Viewing Category : Diss This

Post thumbnail of Diss This #13: Moving Forward in the Diss Process
25 January 2012
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Diss This #13: Moving Forward in the Diss Process

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 …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #12: Qualifying Exams
20 September 2011
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Diss This #12: Qualifying Exams

I recently learned that I passed my qualifying exams: the day would be September 9, 2011. It was a hot day, and I had been waiting 11 days, on pins and needles, awaiting a call from my chair. As I typed…no, I won’t bore you with the narration of the big …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #11: Pre-Proposal and Quals
5 June 2011
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Diss This #11: Pre-Proposal and Quals

I’m not sure how one is supposed to feel when she reaches this moment, but I was over-the-moon happy. What moment is this? Finally having my pre-proposal approved and quals date set.
I went through three revisions of the pre-proposal with my diss chair before we submitted it to the entire …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #10 How Dissertation Writing Is like Storytelling
10 May 2011
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Diss This #10 How Dissertation Writing Is like Storytelling

Today, while chatting on Facebook, I joked about how a dissertation was a not a story but being a creative writer perhaps I would think about the dissertation as a story–perhaps it would help me to write it when the time came to do so.
Right now, I’m typing up notes …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #9: Pre-Proposal Goes to Full Committee
5 April 2011
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Diss This #9: Pre-Proposal Goes to Full Committee

I wasn’t sure this day would happen, and it’s just a small, teeny tiny step in the progress, but it’s a step, so that makes it important. For the last month, month and a half, I’ve been going back and forth with my dissertation chair with my pre-proposal. With his …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #8: Coursers, Qualies & Dissertators
14 February 2011
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Diss This #8: Coursers, Qualies & Dissertators

As a doctoral student, I am always thinking about what I’ve done, what I’m about to do, what I will do in this journey. This is one of my first podcasts regarding the life of coursers, qualies, and dissertators–the phases we tend to go through as Ph.D. students. I hope …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #7: Coursework Done
30 December 2010
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Diss This #7: Coursework Done

I wanted to make sure I got this blog post in before 2011 because I wanted the post dated in the year the milestone was accomplished.
Some might not see this as much of a milestone, but when I think about how my personal life has changed and been changed since …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #6: Reading List, the Ph.D. Journey Thus Far, et al.
30 September 2010
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Diss This #6: Reading List, the Ph.D. Journey Thus Far, et al.

Been awhile since I’ve updated, but since summer classes ended, I needed a break to prepare for the fall classes, and now I’m a month into the last semester of course work.
What does this mean for me?
Well, plenty!
Narrowing my dissertation topic (focus, focus, focus), getting my research questions together (tighten, …

Post thumbnail of Diss This#5: First Year Completion
2 June 2010
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Diss This#5: First Year Completion

About three weeks ago, I did it. Did what, you might ask? Completed my first year of doctoral work. It was challenging and at times, extraordinarily difficult, but I have learned some major things about myself as a person and as a student that I believe will carry well as …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #4: First Annual Review
20 February 2010
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Diss This #4: First Annual Review

Yesterday, I had my first annual review. What is an annual review? Well, essentially for me, I met with my advising committee for about an hour to discuss what I’ve done in the program thus far, what I plan to do within the next year, and to start thinking about …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #3: Who Am I as a Researcher?
11 January 2010
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Diss This #3: Who Am I as a Researcher?

When I started at Texas Tech in August ’09 (just last semester though it feels much longer than that), I had a set agenda of what I wanted to study. I had spent the last four or five years of my life teaching underprepared and underrepresented college students basic writing, and …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #2: The Importance of the WORD
15 December 2009
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Diss This #2: The Importance of the WORD

Early, early in the new day of December 15, I was finishing up the last project of my first semester in the doctoral program when a question popped into my head: “How many words have you written this month?”
For a second, I thought I was back in November; last month, I …

Post thumbnail of Diss This #1: The Mind of a Doctoral Student
15 November 2009
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Diss This #1: The Mind of a Doctoral Student

Every once in awhile, I plan to share some thoughts about this Ph.D. process.
The process is made a tad bit different in that as part of the fellowship this year I am required to take four classes. Most students take two or three. It’s been cumbersome, reading enough works just …

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