Steps in a direction

It is said that before you go on a journey you must know where you want to know but where you are is just as important.  I desire to complete a dissertation.  However, figuring out where I am is a bit more challenging.  My first steps are writing chapter 2, then 1, then chapter 3.

Since returning from class I have progressed towards my chapter 2 literature review.  Today I had a quick conversation with my chair and realize how far I have to travel.  Much of my previous work is not detailed enough for a literature review.  However, it may be usable in chapter 1.

With weekend plan both Friday and Saturday I am planning on working as much as possible tonight.

Trying to work full-time, be a full-time student, be a husband, father, and sane person while writing a dissertation is challenging.  After summer school the full-time student will be complete. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

My Dissertation Journey

      For the past twenty months I have been enrolled in an executive doctoral program.  I will be enrolled in nine hours this summer and then will be finished with course work.  I then will join the large group of ABD individuals.  All but dissertation. 

      

     Dissertations are five chapters long and vary in length but my program expects a minimum of 120 pages and desires at least 150.  In order to collect data (Chapter 4) the preliminary proposal must be defended and the Institutional Review Board (IRB) must give their approval.  The preliminary proposal includes the first three chapters which include the statement of purpose, literature review, and methodology.

     I am hoping that by blogging about it then it will help keep me on track.  In my program we had two adjunct professors and one of them gave us some advice.  She said, “Take advantage of every opportunity to write. Write something every day.  Write ate least one sentence a day.”

     Though I hope to follow her advice and write every day I have no plans to update my blog that frequently.  I will update the blog every few days with the goal of having the preliminary proposal complete by June.

     Different programs encourage various methods for writing.  In my program it is theorized that chapter two, the literature review, will help form your purpose and determine how you frame the methodology.

     This semester we have taken a course titled ‘Reading in Higher Education’ in which we have been writing chapter 2.  I am in my final class session of the spring semester now.  The instructor has been covering a power point on citations, references, quotations, paraphrasing, and other writing tools that we need to make sure we understand.  Following her advise we are working individually on our own assignment.

     Our final draft of Chapter 2 is due by May 1st.  As of today I have about twenty pages and need to have at least thirty.  My current twenty pages needs significant editing.  My topic is examining academic and social integration within freshmen college students that enroll for the first time in a summer school bridge program.



*The above picture is from class where all 12 of us have laptops open as we work away.