I know I covered the topic I'm writing about in my first dissertation post, but I failed to mention how nerve-wracking that whole process was to me. I've seen dissertations and their topics seemed like they were written in a foreign language, all technical jargon and professional wordage. That has never been me. Because I went back to school at 39, and my vocabulary was pretty much set, acquiring the new psychological vocabulary has been almost impossible for me. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand what (most) of the words tossed about mean, but I have never understood why we have to use those big words when more common words were just as good. A practicum supervisor told me it was to separate ourselves from "the masses", to show that we had that extra schooling that everyone else lacked. Okay, I get that, we want to sound snooty and condescending to our clients, who are coming to us when they already feel like shit. Wait, why the fuck would we want to make people who are at their lowest feel worse about themselves? If I went to a therapist who used big 25 cent words when a 5 cent word is just as applicable, because they wanted to sound professional and "above me", I sure as hell wouldn't go back to them again.
Which takes us back to the topic. First rule, must be understandable by everyone. Maybe this isn't the proper dissertation format, but as long as I follow the rules of the dissertation and use the correct terminology within the research results portion of the paper, why can't the rest of it, the lit review and case studies, be in less technical language? This language rule effectively ruled out the more technical topics, because again, if I don't understand what I'm writing about, who else will? (besides the diehard psych professionals)
The second rule was that it had to be about something I cared about. I got that rule from a book on how to write a dissertation. If you are passionate about a topic, you're more likely to stay with it. If you're writing about something just to get a paper out of it, the chances are damn good that at the first sign of problems or boredom, you'll say "fuck this" and quit. From the previous topics I had considered, I had started to do research, locating several articles for the lit review. As I eventually ruled out all those topics, that meant that many hours of research was wasted. Why would I want to waste days/weeks/months starting a paper and quitting because I was bored?
The third rule was that I have to do something every single day related to the dissertation, be it researching articles, looking for books, planning my attack, whatever. Some days it's just talking to other people about, sort of feeling my way around it, getting ideas of where I'm going with it and what questions I want to answer. Since I found my topic, I've definitely been thinking about it a lot, with new ideas coming almost every day.
Those are my main rules. I'm sure once I get more into the process, I'll add more, as I like routine and order. Two of the books I ordered from Amazon arrived today, and I've already flipped through them. This dissertation journey is not only going to be a scholastic one, but a personal one. And quite honestly, I think that should be the real driving force behind a dissertation, not to just learn more about the topic, but also about yourself. What do you guys think? (anyone who might be reading these. and if so, thank you!)
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