Writing a Dissertation

I just finished the umpteenth draft of my conference paper and have it off. Soon, soon it will be time to go home and pack for the conference.  It is certainly conference season and all national conference are different in terms of their tenor (and, of course, their substance).

Last week I talked to one of my co-panelists who has been to this conference before to find out what the dress code of this academic group happens to be.  It, perhaps, sounds like a funny question to ask, but I am always intrigued by the range of dress and non-dress I see at these events.  Certainly some of it is dictated by climate or size of carry-on luggage or who has funding these days to pay for checking bags.

I think I know what I shall be wearing for giving my paper, but what is your favorite outfit standby for a conference???

#6 – a good surface.

I am the first to admit that my desk sucks.  Really, it isn’t a desk so much as a re-purposed, old dinner table.   On the whole it is a fine surface, but it is a nice oak table with skirting, which means that every time I work I seem to bruise my legs in new ways and places.  The table does have a center leaf that I have thrown in for extra room, but it gives me about 10 more inches and a gap in which my legs kind of fit if I am sitting normally (which I don’t).  The gap also contributes to even more bruising as now there are corners on which I can bash myself.

Still it is a good sized area (the table seats four, six if necessary) which is essential as I like to be able to spread out with my work.  I guess I developed this bad habit of taking over large spaces with my work when I was a kid, for then I used to do my homework at the dining room table which sat six to ten people…  oops.

I also have an antique drafting table in another room which I sometimes use to write while standing up.  The above desk I have linked to is a great combination of expansive surface and standing height for optimal working variations.

#7 – the library.

I love libraries, and I am the first to admit that I am totally smitten with our new library.  My first two years here sans library were pretty rough.  And I will admit that I had my fears and doubts about this new one before it opened because frankly even though it is awesome it still does not compare to just how wonderful the library was where I did my MA.  I really loved Thompson when it first opened, but now I find that I work there less because it has become SO popular. The place is completely overrun with students – which is super fantastic for the university and the new library – but I don’t find those conditions to be optimal for working.  Still when I go there to pick up books, do an hour’s worth of work, or meet up with someone, I am always impressed with its beauty, the collections, and the staff.

A few weeks back I was talking about my bookstand and how friggin’ wonderful it is when it comes to typing up notes from various readings. In that blog entry I mentioned something about doing a top ten items list, so I figured it was high time to pull that together.

#1- a good chair.

Admittedly, it was not until I was in the final stages of preparation for my exams that having a good chair for working at my desk became a priority.  Until then I had been using the same desk chair I had been using since high school – an antique wooden chair with embroidery work done by my great-grandmother.  Needless to say it was old and uncomfortable and my ass fell asleep all the time.  The vast majority of the furniture in my home are items I have inherited from family members, with the exception of my couch and two book cases (other things like book cases made from cinder blocks and planks of pine don’t really count as furniture).

The lovely Herman Miller Aeron Chair in the picture to the left is not what I have as my desk chair.  In fact, my fantastic desk chair was given to my lovely man friend as he had several good leather desk chairs just hanging around his office.  It is tall and swivels and has arm rests; it is cushy enough that my ass does not fall asleep; and it is large enough that I can curl up in it in silly positions while writing.  All and all this is the #1 for writing.

#2 – my laptop.

Okay, so maybe I am wrong about #1.  Perhaps #1 should be my much beloved MacBook.  Oh how I love you darling MacBook.  We have been through so much together in the past few years.  So many drafts,  so much note taking, and so much shopping on the internet when I should have been writing. Truly, I am a big fan of my computer.   But Mac or PC, laptop or desktop so long as you have what works for you, makes you happy, and is reliable, then there is little more for me to say.

#3 – book flags.

I am not sure how many books I have out from the library right now, but I think it is safe to say that I have a lot.  Once upon a time in my pre-PhD student days I used to buy most books that I found myself often using.  And then I was accepted to a PhD program, woke up, and realized what it was like to live on a grad student stipend.  It is now a rare thing that I buy a book (honestly that makes me rather sad to admit), but I really do love our library and Ohio Link is the bomb!  That said all people treat library books differently, and I am just not one of those people who can write in library books. I know others do it.  I know others feel free to mark up library books in pencil and sometimes even in pen (!!!), but that is just not me.  Book flags, while perhaps and unnecessary indulgence (yes, I could probably make due with post-it notes, or more specifically a few pads of post-it notes that could wander home with me from the office if I was a more morally flexible person) are my way of not ruining library books.

While I have not yet figured out a color coding system for my reading for the dissertation, I had one for my exams (one which matched the highlighter color for that subject too [yes, I know I am a dork]) and that really did work out nicely.

#4 – back-up.

I am someone who is rather paranoid about backing up my work as I know one too many horror stories about friends and co-workers losing precious chapters and pages to unexpected crashes, viruses, and other things.  Apple’s Time Capsule (pictured left) is perfect.  It is wireless back-up hard drive and a wireless router in one.  It also holds 1TB or 2TBs worth of data.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a Time Capsule, but I do have 500G external hard drive which works wonderfully with the Mac OS X Time Machine feature – automatic full back-up ever five minutes and the ability to revert to previous back-ups from each day of the week.  My external HD is not wireless, so this the Time Capsule is what I dream of when I am far from my desk and working away.

For me, however, having an external HD at home is not good enough.  What if someone breaks into the house and steals my computer and my back-up hard drive?  What if there is a fire or a flood or a power surge that even overtakes the surge protectors? Like I said, I am a wee bit paranoid about losing my work.  In addition to the external HD I have an automatic back-up to an off site server provided by Mozy.  Each morning when I turn on the computer it automatically syncs and updates any and all work that has been changed from the previous day. Genius.

#5 – dropbox.

Most days I work from home, but there days when I am on campus working on the dissertation or when I am teaching and need to pull up a file or have 30 minutes between meetings and know that I can revise a section of a funding application.  While flash drives are nice, I get confused after awhile as to which file has all of the latest revisions and I fear copying over the right one with the wrong one….  Enter Dropbox. Dropbox is an application you can download to your computer and it works on your computer as a hard drive, but it is actually a hard drive located on an external server.    What makes dropbox different is that I can install the application on multiple computers and even an iPhone (if Verizon ever gets the iPhone contract – sigh) and anytime I change a file on one computer it automatically updates all of the other computers when I turn them on.  If, perchance, I am at a public computer then all is still fine, but I have to manually download and upload the file to dropbox when I am done working on it (oh so hard!).  Last week I told one of my fellow writing center colleagues about dropbox and she nearly cried with excitement over how much this changes he life.  Yes, it is that good!

It was a busy day of meetings, but now it is time to go enjoy a moment of the weekend. Hopefully the rain will hold off as it is Pumpkin Festival time!

Enjoy your weekend and I will see you next week.

Oh, I am in trouble today!  Today I meet with my advisor to have our bi-monthly dissertation meeting.   Since our last meeting, however,  I have done no writing on the dissertation.  Thinking! Yes there has been some very constructive thinking but no actual, tangible dissertation work.

Why oh why has there been no work for two weeks???  Well that answer is easy.  Let’s see, I wrote a funding proposal, wrote a conference paper, had an article accepted for publication that needs revision and required me to write/submit an even shorter abstract (50-100 words is the hardest!!).  In that time there was also grading students papers, writing lesson plans, trying to reformat two papers to send them out for review, and, oh yeah, this blog, too.

All of those things are work; work that needs to be done.  Yet somehow they feel like excuses.

I am so preparing to have my ass handed to me in that meeting.  Ugh.

Yesterday I was teaching Robert C. Post’s book Prejudicial Appearances.  I am a big fan of this text for a variety of reasons, so I was really pleased to see how it managed to spark a great discussion with my students.  They had struggled with the reading (I knew they would),  but they really got into the text when we started doing a close reading of some of the passages.

Later on in the day I went to speak to a class and a couple of quotes from Post and discussion points from the class I had taught that morning took on new meaning when I observed the class dynamic.

The tone of the room was adversarial – it was obvious that students did not want to be there, and it seemed that the primary instructor did not want to be there either.  At one point the instructor even said something like “they don’t talk or answer questions” when I was having a bit a difficulty getting them to open up.  This was said out loud, to me, in front of the whole class.  But the comment was not the first thing that clued me into the fact that this person did not want to be there….

I am certainly no fashion plate.  The TA stipend does not enable me to wear Armani and Dior suits, suits and separates from Theory, or amass a sizable business wardrobe from Banana Republic or J. Crew. While I certainly don’t get to shop as much as I would like or for all that I would like, I still have some very nice pieces.  Furthermore, I have made a conscious decision to dress in a manner that conveys a certain authority and position.

While I myself might be having some trouble seeing myself as a scholar and not a student, at least I can dress the part, for dressing the part might help me get myself in that mind set for as Post says,  “the presentation of appearances in everyday life is not merely a matter of the external surfaces of the self, for appearances are also connected to identity” (3).

So what was it that tipped me off that the instructor had no desire to be there?  This person was wearing ill fitting, rumpled, frayed sweat pants and a button down shirt.  So if according to Sontag ”…’our manner of appearing is our manner of being.  The mask is the face’” (3) this instructor’s appearance conveyed that he or she did not want to be in that classroom with that group of students.  By not dressing for class or by dressing like one of the students you become just like the students and lose any and all authority.  If you lose it in their eyes, you will soon lose it in your own.

So maybe this is a long way of saying to all the dissertation writers out there “get out of your bathrobes, take a shower, and dress like a scholar!”  Maybe, just maybe, you will convince others and yourself that you are, in fact, a scholar.

This post will seem a little bit off topic today as I won’t be talking directly about the dissertation, but rather about the uncertainty of academic life and the uncertainty of health care.

Today, like the good and dutiful patient that I am, I went for my yearly exam.  Although cervical cancer does not run in my family, I am someone who is very much on top of my health and appointments.  (I am probably one of the few people I know who likes going to the dentist twice a year and would go three times if I could!)

On and off for the past three years I have contemplated switching from birth control pills to a 5 year hormone based IUD.  Recently I really began thinking about this decision more and more because of health insurance.  While I know that I have two or three years left here to work on the dissertation and be on the job market, and thus two or three years of coverage under student health insurance, I fear what may happen next.

What if I don’t get a TT job?  What if I end of teaching for a university that does not cover contraception (yes, these do exist)? What if the prescription drug benefit plan at the new institution sucks?  And the questions go on and on.  My fear about a lack on insurance is driving me more and more towards the 5 year IUD just because it would mean I would not have to worry about the cost of birth control for the next 5 years if, goodness forbid, I do not end up with a job right away.

I like the birth control pill I am on and I am not a fan of messing with my body any more than I already do, but the precarity of the academic job market combined with a fear over losing health coverage may ultimately force my hand on this issue.  It really sucks when one begins to make decisions based on health insurance rather than what is best for one’s health and body

I truncated my evening of writing last night when a friend I have not seen in weeks texted me to invite me over for a cooking adventure.  We have great cooking adventures, and last night’s was no exception!  A fantastic pot of soup for these chilly nights, pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting for dessert, and beer bread to accompany the soup.

Trader Joe’s Beer Bread Mix is AMAZING.  So amazing, in fact, that I going to go bake some for breakfast.