Welcome to your virtual Dissertation House and Writing Retreat
Congratulations on making it to the Dissertation Writing Retreat (DWR).
In the era of Covid 19 where we are all at home possibly sheltering in place, we
still have goals that we want to accomplish. With the COVID-19 coronavirus
wreaking havoc across the world, for instance PhD completion provides
universities with the opportunity to participate in a virtual Dissertation Writing
Retreat. As part of Dr. Carter’s Thesis and Dissertation Accomplished (TADA!)
program and the Dissertation House at University of Maryland, Baltimore
County (UMBC), we have always had an online component for graduate students across the
globe who could not participate face to face.
The focus is the same: The Dissertation Writing Retreat activities focus on
places where students typically have problems: conceptualizing a topic,
developing a pre-proposal, writing a literature review, writing a proposal,
analyzing data, writing the last chapter, and editing.
The purpose is the same: The program is designed for doctoral students who
are writing their dissertation proposals, first dissertation chapters, or who have
found their writing progress stalled, or who desire expert guidance and the
opportunity to join a community of dissertation writers.
The commitment is the same: Students accepted to the Dissertation Writing
Retreat will commit to attending a writing session from 8 a.m.-6:00 p.m.,
Monday-Wednesday and 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday. See below for detailed daily
agenda.
To participate, you will be asks to blog twice daily at the start of the day and the end of the day. On the first day you will be asked to posts answers to the following questions:
- What will you work on?
- How much time will you spend daily working on it?
- Tell us how much progress you are making, or problems you are having.
- At the end of everyday plan what you want to accomplish the following day
Ready, Set, Go… You can tweet your participation with #phdcompletion
Wendy Carter-Veale Ph.D. 
Blogging in Day 3. Today I need a more realistic goal. I think I’m trapping myself in lofty ideas. I’m going to let my goals today will be driven by what I complete. I’m starting with tables and a stats. I hope to be able to begin filling in chapter 4.
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(Wednesday) Checking in …
My goal is to improve the methodology and address the reviewers feedback in regard to this section.
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Based on yesterday’s consultation, I am going to generate a list of sites to send information about my study to recruit participants. I am also going to work on my method section by reviewing my research questions, hypotheses, and proposed statistical analyses.
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Hey Brandon, Dr. CV mentioned we should talk about your research on community college students? Feel free to email me: ramiread@umich.edu.
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Thanks Antonio. I hope your son is better and you will be with us tomorrow.
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Thanks for reaching out. I will email you this morning!
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Blog in day 3: I’m feeling a little frustrated because I got no sleep last night. My kids were all hyped up for some reason and took turns waking me up. BUT, I’m going to stick to my goals and take Dr. CV’s advice that I can set aside time for planning and action.
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Ha! Yes PhD’ing and kids don’t mix sometimes 🙂
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It didn’t show on Zoom! I wouldn’t have known you didn’t get any sleep. Hope you get a better night’s rest tonight!
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(Might be double posting since I didn’t see my comment) Hope you get a good night’s rest tonight!
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I am sure you will see it when it gets approved. Good Night see you tomorrow.
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Hi
Yesterday was a rough day for me. My goal is to read 5 article and work on my excel. I am also making a word document for each source.
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Cheering you on! 🙂 Hope today is more productive.
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Day 3: good morning!
I’m going to continue thinking about how I want to outline Chapter 4. I might skip it and do Chapter 5. However, Chapters 4 and 5 are not fully drafted and I’m not sure of the direction yet. Again, I tend to get my arguments through writing and also analyzing my data (I am working with a non-English language) so I’m not sure what claims I want to make yet.
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Blogging in for Wednesday the 13th: This morning after the mini lecture I will jump into editing one section of my chapter dealing with my method. Then, I’ll work on making an outline for my argument for this chapter, which I can use as a roadmap to finish this chapter.
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My Goals for the Day:
Keep WRITING!!
1. Finish wellbeing section of the lit review.
2. Start Purpose in Life and Sense of Community outlines and writing.
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so Dr. Ya how successful were you in completing those goals. Good for you for getting that section done. Onward to the next!
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Good Morning!
Today I am planning to work on my method section and designing a path analysis! I also need to address edits and make revisions to RQs, hypotheses, & write ups for measures. I am excited to connect with you all today and hear about your progress!
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These are very impressive!
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Blogging in Wednesday 5/13: I was happy with the writing I did yesterday so I’m going to continue writing this section of my newest draft chapter today. I’m going to follow up on some writing groups suggestions some folks in this group suggested to me and also plan out my defense calendar, including updating my non-advisor committee members, as Dr. CV suggested.
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Defense you can see it! I like that you are including the non-advisor committee members they often have some very high expectations. Keep that defense calendar is a place where you can see it often. Plan what you will do each day to get you closer.
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5/13 – morning blog post
I ran out of steam to write portraits yesterday evening.
I took Dr. Carter-Veale’s advice and worked on some “Zombies”.
– I revamped my timeline to the dissertation finish
– I created a zombie list (realizing, I don’t even really know what to put on it. I also felt a bit of anxiety about all the things I did put on the list. Nevertheless, the list is there. Now I just have to look at it.
Today I am going to work on completing 3 portraits (to catch up). I feel like this is ambitious but going to commit to doing my best to get there. This will include trying to draft w/o overthinking, editing, etc.
-Kim
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Best of luck, Kim! I’m cheering you on. It’s great that you have the timeline. I don’t have a defense date set yet, but I’m using “December 10, 2020” as a defense date in my mind to give me that push, even if it will be that date or later.
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Black Girl PhD’ing
How did writing those portraits go? Did you catch up?
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Ugh. No. I had dinner with the family and ran out of steam. I laid down for a power nap and didn’t get up. I’m not a napper so I don’t know why I did that. Today is a new day.
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Every day is an opportunity to get it almost right and to hit the reset button if you have to. Just don’t keep hitting snooze. It was a pleasure working with you. Best of luck on the hunt to get a Ph.D.; stay hungry.
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Blog In (Day 3)
Today’s goal is to complete the background portion of Chapter 4. Will start on results if finished before the end of the day.
For a medium task, I will review final edits to Chapter 3 which I received back yesterday from my advisor.
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Was able to complete most of the background portion of Chapter 4. Started annotating the undergrad thesis I need to reference for the last portion of the background (just received it from the author). So, though I did not completely finish the background section, I am calling today a success because progress was made.
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BlueGenes
Glad to hear the that Thesis finally arrived. yeah!
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you were successful!
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Hello!!!!!!!!!! I believe I will be finished with my Chapter 1 (first draft) by 3pm. Then I will start working on the result section of my second paper. I was extremely productive this morning and Dr. CV feedback was so beneficial!
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Amen…Well done all you needed was a little push!
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Hello Everyone,
I cannot believe tomorrow is the last day of camp! I really wish we had more time!
Today I found myself moving a little slower. I am extremely intimidated by Chapter 3 (Method). The process of changing my study design has been challenging for me. I recognized today that I am getting in my own way and slowing myself down because I am resistant to changing to my design and proposed analyses (lol- Whew Chile).
I spent a lot of time reading about SEM and watching tutorials, while drafting models (I am realizing ASC is probably not the best outcome variable, considering adding academic achievement. – self-reported GPA and removing a variable from my study- Academic Motivation) . I have addressed some of the edits to sections of the Method (participants, procedures, measures). My RQs, hypotheses and remaining edits will be waiting on me tonight! I am planning to continue working tonight.
Looking forward to reading about how every one is doing!
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Can’t believe it either! I wish it were longer and we can continue this forever, hahaha. 🙂 Maybe I just need to hire an academic coach to keep me accountable.
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Dr. Allen (to be)change is inevitable. It’s better earlier than later. Keep moving forward. I hope you make some progress tonight.
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Blogging out for Wednesday the 13th: Today I was way more productive in the afternoon, I ended up writing over 500 words into my method section for this chapter. I also edited some other sections and tidied up citations for this chapter in Endnote. I plan to start up tomorrow with building a zombie activities list so that I can have that ready after the retreat.
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Excellent create that I don’t feel like working on my dissertation Zombie lists. Let me get it started for you.
1. Cover page, acknowledgement page, list of figures, tables, illustrations, table of contents, references, approval page, download graduation deadlines,requirements, transitions between paragraphs,…
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Blog out Day 3:
Although I spent the whole day on outlining and browsing through data that pertains to Chapter 4 (language and the media), it was OK because Chapter 4 is not fully drafted. Dr. CV suggested two 45-minute timers to look at data pertaining to language: language on Facebook and language on a reality TV singing competition. This is how I spent my morning session, re-touching my data and writing notes about how these things could fit into Chapter 4.
The afternoon session was taking my notes and actually creating an outline for Chapter 4 now. I have a rough idea of how it might look. I actually got more insight into how to shape the previous chapter to transition into Chapter 4, and how to end Chapter 4 so that it can transition into Chapter 5.
Tomorrow, I’m going to tackle outlining what Chapter 5 looks like right now and how I want to re-outline it. I started drafting it last month and I’m only 40% through it so I know the “old” outline won’t take much time. It’s the “new” outline and what direction or shape I want this chapter to go that is going to be more difficult. I will try to use the same method I used today. I’ll spend 45 minutes with my courtroom data and then 45 minutes with politicians speeches in the morning and then use tomorrow afternoon to make an outline based on the data I analyzed in the morning. I’m sad that our DWR will be over by lunch, but so grateful for this entire experience! 😊
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Blogging out Day 3
I have a much better understanding of that I need to do fit these next 2 chapters. I know it’s going to take some time, maybe more that I thought. I do feel like a block has been moved in the way of my chapter 4, which will clear the way for progress.
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Glad to see that you have a better understanding of what you need to do. Keep moving forward.Day 4 tomorrow.
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Hello all,
I can not believe the last day is coming and I am hoping to keep my connections with all of you as a team. you guys and girls motivate me as I barely start my PhD journey.
I learned a lot about how to do literature review and my individual appointments with Dr. CV was extremely helpful.
I am looking forward to work on my literature review with my new template. I set my goal for 5 articles.
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Good morning !
Thursday… checking in
I will continue working in the method section and move to updating the results section.
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WagAshPhD This is great. Thank you for continuing to post your results. I look forward to our discussion about the progress you have made.
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use a timer to help you quantify how long it takes you to read and populate the template. Then you have a quantified length of time for completing each task.
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Last night I sent out several emails to institutions inviting students to participate in my study. This morning I will send out some more emails as well as work on edits in my method section.
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Marching to Zion it is good to see that you will meet your recruitment email deadline of 5pm today. It was a pleasure working with you. Keep the fire burning until you finish.
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5/13 Morning Post. [apparently it didn’t go through; perhaps I forgot to hit send. Posting here]
I ran out of steam to write portraits yesterday evening.
I took Dr. Carter-Veale’s advice and worked on some “Zombies”.
– I revamped my timeline to the dissertation finish
– I created a zombie list (realizing, I don’t even really know what to put on it. I also felt a bit of anxiety about all the things I did put on the list. Nevertheless, the list is there. Now I just have to look at it.
Today I am going to work on completing 3 portraits (to catch up). I feel like this is ambitious but going to commit to doing my best to get there. This will include trying to draft w/o overthinking, editing, etc.
5/13 Evening Post.
I felt productive at the close of our retreat session. I took a break, had dinner with my family and felt tired. My intention was to take a nap (7-8pm) and then write for 3 more hours. Unfortunately, that was a bad move. I didn’t get up. So, no portraits completed last night. Today is a new day, but now I have LOTS to do.
5/14 Morning Post
Lots to accomplish today! I am well rested (smile) and so this will be a great day.
I will complete 3 portraits.
8 am – 10am [cst] – Finish John Jr.
10 am – 11 am – Janie Lee
11 am – 12 noon CST – break for lunch/walk
12 pm – 2 pm – Caroline
2 pm – 4 pm – William *
* I acknowledge by this time I may be mentally exhausted. If so, I will take a break and then switch to some Zombies. I also have a fellowship report to work on.
What I can say is, this really highlights the importance of sticking to your X pages per day. If you don’t, you get backlogged and that timeline runs further into the distance :).
Have a great day everyone!
-Kim
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So true. I love that you have every hour accounted for then you can do things and not feel guilty by neglecting something else. Keep up the good work.
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Good morning. Blogging in Day 4. These days went by so fast!!! I am very pleased with my progress in just these last few days. I have a great road map for my chapters 4 and 5. Although neither are finished, I have the tools that I need to finish them and that’s exciting. Dr. CV definitely got me together! Coming to the retreat has helped me to identify areas that I thought were helping me, but were actually hindering me. It also helped me to identify areas of error that I did not know that I had. I am confident that I can meet the deadline that I’ve set for myself to finish and graduate in 2020! Thank you Dr. CV, Dr. Joseph, Tony Dennis, Paige Warner, and everyone else involved who make this retreat possible and successful!
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You are most welcome. Please post here when you are Dr. Nicole… we are looking forward to it.
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Most definitely!!! Many thanks to you, Dr. Carter-Veale! I could not have done this without DWR! I will be in contact with you about your services. I know you are certainly top tier, but you work is amazing and well worth it. I’ll send you an email when I get things sorted out to see exactly what I can financially come up with.
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Day 4 ! Morning blog:
I’m going to try to outline my final body chapter today. I only wrote 8 pages of Chapter 5 so I’m going to outline the headings and subheadings I already have. Then, I’ll spend 45 minutes looking up data on courtroom language and 45 minutes on politician’s language. Then I will spend the remaining time trying to outline Chapter 5 based on the data I looked at earlier.
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Just looking at that plan with research time limits makes me proud. Best of luck to you on completing the Ph.D. Journey.
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Blog In (Day 4)
Since I finished most of my notes last night on the undergrad thesis last night (after blogging out), I will work on finishing the background portion of Chapter 4.
Made my zombie list last night, so if I start to lose steam on writing I have a plan to keep things moving.
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Blog out (Day 4)
Since it we just had our final meeting of the retreat, I thought I should go ahead and blog out though I will continue to work on my thesis this afternoon.
Made solid progress on the background portion of Chapter 4. If things stay on track, should be done with this portion by the evening.
Thank you Dr. CV for your encouragement and advice!
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Good for you shoulds like a plan. Have a great weekend.
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Meditate and Regroup.
Get a vision for what I can accomplish over the weekend.
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Have a great weekend. Meditate on the things you have done and still have yet to accomplished. Best of luck.
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Hi Dr. Carter-Veale,
I want to thank you so much for all of the support, guidance and insight that you provided during the Dissertation Writing Retreat. I’m incredibly grateful that you decided to move forward with the retreat despite the challenges of living through a global pandemic.
I’ve benefited greatly from this retreat! Below are a FEW valuable tips and key takeaways that transformed my thinking:
– Organizing my proposal into smaller, more doable parts
– It’s all about the GAP – the NEED – why is the IMPORTANT??
– How to approach my literature review
– How to prepare for my defense (which I never even considered!!)
– Tips and strategies for working well with my Advisor were excellent! I wish I had learned them in YEAR 1 –
—- It may have prevented the need for my advisor change at the end of Year 3!!
– The unwritten rules of grad school would have also been extremely helpful in year 1 of my program.
– Align my behavior with what I want
– The pain, pressure and stress are unavoidable – so manage it and keep moving forward!
– “Discomfort isn’t a choice so learn how to manage it!”
– Just WRITE!!!
Please continue to place a high value on supporting students of color in their graduate experience, especially during the dissertation process. As a first generation college student, this retreat has filled a gap in knowledge that will ensure my success.
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Blogging out Day 4: I continued working in the afternoon on Chapter 5. I organized my data of courtroom transcripts, which were very messy. I finally uploaded them into MAXQDA and have written memos so I know what was interesting in the courtroom transcripts and why I downloaded them in the first place. I also merged some notes together so that I can attach page numbers and video markings so that I can quickly go to the location in question, both in the transcript and in the videos.
Thanks again for a wonderful DWR, Dr. CV! 🙂
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Day 4: Blog Out:
I have just wrapped up my work for today! Made all of the revisions to section 5 of my literature! I will proof read in the AM before sending off to my advisor!
Its been great reading about all of your progress! Please keep posting!
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Not sure if folks are still checking this blog, but can anyone share some good items from their Zombie List? I’m having trouble coming up with small tasks to do at night. Good luck everyone!!!!
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Antonio Good for you for continuing to come back. December is almost here. Here are my items to get you started.
1. Cover page, acknowledgment page, list of figures, tables, illustrations, table of contents, references, approval page, download graduation deadlines, requirements, transitions between paragraphs,…
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All great suggestions thanks Dr
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Hi Writing Friends!
I echo everyone’s sentiments on the tremendous value of this retreat!!! I plan to continue to post and look forward to staying connected as we walk, run, crawl towards the finishline!!!!
5/15 Blog post.
– Today I have to take care of some things I neglected all week! I have:
– a few meetings, including one for a postdoc offer.
– I also have to secure an apartment for the fall.
– I have to write my interim report for my fellowship (due today, yikes!).
– move my body!!! (self-care)
– 2 pages on the DISS.
This is a lot but I am committed to stay “sitted” until it’s done!
🙂
– Kim
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Good for you Black Girl PhD’ing Keep moving forward.
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Don’t lose the momentum you started last week. Post your daily goals and get about the business of crossing them off your to do lists. Write your small tasks down and leave you brain clear to do necessary research analysis. You can get something done even when you are tired and exhausted. Look to your Zombie list when you are feeling that way.
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Been knocking out my Zombie list every night after the kids are in bed!
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Good for you Antonio knock it down and add to it daily.
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Sunday 5/17 Blog Post
Good Morning Folks!
I’m up at 4am trying to make up for crashing yesterday evening (and being interrupted by a birthday drive by and online Zoom “afterparty” for my bestie). She’s been going through a lot and I had to be there. I swear, one thing about the wonderful world of PhD is that you have to do while figuring out how to not let life pass you by.
My goal for today and tomorrow is to shut this chapter down! I’m almost there.
Today I will:
– complete what I call ‘section C’
– I will then finish the next section of my outline “theme two which includes sections A & B”
This is a lot but I really need to do a heavy lift to get this off my plate!
Hope everyone is well out there!
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If you do what you always do you’ll get what you always get. Now is not the time to revert back to what you have always done in the past when no one is watching. Cape and tights. There is an end if you stay focused. How many days left do you have to the finish line? Find the person who you were when you dared to apply to graduate school; use that confidence to finish the degree. Get what you came for, a PhD. Don’t give up and don’t surrender your power to someone else.
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Thanks, Dr. Carter-Veale!
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5/19
Still working to shut down this chapter, but making progress! Working through the end of the chapter, I realized my data was ‘light’. Yesterday I spent several hours pulling together additional data and analyzing to be sure the data supports (or counters) my claim. That took quite a bit of time — 5 or 6 hours.
Today, I’m back in the chapter filling in the holes I have discovered. I also am trying to keep sight of my number of words so that I’m not writing into infinity.
Goals for today are:
– Finish portrait & analysis
– Amanda 6:30a – 9:30a
– John 9:30a -11:30a
– Break 11:30a – 12:30
– Fill in supporting accounts 12:30 – 3:00
– Break 3:00 – 3:30
– Caroline 3:30p – 6:30p
– 1 Zombie 6:30p
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Good for you Black Girl PhD’ing thanks for posting your schedule for the day. Keep it moving forward. It is strange that the data was”light” given that you have a template. I thought that you would be writing from your template. It would mean that parts of your template was empty? Remember to set a timer for the data analysis as well. Don’t get caught in the weeds.
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Blog Post 5/20
– Thank you, Dr. Carter-Veale! I will set a timer. I was definitely tangled in the weeds. Looking at one sub-category of codes ended up taking all day (6:30 am – 6:00 pm). However, it did clarify how I will write up this section. I think the problem was, I was not clear on how my claims/evidence linked cleanly to the sub-category and broader theme. The work I did yesterday fixed that issue, however — did it have to take all day!? Today, I set a timer.
Claim 2
Amanda – 7:30 – 9:30a
John Jr. – 9:30 – 11:30a
Break 11:30 -12:30p
Claim 3
Willie H. – 12:30 – 2:30pm
Claim 1
William P. – 2:30p – 4:30p
Intro to section 4:30 -5:30p
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Tick tock. Congrats on getting that issue resolved. Today should be a smoother process. Let’s see how much progress you make. Thanks for posting; you are not doing it alone.
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5/21/20
— Tick. Tock. !!
5/20 – evening post
Yesterday was better but not ideal. Made it through the Amanda section which included weaving in data from other participants. This something I have found challenging to do, so this was a good thing. BUT, that took several hours (through 2:40pm). After that, I had several interruptions and had to complete edits on a fellowship report that is now due.
Morning Post 5/21/20
The goal for today is to get this section to completion (I feel like I say this everyday).
6:00a -7:30a – workout; coffee; get dressed
7:30a – 8:30a – address bills; email
8:30a – 10:30a – John Jr.
10:30a – 12:30a – Willie H.
12:30p – 2:30 p – William P.
2:30 – 5:30pm – Review entire chapter; put humpty dumpty back together again (i.e. put all the pieces together)
7:00pm – workout w/daughter
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The thing that I focused on in that sentence is that you “made it through”…celebrate the small victories. They add up to bigger ones. Keep moving forward.
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This could be the LAST Memorial Holiday Weekend that you spending working on your dissertation if you don’t take a break. Just saying. Choices have consequences. Stay focused.
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How many of you are committed today to get something done on the dissertation? Move it forward by 1. 1 sentence, paragraph, figure, citation, reference, illustration, page, chapter. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Do something then enjoy the holiday without a sense of guilt. I did something by doing 1 post. Good luck.
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Good Morning!
I have committed to working until 3 pm today! Will post how it’s going. Hope you are enjoying the holiday!
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Good Morning Black Girl PhD’ing
Glad to see the commitment. Have you committed again today? I hope you took the 15 minutes prior to the end of the previous day and used it to plan for today. If you did that you should know for certain “what’s on tap for today”. I expect you to hit the ground running with a plan in your hand. Good luck.
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Thanks for writing Dr. CV. I’m happy to report that despite a very frustrating and unproductive-feeling Sat and Sunday stuck in statistics, today I got to capitalize on that and wrote 9 good, solid pages. One of my single most productive days. My goal with to finish 15 pages by the end of next weekend, I’m ahead of schedule. From low lows to high highs, the rollercoaster is real! Have a good week.
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Good Morning Antonio
Well done on the 9 pages despite the frustration. It goes to show that you can write even if you are frustrated. Did you complete your 15 pages?
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Planning on finishing my 15 next week. I took your advice and will have these 15 ready for review by my advisors they finish editing my last submission. It’s taken them 6 weeks so far 😦 I’ve sent a reminder email. Hoping for a response soon but will keep working in the meantime.
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Planning on finishing my 15 next week. I took your advice and will have these 15 ready for review by my advisors they finish editing my last submission. It’s taken them 6 weeks so far 😦 I’ve sent a reminder email. Hoping for a response soon but will keep working in the meantime.
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Good for you Antonio. I hope you also took my advice about doing some type of Zombie activity during the week. I hope that list is long. Keep up the good work and keep it moving forward.
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Yes, Dr CV the Zombie list is a great idea. I’ve committed to 15 mins every day and usually end up getting into it and doing a bit more. Thank you! Your advice has been really helpful.
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Antonio it’s the weekend where are you? Working hard I hope.
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Good Morning! I’m here.
5/26/20 – Morning Post
Over the weekend I completed approximately 8 hours of work (across the three days (Sat/Sun/Mon). Yesterday, I got stuck on my last portrait. For some reason, I find him difficult to write — he’s very complicated and says a lot of things that span more than one section/theme. Yesterday, I took time to listen to the transcript and take notes on how I might approach his portrait given the themes I would like to foreground. I also starting writing the setting of the interview (altogether I wrote a little under 500 words).
Goals for today:
– Pay bills (done)
– Workout (done)
– WP analysis * [I’m giving this 2 hours. If I feel stuck again, I’m going to move to my next steps and maybe that will help me figure out what to do with this last little section.
– Begin stacking chapter back together again
– Read chapter through and note changes
– Make noted changes
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Glad you got here…get to work and accomplish something today!!!! A good dissertation is a done dissertation!
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Hi Kim,
It’s good to see you and Antonio still blogging here. I’ll try to blog in when I can. 🙂
I also wanted to ask you about your research on Black childhood. I’ve also heard that the concept of “childhood” is fairly recent (within the last 100 years?). For example, child labor was the norm and you see images of young children working in factories and doing some hard labor (I’ve seen images of children with dirt on their face and with calloused hands) – all before strict labors laws were finally put into affect. I also heard a podcast that mentioned the concept of “children’s clothing” (as we know it today) was also a recent phenomenon. It seems this idea of children being innocent and having a “childhood” and wearing cute, innocent things was not always around. Do you go into the history of the concept of “childhood” in general and how it emerged? It seems that Black children have been excluded from this idea even when it first emerged and it also continues to this day.
Cheryl
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Good Morning Dr. Carter-Veale, Yes, absolutely. I have a whole chapter that discusses childhood and the ways black children have been excluded from conceptions of childhood – including in education.
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Good morning! I decided to check back in and see what’s going on in here! 🙂
Goals
– Reflect on Hinton article that I read yesterday
– Read Hughes article
– Reflect on both Hinton and Hughes to imagine how Chapter 5 will pan out
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Hey Cheryl!
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Welcome Back Cheryl We are happy to welcome you back to the fold. You are not alone in the hunt for a Ph.D. Go get ’em!
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Hello Cheryl
How long does it take to “reflect” you might want to put some time parameters around those types of activities. I hope the by reflection you mean “incorporating what I have read into the document”. I generally recommend that everyone should tape their research or aims next to their computer. If what you’re reading is not tied to the aims or research question then either make a connection or stop reading. A good dissertation is a done dissertation.
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May 27th
Here are my goals for today. [Hey Antonio! Let’s keep this up!]
– Read chapter draft to get a sense of what is there 6:00am – 9:00am
– Begin drop and plop of portraits/analysis 9:00am – 1:00 pm
– read chapter through again 4-6p
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Good Morning Black Girl PhD’ing
It’s past 9 am did you finish reading the chapter and have you moved on to doing some analysis? What’s on the Zombie list for this evening? It’s good to see you here moving forward and making progress.
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Dr. Carter-Veale
UGh! I have not moved on. Still reading, but it’s going well. I am seeing the structural issues in my original draft. Also, I am able to identify the places where I am dropping the new drafts I created in my rubric.
I think I have read enough to begin the ‘drop plop’.
Thank you for the nudge! I totally spaced that it was 9am.
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Stop reading and start writing. You can start reading again tomorrow. You will never read enough to say it’s enough.
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– also, I haven’t been doing my Zombies. I keep saying I will — but I don’t. I haven’t been choosing a ‘specific’ Zombie. I will do that today and post.
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Tick tock. Stop waiting for a feeling to get you going. Just do, the feeling will catch up when you start making some progress. Black Girl PhD’ing where is your post today it’s 10:41 the day is almost done! for you early morning risers.
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Dear Dr. Carter-Veale,
I’m here! Thank you!
– 5/27 I added all portraits to the chapter. After doing this, I see I still have more work. Now it’s about finishing the draft and paying attention to structure. My plan is to have this done 6/2. I created measurable actions for each day — if I stick to it this will get me to the finish line on this.
Action
Janie & Ethel May 28
William P (1) May 28
Mary f May 29
John Jr May 29
Janie Lee May 29
William P (1) May 30
O’Neal May 30
Caroline May 30
John Jr (II) May 31
Amanda May 31
W. Howard May 31
Edit June 1
Edit June 2
Been up since 5am. Worked out. Did some planning and now I am back into it. Today’s goals are:
– Portraits – how many do I have to complete by 6/2 ? – DONE
– draft two portraits and analysis 10:30 am – 4:30 pm (5hrs)
– Zombie 5pm – analysis artifact (1hr)
– Email Ciara on next steps 7pm (1hr)
– Zombie – set up appt. for dissertation formating workshop – DONE
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Good to see a more concrete schedule to the finish line!
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Another Day another opportunity to get it right. Progress, not perfection = a Ph.D. No excuses today. Sometimes the goal can be as simple as ” words on paper today.”
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5/29/20 – Post
Today is/was a good day! I think I am hitting my stride. I worked according to plan and didn’t allow myself to go too much beyond the allotted amount of time on any one activity.
The portraits are going better, and I feel like my outline is finally looking (and feeling) good. I’m hoping that the headway I have made with the structure of the portraits, sections, and chapter will allow for me to focus on writing and not much more.
I was able to do a Zombie today (and yesterday)!!!! Whew. That felt good. Today’s Zombie is to start working on a figure that shows each child’s family demographics and education (i.e. schools attended etc.)
So, as Ice Cube once told us, “Today was a good day.”
Hope everyone is well!
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5/30 – 5/31
Yesterday was a total bust. I got distracted by all of the news on the protest and the murder of George Floyd (not to mention Ahmaud, and Breonna… and…). So, I just leaned into it.
Today I have stayed away from news and social media (and will continue to do so). I got up this morning at 4:30am – wrote until 8:30am; took a break for breakfast and a workout. It’s 11am and I am back to work.
I will post my progress later.
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Good or you Black Girl PhD’ing at least you know what draws you away from the tasks of writing or doing some sort of Zombie activity. Even when we get distracted we should put a clock to how long will I watch TV or Netflix. For everyone who reads this block if you’re going to watch TV commit to getting something done during the commercial break. Try that.
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Kim I’m with you on this one. It’s not easy keeping your head down to work right now. Hope everyone’s doing ok. These are difficult times.
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Thanks for checking in Dr. CV. My goal was to finish 15 pages by June 1 and I finished on May 30. Not sure I’ve EVER finished any part of my PhD ahead of schedule haha. Going to spend today editing that 15 pages to be ready to send to my advisors and making plans for researching the 2nd half of my 3rd chapter draft.
Also, I sent my last draft chapter and a new diss chapter outline to advisors on April 20 and haven’t gotten any feedback yet. I’m going to send another email reminder today. I keep wondering about something you said — whether it might be better next time to send fewer pages to make it easier on them. I’m going to try sending 15 pages this time.
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Antonio, They saw it and they might be of the mindset that “seeing is believing”. They are used to the way that you have done things in the past. When the chapter is ready send them the outline and the chapter. No need to send them another version of the same thing when they are really looking for the chapter. Get it off your desk and onto theirs and move on to the next. Keep moving forward. I would be concerned if they don’t reply to your chapter. Congrats on getting the chapter done early. After you edit you might consider reaching out to someone else to take a look just to get another pair of eyes on it. Find a retired English teacher, a friend, or a family member who knows English well. Then hit submit to the advisors and move on to the next chapter.
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This morning I woke up with a massive headache. I got an email today with the subject line that “It’s Ok to be Not Okay” I wanted to share that sentiment with you today. It’s not to a post to encourage you to take action but a post to acknowledge the mental space and energy that it takes to continue in the midst of what it going on around you. It’s doesn’t have to be business-as-usual, do what you need to take care of your mental health.
It’s OK to be sad,
It’s OK to be disappointed with what’s going on in the country.
It’s OK to pause and reflect.
It’s OK to feel helpless.
It’s OK to do what makes you feel better
It’s OK to Write even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
Take care of self today.
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Thanks, Dr. Carter Veale. I hope you are okay and doing what you need to also.
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Thanks
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Dr Carter-Veal,
I’m going to review my questionnaire as per my reviewer’s comments
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Review it how are you looking for typos or checking to see if you are asking the right questions?
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