Billie's Plan for 1/4/07

OK, since it's a new year, it's time to get to work on this dissertation. Let me introduce myself . . . My name is Billie (aka Partsnpieces), and I'm writing a Rhetoric/Composition dissertation on an institution's ethical responsibility to underprepared student athletes. As I work on this, though, I'm refining my topic. It's moving itself toward a dissertation that outlines a new pedagogical approach to teaching marginalized students, a teaching as coaching model, but it's just that my students happen to be student athletes at a Division I-A institution.

Since my prospectus was approved last semester, I've felt overwhelmed about how to get started on the diss, as it all seems so massively overwhelming. So I do what I when I'm overwhelmed: nothing. Today, however, I went to the library and organized my dissertation hard drive and I realized that I have **a lot** of raw data to work with. After seeing that I have over 100 pages of writing (bad writing, but writing nonetheless) and knowing that my data from surveys is complete and is ready for analysis, well, I feel excited to begin the work. I have something to work with.

Today, I constructed a Gantt chart that outlines my writing plans for this semester (dissertation, plus some conference presentations), and at least on paper, it looks doable.

Now a quick caveat: I have a tendency to think really big, and I have another tendency to make claims about my abilities that I can't actually support. "Oh, yes, I can have 150 10-page essays graded by tomorrow morning, no problem!" OK, a slight exaggeration, but I am going to work hard at keeping my goals manageable and realistic.

So, Goal #1 (for Thursday, 1/4/7): I will head to my PhD institution library and will spend at least five hours there writing, 10 pages on my introduction.