doctoral thesis (dissertation) – Page 7

Abstract accepted for BERA

I am very happy to share that the abstract I submitted for the Early Career Researcher Conference track of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) was accepted. This was entitled “Threshold Concepts and Transformative Learning: Points of Similarity and Difference when Considering Distance Doctoral Education,” and is rather related with my doctoral thesis work.

BERA is in London this year, and runs from 6-8 September. I have never attended this conference before, and only recently joined BERA now that my abstract was accepted. I look forward to seeing some of my Twitter-based #phdchat colleagues who I have met and spoken with over the past 6 months and who I know are also planning to attend the conference. Along with this my second visit to the UK this year, perhaps I will even be able to meet with my supervisors again in person, given now everything I do outside of work is focused on my doctoral thesis (with its working-title listed on the Lancaster University Graduate School Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences website).

I have a lot of research, writing, and planning ahead of me. Good thing I have a passion in this area, as that is what I need to get through the next year and a half of my thesis work!

Research Time Planner (as GANTT)

I am still developing the column headings for the planner that I presented yesterday, and while this is certainly beyond what The Clockwork Muse discusses, I think that having a project plan that includes all of the main elements that will take time in the doctoral thesis process (I am a project manager, after all), may help to add a bit of realization. For example, I have heard many people say, “write each day,” but that necessitates a constant reading and processing and organizing, none of which are readily accounted for in the time established for “writing each day.” The comments I received have been very helpful in moving this along . . .

I only have so much time, so need to organize it as well as I can. With this said, here are my revised column headings:

Section

Length
(pages)

Literature
(search, read, process)

Research Steps
(organize, interview, transcribe, etc.)

Writing
(pages per day)

Time
(days)

Deadline

I really welcome more feedback on this. While I so value a GANTT chart, I know the thesis has quiet components (writing, thinking, etc.) that may easily be neglected if they are not literally listed and considered; thus this focus on various specific chunks, that while they are not always as clearly identified as being distinct, need to be accounted for.

Research Time Commitment Planner

Thinking a little more deeply about scheduling and managing time for writing my doctoral thesis, as a continuation of my post yesterday about The Clockwork Muse, I am wondering how to also build in the time for reading and doing the research / transcription itself. While there is a great amount of time that is needed for the writing of the thesis, there is also a lot of time that needs to be allocated for the other elements of the research, and I am trying to organize my life for the next year overall.

Let me explain what I am thinking. As per Zerubavel’s suggested writing outline (pg. 76-77), these are the column headings for the time estimates for writing:

Section

Length
(pages)

Pace
(pages per day)

Time
(days)

Deadline

I think this is very helpful; as writing is clearly a tremendous time commitment. However, I think that considering writing alone may be a bit decieving for the amount of work involved in the next year or so. Thus, this is how I am thinking about creating a master time commitment list, including both writing as well as the research itself that proceeds and happens throughout the writing:

Section

Literature
(search and read)

Research
(specify)

Transcription

Length
(pages)

Pace
(pages per day)

Time
(days)

Deadline

I welcome some thoughts about this . . .

My Thesis Clockwork Muse

Borrowing from the title of The Clockwork Muse, the excellent writing management guide by Eviatar Zerubavel about scheduling and managing the writing process for long documents such as a thesis, dissertation, or book, I am now creating a more-informed writing timetable for my doctoral thesis. I was not familiar with this book before Moira Peelo, the higher education consultant who Lancaster University helped us work with for two days during our cohort’s recent UnResidential, recommended it for its no-nonsense approach to time management for writing projects.

While this text talks about developing a realistic writing schedule and project timetable, as well as the logistics around implementing them, I feel much more confident approaching my doctoral thesis as a large piece of work comprised of many smaller steps or components. While I never really considered how long something takes, often leveraging the adrenaline rush I experience as deadlines loom large, I am not becoming increasingly focused on when I want to have my research finished, and thus need to take concreate steps to make that happen in a more timely and consistent manner than would be possible without formulating and implementing a plan.

In the same way that I did not want to think about writing until I have more of my literature review done, I realize the approach to doing all the “research” first and then writing things up in large chunks may not be the best approach. Even when I developed an overview of how long I expect my work to take for my proposal, I was not being specific or detailed enough. Better to learn sooner rather than later, I suppose!

To this end, I will take Zerubavel’s suggestion for developoing a detailed chart that includes all the sections for my thesis, as well as the estimated length for each one, expected number of pages per day I can work on it, the number of total time in days, and the deadlines (dates) for each section. I will also account for how many days it is realistic for me to write, taking into account other commitments, travel, work, and the like.

No better time than the present to consider these issues and begin to make progress on them. I am glad this book helped me to frame this in a way that I simply did not realistically consider before.

Provisional PhD Proposal Acceptance

I am happy to share I received initial approval for my PhD proposal:

“Your confirmation has been approved subject to some minor amendments to your proposal. You should address these points and resubmit your document”

I am now working on 2 specific items, as per the Panel Chair’s summation of the panel’s feedback, and hope to have them submitted to my supervisors by the end of the weekend for their review prior to my resubmission. As I am reading the feedback, I will only revise and expand upon what was suggested, not on every point raised by the panel — that I will save for the doctoral thesis research itself once I get the final green light!

I expect to be reaching out to a number of my doctoral student colleagues, especially those associated with our Twitter doctoral learner network, #phdchat, in the near future for some chats about my impending research.

I have a lot of people to thank for their support along the way . . .