So I enrolled in a "Dissertation Boot Camp" (really, just a writer's group), and Joan Bolker's How To Write Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day was the required reading.
I first picked up this page-turner when I enrolled last summer in the prospectus boot camp, but I only skimmed it at the time. About a month ago I visited NY and saw that my friend Jo (herself earning an Ed. doctorate from Columbia) had the book too, so apparently it's pretty standard-issue. Plus, I wanted to rally and really put in the effort for this boot camp.
The Cliff's Notes version (which I would title "How to Read Joan Bolker in Fifteen Minutes") wouldn't capture all of the advice (most of which, actually pretty useful) but here are my highlights:
- p. 8: What happens when you get stuck writing? How did it happen, when did it start? ... "maybe after a disappointing meeting with your advisor, or after you drank too much" (emphasis added). First off, Joan Bolker, thank you for relating substance use to productivity and therefore drifting into my wheelhouse. You just made the lit review! Second, that can happen, and that will happen. And that's just real talk. So I like that she's a realist. Bolker, what!?!
- p. 47: "Don't waste words, write everything down ... even a glimmer of an idea, write it down." See this blog? Check. This is totally true though, because we all tend to forget things. This happened in Mad Men to Paul once in a pretty good episode.
* As an aside, I love Mad Men and will probably make references/ongoing commentary in future blog-posts. It'll be a little bit Simmons-style, but I hope we're okay with that. Between Mad Men, Jersey Shore, and Starcraft 2 I'm a little bit worried about August.
... but back to Mad Men. I'm not sure if that's the same episode where Paul and Peggy smoke weed, but I'm all about integrating substance abuse clips from popular shows into presentations (probably not papers—peer reviewed publications tend to hate on that, which is one way academia blows). If Betty Draper picks up a benzedrine habit this season though, Mad Men is making my bibliography without hesitation.
- p. 84: [About writing]: "cultivate ruthlessness." Oh Bolker, you naughty ...
- p. 85: "Now is the time for saying no, guiltlessly ..." Here that, homies? In just Palo Alto bars, I can see myself pulling that card 327 times over the course of the year.
- p. 96: Good quote. "Be a blatant behaviorist and bribe yourself shamelessly." This came up in boot camp too. Incentives work for people. Not me, I'm a hedonist—I indulge and then get to task. Maybe that's a problem.
Working on: Could use about 10 more students (data collection). Organizing files. Avoiding jury duty. Boot Camp assigned 20 pages of raw-writing. Also going to San Diego for a bachelor party, let the Ron Burgundy references fly.
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