Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Morp Rogress

Am slowly getting through a good summary of each interview. While it's been a bit more complex and time-consuming than I figured, it's proving to be an excellent exercise for a couple of key reasons. First, I'm getting more and more intimate with the details of all fourteen interviews, and this will be extremely helpful for everything from writing the prose of the results chapter to navigating my way through the oral defense. Second, each summary I write is actually writing a bit of the results chapter itself by default. So, while it doesn't feel like I'm writing in proper APA style and perfect prosaic language at this time, I am nevertheless starting to draft out an important part of the results chapter for this study. So, this is good. Slow as molasses, but good. Finally, the more intimate I become with the responses of the participants and the small-level details, the easier it has become to draw out comparisons among various folks. I'm creating categories, continua, and even a few realizations about the implications of the study in general. There's still a good amount of information still floating around there, though. Still a fair amount to do, but it's coming together. 

The first of several e-mails from The Office of Graduate Studies in my school came out on Tuesday, reminding all of the doctoral candidates about the deadlines to apply for graduation. That's a little bit intimidating, though it keeps me focused on the prize. March 1, 2009 is the application deadline for walking in the graduation ceremonies. This means that if I intend to finish anytime between May and August of this year, then I have till March 1 to get my ducks in a row. 

At this point today, even with what I still see I have to do in front of me, that seems like a reasonable deadline. Kind of a nice feeling, for a change. Let's just hope I'm not being too optimistic. 

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