CCCC

Good luck to all you rhet/comp folks at the 4Cs!

I'm back and ready to get to work

Hi, all. I'm back and ready to get to work on the dissertation. As you might know, I have been distracted to other-- decidedly more important things-- the past several weeks, but I'm ready to get back to work. The one thing this time away from the dissertation has taught me, and indeed, going through all that I've been through the past few weeks, is that there are clearly more important things in life than academia. (We do tend to forget that . . . as the academic world can just suck us in and suck us dry. Or at least it can me.) But that perspective is important as I head into the final stretch for this degree, and as I begin to extricate myself from activities that do not serve me in this work. It's all good.

I meet with my advisor at 4:00 this afternoon, and together, we'll plan out the next few months so I can (1) go on the market in the fall, and (2) be finished with the diss within the year (May 2008). Wish me focus and clarity as I talk with him about the future.

P.S. Thanks for all your well wishes and good thoughts through the difficult time. I appreciate them very much.

The Boa Constrictor

When I was a little girl, my mom was working on her PhD in psychology. I remember that several times she took me with her to see the lady who was typing her dissertation. In the front foyer of her house, this lady had a huge aquarium inhabited by a huge boa constrictor, probably six feet long.

Whenever I try to visualize my dissertation, all I can see is that boa constrictor.

Twenty-eight

Just reporting that I just sent twenty-eight pages to my dissertation chair. Hip, hip, and hooray!

No cigar

I just sent 16.5 pages to my chair. It's (obviously) not quite 20 but I realized that I need to go back and read three articles before I can continue. It's bad bad bad writing, but at least it's a start, right?

This whole dissertating thing is hard, huh?

Keeping me honest

Okay, I need 20 pages by the end of tomorrow. I need to send a 20 page draft to my chair by tomorrow night. I am currently on the end of page 7. It's crap, but Don Murray always told me to just "let it be shit," so that's what I'm doing. I'm going to get 20 pages down then spend the week revising. I'm just telling you all this so that I'm responsible to more people for getting my work done this weekend because I need all the motivation I can get. Mostly, I just want to sink and sink and sink (read: watch a marathon session of The Sopranos).

I'll let you know how it goes.

Keep reading/writing/swimming, all.

Yoinks!

Somehow or other, a definite date has been set for my defense: May 1 ! Even a definite time has been set: ten to noon! The dissertation needs to be to my committee by April 17.

Fortunately, we had yet another blizzard and my husband got to stay home yet again and watch the kids. I was able to finish revising two chapters. This leaves one chapter that needs serious, big-time revision, because it currently blows, and a conclusion that needs to be written. And then a general revision of the whole thing and proofreading and editing and making sure there are no widows or orphans or whatever, which is something the graduate college apparently cannot tolerate. I am panicking? Mildly.

And yet I'm also rather excited to see this process finally drawing to a close.

On the menu today? Finish re-reading Sarah Scott's Millennium Hall so I can figure out what the heck it has to do with my dissertation.

Passed another hurdle

My dissertation proposal defense was today, and I'm happy to report that the conversation went well. I need to make the connections between my method and my questions clearer, and I need to beef up my explanation of how I will be contributing to conversations in composition.

I can handle both of these tasks. I'm most pleased to know that there were no major concerns about my method, so I can let that rest.

I celebrated with a few friends and a few drinks.

It seems that I might actually have to write a dissertation now. Huh. I wonder how that happened.

I'm Up and Running...

After almost a month, I have my computer back. But that's not the only reason I'll be posting more regularly. A few days ago, I asked this question on my blog

I want all my PhD friends to let me know if May is a reasonable goal--if I bring as close to my A game as possible. I still have to draft the conclusion (the intro exists in fragments); do whatever revisions she and the committee want; some serious crafting on my chapter 2 (because my original chapter five has been collapsed into it); and tighten up the bibliography and notes.

I got some really helpful comments, if anyone wants to check them out.

But I'm setting a mental goal of May.

Please feel free to goad, scold, coax, and encourage. :-p

Brain Clutter

Do you find you have to have things around you JUST SO before you can comfortably dissertate? I usually dissertate in my bedroom, where the feng sui is best. Today, due to a set of circumstances not worth going into, I'm dissertating downstairs at my dining room table. Before I could even think of writing, I had to change the tablecloth, clean up toys, straighten and de-lint a sofa cover, and generally de-clutter. I even had to wipe off the kitchen counters and sweep the kitchen floor, even though I can't see them from where I'll be sitting. I would be able to see them in my mind's eye.

Some would identify this as an age-old procrastination technique used by undergraduate and graduate students alike, but I really think there's more to it than that--a sort of boundarylessness that exists between the psyche and the outside world. Does this make me an ego-maniac?

There's an ice storm going on that's been raging since last night, and it's supposed to turn into a down-right blizzard this afternoon--12 inches of snow are predicted. This means my husband doesn't have to work today, which means he can watch the kids, which means a writing day for me. Thank you, Mother Nature!