Streaming Thesis and Dissertation Support: Fall Workshops

            We here in the Thesis and Dissertation Office are very busy working on presentations and workshops for the month of October to help keep thesis writers and dissertators informed, on track, and motivated. On October 1^st from 2-4 pm in Adams 103, we will be offering a Dissertation Essentials presentation that benefits all dissertators no matter what field. If you are enrolled in 799 next semester or are looking to enroll next semester, come get guidance on the most daunting aspects of the dissertation process. You can also access the presentation online through our Facebook Live if you join our Facebook group (link below). https://www.facebook.com/groups/269163636879/

            October 2^nd, same time, same place, we’ll be hosting the same presentation specifically for thesis writers enrolled or enrolling in 699 which will also be available via Facebook Live if you’re not able to attend in person. October 3^rd from 4 – 5:30 pm, we’ll be discussing the submission process with ProQuest, the very last step before graduation. This presentation is available online only and participants will receive an Adobe Connect link to access the video after registering. October 8^th from 2 – 4 pm in Adams Hall 103 we’ll explain formatting tables, figures and pagination which will also be available online via Facebook Live. This can be tricky no matter how familiar you are with MS Word so make it easy on yourself by attending.

October 15^th 12 pm – 1 pm Adams Hall 103, we’ll tackle the issue of Writer’s Block and how to overcome it via a Facebook Live presentation. If you experience anxiety staring at a blank MS Word document this is a must. There isn’t a thesis or dissertation writer who doesn’t experience this stumbling block so come get advice from peers and the experienced writers in the office on how to work through it and come out better on the other side. October 17^th we’ll offer another Adobe Connect online only presentation discussing a Project-Management Approach to completing a thesis or dissertation to ensure you’re managing your time and resources well. Lastly, on Oct. 19^th at the NIU Naperville campus room 164, from 9 am – 2pm we’ll be giving a seminar for those of you writing a dissertation in Education. This presentation will only be available in person. There will be plenty of time for one-on-one inquiries as well.

To register for any of these events visit

https://www.niu.edu/grad/professional-development/workshops.shtml

https://www.niu.edu/grad/thesis/workshops-support.shtml  

A New GA Has Arrived!

Me having dinner before class.

Hello! My name is Augie Morado, and I am currently entering my fourth year of the PhD program in English. I take my field exams this month – next week to be precise – in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, and I look forward to assembling a committee and beginning my dissertation proposal.

I spent the first three years of the doctoral program, as well as the two years I did my MA, teaching in the First Year Composition program here at NIU. However, I found myself drawn to the Thesis Office largely due to my interest in support roles on campus. In addition to teaching writing here at NIU, I have also spent the last three years tutoring at Aurora University, working with students from the freshman to graduate levels. As a teacher and tutor moving to the Thesis Office, I feel that I bring a lot from my previous duties, and I hope to learn more about how this support role interacts with dissertating students, their committees, and other related staff.

My master’s thesis was a rhetorical analysis of greentext stories, short bulletpoint anecdotes shared anonymously on 4chan, and I would like to expand upon that in my dissertation. At the end of smy thesis, I wondered how the then-growing spread of greentext to more mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter would change the genre; I’m not sure the genre itself has changed, but the discourse communities that revolve around greentext have certainly become more visible by creating pages and groups on the topic, so I anticipate taking the dissertation in that direction.

Bella lounging after a long walk.

When I have downtime, I enjoy unwinding with a good video game, writing fiction, playing guitar (and on rare occasions playing in front of people!), walking my dog, Bella, and playing baseball in a men’s league in Elgin, where I also help fix up the field. Follow me on Facebook and Twitter; I have hot takes that’ll make you quake!

Publishing Your PhD: From Chapter to Journal Article

So much work goes into writing a thesis or dissertation, but if we’re completely honest with ourselves, not even our committees read the entire document all the way through. Once a thesis or dissertation has been defended, it’s submitted and published online via ProQuest, but it’s not likely readers will stumble upon it there either. While you can’t publish every chapter of your dissertation and have it accepted by the university, policy does allow you to publish a few chapters and this is a wonderful way to ensure greater readership. It’s also a way to show future employers your research is relevant. There is a lot of pressure for graduate students to publish and a thesis or dissertation can produce two or three articles before you graduate. It’s likely the only time in your academic career that you’ll be able to send off an article to a publisher that’s already been reviewed by three professors. While your committee will certainly recognize the amazing work you’ve done, having the contribution you’ve made recognized by other peers will make the intensive effort of writing a thesis or dissertation that much more gratifying and worthwhile.

To begin, identify a target journal that’s appropriate. Your committee can definitely help you with this and may be more familiar with which journals are out there. Be sure to find out what you can about different journals’ purposes, rates of acceptance, reviewing processes, and previously published content. You’ll need to shorten your chapter before sending it off for consideration, giving you the opportunity to make your research even more clear and concise. It will also be necessary to repurpose parts of your thesis or dissertation. For instance, you may have to reformat your introduction into an abstract for publication. Combine multiple research questions included in the longer thesis or dissertation into one coherent focused question. Be sure also to situate your research in the literature and discuss how future study can expand upon your findings. Limit your citations to the most up to date and relevant. Remember as your tailoring your chapter for an academic journal that a journal has different requirements and a different audience than a university. Review your findings for value and impact when condensing to be sure to give yourself the best chance of being published. Have your committee comment on the article once you’re done condensing before sending. Whatever you do cut may find its way into another article, so don’t get too upset about cutting up the hard work you’ve completed.

Reviewing chapters for consideration before sending them off to prospective journals is also a fabulous way to prepare for your defense. Your committee will be encouraging you to publish but it’s important to remember that you are driving the publication of your thesis or dissertation so plan to include publishing as an important step in the process.      

Creating a Digital Dossier

by Robyn Byrd

Applying to academic positions, whether temporary, post-doc, or tenure-track (might as well try for all of them right?), is an arduous process. Advisors tell us we have to be ready for it -- be done with your thesis before you're really done with school, because the job search is a full-time job itself. And if the time consuming reformatting, re-twisting and polishing up weren't enough, you have to keep track of a massive amount of information, documents, and letters of recommendation requiring a lot of lead time.

So what's a bedraggled thesis writer to do? Digital dossiers to the rescue! No, I don't mean the digital footprint of information and actions you've left on the internet during your lifetime...um, although that's something you want to be cleaning up right about now! I mean services that compile all of your academic application materials, organize and categorize them, and even deliver them to your universities of choice.

It's an amazing idea, and many online companies offer such services. Unfortunately, for those of us bound for academic jobs and alt-ac jobs requiring higher degrees, Interfolio seems to be the only service that specializes in handling our particular, er, problems. Perhaps this monopoly won't persist into the coming decades, but for now it may actually make it simple to store things online in one institution-recognized place. Some schools even require your uploads and info to come from Interfolio.

That being said, you may still have to directly upload some things to some institutions' application systems. Nevertheless, according to many of my recently hired faculty friends, having Interfolio was still worth it. The peace of mind and organization it brings to the application process is priceless. And the entry level package on the site is absolutely free.

So I took my colleagues' advice and started building my dossier on Interfolio. I still have to populate it with documents, but so far it seems pretty easy to use. I especially like that you can store letters of recommenation there, and see when they come in. They also offer job search tools, and they partner with Inside Higher Ed as well as organizations like MLA and APA, with links to those job lists. Interfolio may be a monopoly, but at least they're good at what they do.

Let us know if you use another service that is accepted by major institutions, or one that has really helped your job search! For now, I'm going to go get lost in the rabbit hole of the job search boards...

Blogging your way to a Dissertation Defense

Blogging your dissertation project is a wonderful opportunity to keep writing but informally and without the strictures of structure and academic conventions. Dissertation writing is the most isolating stage of the PhD journey and blogging allows you to connect with a large online academic community, far enough removed from your own department, that undoubtedly shares the same experiences and struggles and can provide advice, encouragement, and critical feedback. A blog not only serves as a new, more creative format, to present your research to a wide audience, but also as a mental health resource to work out personal and professional frustrations in a productive way. Be certain not to share too much of your research, however, to avoid the risk of having your ideas stolen, or diminishing your chances of a peer reviewed publication of your own. 

An important part of the academic job market in the current digital age means maintaining a professional online presence and blogging your dissertation project ensures you begin building that presence as a graduate student before entering the job market. No matter what stage of the dissertation process you’re at, brainstorming your topic or preparing for your defense, blogging can help you organize your thoughts, take notes, and document each important step. A blog can make it much easier to generate and refine ideas. Working through ideas in a blog means you don’t have to be certain about your conclusions yet. You can present ideas to colleagues without the same pressure you’ll receive from your chair. 

Another amazing benefit is the opportunity for reflection blogging allows. Accessing your writing and research processes and daily progress is important to managing your project and blogs are a fantastic way to accomplish these objectives. It’s part of the dissertation project you’ll look forward to at the end of each writing/research day to destress. Thinking out loud this way can help keep you motivated and productive and you will have access to a built-in archive to track the evolution of your ideas and your entire dissertation project. Presenting your research to the online academic community at large also ensures you’re connecting your project to the most recent, relevant scholarship. Thinking of research blogs as seminars and conferences we don’t always have the funds and time to attend. For your research ideas to conform to the format of a blog, you’ll be forced to write concisely and efficiently which is useful when constructing an abstract argument which is both complex and multi-faceted. Any level of interest can be very encouraging. Share the link on other formats, especially Twitter so that others can participate in your journey and contribute.

                

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.

Impacting Change: Congratulations to the May ‘19 Graduates

As we celebrate graduation and the end of another school year, we in the Thesis office would like to highlight some of the diverse research being conducted by this spring’s recent graduates. NIU graduate students’ research translates into real world, tangible benefits and advances in their respective fields. Congratulations to all the May ‘19 graduates! A couple of students in the Psychology department dedicated their graduate careers to fighting post traumatic stress disorder in different culturally and socially relevant  contexts - in Syrian refugees, drawing attention to the serious mental health needs of refugees, and memory reconsolidation treatment in the general population.

Another in the Education department focused on responding to the social and emotional needs of refugee students in the classroom. Similarly, a student in the sociology department questioned the use of excessive force by law enforcement in Illinois. Others have worked toward helping to solve the climate change affecting the human and animal populations through quasi linear convective systems, hazardous waste site cleanup, and aquifer nitrate contamination. Still others are attending to other important social issues such as the growing prevalence of sexual assault in the United States and changing the underlying attitudes that perpetuate it by focusing on the power dynamics of consent, drug and alcohol consumption, and victim blaming.

Others are tackling issues relevant to universities by examining food insecurity in minority student populations. Several in the Education department dedicated their study to improving the state of higher education as well as student - teacher relations and the social and emotional development of students through the development of new pedagogy such as literacy coaching and other methods. In every area, NIU graduate students are succeeding in producing relevant research that effects real change, while addressing the most important social issues facing us today and working together toward bettering the world in which we live.