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.

Dan Ritschel, professor of history and director of the Center for History Education, was a guest on Maryland Morning during a July 11th segment on Maryland’s newly-added government assessment test for high school seniors.

The test, which will be first given in 2017, was part of a new law passed by the Maryland General Assembly this spring. Ritschel spoke of the importance of the test’s introduction, but noted also that other fields – including his own – remain somewhat neglected as the high school level.

“There used to be a Maryland performance assessment in history until 2002, and following the introduction of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation, the Maryland Department of Education scrapped the testing of history,” he said. “So what we’re left with is the testing of U.S. government at the high school level – and I think it’s a wonderful thing that it’s been returned – but I think we shouldn’t forget the fact that history hasn’t been tested at the state level since 2002.”