Vacation Week work
I’m finishing my lit reviews. No, really. It’s been nice to have the week ‘off’ to focus on the last push in this phase of the thesis project.
Last week, I sent my advisor, Dr. O, a copy of my thesis sentence and three hypotheses, just to be sure we were on the same page and he sent back a confirmation email. I aim to submit the proposal by May as he is unavailable during April. He is reading the finished theses of those social sciences ALMs graduating in June. That’s fine. I’ll use April to complete the ‘Research Problem’ and ‘Background’ sections. The rest of the ‘template’ is filled in and ready to go.
Also, I’ve been paring down my RefWorks biblio so I can add a ‘reasonable length’ biblio with the proposal. We have to divide the biblio into three sections: works cited, works consulted (annotated), and works to be consulted. Don’t get giddy about the third section — it can’t include any work crucial to your thesis sentence. In essence, you have to show you’ve found and reviewed all the key material on your topic when you write up the proposal (see my entry on ‘crazy-making’). This is not to say that when you get the Thesis Director, he won’t send you in a new direction! (part II of the ‘crazy-making’ stuff).
I see now that I picked a topic that had some research difficulties built into it. If you choose a subject that’s current, hot, and much-written about, it’s that much harder to sift through what’s out there and find a thread that hasn’t been worked on or needs more done on it. First, start with an avalanche of materials — primary source and secondary. Then, skim through it and see what hasn‘t been covered. Next, come up with an idea that is both insightful and substantive, that can be explored, and for which you can find solid evidence . OK. Get Dr. O’s approval. Start doing in-depth lit reviews. Oh, yes…keep up with your friends, family, health, job, and whatever else gives your life meaning and pays the rent. But, I digress.
No wonder some graduate students pick obscure topics; they have to be easier to research and lit review than military contracting.
My advice: try to do all your major readings up front. I find myself near the end of the long slog of lit reviews and still have a couple of key articles so I have to muster a bit more energy than if I had done them sooner.
On a different note, yesterday I submitted my name to the IPI database of international private security researchers. This morning, I had coffee with one of my early supporters in this effort. He’s heard me talk about this stuff for almost ten months. I realized as I described a packet of Congressional testimony I had with me that I have indeed developed a mini-expertise in this subject. When I first discussed this interest with him last year, I had only a cursory understanding of most of it. So it felt genuine to join the group. Bit of a ‘reward’ for six months of focused effort.
