Epistemographer

Several years ago, the faculty in my department decided that the length of time between the dissertation defense and the actual filing of the dissertation was far more than preferable (in some cases, stretching up to a year or more). With that in mind, they instituted a sort of gatekeeping mechanism, a “pre-defense” that would [...]

So, after a good day and a half of writing, revising, discarding, rewriting, shutting my laptop in frustration, pondering, tossing and turning, writing some more, discarding some more and generally just trying to get the thoughts careening around in my head to calm down long enough to focus, I think I’ve finally got the first [...]

Tonight I think I finished my fourth chapter (which will actually be the sixth chapter of the final thing, thanks to the screwy way I wound up working on things)…the ending isn’t as tight as I’d like, but I’ll need to return to it after writinig the two chapters that precede it, since it relies [...]

After several days of wrestling with a chapter that just wouldn’t work, I realized a structural problem with my dissertation, and just spent the past hour and a half gutting and rejiggering. Once the smoke cleared, I was left with an outline that included one chapter more than I’d planned, but which also made a [...]

Back in New York City for the next week, with nothing on the agenda but dissertation writing and exercise (both of which I’ve sadly been neglecting while out of town). With that in mind, I’ve established a self-imposed moratorium on the reading of blogs of any sort until I get my next chapter finished…while this [...]

Sorry for the delay, you hardy few who read this space on a regular basis – I’ve been busy doing not nearly enough down in Florida, where lots of sun and swimming pool time has been on the agenda. Tomorrow, we’re heading down to Miami for a few fun events, including an evening of Jai [...]

Chapters 2 & 3 are in the mail (well, e-mail) to advisors. It’s funny – I know they’re not perfect and need a little more work, but there’s still the same sense of satisfaction when I actually have something good enough to send. Now, here’s hoping that my judgment’s not totally off, and that they [...]

Non-Widescreen Version Of DVD Received As Hanukkah Gift
Bernie spoke in reference to last year, when the Greenbergs came close to finding a gift Rosenstein would like. The misguided couple gave their nephew the theatrical-release version of Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, instead of the extended version which contains 40 extra minutes [...]

So, I’m finding that there are times that I’m writing, and it’s a very workmanlike process … every paragraph is pieced together with a topic sentence, a few sentences of backup, and a transition to the next paragraph. Frankly, much of my writing last month felt like this – I was getting it done, and [...]

So, it’s a weird thing to be chugging along, writing a chunk of one’s dissertation. It’s not that you really stop doing research, it’s just that the additional research takes the form of spackle that you need to slather in the gaps where you realize that you don’t have something that you need.
In my case [...]