10/20/08

Clarify, clarify, clarify!

I went to a dissertation defense today. The title was "Evaluation and Development of a University English Reading Program in Korea". It was a great learning experience. I think the panel consisted of five professors. They each had a stack of paper (the dissertation) that was almost 3 inches thick! That's crazy!

The student did a brief presentation about her study. Then the panel discussed the dissertation chapter by chapter. The following are some of the notes that I took during the whole thing.

-Why is your study important out side of ***** University?
-Why is this important?
-Terms: Confusing, need to clarify.
-Include graphic organizer in chapter 1 to help the reader understand.
-Include examples of program development so it illustrates and show how it applies
-Need time line in order to help reader understand if the study involves the same students and when it occurred
-Need to explain how data was analyzed. The steps.
-Don't use the passive voice
-Explain why you chose to focus on an aspect. Why the priority?
-Include reference names in the paragraph for it to be a strong back up instead of adding it in parenthesis a the end of paragraph
-Sometimes the word "paper" can be replaced with the word "chapter"
-Lesson plans, activities, materials should be boxed off, italicized, or in a different font to clarify it is different from the text
-Clarify how everything is related to each section, and transition between chapters
-In the last chapter, start by summarizing, and then including the limitations of the study in the last paragraph.