My own voice

What's really cool about this proposal-writing experience is that this is paper is truly describing my own research interest and is not just satisfying a course requirement. Yes, I've written other papers where I enjoy the subject matter and thus enjoy the paper-writing process a great deal. However, this is different somehow. There is no constant checking of a syllabus to ensure I'm meeting the professor's needs, or wondering if I'm going to get a good grade or not. This is all about writing down my own thoughts on the matter, citing appropriate literature, and designing a methodology for the study...all the while knowing it's a draft. Just a draft. No longer is this a one-time chance to impress a professor. I have faculty on-board with this idea, and they will work with me to help me get this to where it needs to be to start collecting data, hopefully next fall. This draft is going to be critiqued, edited, critiqued again, and eventually will come to the point where it's good to go. No point in worrying about every detail in this draft...the ideas have got to come first, then the pickiness will come later.

But the pressure is off, surprisingly enough, because I know I can rewrite this as needed. Weird...usually when I'm writing something as awesome and imposing as My Dissertation Proposal, I'd get all nervous the way I was before qualifying exams. Now, I'm just writing away, adding my thoughts and citations here & there where needed. It's kind of fun, in a "demented and sad, but social" sort of way.

So, back to the subject line: I'm finding my own voice in this work. I can express things in a way I'd like to express them. It's rather empowering. The worst that can happen is a critique from a professor. And many of us know full well that regardless of what I write, my professors are going to critique it! So why not experiment a little and throw in my own voice with the writing style. I'm adding a chapter (a chapter on the theory I'm creating) and changing the chapter order in this proposal (lit review comes before the theory chapter), so why not have a little fun and write in a way that expresses the concepts in a scholarly way while allowing for some creativity?

I'll be careful though. I do need to successfully defend this proposal within the next month or two. Just some random thoughts on the notion of finally being able to write about something that I'll actually use!