Summer Programs at the Thesis Office

This Summer at the Thesis Office we are offering several of our perennial programs to help you complete your thesis or dissertation.  Some of these were not offered in the Spring session, so here is your chance to check them out! In addition, some programs we offer are now online or hybrid online/in-person formats to make them accessible to all. If you would like to attend any of these workshops, please register here.

Create and Nurture a Productive Thesis/Dissertation Committee
Tuesday, June 4, 4PM

In this online presentation and Q&A, learn methods for creating a functional committee and making work with your committee count. Hear about best practices for common committee blunders and difficulties. Participation and sharing is encouraged!


Demystifying the Thesis/Dissertation Submission Process
Monday, June 10, 4PM

In this online presentation, Thesis Office advisor Carolyn Law will explain the ins and outs of submitting your completed thesis or dissertation. NIU has strict requirements for the "final product," and those requirements can keep you editing even after you've defended! Know what to expect and how to prepare for the final step of the process.


Tables/Figures/Pagination for Theses and Dissertations
Tuesday, June 11, 2PM

If your thesis or dissertation includes tables or figures, this is definitely the workshop for you. And if it doesn't include them, this might be the workshop for you anyway! One of our most common complaints from students is about page numbers, which can be a huge bugbear if your document is not set up properly. Come get it all straightened out in this workshop -- bring your laptop and be prepared to do some good work. This is an in-person event with ample time for workshopping, in Adams Hall room 103.


Writing Your Thesis/Dissertation Proposal
Tuesday, June 18, 4PM

This hybrid workshop will be an in-person presentation and discussion that is Facebook Live fed to our Facebook group. This interactive workshop will address typical characteristics of a successful thesis or dissertation proposal as well as offer practical strategies for organizing the key elements. Breakout sessions will allow for generous time for questions and small-group discussion. Bring your laptop and specific questions to maximize the workshop’s effectiveness!

Last year we had more attendees than ever at these events. Please keep taking advantage of them! We're here to help.

Register for any of these events at The Graduate School's workshop calendar.

The Alt-Ac Decision (for PhDs)

by Robyn Byrd

Whether you have fallen out of love with your specific field, or have simply realized you don't want to spend your life at a university (darn kids everywhere!), there may come a time when you consider the alt-ac path. That is, looking for a job outside of universities, and maybe even outside of research. This might seem frightening and even disappointing to even consider, after years of work and best laid plans for the future.

Yet in this economy, a job that is a lucrative alternative to an academic career (hence, alt-ac) may be a prudent plan. I myself have considered looking for alt-ac work, probably for a temporary bridge between the doctorate and a tenure-track teaching position. After a decade of low-wages and part-time work, I am ready for a "grown-up" salary! But then I have to consider... how could this break with university culture and work affect a future prospective tenure-track opportunity? Woe is me! This is hard.

First, some things to consider about alt-ac:

Is alt-ac your long term plan? Are you ready to get out for good? Motivated by pay? Go for it. Your track record of project-management, working with teams (your committee), and stick-tuitiveness (not to mention your intelligence) make you a great catch for the corporate world.

Is this a temporary bridge plan, because of the poor academic job market? Do your research. Do the types of universities you wish to court consider alt-ac work to be a lowly thing or a shirking of your nobler projects? Or do they understand, as a community college or state school might, that financial pressures put people to work at all sorts of things? Seek a job that gives you experiences that could leverage you back into a highly-sought research/teaching position. Or even aim for an administrative role that would not have been open to you as a "merely" academic Ph.D.

Do you want to leave the university, but hate the idea of the corporate world? Research options in non-profit work, consultancy, and government offices. Depending on your credentials, you could work for a state-run food bank, a local housing authority, a non-profit counseling and psychiatry firm, or even the U.S. Geological Survey (there's an office right up the road from DeKalb...). Some of these positions would not pay as well as the corporate world, but they would allow you to continue your research and problem-solving in impactful ways, perhaps even more impactful than the classroom.

Are you looking for a job the way a normal person would? This isn't the academic job market! Reformat your CV as a resume. Seek out workshops now on how to maximize your LinkedIn presence. LinkedIn employers frequently contact people like us for non-academic work.

These are just a few problems and questions that have been on my mind, and a few ideas for where scientists, teachers, psychologists, and all manner of doctorate holders could find work outside of the familiar, yet sometimes growth inhibiting, landscape of the college campus. Good luck in your search! The Ph.D. may narrow your opportunities in some ways, but the payoff is in the specific and rewarding opportunities it opens up.

Explain Your Project. You Have Three Minutes.

 

You’ve probably heard of the elevator speech: a short summary of an idea that you can pitch to someone (a prospective business partner, for example) while waiting for and then sharing an elevator.  You may even have crafted (or thought of crafting) a variation on the elevator speech for your thesis or dissertation project.  But have you worked out just how long this short speech should be?  Length is part of the official name for an increasingly popular speech contest that challenges grad-student participants to craft such a presentation: Three Minute Thesis (3MT®).  Details behind the 3MT speech are well worth exploring.

Hatched in a Shower?

A decade ago, experiencing a severe drought, people in Queensland, Australia adopted several ways to conserve water, including limiting showers to three minutes.  During those parched days, it seems that Alan Lawson, an emeritus professor and graduate school dean, was glancing at a three-minute egg timer attached to his bathroom wall when he suddenly found inspiration for the Three Minute Thesis.  This account of the humble beginnings of 3MT, now an international academic speech competition, doesn’t stray too far from historical information provided by the University of Queensland, the birthplace of 3MT.  Contests are now held in 62 countries outside Australia.  The contest in a nutshell: grad-student contestants must present their projects in three minutes.  If a contestant chooses to use visual support, it must take the form of a single, non-animated PowerPoint slide, displayed when the contestant starts speaking.  (No other visuals or props permitted). Currently 237 universities in the U.S. participate, including the University of Kentucky, which shares several informative videos derived from their past 3MT events.  Currently there are only three institutions participating in Illinois: UIC, ISU, and SUIC.  Last year’s contest at SUIC was the first one ever held there.

Competition Aside...
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Competing is a primary goal in a 3MT event.  Ultimately, however, becoming a 3MT winner is beside the point.  Preparing such a speech is its own reward, valuable now and in the near and distant future.  How so?  Think of all those times over the past few months (or more) when you’ve found yourself explaining the project you’ve been working on to colleagues, friends, and family members.  Wouldn’t it be great to rattle all that off smoothly in three minutes (or less)?  Or picture your upcoming defense, an event that will be open to the public.  At the start, you’re going to need to summarize and rationalize your project to your committee members, your outside reader (if defending a dissertation), and other attendees in a meaningful and concise manner.  You’ll most likely have more than three minutes to do this, but why not practice so that you can capture your project’s essence in such a short amount of time?  Further, when you go on the job search and eventually become a finalist candidate, you’ll need to be ready to give a three-minute, one-minute, or 30-second summary of your project, depending on circumstances during interviews, presentations, and/or informal meetings at your prospective place of employment.  Why not pull together the longest of these short summaries now?  If you can explain your argument cogently and completely in three minutes (or less), you keenly demonstrate expertise in your field, familiarity with your areas of specialty, and a firm grasp of your project’s place in scholarship.  That is, you constructively crystallize the significance of your thesis or dissertation research.

Drafting and Organization
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When you set out to create an effective three-minute thesis speech, consult the guidelines and judging criteria that Queensland provides.  As emphasized in those materials, a successful presentation centers on listeners’ needs: it starts off by creating a bridge to their interests, avoids jargon, summarizes important research outcomes, and ends by inspiring a desire to know more about the topic or to take some kind of action.  To meet these goals, arrange your presentation so that it answers the following questions:

     * Why is your research important to your listeners?
     * What brief examples best illustrate your project’s outcomes?
     * After hearing about your project, what should listeners do next?

An effective visual-support slide supports your message clearly, simply, and concisely.

Stand on Shoulders 

A famous speaker once responded to a request for a formal speech by saying, essentially: “If you want me to talk for three hours, I’m ready today.  If you want me to talk for only three minutes, I’ll need two weeks to prepare.”  Mark Twain is commonly associated with this quotation.  Words to the same effect (with variations) have also been attributed to several other celebrated orators: Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, Winston Churchill, Will Rogers...and on and on.  In short, plenty of sharp wits are popularly linked to an important communication principle, which the 3MT contest underscores: expressing big ideas compactly requires careful thought and planning.  As you progress toward completing your program, follow the footsteps of accomplished speakers.  Give yourself ample time to prepare a good—and short—presentation of your thesis or dissertation.

Images: CC0 and Public Domain

Spring 2018 Programs at the Thesis Office

We are excited to announce a new season of workshops and presentations at the NIU Thesis Office! Each semester we offer programs to help you with everything from proposal development to final editing, and everything in between. Check out our current offerings...

Informative Presentations
We offer several presentations geared to specific audiences, and also a submission process presentation that is essential for ANY student who is nearing completion of their thesis or dissertation.

Saturday, Feb 17:  Writing a Dissertation in Education
Designed for students enrolled in 799 in the College of Education or similar program. We will walk you through general dissertation requirements, discuss frequent dissertation issues in Education and Public Service, and we will have plenty of time for discussion and Q&A. This class meets 9am to 2pm in Naperville for the convenience of working teachers and administrators.

Tuesday, Feb 20: Thesis Essentials (For master's thesis writers)
This is the "411" presentation on getting a thesis done. Whether you don't know where to begin, or you are planning your defense, there is probably a thing or two you don't know about how the Graduate School handles theses. This is not a writer's workshop, but a nuts and bolts, project management approach to ensuring you check off all the boxes. We will meet in Adams Hall room 103, and we will have plenty of time for Q&A.

Wednesday, Feb 21: Dissertation Essentials (for dissertation writers at ANY stage!)
This is the "411" presentation on getting a dissertation done.  This is not a writer's workshop, but a nuts and bolts, project management approach to ensuring you check off all the boxes.  You can attend this session in ANY stage of the dissertation writing process! We will meet in Adams Hall room 103 at 2pm, and we will have plenty of time for Q&A.

Tuesday, Feb 27: Writing a Thesis in Engineering
This presentation covers the ins and outs of the very specific task that is the engineering thesis. ASME documentation as well as general thesis guidelines will be covered. We will meet in Adams Hall room 103 at 2pm, and we will have plenty of time for Q&A.

Wednesday, Feb 28: Demystifying the Submission Process
Carolyn Law, director of the Thesis Office and the arbiter of thesis readiness, will demystify the secrets and confusion surrounding the thesis and dissertation submission process! Pull back the curtain and prepare to become prepared. This special session meets in Wirtz Hall room 104, from 5-7pm.

Hands-On Workshops
Each semester we offer a workshop or two based on the needs of thesis writers. This term, it's the return of the infamous "T/F/P" workshop as we like to call it.

Tables, Figures, Pagination
Come get one-on-one help with wrangling those documents! There will be some instruction and presentation at this workshop, and you will also have ample time to work on your thesis with the help of staff members and peers. Common problems like disappearing page numbers, messy figures and tables, staying within margins, and other issues will be fought and conquered!

Informal Brown Bags
Since we don't want to do all the talking (we're here to help YOU), we host several informal Brown Bag sessions each semester. These are a great way to meet other people who are on this unique journey and facing our unique struggles. Come tell us what you're on about! (And what you'd like us to help with more.)

March 7 Writing the Proposal
Bring your lunch and talk with us about your proposal ideas and frustrations! This session will be hosted by Robyn Byrd, doctoral candidate in English literature, who defended her dissertation proposal this last October. So she knows the process and remembers the ABD journey!

March 21 Breaking through Writer's Block (and other obstacles)
Join us with your brown bag (or styrofoam container) to discuss the many kinds of writer's obstacles we all face, and some possible solutions. Hosted by Carolyn Law, professional editor and Thesis Office director, who knows the fear of the blank page!

Meet-Ups for Writers
Finally, don't forget, we have a writer's meet-up we call "Write Place, Write Time,"on the second Thursday of every month. This three hour block is a stellar opportunity to make an unbreakable date with your self.  We reserve the doctoral study room on the fourth floor of Founders, and we work quietly together. There is no agenda at Write Place, except to write.  Our next meeting is on March 8.

We hope you join us for one or more of these events this season! Find them all on the University events calendar, or on our Workshops page

Professional Development for NIU Grad Students

It's a buzz-phrase you might see a lot in department emails, on university and corporate websites... and The Graduate School at NIU is no exception.  They are riding that "Professional Development" train!

I want to talk about some ways to professionalize yourself, i.e. gain work experience, while you're here -- some of these opportunities are through the Graduate School, and some are within your own department. (In all likelihood, your department is riding that train too.)

Graduate School Programs and Resources

So many programs!

The Graduate School at NIU has recently increased their offerings for professional development programs, including mentorships, workshops for teaching assistants, internship opportunities, and assistance with developing a teaching portfolio. Their goal was to centralize your professional development experience by using Grad School tools to track progress and find resources. Their redesigned home page has a "Professional Development" drop-down menu, under which you can find links to workshops and programs. Here are a couple important ones you should look into:

Individual Development Plan
An individual development plan can address your specific goals for graduate study. For those studying in healthcare, an IDP is mandatory.  But anyone can create one! The plans helps you bring together all your own programs, workshops, and degree progress, to get a sense of what your strengths are and what else you need to do before you leave us. Attend a workshop to see if an IDP is right for you.

Future Professoriate Program
According to the Grad School:

"The Future Professoriate Program was designed for two purposes:

1. To recognize the efforts of doctoral students who prepared to enter the professoriate.
2. To supplement on-going training and mentoring efforts."

Doctoral students with any kind of assitantship are eligible. You must attend workshops and work with a teaching mentor, and the program earns you a Certificate in College Teaching. The program provides excellent support for teachers in training, especially for those whose departments might not be as involved with their TAs. (You likely won't find a long-term teaching mentor in the department! Why not sign up for one who is dedicated to you?)

Workshops
Numerous workshops are going on at the Grad School, every week. Learn about ethical research, how to work with a mentor, how to do lunch with professionals, and even how the heck to write a dissertation. Some workshops are formal while others are discussion based. There is even a suite of research workshops that will grant you a certificate in Research Integrity. (And some of them offer free pizza. Always a necessity.)

Thesis and Dissertation Support
The Thesis and Dissertation Office (that's us!) should be your go-to for thesis and dissertation support. While we may refer you to an admin or to someone in your department, we know who gets what done. And we are staffed by graduate students who are currently writing dissertations!  We offer a unique peer perspective that administrators cannot, when it comes to everything from cutting through red tape, getting the writing done, and navigating the thesis/life balance. What's that got to do with professionalization? We are the last stop on the way to your degree, and we are the ones who will help you produce that final document, and make it look awesome.

Departmental Development Programs

While the Grad School has a noble goal (and a sound program) for devloping NIU's future innovators and teachers, don't forget that specialized career development is important too. What does professional development for a graduate student look like within the department? Well, it has to be cobbled together dependent on availability of opportunities, and on department resources. It can range from being a humble participant, to being in charge of something bigger than yourself.

For me it looked like this:

• Attending and presenting at conferences on literature (my subject), and on pedagogy.
• Attending and presenting at my department's "First Fridays," where we shared lesson plans and classroom ideas.
• Co-Chairing (organizing, planning, choosing presenters) MCLLM 2014, the NIU English department's annual international conference.
• Being a GA "junior" committee member running the 2014 International Virginia Wolf conference.
• Mentoring new TAs.
• Producing artwork and graphics for conference literature and department book covers.
• Serving two years on the First-Year Composition Committee and the assessment sub-committee.
• Editing and publishing two editions of Y1 Writes: A Journal of First-Year Composition Essays  (after being editorial staff for a year prior)
• Teaching, teaching, teaching! (Here as a TA, elsewhere as an adjunct, doing summer camps...)

This list may seem Herculean, but I've been here six years. You can see that much of my professionalization happened within my department. However, the activities I did were quite varied in nature: publishing, assessing (the behind the scenes of university outcomes, metrics, etc!), creative services, and more. And of course, teaching. You should absolutely teach or run a lab, if that's at all possible for your GA duties. The best way to make sure you know how to do something is to teach someone else how to do it. 

A final note: 

MA students: The Graduate School's programs are well-supported and goal-oriented. If you only have two years here, lean on the Grad School for your professionalization, and dabble in the department. Your career goals are likely non-university, and being professionalized is probably more important to get to within those two years! 

PhD students: If you are doing a dissertation, you have plenty of time here (trust me... you have plenty of time). Look into what Grad School professionalization programs work best for you -- especially the Future Professoriate Program --  but lean on your department for opportunities and guidance. If you are sticking with academics and researchers, the department is where to find them and learn to be among them.

Go get professionalized!

Me teaching a poetry lesson.
After six years, no classroom fears!