Deadlines and other thesis nonsense

Here's that email I was talking about in class. Jeni was super-helpful so I wanted to make sure everybody's got access to her advice.

For what it's worth, they seemed to really like my lit review. You'll see from the lit review in my thesis, but basically the tack they seemed to like was to give a summary of each article in the context of how it relates to what I was doing and each other. So in essence, I read all the stuff I was using, then divided it up into a few main thematic sections - overviews, collaboration in literature, tech collaboration, etc. Then I put each article SOMEWHERE in each of those sections, even though none of them are a perfect fit. Then, what they really dig is when you use that framework and then allow the articles to talk to each other, ie "In his article XXX, Lowry disagrees with this methodology, believing collaboration to be a form of BLA BLA..."

Also, you'll find from any google search on lit reviews - it really doesn't matter what your take is on any of the readings in this section, you just have to give a pretty objective review of the stuff - you are explaining "the state of the field" at this point. I know that's ridiculous (I was essentially making up a field in my lit review composed of like 4 other fields) - but save your agreements or disagreements with the stuff for the other parts of the thesis. I hate doing that kind of writing so you can see I did some editorializing on which articles were helpful to me. :)

Don't beat yourself up about not having enough stuff in the lit review now - I was adding to my lit review up til the week before I turned it in - just get those main sections sketched out, then add to them as needed.

I had an extra copy of my thesis printed up and it should be on file in the DMS office somewhere - if you can't find it, let me know and you can look over mine too.


STUFF TO DO NOW
- Connect with Julie at Grad Studies office, her contact info is below, she's awesome, and the only one I knew who had any idea what this process was about. She's a generalist (no idea about DMS rules per se) but knows the official DU rules and deadlines, which is great.
- Secure your committee members - you need three from DMS plus one from outside the department - mine was an English prof who Bill knew. The outside chair is mostly to make sure the DMS people aren't being unfair to you, but because it takes some time, they like to know about it beforehand.
- Ask about IRB board stuff if you're using human subjects for anything - I was able to get around this, but worth getting signed off on

STUFF THAT WILL TAKE A BIT AT THE END - LEAVE A FEW WEEKS BEFORE THE GRAD STUDIES DEADLINE TO GET THROUGH ALL THIS BS
- Grad studies will look over your thesis and tell you what needs to be changed before you print it, making sure you're following all their official rules - give them a week or two to do this if you can
- Abstract
- Approval Page (needs to be signed by thesis advisor before turned in for binding)
- Table of Contents (I'm slow so this took a bit to do at the end)
- Following the crazy formatting from the grad studies office (check their website, it's different from the DMS reqs)
- Appendices
- Printing at the library to the specs of binding (grad studies has this again)(they are SLOW there and need some hand holding - ask me about this when the time comes)
- Appendices

Julie Peterson
Student Services Coordinator
Office of Graduate Studies
University Hall, room 216
2197 S. University Blvd.
Denver , CO 80208
303.871.2305
Email: gststu@du.edu
www.du.edu/grad