Determining a Dissertation Topic at the Beginning of Doctoral Studies

Greetings from Seoul, South Korea! The summer is quickly coming to an end (and so is my summer gallivanting...the school year is almost upon us!) I am writing this post with those who are beginning their doctoral journey in mind.

The beginning is exciting, but can also be angst-inducing as many will ask "so what is your dissertation topic?"

However, that question is perfect at this early stage in your journey; it should motivate you to start to articulate your dissertation topic ideas, and get early feedback from fellow students as well as faculty and even interested non-academics. If the topic is not in perfect shape or form yet, that is to be expected. The two or three years of coursework will provide you sufficient opportunity to refine the topic.

If you do not know what you would like to study for your dissertation, that ought not be a problem either. The first year is a time of discovery and exploration.

In my Introduction to Research Methods course, I ask students to brainstorm three potential dissertation topics and come to class ready to discuss them. Essentially, this exercise allows them to think about their interests, and conceptualize those interests into research-able ideas. Some of the  questions asked in class include:

a. What is the problem you seek to investigate?
b. Why is it important to investigate that problem?
c. Why is the problem of interest to you?
d. How long would it take to engage in the study?
e. How passionate are you about the topic/problem?

These initial questions help students to clarify their ideas and choose just one of the three topic areas of interest to focus on for the rest of the semester. In subsequent assignments, they are able to further refine the topic by writing preliminary proposals on how they could potentially investigate the problem using qualitative and quantitative approaches. The final assignment is a literature review on the topic/problem.

By the end of the semester, each student is better able to determine whether the topic and problem they'd chosen to study is actually feasible, worthwhile, and whether there is indeed a sufficient literature base upon which to build the study.

My advise to my Intro to Research Methods students is to use subsequent courses to further refine their topic. Those who follow this advise find that by the end of their coursework, they have a proposal ready to defend, and thus can proceed to the dissertation phase expeditiously.

I want to encourage you all who are beginning your doctoral studies now, or who are in the early stages to think about doing something similar to help you focus your coursework towards defining and refining your dissertation topic. The sooner you determine your dissertation topic, the better as coursework can be more narrowly focused towards developing the research proposal.

What other dissertation related advise would those of you who are over on the other side of the journey offer to the newbies? Comments and questions always welcome.  

Highly Recommended: Writers Retreats

The past four days, I have been sitting and writing furiously at a writers retreat hosted by Mitch Reyes at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon. I have yearned to participate in a writing retreat for the entire time that I have been on the faculty end of my academic career. I am so glad my yearning became a reality, finally.

So I am taking a break this fourth day of retreat to encourage you to consider a writing retreat in your near future. Whether you take a retreat by yourself, or join a group as I did, it is definitely worthwhile. In fact, my roommate and I have covenanted to find one day a month as a 'writing retreat' day, where we can spend all day working on a project.

Here are the benefits of the writers/writing retreat, as I am experiencing them:

a. Having several others (in my case, 23 others) all focused on writing is the best social pressure to get your own writing juices flowing.

b. Sometimes when you have a large project, having a focused writing time is the best way to get it off the ground, make good progress, and therefore feel encouraged to trudge on towards completion.

c. It provides you with accountability during the retreat, and if you design it intentionally, continued accountability afterwards. You can have one or two writing partners with whom you communicate your writing goals and your completion rates as frequently as you agree upon.

d. Most of us have so much else going on in our lives that though we want to, developing a daily writing habit and sustaining it is difficult. I believe it is easier to develop said habit after a writing retreat, because your juices are flowing and you are more motivated to keep it up.

e. The organized writing retreats include sessions aimed at discussing writing tips and raising questions. The shared wisdom is priceless. Finding out that you are not the only one who struggles with various writing issues helps to come up with solutions that have worked for others.

When all is said and done, I am enjoying this writers retreat because it is also perhaps the first time in many years I have done something that is purely just for me - I do not need to prove anything to anyone, I do not need to engage in impression management (which, whether I am conscious of it or not, always takes place in academic conferences), I can focus on just spending time with myself. Already, I feel refreshed and renewed, ready to tackle whatever lies ahead in the coming academic year.

I therefore highly recommend writers retreats. The communitas, camaraderie, support, and buzz will keep you energized long after the retreat concludes.

Fighting Procrastination for a Productive Summer

As it turns out, having deadlines is a good thing, for me at least. Because a deadline pushes me to get-it-done, whatever 'it' is. In this case, getting writing done. Am now in that unenviable position of being on summer break, having a bunch of writing projects, but finding myself procrastinating because most have no deadlines.

You see, last week I had a deadline. I worked day and night, and met that deadline...granted, that was after asking for more time :-). Once I met that deadline on Friday, I haven't been able to get back to writing since, until today that is, when I grudgingly opened up my Google docs to start looking at my writing projects.

A few weeks ago, I was all Gung Ho about the summer, and how productive I was going to be. Now, am realizing that if I don't get my act together, it's going to be a disappointing summer. I cannot travel far, so I might as well do something, be productive.

So here is my plan.

First of all, I am revising my summer writing goals. OK, so its not too bad. I have accomplished one goal - a book chapter for the handbook of autoethnography co-authored with one of my colleagues. A second goal is in process - copy editing the book Collaborative Autoethnography  which I co-authored with two of my colleagues, forthcoming from Left Coast Press.

Secondly,  what I need to do is look at 3 other goals and projectize them. By projectizing (yes, I know thats a made up word), I mean to break down each goal into its constituent parts. For example, I presented a paper at the Eastern Communication Association meeting in Boston last month, it was a very rough draft. Now I need to start reconstructing it, and discussing with my co-authors the details of how we will work on the paper, including potential journal to send it to once completed. I need to do that with each goal - craft a project out of it.

Thirdly, I then need to introduce each project to my summer calender.  That means, for example, deciding which project to work on each week, how many hours to spend on research, reading, drafting, revising, until each project is mapped out towards completion. For example, this week here is what I plan to accomplish:

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Date	Goals and activity	Personal goals
June 19-23	Teaching: ·      Check discussions ·      Dissertation reviews Writing: Collaborative Autoethnography ·      Meet with HC and KAH (Wed) discuss copy editing; discuss CAE methods article; discuss AERA proposal ·      Read through CAE manuscript, check headings. Craft response to copy editor. Email by Wed night. ·      CAE Methods Paper – Outline Writing: CAE Advisor/GA Relationship ·      Collect AE data from MM ·      Craft outline of paper ·      Determine other AE data needed ·      Write proposal for JRP special issue paper	Replace dead roses Pilates Yoga  Date night

I will do the same type of scheduling for the rest of the summer, where I introduce my writing goals and projects into the entire summer schedule. Each time I accomplish a part of the process, I strike it out. I find deep satisfaction in having a week where most items have those strike out lines because it means I was able to accomplish my writing goals for that week. And that is a tremendous aid to fighting procrastination. The more I accomplish, the more motivated I am to do more. If I do not create this kind of schedule, I find that I procrastinate, and worse still, whatever does not get scheduled does not get done.

How do you keep your writing mojo over the summer months?