Tricks and Costs - Part 2

Merging these for efficiency's sake -

Tricks:

Block the clocks, especially the one staring at you from the corner of your laptop screen. If you don't know what time it is, you don't know how much you've used/wasted/got left. If you need some kind of reminder (appointment, work, etc.) set an alarm.

NO TV, just don’t start. The half hour turns into an hour and then 2. Turn on the stereo instead, load in the CDs (distracting enough), and sit at your desk. Use internet radio. Use your iPod. Whatever, just not TV (except in the rare case of the Grey's Anatomy season finale).

Use Ebsco or other databases to get your references imported straight into your bibliographic manager (like Refworks) – work backwards if necessary, rather than enter it yourself. So I found a reference in a journal article, didn't want to type it in myself, so searched it on Ebsco and then imported it into my Write-n-Cite list - handy!

Also handy: comfy pajamas, an RRU hoodie, and some kind of reasonable chair/desk combination. And even in mid-May, some wool socks aren't a bad plan.

Costs:

Energy costs on the rise as the computer is on almost all the time, and the lights on for at least 6 hours a day (9pm-3am).

I've found some fresh flowers are a nice addition to the apartment and then I can pretend I'm actually outside in the environment. Also, they don't need to be expensive if you "purloin or pilfer posies from other people" as a friend says (for instance, in my laneway there are some bluebell-type things, and some overhanging lilacs).

At what cost sanity? Stock up on whatever you need food, drink, drugs, books, music, time to get through this particular period of your life. And good luck with it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

David Orr, on a world without environmental education: “The result is ecological yahoos without a clue why the color of the water in their rivers is related to their food supply, or why storms are becoming more severe as the planet warms…If they come to reflect on the discrepancy between the splendor of their private lives in a hotter, more toxic and violent world, as ecological illiterates they will have roughly the same success as one trying to balance a checkbook without knowing arithmetic.” (1992, p. 86) <-- proper APA style!

Rant – one week to go

Disclaimer: I’m not actually as angry or frustrated as the following words may come across. I’ve just been storing them up for a while.

I friggin hate APA style and that useless and expensive and did I mention, useless publication manual but am determined to have the cleanest APA’d manuscript EVER. Honestly the irony of a publication-style manual that has no effective index, page numbers that don’t match up, and all references are completely non-intuitive – WTF? Refworks is a godsend in terms of the basic citing and reference list but try to find out how to, for instance, quote the title of an article in your text – I dare you to find out where that is in the 5th edition. Not to mention it’s constantly outdated and has no idea on how to deal with electronic references (not helpful for an online learning masters) or anything non-American (like Canadian government documents). There is a niche market out there for an actual human being who can throroughly and accurately APA-check a manuscript, for sure.

I did realize a couple of things as I researched this weekend – in the early 1990s I saw a movie, that I have now determined through the power of google, wikipedia, and IMDB to be Beautiful Dreamers, that was about Walt Whitman. I remember enjoying the movie, learning something, but had forgotten at all about it until a Whitman quote came up in one of my journal articles. He had some profound environmental things to say through his writing and poetry – Bartleby’s quotations was also helpful.

I also used the power of google to see what I could find out about one of my earliest environmental education influences – the EE coordinator for our school district when I was in primary school. Well what do you know, she exists on the internet (don’t we all) and after some sleuthing on my part (suitable as Sunday was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s birthday, also according to google) she has responded to my email! I had finally realized after many months of reflection since starting this Masters that a lot of my early influences were attributed to her and a few other teachers, and I wanted to thank her. My research into significant life experiences (SLE) also reminded me of the time I spent outdoors as a kid, messing about in forests, creeks, on beaches, islands and in parks and yards. It was good times, and here I am, trying to get other kids equally involved in their local nature.

Well I’ve reached the point of abandonment of any planned schedule for this thesis – just on a last minute tear now…crazy late hours balanced by sleeping in to get the requisite 6 hours required for functionality; daylight dallying then nighttime production. I almost finished the literature review this weekend – just need to do a bit more on government sources. Then “just” the huge research analysis, discussion and conclusions – HA, here I go. It’s never going to be done by the end of May, but might be reasonable for mid-June as I must take the first week off for a work training course. There must be a lesson here somewhere. Onwards again…another hour left in my evening.

Thesis Tricks of the Trade - Part 1

Partly because as a story of a journey, it's good to have the "Rough Guide" to thesis writing. Partly because in the "journey fair" at RRU in 2005, there were a lot of tips, tricks and pitfalls described, but not collected in one useful place for those of us about to embark on our journey. So this is my gift of lessons learned (some the hard way) to future MEEC students. And some credit should go to my current favourite blogger, www.tradetricks.org!

Believe them when they say get everything into Refworks. Even if you may never use it, you may actually use it, and if it’s in there it’s WAY easier than realizing a reference isn’t, then going to find it and enter it in later when you need time for everything else. The Ebsco “Direct-Export-to-Refworks” tool has been a lifesaver, as has the “My Folder” tool in Ebsco.

Remember back when Rick mentioned his method for keeping track of all the articles, books, quotes, etc.? Well if you don’t, I think he said to write a word document on each of them and pull out not only the bibliographic information but then any quotes, including page number, you might ever use. This is particularly relevant and helpful when you are using library books that may be recalled or due at any time- so do an article summary ASAP then it doesn’t matter if you still have the hard copy. You’ll be glad you did. When it comes to actually writing your thesis, print out all the article summaries you’ve done but also because you have them electronically, it’s easy to copy and drop them into your text. Make sure you title the documents usefully, like “Kool 2005 – article summaries” so they trigger your mind as to what they might be about! I would read printed articles on the bus, highlighting them, then type in the “gist” and the quotes when I got home.

I think one of my challenges was not keeping good track of the articles I had copies of, which ones I had summaries of, and which ones I maybe hadn’t read – let alone which ones were and were not in Refworks by the critical time (that would be now).

At the end of an online course, collect all the articles you used and cull out the ones you might be able to use for your thesis. Keep them somewhere separate from all the notes for easy reference. I'm using at least 3 articles from over the past 2 years I might not have found otherwise - the profs know what they're doing when they select those readings!

If you’re not at all sure what you’re doing when it comes right down to the research, get a bunch of methodology books from a university library and read up on your chosen methodology. It’s a hard route to take, teaching it to yourself, but you’ll be less frustrated if you have all the authoritative texts on hand [again, article-type summaries can be useful]. The Cohen et al (2000) text has lots of the right references sprinkled liberally throughout their chapters; those authors are a good place to start.

Oh – have a USB memory stick or TWO, and keep burning off your work onto CDs every now and then. You DON’T WANT to lose anything in this electronic age! Use a server if you've got one.

At your office or school, make friends with the IT/Helpdesk people. They can be saviours when it comes to software, hardware, formatting, rescuing, etc. I'm currently bribing mine with muffins to allow me advance access to the software updates I know will make editing easier (hello, Office 2003!). Of course this doesn't apply to the clever Mac owners :)

If you’re working fulltime as you attempt this adventure – try to have an understanding boss and a flexible workplace. I’ve managed to shift my hours for the next few weeks to allow me to work on my thesis at my prime time, an unfortunate 10pm-2am window. I can do other stuff at other times, but that time seems to be particularly productive. So now I sleep “in”, then get to work later, work the day until later, then come home and repeat! I also saved up some overtime and days-in-lieu to use now, although I may have to sacrifice some actual vacation time for the cause. It'll all be worth it, right?

True Costs of a Masters – Part 1

Year one

HA! Well you think it begins and ends with the tuition but the hidden costs are something they don’t warn you about when you sign up for a Royal Roads Masters. It starts with residency, where you pay rent at home and then pay rent to be at Royal Roads, as beautiful as it is, but you have to share bathrooms and aren’t allowed to cook anything that can’t be made in a countertop appliance. Thank god for dads and waffle makers. Then there’s the alcohol – oh yes, they don’t warn you about this either! But a cider or 2 every night takes the edge off the pressure during residency and makes the late night words flow better and the sleep, eventually, deeper. This is not to mention the markers, journals, glue and assorted other school supplies you will need along your journey. Ideally, don’t forget to throw in the cost of highspeed internet. And a computer somewhere along the way.

So the first year goes merrily along – make sure your medical insurance covers some massage therapy as your laptop-hunchback look isn’t pretty outside your home office/dining room/living room. Factor in a couple of short-term trips to visit classmates, if possible, so you can commiserate and celebrate, depending. Keep the alcohol budget steady through this period. A cheap long distance plan can be SO beneficial as well, for explaining the vagaries of quantitative analysis or simply detailing your work, school, and/or life situations to your classmates, family or other friends (if they’re still around). Some investment in a friendly and helpful roommate, or maid service, can also be helpful. See how this is adding up?

Year two

You think this will be the easy year – most of the tuition has already been paid off, there’s only one course left, plus the thesis, right? The final course unfortunately becomes a tragic manifestation of all the time, effort, comprehension, production frustrations you’ve had over the past year or so and thus requires not only an increase in massage therapy, alcohol, days off, longdistance support, but also a hitherto-unheard of amount of time and money dedicated to finally reclaiming your long-lost social life at an inappropriate time. So now the funding allocation is for fine dining (ie not fast food), movies, drinks out, maybe even some clothes that aren’t the pj-comfy jeans and hoodie that are standard homewear during this time (and work, when you can get away with it). As Christmas draws near and you are supposed to be using your internet connection to download academic journal articles and APA-style references (5th edition), there is a tendency to do your Christmas shopping online – who knew all the great things that are available by internet-mail service? All that time you are spending at your desk, unable to hit the malls for those family presents, you can spend surfing the internet acquiring even better items! Who knew there were tshirts for Mythbusters Guinea Pigs, parking signs for Latvians only, 1960s era Disney book-and-78-LP-sets and more all at your fingertips? [Note: all things I have purchased!] So make some financial allowances for that time too.

Final year – rest of year two

So just the thesis now. A solitary journey, so they say. That must be cheap – just me, my laptop, in my apartment, for several months. Well here’s my own version of Mythbusters – no way!! Not sure where it started, but here are a few of things requiring expenditure to date, and I’m still at least a few weeks away from completion:
-weekend car rentals for interviewing
-24 lattes or other specialty coffee drinks for my 12 participants (and myself, of course)
-index cards by the hundreds
-overdue library fines on someone else’s card
-dinner out to thank fellow grad student from another university for their generosity in acquiring me library books from their university
-purchase with the best intentions, but later disposal of, healthy food like vegetables - replace with cheaper, unhealthy substitutes whenever possible
-increased consumption of caffeinated beverages at all times of day
-a constant pattern of eating out, because it at least gets me out of these 4 walls I am otherwise bound by; also an excuse to be social because “I have to eat, right?”
-more laundry change needed than ever before, not because I’m wearing different things but as a procrastination from doing thesis work I am washing other things in my house – sheets, quilts, rugs, etc.
-fiction and thesis-related books – don’t have time to wait for second-hand to be delivered (despite excellent internet access and services like www.abebooks.com) and simply need something different to read occasionally than just qualitative research methodology Sage publications
-bottles of wine for thanking thesis advisors/sponsors (and their families)
-bottles of wine for me and any friends who venture to drop by to see what exactly is going on with this thesis
-wireless internet adapter so I can work from the coffee table or bedroom…just to shake it up a little
-new music CDs or burned downloads, the Soundtrack of a Thesis needs mixing up a little by this point

And it’s not over yet, I foresee the need for delivered food, late night coffeeshop forays, extended hotel stays (to avoid distractions), who knows what else! The only thing I haven’t caved to yet is coffee…

On the flip side, there are some Masters-related savings:

-The big tuition tax refund that finally came through
-Water – it’s “free” and makes tea too
-Little shopping being done (as wardrobe choices are limited, weather is grim, and like pregnant women changing seasons, hopefully the winter clothes can last until this is finished?)
-Energy-efficient lightbulbs and a southfacing window
-Fewer trips to work = fewer transit costs
-The joys of MSN and longdistance plans to connect with friends far away.
-Family support through provision of soup, eggs, bread and other staples.
-Blogs – a free way to communicate and track what’s going on with me!

More costs to come - I can’t wait until graduation fees!

The final countdown

Well into the final weeks and days of the time allotted to preparing a draft of this manifesto, various crises are blooming related to referencing, library book due dates, expansions of literature required, coding and theory (did we learn NOTHING in our research methods course about all this important stuff?) among others - it's a huge learning curve. It's during these times I often feel the true weight of the masters, as opposed to undergrad or high school. There's a lot of rigour involved here, and yet a lot of blind-staggering-along-unknown path or through unknown jungle to reach the final destination. I don't see the mountain analogy as clearly as the twisted dark forest - more appropriate for someday seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (and hoping it's not a train headed my way). The more I learn the more I realize I need to learn? I also realize the disadvantage to the accelerated, executive, distance masters where everything by its nature must be quick, superficial, and done without the benefit of face to face meetings and deep understandings.

A daunting task lies ahead, in the creation of up to about 100 pages of quality text about whatever it is my thesis is supposed to be about. Funny, sitting surrounded by papers, books, index cards, laptop, markers...I've actually lost sight of what it is about! Better write that large on some paper and stick it to the wall. As my friend A says, stop preparing and just get writing! I think it's time to stock up the applelime cider to take off the edge and get in the groove.

Advisors are being amusingly and typically different in their approaches at this point - very hands on by P, even from afar and after a long session in person always wants to know how it's going, should there be a conference call, etc. D - always busily brief, but with a warm concern. R - as ever enthusiastic and a willing ear, however sometimes creates new issues to deal with I might have been happily ignorant of otherwise.

Revised timeline now looks like this:
(Sunday evening deadlines)

May 1 WEEK 3 in countdown– write/edit
coding - May 4-5
write remainder of research methodology details (data collection, participants, site, data analysis, reliability and validity) and add references in to that already existing - May 5
write study conduct - May 6
finish entering into Refworks all relevant documents, print reference lists - May 5
write introduction – background (what, why, outline theoretical framework, context) - May 6-7

LEFT OVER FROM PREVIOUS WEEKS THE FOLLOWING:
write statement of research problem/ opportunity, research questions (whys), study limitations/delimitations, need or significance - May 7
literature review research - May 8

May 8 – write/edit
LEFT OVER FROM PREVIOUS WEEKS THE FOLLOWING:
results and findings, outcome – descriptive first then specific to research questions, think about tables and figures
discussion and conclusions re findings – hear the voice, summary of study, findings, interpretation of data, conclusion, implications, recommendations, need for future research

May 15 – write/edit, APA, references

May 22 – finish, finish, finish!!

Hopefully my boss will continue with her generosity and understanding about flexible working hours and dedicated writing time at weird hours; unfortunately my better concentrating time is getting later and later at night so new adaptations are constantly required. And that's just how it's going about now.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." ~ John Muir