PhD Vlog - 2 Weeks of Revisions 📝 The Highs and Lows of Revising a Dissertation Chapter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ค. 2024
- Now that I have the first full draft of my dissertation, the real fun begins: revision! This vlog takes you through the entire two weeks I spent reviewing my first dissertation chapter, expanding, improving, and pushing closer to a finished draft. I had some high points of exceeding my daily work goals and feeling motivated to work longer hours than usual, but also some real low points of frustration, tiredness, and physical strain.
I hope that in sharing what my revision process looks like, I can give a little insight into how I’m structuring my writing days, and some of the tangents and complications that come into play in the dissertation writing process! It’s not perfect, and it’s not always pretty (and let’s not even talk about what my hair looks like during some of these long workdays) but right now I’m finding the dissertation writing to be a rewarding and satisfying challenge.
As always, thank you for watching and for chatting with me about literature and academia. One chapter down, three to go... the journey continues!
0:00 Intro
0:48 Tuesday: Reviewing the Dissertation
4:45 Completing Chapter Read-Through
5:38 Wednesday: Beginning Revisions
7:16 Thursday: a Lost Day…
7:31 Friday Morning: Setting Workday Intentions
11:53 Digression into Research Tangents
17:01 Refocusing the Workday
18:18 Monday
18:45 Tuesday: Setting Workday Intentions
20:36 On Working Slowly
23:47 Building in a Break
25:48 Wednesday
26:02 Thursday: Planning Remaining Work
28:20 Friday
28:40 Reflecting on the Revision Process
31:00 Looking Ahead
I'm currently doing my PhD in Chemistry Education part-time and working full-time as a teacher... Started my PhD journey Aug 2021 and after 35+ drafts later I just got through with proposal defense last month! Now I'm conducting data collection... All the best to you and all of us in here who are sane enough to do a PhD 😂
Best of luck, dude
even though i'm not pursuing a Ph.D yet, this is SO relatable. Love your vibe.
I'm at the same stage of the PhD and your videos make me feel less alone during this intense phase!
I'm so glad to hear that, making these videos and talking with other people honestly makes it feel less isolating for me too! Good luck, we can do it!
I can’t believe I haven’t found you sooner! I am always looking for academic vlogs and I’m so glad I came across yours! You are lovely and your work is fascinating. I am subscribed and I look forward to more!
Your videos are always so honest and as a fellow PhD student I appreciate that so much! Thank you for sharing your journey and being such an inspiration!
For someone who is starting their dissertation writing this summer, this video is fantastic. It is great to follow other people who are doing the same thing. Good luck with your revisions.
Your videos literally bring out my inner academic ❤
It's the way I'm literally SO obsessed with you and your journey in academia. I asire to be as disciplined and intelligent as you in a field and niche area one day.
That’s so nice to hear! The level of knowledge I have in my field truly comes just from time as much as anything else - when you spend many years thinking and reading and writing about something, you get so deeply familiar with it. So it’s very achievable to know as much about your own research interests as I do about mine - you just have to spend a lot of time with it!
I'm currently revising my undergrad honors thesis and definitely needed the motivation and structure tips for working that you shared!! much appreciated and can't wait to follow along!
I find your videos motivating and fun to watch. I have do a lot of research for my novel and I guess in a way it’s similar to writing papers except longer and there’s more creative freedom. However, the historical facts have to be as true and well sourced to be believable, especially if I want historical fiction readers to read my books. Romance readers come second.
I'm defending my comp sci dissertation next week (so the writing process is a little different) BUT I followed your lead and printed it out and used the hard copy to make revisions and it made such a difference. also so satisfying to hold.
I think it would be worth printing out for the satisfaction alone haha after spending so much time typing away it just makes it feel more real to hold the thing in your hands!
Wow, honestly this is great! I should start writing my doctoral dissertation too (where should I start?). Revising seems to be extremely time-consuming. Does this book stand help you?
Yes the riser I use is SO HELPFUL! The little strain of bending my neck over to look down at the desk every day adds up and causes cumulative stress, bringing everything up to eye-level is game changing. A friend gifted it to me many years ago to use as a laptop riser because I was having neck pain from just looking down at my computer while writing, and it's been so great.
Could you speak to your completion timeline a bit further? I'd assumed you were defending over the summer as most of my friends who are so actively revising are pushing for June, July, August defenses but it sounded like the goal of a first revised draft to your advisor by August are you aiming for a Fall 2024 or a Spring 2025 defense? And if next spring, is finishing your first full draft so far in advance of your completion date pretty standard for your program? Is the goal to just get the jump on the diss to clear the way for the job market?
I'm aiming for a fall defense! There's some working backwards I have to do: the submission deadline for the fall is early November, and since I might have to make revisions after my defense I have to leave a couple weeks between my defense date and that submission deadline, and I need to circulate my dissertation to my committee 3 weeks before my defense, and so on and so on... My advisor does think I could be ready to defend by August (she actually originally was recommending I aim to defend this May) , but I don't feel like that's enough time for all the remaining research and revision I want to do, so she's agreed that I can take until the fall!
How did I end up here?
How do any of us end up anywhere