Are you on the right path?

How do you know if you are on the right path in getting a PhD? How do you know if your study or your dissertation is "good"? The reality is that you don't know- all that you can do is keep going, one step at a time. You will get a lot of feedback and advice along the way to your PhD, some you will be required to take to continue, other advice you will have to make your own decision about whether to use it or continue in the same direction. Don't let the decision making lead to a fear of movement, rarely is any decision fatal or unresolvable. One step at a time… keep going.

 There is a tendency for many people to become paralyzed in the dissertation process because they look at the big picture and have a hard time seeing themselves making that trip to the end. Focus on the next step, if that seems too big break it down even further. Is writing that first chapter the obstacle? Start with an outline of all the topics you see as being related to the topic. Pick one and start reading and taking notes. Is the data analysis freaking you out? What is the first step that needs to be done? Entering the information in SPSS? Maybe transcribing the interviews? Take the first step.

For many students the freezing in the headlight moment comes when they get the URR review and yet more changes are required. I recommend reading the review then setting it aside for a day. Resist the temptation to start criticizing yourself, everyone has revisions this is just another hoop to jump through. Instead, think of it as a problem to solve. Lay out how you will approach it, and take the comments one at a time and address them. No, you do not have to take every suggestion or comment – but you do have address them. So if you disagree, use track changes and respond to the reviewer why you have chosen to not change the item. Also, realize that the URR may disagree with you and insist on the changes. Is this thing really worth holding up your progress? If you answer that no, then change it, and move on.

Some students get hung up on the idea that their dissertation is "theirs" and they do not want anyone else's advice and refuse to make changes. PLEASE, give up on this idea. It is not "yours" it is your dissertation committee's paper and you are just a member of that committee. Your committee's names will be on the paper as well as yours (check out the Walden library's dissertation database, if you want to see). Their job is to make sure that your paper will get through the process, don’t waste time with ownership issues, move on.

 Trust that you are on the right path, trust your mentors, and keep taking one more step to your goal.

 Lee Stadtlander

Thoughts on writing

For the past few weeks, I have been spending a lot of time writing both article drafts and grant proposals. A few things have occurred to me and I thought I would share them with you. First, the similarities and differences between writing a dissertation and writing professional papers keep coming to the forefront. In a dissertation, thoroughness is a key element, knowing all of the literature and relating it to the project is important. While you need to detail your proposed project, it is expected that you are new to the field and others will catch your errors.

In professional writing, the emphasis is much more on conciseness. While you review the literature, it should be just the essential studies. You want to create for the reader, an understanding of the need for your study. With grant writing, the proposed study has center stage. You must show your expertise by developing a clear description of the research method you will use, and articulate how and why this method will let you examine your research questions. You need to create a sense of curiosity in the reader, and show this is an interesting area that needs to be explored.

One of the most important points in writing a grant is to follow directions. Carefully read the descriptions provided by the granting agency. They will clearly state the areas in which they are interested. It makes no sense to waste your time applying to an agency only interested in children, if your topic is the elderly. Again, follow the directions carefully! If they say no more than 200 words in an area, don't make it longer. Pay attention to your style, it should be professional yet clear to non-scientists. They will not fund what they do not understand.

When you write for a granting agency or a journal article, keep in the back of your mind that you are, in a sense, asking them to hire you. In either case, they have limited resources (whether it is funding or space in a journal); you need to show you deserve to be hired. This means making a good impression, by using correct grammar and format, making your presentation clear and professional. Would you want to give money to someone who submits a messy proposal, with poor spelling and grammar, and does not follow directions? No, because you will be concerned whether they can follow through on the project you are hiring them to do.

Allow enough time with professional writing to put the paper aside for a few days, and come back to it with critical fresh eyes. Pretend that you are the reviewer and look for problems in logic, grammar, etc. Print out the paper and read it, often you will see issues that you missed on the computer screen. Have someone else read it and critique it for you (isn’t that what a spouse and friends are for?). Ask them to look for things that are not clear, incorrect spelling or grammar. Thank them – don’t get defensive, they are trying to help, if they don’t get it – probably others won’t either.

These issues are also in a dissertation: be professional but write for the non-scientist (no jargon), create a sense of curiosity in the reader, follow directions, allow enough time for drafts to let you edit and reedit. Remind yourself that you are becoming a professional; learn the skills now because you (hopefully) will use them forever.

Lee Stadtlander

An Update

It has been quite a while since we posted here, so I thought I would give you an update. We have been busy. We now have a paper from our oldest old study in review:

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M., Sickel, A., Brooks, E., Brown, C., Cormell, M., Ewing, L., Hart, D., Koons, D., Olson, C., Parker, P., Semenova, V., & Stoneking, S. (In Review) Independent Living Oldest-Old and Their Primary Health Provider: A Mixed Method Examination of the Influence of Patient Personality Characteristics. Journal of Applied Gerontology.

And a paper in review on the lab:

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M. & Sickel, A. (In review).  Research Efficacy, Research Knowledge, and the Student Experience: Three Quarters in a Virtual Lab. The American Journal of Distance Education

We presented posters on the lab at conferences in August:
 

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M. & Sickel, A. (2012, August 24). The Student Experience: Three Quarters in an Online Laboratory Poster presented at Walden University Summer Session, Minneapolis, MN.

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M. & Sickel, A. (2012, August 10). Graduate student researchers' knowledge/efficacy: Results from a virtual lab. 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, Madison, Wisconsin

I have been thinking about research in general. I recently started working with a colleague on a grant proposal and I realized how integrated research is into my thinking. It felt very natural (and actually fun) to think about a new project in a totally new area. It was exciting to consider the various ways the project could be done and what variables would be interesting to play with.

Which brings me to the point I wanted to make to new researchers. Learning to do research is a new skill, it is something that takes years to develop, you would not expect to learn the piano by reading about it, why would you expect that you could learn to do research by just reading about it? Be patient with yourself, it is going to take time and energy to learn this skill. But it is worth it, if you want to be researcher or an academic; it will eventually be second nature to you and feel like it is part of who you are. And yes, someday it will actually be fun!

Lee Stadtlander