The act of taking this class has alerted me to many of the insecurities I have related to my writing (some of them I was vaguely aware of and other I have been successfully repressing). “Why Graduate Students Can’t Write” presented a fairly comprehensive view of many of the stumbling blocks and difficulties that students working on their dissertations and theses encounter; the ability to structure writing times in such an unstructured time frame was an issue that I was aware of but had never really applied to my own list of thesis concerns. My main concern, building on last week, relates to time management. I find that much of my motivation for completing a task stems from the fact that I am given a deadline, and if I do not complete my work by then, I will be penalized. Never one for extensions, a specific due date is something that I need to motivate me toward completion. I know that writing my thesis is a whole different undertaking than just a seminar paper that needs to be 15 pages. When I have a due date for one of these papers looming at the end of the month, I know that I just have to work hard and complete that work, and then I will be done. It will not be the same type of process for the thesis. Such a long and unstructured time frame will not give me that final date that I can consider a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
Recognizing my need for deadlines helps me realize what type of professor I need to pursue in my quest for an adviser. I need to set up my own schedule, whether it be one outlined in one of the many “How to Write Your Thesis” books or one I devise on my own, but I also should attempt to find an adviser who will hold me accountable to these deadlines and who will place the same importance on adhering, as strictly as possible, to an established schedule.
No comments:
Post a Comment