Thursday, April 23, 2009
A little annoyed
Given the problems some of my friends (real and bloggy) have had with their advisers, I always hesitate to complain about mine. On an average day, she is wonderful. She is precisely what I needed in terms of an adviser; she takes a back seat approach to my research and writing, but when I need her, she immediately steps up. She provides great feedback and is a wonderful editor. On top of all that, we think and work a lot alike, so the relationship has been a great one. That said, she is an associate dean, and I am the last student whom she will be a dissertation adviser for. Her job as a dean means she's often out of town or hard to pin down for meetings. Given that I'm finishing from distances and about 90% of our communication for the past 9 months has occurred through email and Facebook, this hasn't been a problem. There have been a few times, however, that she hasn't gotten back to me quickly. This tends to happen when she has a week that is jam-packed with meetings. When she does answer, she is always apologetic and helpful. I usually just go with the flow, but this week, I'm not feeling so understanding. I've sent her 4 emails in the last 10 days or so, and I havent' heard anything from her at all. The emails were fairly important too--at least as far as I'm concerned! In one I asked for direction about a conclusion--specifically whether I need to try to write one before my defense, which is in two weeks; in the other I asked about including images of Edith Wharton's home The Mount in my chapter on Wharton. This one isn't so major as we can decide later, but it would be nice to go ahead and start talking to the people at The Mount to get permission to use images of the house. I've sent each email again, and still haven't heard anything. I'm fairly certain she's in town b/c I haven't received the typical response to my emails indicating that she is out of town. So what do I do? C has advised me to let it go; I can't address either issue without her input, so he thinks I should just wait until I do hear from her. If I don't have a conclusion, it isn't my fault, according to his theory. But two of my other committee members have already asked about a conclusion. . . I think I'll give her until tomorrow and then I start pestering again.
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6 comments:
How about contact the other committee members and ask for help. I mean, isn't that what they're there for? As my project was interdisciplinary, I relied heavily on the input of the my other committee members for input.
I have considered this, but I want to give my adviser one more day. Part of me is hoping she's going to say "write it after the defense and you have everyone's feedback." If I can't get a response by tomorrow, I'm going to email my other most trusted committee member.
This might not be what you want to hear, but I'd start working on the conclusion if I were you. Especially if two committee members have already asked about it. As you know I was not in your field, so take this as perhaps misguided advice, but we couldn't defend without a conclusion. For my department, the intro and the conclusion are the two most important chapters. The conclusion is your place to sing as an academic! Whereas the intro sets up the problem and the void that your dissertation addresses, the conclusion is where you get to make your case for expanding the contours of thought in your field. In the least, outlining the conclusion will help you prepare your defense presentation. It may help you to frame your project for defense by moving your mind away from the specifics of your argument that you've been mired in for the past months to the big picture contributions of your work; from the details of your argument and evidence to theory and the relevance of your work in the field at large.
My adviser could be extremely difficult to get responses from. Perhaps a phone message might be more effective???
Good luck, M, I am so thrilled for you and all you've accomplished!
Jennie,
I woke up at 5:00 this morning and suddenly realized what I needed to say in my conclusion, so it's already begun--in my head at least! It won't be very long, under 5 pages probably, so I'll work on it this weekend and finish it up by Monday and send it out. Thanks for your suggestions--they are very helpful!
I am a relatively recent English Ph.D. and now an adviser (t-t job at a small regional university). Here's the thing: write the conclusion even if you don't hear from her. If it isn't received well (unlikely), you can always delicately point out that you didn't have the privilege of early feedback. (You'll have to be even more delicate than that, but you're in English and sentences are your strength). Also, I had images in my dissertation and was told by all three committee members that I didn't need to get copyright permission, so you shouldn't have to worry about that. (Maybe have a page with images that you can insert into the diss at the last minute -- or just go ahead and insert them?).
Finally, as an adviser I have to say that I'd feel immensely guilty for letting four emails go by without offering a response. Your questions *are* important. Plus, you're asking for relatively simple information (i.e. you're not asking how to "rethink" an entire chapter or something drastic like that). You are not pestering her, is what I'm trying to say.
Thanks for the advice, Pocha. My adviser emailed me back this morning, and she advised me to draft a simple conclusion that can be added to my last chapter. She said if the committee wants something larger, we can address that during the defense and I can write it later. As I wrote to Jennie, I had an idea for it yesterday, so I'm going to start it today and I should have it finished by tomorrow or Monday, since I don't see it being particularly long.
And she did apologize for not getting back to me.
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