Since the spring semester ended, I have been working on the second chapter of my dissertation, which is a background chapter on the somewhat nascent field of evolutionary cognitive archaeology. One would think that there would not be much to say about a field that has only been around for twenty years. Pshaw, I say!
Before coming in today, I had written about 10 pages of Chapter 2 (not including the outline). This morning, I wrote two more pages. Wow, when I put it into those terms, how disappointed I feel. I thought I made some pretty good progress, but two pages in the grand scheme of things just does not sound like very much. I really have no idea what is a "good pace" for most people. Are most people satisfied if they write a page an hour? A page a day? I suppose if I actually wrote for four hours every single day (unlikely) and produced two pages everyday (even more unlikely), then I would be sittin' pretty by the time next March rolls around. I could write over 400 pages at this rate.
I also have no idea how long a chapter should be. Ten pages? Fifty pages? One hundred pages? I guess I will just keep writing until I am satisfied I have made my point and see where I end up.
My current strategy has been to break down the chapter into sections and then break those down into subsections. This makes it easier to have daily and weekly goals. I am basically organizing the chapter by time periods and the major developments in the field that took place during these time periods.
For reference, here is a very general outline for the chapter I am currently working on. The section(s) I have already finished are in red, and the section I am currently working on is bolded and fleshed out so you can see the subsections. It does not really matter what the outline says or if it makes any sense to my dear blog readers. It is just something to reference each time I report in on my progress.
I. Introduction
II. Pre-World War II
III. Post-World War II
IV. 1979: Contemporary evolutionary cognitive archaeology begins
A. What is a Piagetian framework?
B. Parker and Gibson's (1979) application of the Piagetian developmental model
C. Wynn's (1979) application of the Piagetian model
D. Intelligence vs. cognition
V. 1980s: A Piagetian framework
VI. 1990s in Europe
VII. A coming of age in the US
VII. New approaches of new millennium
VIII. Introduction of neuroimaging techniques
IX. Summary
So, my goal for today was to continue working on Section IV. I was not really sure how far I would get. I finished Subsection A and nearly finished B. I think a workable goal for tomorrow would be to finish Subsections B and C. My goals for this week are to finish Section IV and finish the readings I need to do to complete Section E.
My overall goal for these two weeks was to finish Chapter 2, but based on this pace, this may be an unrealistic goal. So, my new goal for this camp is to finish Sections III-VI.
Do not be disappointed with 2 pages! (And don't worry too much about what "other people" do - this is a very individual process and we all have to figure out what works best for us. That being said, yes, most people would be pretty happy with producing 2 new pages in a morning. ;-) ) I think chapter lengths vary widely by field and sometimes even by advisors within that field - I would definitely talk to your peers and advisor about this and I would also recommend reading 1 or 2 recent dissertations from your department. It helps demystify it all a bit.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you have a great road map for moving forward with this chapter.
Two pages is great! Just imagine if you keep doing that for the rest of the summer, even with weekends off you'll end up with 100 pages! I agree with Heather - chapter lengths vary by individual and by discipline. I asked my advisor to recommend a good recent dissertation to use as a model and found it really helpful. Like your outline - detailed but flexible.
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