You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 4

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So, you are the author of your dissertation or thesis. If you do the preparation work well and focus your topic, if you know you are adding to the existing body of knowledge out there, you can weather a difficult advisor and advisory committee.


A dysfunctional  advisory team


Be clear that there are two extremes with your advisory team, neither of them easy. This could apply to any one person on the team or a number of people.

Too much help


To start with, an over-helpful team member. Here are  two points about what the over-involved person might do:

  1. Be too demanding of you and not allow you your voice and thoughts. Everything you or anyone else says is wrong and must be done that person’s way.
  2. Be inflexible and demanding to the point that you are given incorrect writing help. Editors experience this especially with incorrect knowledge of formatting or house style. How about a few choice examples:
  • Never use passive voice: no such thing. The idea is to minimize the use of passive voice.
  • An APA favorite: write all numbers below 10 as words. Not true. APA has very clear rules about when numbers below 10 must be written as numbers and not words.
  • Frankly, the list is long. I’ve been known people who try to help make actual grammatical mistakes and insist they are correct. That is why tracking is important.


Interfering help is not helpful and is very burdensome. Doctoral and thesis work is already stressful and overbearing help can leave a student really confused or at a loss about how to handle such a person. When an academic editor has to navigate such a person, it usually means diluting the edit slightly. There are often academic hoops to jump and this may be one that needs jumping to keep the peace.

Next up, what too little help means.

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Word Building with Chunks

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This is getting serious now. Another language teaser.

Tips.

  1. I had to write them down and play around with them.
  2. Actually cutting each piece up and moving them around works like a dream and is a great way to add to one’s vocab.

Below, 10 nine letter words have been broken into chunks of three letters.

These chunks have been mixed up, no chunk is used twice and all chunks are used.

Can you determine what the 10 words are?

cer ent ead rat uti spr
ful oun pro ann ope ockr
nce een oat est liv ionr
nou sev ion ast hou akfr
bre bea ens dim bed sebr

Continue reading →

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 3

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You, your advisor and advisory team

 

What to do with this powerful team of academic help? If there is a good balance, all will proceed along a normal bumpy writing route.

But frankly, achieving a balance in the help you receive is not always easy.

  1. The less confident you are, the more you are going to want help.
  2. Of course, then the more help you receive, the more confused you are going to be.
  3. Receiving little help speaks for itself. Trouble and much extra effort on your part.
  4. Finding a good impartial academic editor to pull all the parts together and warn if there is still a content problem becomes even more essential when dealing with difficult advisory teams.

Ironically enough, both an involved team and uninvolved team can cause problems for an academic editor.

  • The interfering person usually wants to override good advice.
  • The non-involved person gives no added guidance that an editor can include to ensure the work is on the right track for your school.

But at the very least, make sure you are equipped to do some basic self-editing. Such knowledge will also allow you to recognize good help when offered so you can select what is best for you. Download your own handy copy of the Language Online 21 Proofreading Tips to help guide you through some self-editing to be sure you work becomes really powerful. http://tinyurl.com/self-editing


And if you like your student friends, be sure to let them know about the guide. Anyone can download it. Simply use the Share It link to email or post.

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One Similarity for

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Another braingle.com language brain teaser.

scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed, thrutched, strengths, straights, scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, screeched, scraunched, broughams, and craunched.

All these words have one thing in common. I agree that some are really odd words.

What is it?

Continue reading →

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 2

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So who else is involved in your thesis or doctoral journey. A reminder, you first, and of course an academic editor at some point.

Advisor and Committee

Next is your advisor/chair/supervisor/mentor/professor. I’ll just refer to a advisor from now on.

An advisor is there to guide you and encourage you. Likewise with your advisory committee members.

  1. If you are fortunate, everyone officially involved with your work will be interested enough in you and your process to give you sufficient guidance. Consider yourself lucky.
  2. Too much help, especially if it is pedantic is painful though. So much so that you will be unsure whose ideas to follow. Know that this situation is an added complication.
  3. If you are unfortunate, you will get so little help, you will not know before critical moments like submission of the proposal and submission of the dissertation or defense that there is a problem. Consider yourself very unlucky.

So your team is growing: you + academic editor + mentor + advisory team. The trick is to make sure you are well-equipped for the journey. Use a combination of the school’s resources and online resources. Language Online has much to offer. Browse and see what works for you.


Share the Language Online information with some of your cohort. Click below and email or post.

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You and Your Doctoral or Thesis Writing Team: Part 1

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You and Your editor.

Understanding the role of the various players in your thesis or doctoral writing is really important. If you don’t, you could end up confused, frustrated, angry and disillusioned. And all because you were not clear about who is supposed to do what. My focus is obviously the academic editor’s role, in particular the copy editor.

The copy editor is the one who is supposed to play the supportive role and help from the sidelines. The person who should in fact have no direct affiliation with your school, so some semblance of objectivity can be included.

Your job as a student is to read, plan, write, clarify your problem statement or research questions, and write and write, conduct research, analyze outcomes, and conclude and suggest. This is one mammoth task. Good reason it can takes many years, much energy, much time, and much money. But it is your role and no one else’s.

Also a good idea to start early with an academic editor. Work together chapter by chapter. Then have the proposal checked. And right at the end of the journey the whole thesis or dissertation. See what resources the person or website offers and use them. Like this blog. Or receiving regular grammar tips.

Click on http://preview.tinyurl.com/grammartips, sign up and instantly start receiving your tips.


How about Sharing This with a friend? Just click the link below.

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The Forest for the Trees

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I can’t help myself. I love word games and teasers. Recently I stumbled onto the braingle.com website. I was particularly taken with the language type teasers. Will share a few, but they are straight from the braingle site. Nothing added by me.

In each sentence the name of a tree is hidden. The willow is hiding in the first sentence. Can you find the others?

  1. I will owe you a favor if you drive me to the airport.
  2. I am afraid of going up in elevators.
  3. Drinking cocoa keeps me warm on long winter nights.
  4. I hope the map leads us to buried treasure.
  5. “Eat another bonbon,” said our charming hostess.
  6. Nepal may be the most interesting place I have ever visited.
  7. Remember to fold the map, please.
  8. I feel many lumps in this mattress.
  9. Word processing is not as useful as pens and paper for creative brainstorming.


Continue reading →

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From a Course to a Degree

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To finish this series of posts I had the following thoughts about how students often get to the point of studying online. This is particularly true for returning adult students.

Often studying seriously starts with doing a short course. Could be for your own interest or for work. That is exactly how my husband started.

  • He started with a short course recommended and paid-for by his work.
  • This in turn led to a certified course.
  • Then he really became interested in doing his degree.
  • But he was in his 30′s, married, had a job, was busy building a house, so guess what?
  • There was no chance of attending university onground and full-time or even at a brick and mortar school part-time.
  • So it had to be part-time, and more particularly it had to long distance.


The good news is what started out as studying mainly by post gradually started shifting to online. Okay, this was dark ages as in the last century (giggle), but today the options for studying online are endless.

Most local colleges and many traditional universities offer some or all courses and programs online. And then of course the traditionally well-known online universities like the University of Phoenix, DeVry, Kaplan, and Capella offer a wide selection of programs online. I think often the criticism leveled against online universities is because they offer a full range, from single courses all the way to 4-year degrees and master’s and doctoral programs. Not understanding the full range is where the confusion about the level of the education comes in. People end up judging a school by its starter and often fun courses. Silly really.


So start with a course, get the feel of the online process, and the world is at your feet.


Do share your own experiences: ShareThis button or comment.


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Online Courses and Fields

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You might also be wondering if some courses or fields of study are more suited to online studies than others.


Because of the nature of technology, the basics and theory of almost any course can be taught online. Type “online universities” into your browser and surprise yourself. Expect to see courses for

  • business
  • education
  • administration
  • marketing and advertising
  • human resources
  • nursing and pharmaceutical
  • law
  • and much more.
  • Don’t forget military education and technology.


Of course schools specialize. That is part of what you will investigate when researching a suitable university. Find a school that focuses on your interests or level of training like a diploma, an associate degree, a 4-year bachelors degree, a master’s, and a doctoral degree.

Interestingly enough, most so-called traditional schools have online aspects, either classes or full degree programs.

And also of interest is that the 5 schools I mentioned in the last post have both online and onground/offline classes and courses, but they are known for being online universities.

Now what are online schools’ specialties? I was simply putting your mind at ease about the legitimacy of studying online and where to start and what to check initially. Now it is really up to you to research what each school offers in terms of content and support. Consider it the beginning of your online journey.

Welcome to ShareThis, be it by email or to your social groups.


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With Which Online Universities Should One Start One’s Research?

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I was unsure whether to discuss which online universities are available. But since I mentioned Yale, Princeton, and Harvard, I might as well be bold and mention some of the online universities I see all the time.

I’ve had contact with students from all the online universities I plan to mention, so I know that just like any university, the success of the students from these universities is about how hard the student works. All reputable universities have their share of lazy students and hardworking students.

I feel it is useful to have a starting point so one can compare ones findings and find the university that suits your needs. Please be aware that I’m only talking about online American Universities. The world is a big place and there are many great online universities throughout the world.

These are well-known online universities. Each has its specialties.

  • DeVry University
  • Kaplan University
  • The University of Phoenix
  • Capella University
  • AIU Online

These all have solid reputations. Use their criteria to further your research of which online school suits you.


Would be nice to hear from instructors and learners at the above schools or other schools and what they offer and what works. Exactly what that cute ShareThis icon below is for. Let folk know so they come leave a comment. And of course, please leave your own thought via the Comment button.


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