Bit by bit

In the spirit of trying to generate momentum on my dissertation journey again, I am posting a quick update for those of you who are silently watching on the sidelines. (By the way, you can feel free to speak up at any time to offer any observations or comments you have. I need to toughen up, so constructive criticism is welcome, as are any random thoughts in between. It helps to know someone is keeping step with me.)

So here I am. I spent the week wrestling with an unwieldy proposal, watching the days on the calendar fade one into the next as I tried to get to a “final” draft of drafts. I am here to tell you, I succeeded, a little.

Which is a huge victory for me. One of the pieces of advice my mentor has offered several times is for me to keep more regular contact with my Committee (You will recall, my Committee is a team of three accomplished professors, all PhD’s themselves, who are my guides, my readers, and the fire under my butt to keep me working on this until I reach a successful conclusion).

Over the summer, I managed to find time to revise the first section of my proposal -- the Overview -- and dash it off to my Committee, who were on summer break. There was no guarantee I would hear back until the semester began, but at least I got it out there. It was another step forward in a process that has had me stepping back far more than I would like.

My mentor gave me a brief but positive nod, and I did not wait for my readers to chime in. This is important for anyone who is pursuing a research project to remember. If you wait for full feedback, you may wait a long time. Keep going.

Today I can say I have taken another step forward. Another two sections sent via email to my Committee. Another two in fairly decent shape. With a couple of days’ work, I am looking at moving those to the outbox too.

These next two are critical, however, so I will keep my optimism in check. I am tackling the Methodology section, where I need to clearly explain the scholarly approach I will use to explain how I am going to study the changing communication technologies in grief memoir. I have to get this right.

The other section will be the one in which I offer a summary of the relevant literature that I have examined to offer a critical discussion of the differing arguments, theories and approaches in this subject area of grief, literature and communication.

OK, so maybe these won’t be that easy or that quick to wrap up in a couple of days. Look, it’s early in the week. I have time. More importantly, I have focus and determination. Check with me later this week!

Copyright 2011 By Marianne V. Heffernan