Dissertation Proposal Boot Camp, Week One

This is what I needed, baby.

How to Write your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day, (not really 15 minutes exactly) suggests that you do a lot of freewriting everyday - at least 2 pages.

Write about what's on your mind and write about your research interests.  This is called the zero draft.  It will be useful - both the process of writing regularly and some of the content - in writing the first draft.

In class, a doctoral student mentioned that she wished she'd read this book two years ago!  I am glad I started writing this blog two years ago.  The research topics I care about and key articles are archived on this site.

We have lots of homework before the next class because this is boot camp and the goal is to complete the 50-70 page proposal in less than 6 weeks.

I asked the person who is leading the course, a seventh year Linguistics doctoral student, "How many students actually complete their proposal by the end of the course?" She said most do so I am feeling hopeful.

So what does it take?  Here's my list of things to do by Week Two:

• Write a 5-6 sentence abstract of my proposal including: 
• Why do we care about the problem? What problem are you trying to solve? How did you go about solving or making progress on the problem?  What's the answer? What are the implications? 
• Write an annotated bibliography of my top 50 articles which means a paragraph summarizing each study or article in my own words 
• Plot a venn diagram showing the intersection of my three topics and catalog where each of my articles fits on the diagram
• Write my research questions (that are answerable with the data that I am planning to collect) and hypotheses
• Read Surviving your dissertation: A comprehensive guide to content and process; Writing the successful thesis and dissertation: Entering the conversation
• Write 5-10 pages of the Literature Review (the purpose of which is to set up the research questions by explaining what other scholars have done and where the gaps are)
• Read multiple dissertation proposals in my field, especially ones that have been chaired by my adviser

It is intense, baby, which is why you have to love it and be passionate about it.  You have to be compelled to do it, so that the thought of not doing it is much worse.

There is a method to the madness.  It can be done. Si se puede.