Today I turned chapter 9 of my dissertation in to my first reader. That leaves just one more chapter to go. Since my first reader is gone all of June I’ll need to finish that chapter by the end of May.
That should be plenty of time. I hope.
Of course there’s more to it than just turning in the first draft. My first reader needs to review the chapters I’ve turned in so far, make comments, and then sit down with me to review them. Right now I’m waiting for his feedback on chapters 5-9. Once I get that I need to revise the dissertation to incorporate his comments.
There is one particular thing I’m worried about. The handbook says the dissertation can be no longer than 100,000 words. With one more chapter to go, my dissertation is at 118,000 words (that’s about 400 pages). If my first reader thinks I need to shorten it down to 100,000 words then I could be in trouble.
Whatever happens, I need to turn the final draft in by July 17. That gives my committee (Dr. Richard Averbeck, Dr. K. Lawson Younger, and Dr. T. Desimond Alexander) time to read and critique my dissertation before my dissertation defense on August 14.
[flagallery gid=8 name=Gallery]
Leave a Reply