This morning’s Dissertation House mini-lecture focuses on Overcoming Writer’s Block. This morning, Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale, Dissertation Coach, is discussing tips for moving past mere thoughts and blockages. The theme for the morning is to “start writing!” The founders of the PROMISE Dissertation House in Maryland have worked with many students over the years. It is important to note that thousands of lines of code, tons of great experiments, and hundreds of great ideas don’t mean anything to the dissertation completion process if you’re not writing. Remember that you will not graduate unless you complete the written document. Conference presentations, e.g. power point slides, are not enough! One alum told us that he used to transfer everything from his presentation power point slides to a word document. Other people go to a particular place to write where they know that they will be able to get right into their document without distractions. Find the process that works for you, but stop the excuses and just write.

This morning’s Dissertation House mini-lecture focuses on Overcoming Writer’s Block. This morning, Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale, Dissertation Coach, is discussing tips for moving past mere thoughts and blockages. The theme for the morning is to “start writing!” The founders of the PROMISE Dissertation House in Maryland have worked with many students over the years. It is important to note that thousands of lines of code, tons of great experiments, and hundreds of great ideas don’t mean anything to the dissertation completion process if you’re not writing. Remember that you will not graduate unless you complete the written document. Conference presentations, e.g. power point slides, are not enough! One alum told us that he used to transfer everything from his presentation power point slides to a word document. Other people go to a particular place to write where they know that they will be able to get right into their document without distractions. Find the process that works for you, but stop the excuses and just write.

The PROMISE Dissertation House is committed to helping students to finish their dissertations.  Therefore, we invite all students who have participated in a past Dissertation House or one of the “How to Complete Your Thesis or Dissertation” to participate in the Summer Dissertation House weekend rooms. You may come to work on proposals, dissertations, grant applications, teaching portfolios, or any writing project that will move you closer to graduation.

Time and Location: 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM, nearly every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the summer; Math/Psychology Building, Room 103, UMBC Campus.

Parking: Parking on UMBC’s campus requires a permit Monday 7:00 AM through Friday 3:30 PM. Parking in open spaces and lots without gates will be free on weekends, starting on Fridays at 3:30 PM, and ending Mondays at 7:00 AM. Visitor parking is available in metered lots. Meters are enforced year round Monday-Friday from 7:30 am – 9:00 pm. Meter fees are $.25 for each 15 minutes, quarters only, maximum time of 5 hours.

JUNE 

June 1, 2, 3;  June 8, 9, 10;  June 15, 16, 17;  June 22, 23, 24;  June 29, 30, & July 1

JULY

Jul 20, 21, 22; July 27, 28, 29

AUGUST

August 3, 4, 5; August 10, 11, 12, August 24, 25, 26

Friday August 17 – Dissertation House at the PROMISE Summer Success Institute with Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale (Application Required)

Weekend requirement: Post your goals  to the blog daily. The “Winter Challenge 2012″ blog will be used until June 30. The “Summer Challenge 2012″ blog will begin on July 1. 

Students from all campuses (UMBC, UMB, UMCP, UMES, Morgan, GW, CMU, UPitt, etc.) who have participated in a DH activity or workshop in the past are invited to utilize this room for the summer. We will have short motivational sessions with PhD alumni or coaches on select Fridays.

The PROMISE Dissertation House is committed to helping students to finish their dissertations.  Therefore, we invite all students who have participated in a past Dissertation House or one of the “How to Complete Your Thesis or Dissertation” to participate in the Summer Dissertation House weekend rooms. You may come to work on proposals, dissertations, grant applications, teaching portfolios, or any writing project that will move you closer to graduation.

Time and Location: 8:30 AM – 7:00 PM, nearly every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the summer; Math/Psychology Building, Room 103, UMBC Campus.

Parking: Parking on UMBC’s campus requires a permit Monday 7:00 AM through Friday 3:30 PM. Parking in open spaces and lots without gates will be free on weekends, starting on Fridays at 3:30 PM, and ending Mondays at 7:00 AM. Visitor parking is available in metered lots. Meters are enforced year round Monday-Friday from 7:30 am – 9:00 pm. Meter fees are $.25 for each 15 minutes, quarters only, maximum time of 5 hours.

JUNE 

June 1, 2, 3;  June 8, 9, 10;  June 15, 16, 17;  June 22, 23, 24;  June 29, 30, & July 1

JULY

Jul 20, 21, 22; July 27, 28, 29

AUGUST

August 3, 4, 5; August 10, 11, 12, August 24, 25, 26

Friday August 17 – Dissertation House at the PROMISE Summer Success Institute with Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale (Application Required)

Weekend requirement: Post your goals  to the blog daily. The “Winter Challenge 2012″ blog will be used until June 30. The “Summer Challenge 2012″ blog will begin on July 1. 

Students from all campuses (UMBC, UMB, UMCP, UMES, Morgan, GW, CMU, UPitt, etc.) who have participated in a DH activity or workshop in the past are invited to utilize this room for the summer. We will have short motivational sessions with PhD alumni or coaches on select Fridays.

Today’s Dissertation House mini-lecture for Wednesday, March 28, 2012 will be “Understanding your advisor and your committee”.  This session will be held from 1:00 – 2:00 PM in the Gates-Hillman 4405 Building on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh.  All graduate students are invited (e.g., Pitt, CMU, students visiting for the NSBE conference, any discipline, any level, all backgrounds, part-time or full-time.) Light refreshments will be served.

Related articles

• This dissertation process is not a campfire, it’s a 6 burner stove (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Are you in Pittsburgh? Come to our Dissertation House Seminars @CarnegieMellon 3/27 & 3/28 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)

Today’s Dissertation House mini-lecture for Wednesday, March 28, 2012 will be “Understanding your advisor and your committee”.  This session will be held from 1:00 – 2:00 PM in the Gates-Hillman 4405 Building on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh.  All graduate students are invited (e.g., Pitt, CMU, students visiting for the NSBE conference, any discipline, any level, all backgrounds, part-time or full-time.) Light refreshments will be served.

Related articles

• This dissertation process is not a campfire, it’s a 6 burner stove (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Are you in Pittsburgh? Come to our Dissertation House Seminars @CarnegieMellon 3/27 & 3/28 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)

This afternoon at Carnegie Mellon University, Dissertation Coach Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale discussed the “10 Mistakes the Graduate Students Should Avoid” at the PROMISE AGEP/QoLT Center’s Dissertation House workshop. She discussed this post’s title (attributed to science.org), as she told students that they need to learn how to multitask.  Too often, students work on one thing and get stuck on that one thing (e.g. paragraph for a paper, method for an experiment, piece of code) and they are unable to work on anything else until they are satisfied with the outcome.  It is important to be focused, but there are often many things to do … or rather many things that must be done simultaneously.  Advanced graduate students have to write, look for employment, run experiments, complete literature reviews, satisfy grant agencies that fund the advisor’s research, and several also teach.  It is imperative to learn how to work on things in chunks.  Keep those fires burning!

Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, March 28, 2012 for “Understanding your advisor and your committee” from 1:00 – 2:00 PM in Gates-Hillman 4405 on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh.  All graduate students are invited (e.g., Pitt, CMU, students visiting for the NSBE conference, any discipline, any level, all backgrounds, part-time or full-time.) Light refreshments will be served.

Congratulations to the students who are participating in the Dissertation House and the associated activities at Carnegie Mellon.

Related articles

• Are you in Pittsburgh? Come to our Dissertation House Seminars @CarnegieMellon 3/27 & 3/28 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)

The Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center at Carnegie Mellon & the University of Pittsburgh, and PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) are sponsored by the National Science Foundation.   Follow QoLT and PROMISE on Twitter: @QoLTCenter, @PROMISE_AGEP.

This afternoon at Carnegie Mellon University, Dissertation Coach Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale discussed the “10 Mistakes the Graduate Students Should Avoid” at the PROMISE AGEP/QoLT Center’s Dissertation House workshop. She discussed this post’s title (attributed to science.org), as she told students that they need to learn how to multitask.  Too often, students work on one thing and get stuck on that one thing (e.g. paragraph for a paper, method for an experiment, piece of code) and they are unable to work on anything else until they are satisfied with the outcome.  It is important to be focused, but there are often many things to do … or rather many things that must be done simultaneously.  Advanced graduate students have to write, look for employment, run experiments, complete literature reviews, satisfy grant agencies that fund the advisor’s research, and several also teach.  It is imperative to learn how to work on things in chunks.  Keep those fires burning!

Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, March 28, 2012 for “Understanding your advisor and your committee” from 1:00 – 2:00 PM in Gates-Hillman 4405 on Carnegie Mellon’s campus in Pittsburgh.  All graduate students are invited (e.g., Pitt, CMU, students visiting for the NSBE conference, any discipline, any level, all backgrounds, part-time or full-time.) Light refreshments will be served.

Congratulations to the students who are participating in the Dissertation House and the associated activities at Carnegie Mellon.

Related articles

• Are you in Pittsburgh? Come to our Dissertation House Seminars @CarnegieMellon 3/27 & 3/28 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)
• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)

The Quality of Life Technology (QoLT) Center at Carnegie Mellon & the University of Pittsburgh, and PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) are sponsored by the National Science Foundation.   Follow QoLT and PROMISE on Twitter: @QoLTCenter, @PROMISE_AGEP.

You may think that you’re not ready to make preparations for your proposal or dissertation, but at PROMISE, we believe that it is never too early to start thinking about how to communicate your research.  This week, regardless of your year in graduate school, 1st to final, come and join us! We are hosting a Dissertation House in Pittsburgh on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.  In addition to hosting the students who applied in advance to be in-residence for the multi-day sessions of the full-scale Dissertation House, we invite graduate students in Pittsburgh to our “open sessions.”  All graduate students (all disciplines, all backgrounds, all levels) at CMU, the University of Pittsburgh, local campuses, along with visiting graduate students who are coming to town for the national NSBE conference or the NSBE Graduate School Conference (GSC) are invited to attend our  open (free) workshops and consultation hours.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

• Workshop 1:  10 Common Mistakes That Graduate Students Should Avoid
• Time:  1:00 – 2:00 PM.  Location:  Gates-Hillman Center (GHC), Room 4405
  • Office hours/consultation will follow: 2:00 – 3:00 PM, Gates-Hillman Room 7501. Bring your drafts. Ask any questions.
  • RSVP as a comment to this post, or send email to promisestaff@gmail.com with the subject “CMU DH.”

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

• Workshop 2:  Understanding Your Advisor and Committee
• Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM. Location: Gates-Hillman Center (GHC), Room 4405
• Office hours/consultation will follow: 2:00 – 4:00 PM, Gates-Hillman Room 7501. RSVP as a comment to this post, or send email to promisestaff@gmail.com with the subject “CMU DH.”

Please let us know that you are coming by replying to this post or sending email to promisestaff@gmail.com.

Head Coach: Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale, Facilitator: Dr. Renetta G. Tull

——————————–

The Dissertation House is a program of PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP).  The Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT)  (an NSF collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh) has partnered with PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP to sponsor Dissertation House activities in Pittsburgh. PROMISE is a National Science Foundation alliance between UMBC: An Honors University in Maryland (lead institution), the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Related articles

• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)

You may think that you’re not ready to make preparations for your proposal or dissertation, but at PROMISE, we believe that it is never too early to start thinking about how to communicate your research.  This week, regardless of your year in graduate school, 1st to final, come and join us! We are hosting a Dissertation House in Pittsburgh on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.  In addition to hosting the students who applied in advance to be in-residence for the multi-day sessions of the full-scale Dissertation House, we invite graduate students in Pittsburgh to our “open sessions.”  All graduate students (all disciplines, all backgrounds, all levels) at CMU, the University of Pittsburgh, local campuses, along with visiting graduate students who are coming to town for the national NSBE conference or the NSBE Graduate School Conference (GSC) are invited to attend our  open (free) workshops and consultation hours.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

• Workshop 1:  10 Common Mistakes That Graduate Students Should Avoid
• Time:  1:00 – 2:00 PM.  Location:  Gates-Hillman Center (GHC), Room 4405
  • Office hours/consultation will follow: 2:00 – 3:00 PM, Gates-Hillman Room 7501. Bring your drafts. Ask any questions.
  • RSVP as a comment to this post, or send email to promisestaff@gmail.com with the subject “CMU DH.”

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

• Workshop 2:  Understanding Your Advisor and Committee
• Time: 1:00 – 2:00 PM. Location: Gates-Hillman Center (GHC), Room 4405
• Office hours/consultation will follow: 2:00 – 4:00 PM, Gates-Hillman Room 7501. RSVP as a comment to this post, or send email to promisestaff@gmail.com with the subject “CMU DH.”

Please let us know that you are coming by replying to this post or sending email to promisestaff@gmail.com.

Head Coach: Dr. Wendy Carter-Veale, Facilitator: Dr. Renetta G. Tull

——————————–

The Dissertation House is a program of PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP).  The Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT)  (an NSF collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh) has partnered with PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP to sponsor Dissertation House activities in Pittsburgh. PROMISE is a National Science Foundation alliance between UMBC: An Honors University in Maryland (lead institution), the University of Maryland College Park, and the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Related articles

• Next full-scale Dissertation House at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, March 26-28, 2012 (dissertationhouse.wordpress.com)