Sunday, April 15, 2007

The 9th Carnival of GRADual Progress

Greetings and welcome to the 9th Carnival of GRADual Progress!

I have decided to start and end on a positive note this time round, so with no further ado, let's move into a round-up of posts that are so helpful you can count reading them as "working" rather than "procrastination".

Tips and tricks and general helpfulness:

Psycgirl asks for tips on how to study for comps, and her readers come up with some very helpful suggestions. And when the studying isn't going so well, she survives by fantasising about life after grad school.

Now that Working Writing Wailing Mama is clear on the big issues, she discovers a new mantra that I suggest we all adopt.

Mosilager discusses the pros and cons of Windows vs Linux, especially when it comes to thesis writing.

Jim Gibbon links to a useful article on dissertating without the agony, and recommends writing before you are ready.

EA reminds us that even when you feel like you are going backwards, this is still a kind of progress. Of course, on the rare days where you wake up to find that yesterday's work is still looking good, you might as well reward yourself by going back to bed.


But a grad student carnival wouldn't be complete without some tales of angst and woe...

The dark side:

Kristen's post about a conversation with other ABDs shows that the American PhD system of coursework plus dissertation means that grad students get to experience burnout before they even start writing.

Maria's grad school applications are inducing panic.

RussianViolets is scared of her advisor, worrying that getting tenure means she has to put out or get out.

T was about to graduate, only to get a letter from the university telling her she needs four more credits.

Clevergirl wants a magic style button to solve all her formatting woes.

Video has some conversations that make her wonder why we do this to ourselves.

Breena Ronan is experiencing the joys of grad school politics, as well as the problems of putting together a committee for an interdisciplinary topic.

Anastasia has been experiencing the extra pressure of trying to draft her (symbolically structured) dissertation with a baby due any day. On top of this, she discovers that a lack of family-friendly jobs at her university means that her only options for funding next year would earn her less than a dollar an hour.

FemaleCSGradStudent has noticed that her university is playing games with her, and she doesn't want to join in. (With bonus hilarious conversation).


Finally, back to that positive note I promised to end on...

Congratulations to:

Flossie, whose comps are over. Be sure to read to the end of this post for her hilarious solution to workaholism.

Sammy, who got a teaching position for the coming year.

Twirly, who has turned in a draft of her proposal and is now spending her time writing letters to her lab equipment.

Marcia, who has completed a draft of her thesis.

Elle, who has reached two grad student milestones: submitting the first draft of her dissertation, and falling asleep in the library.

Mike Slackenerny, who is finished at last, leaving some people very disgruntled. (What do you mean, he's a fictional character? Aren't we all?)


Finally:

Apologies if I missed anyone in this round. A plea to all readers to remember to tag or email in any posts they come across that they would like to see in the next carnival. It's so much easier on the host to have submissions coming to them rather than having to seek them out themselves (and it means a broader range of topics and blogs get covered).

The next carnival will be hosted by Kisha at 10 Year Plan on or around May 15th.

Volunteers to host future carnivals would be greatly appreciated and should contact me at the email address in the sidebar on the right. You can take a look here to see what hosting is all about.

12 Comments:

Badaunt said...

Please make your next post less interesting. That took care of most of my Sunday afternoon.

StyleyGeek said...

I think you have to blame the people I linked to in this case :)

Mosilager said...

Slackerney is done? Unbelievable. I think my career chart is similar to his. Thanks for the link - I've updated the post now to actually talk about using opensource for scientific documents.

Anonymous said...

I am the darkside. look on my blog, ye grad students, and despair.

:)

border between sanity and insanity said...

Hallo!
Thanks for the link to my post. The PhD brings out the geeks in us, as well as the lunatics, hence the reason we do this to ourselves... Oh well, this too shall pass... I hope... :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for spreading my good news, although it's just my thesis I've completed a draft of, not the diss.

I do have more good news -- I received comments back from one reader and while she did have some suggested changes, she says it's a "defendable thesis." yeah! my fingers are crossed that they are all so kind. :)

StyleyGeek said...

Sorry Marcia, I'll fix that.

Here in Australia the words "thesis" and "dissertation" are synonymous. Someone once explained to me that "thesis" in America is usually used to mean an MA thesis, not a PhD thesis (which is, I guess, what you mean?) but I totally forgot.

wwwmama said...

Well there goes my work-time for the day. Happily, it was well spent. Thanks for blending tips and bad news with some nice cheery and funny stuff! great job.

k8 said...

Very nice! But now I am reading when I should be writing (the diss, that is). ;-)

Anonymous said...

If you had put me under anything *other* than a tale of angst and woe, I would have been seriously surprised. Thanks for the honour!

xo CG

AS said...

Thanks! for including me! I was still feeling a bit shy this round as I've just joined, but will buck up for the next one. Good grief, how'm'I gonna have the balls to graduate if I can't volunteer a post forward here??? :o)

M. said...

a very belated thanks for putting me up, and welcoming me to the group!

i am only hoping that the grad school app process will only get a wee bit more simpler, just a tiny smudge is all i ask for...

;-)