Dissertation Challenges
Right now I’m in the deep, dark part of the PhD – the dissertation writing. Having cleared away everything else, but the blank papers in front of me, I have no excuses but to write.
Well I have actually discovered plenty of excuses… that is the nature of writing, isn’t it?
I am moving steadily along and feel like I have a handle on where I need to go. I have done enough of the analysis work before now that this is mostly about writing, instead of doing the conceptualizing / analysis in parallel with the writing. That definitely seems to help.
I have my daily and weekly goals and that’s good.
One of my touch points is volume of words. The target is at least 1,000 words a day. I feel like I have accomplished something if, among the other pieces (e.g. editing, etc) that I have generated 1,000 words. It’s not the only measure, but it is one metric to work against (to quote Monty Python:
Sir Edwin: Ah, well, I don’t want you to get the impression it’s just a question of the number of words… um… I mean, getting them in the right order is just as important. Old Peter Hall used to say to me, “They’re all there already– now we’ve got to get them in the right order.”
But number of words is a good metric. It’s clear and measurable. And I start to create a chain of activity that I don’t want to break — every day, 1000 words. What if I miss a day? Can’t do that, I’ve had 9 1000 word days in a row. Gotta make it ten. That works well.
In a break today I started thinking about ways to keep the chain and slack off (the human mind never ceases to amaze me). “Never fear, I can count my pictures… that’s right. A pictures worth a thousand words, isn’t it? If I miss a day, I’ll count one of those…” My dissertation is full of pictures. Excellent! My brain has found a way around my own self imposed productivity standards… but maybe pictures are really worth a 1,000 words.
So I surfed and – even better – I came across this image:
It appears there was an error in translation – 10,000 words! I can take off the whole week and still make quota! Ah, I love August by the lake… but alas, no matter how I count my actions, I still have to reach “done” as defined by my supervisor and my committee in fairly short order and cannot bask in the warm shade much.
Also, it turns out that there were a couple of errors in the translation of the chinese proverb, actually. As Paul Lester explains:
In fact, the literal translation is: A Picture’s Meaning Can Express Ten Thousand Words.
He goes on to explain that:
With the correct interpretation of the proverb, words and pictures live in harmony as they are both used equally in order to understand the meaning of any work that uses them both.
This is a wonderful interpretation that works well with my dissertation. I’m sure to find a use for it somewhere as much of the work in the study relies on visual communication of findings through pictures and (visual) models.
Until then, however, I am either going to have to change my metrics (1000 words, and 1 picture) or I am going to have to up my daily quota for words, otherwise I am sure I am going to find myself slacking off, counting pictures as 10,000 words each. 
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