. I’ve been plugging along at a pretty rapid pace, and I’ve decided to slow down during these next few phases, to incorporate “I hate this and don’t want to look at it any more” time into the timeline so that I could breathe, experience all the other facets of my life and still love the research I’m doing.

Who knows? I may get a fire lit under me and finish it all in time to defend late-fall. I may, on the other hand, continue a slow pace and defend March 2013.

Whatever the case, Spring 2013 is THE goal for graduation.

I plan to do more blogging as I go through specific parts of my research–the interviews, the survey, the content analysis–the highs and lows of all of it…it’ll be an interesting journey, no doubt.

And, well, you all know I’m a Wordle geek, so here’s the one from my approved full proposal.