Graduate Student Workshop Series
Dissertation and Prospectus Writing Workshop Series
Thursday, October 11
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Arguments and Evidence: Making Your Case
Facilitator: Dr. Gary Jaeger
This workshop will explore the ways in which one’s dissertation makes an argument by destabilizing received positions in one’s field. It will encourage writers to build coherence by: (1) determining the overall argument of their dissertations, (2) seeing the ways in which chapters function as smaller arguments in the service of the overall argument, and (3) understanding the ways that the conclusions of chapters must follow from a series of claims all of which are warranted by evidence.
Participants should bring a 150-word abstract of their dissertation as well as a five- to ten-page section of their dissertation or prospectus that argues for some claim.
Thursday, October 18
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Building Coherence in Literature Reviews
Facilitator: Dr. John Bradley
In this workshop, we will turn our attention to the ubiquitous activity of reviewing the literature in one’s field. We will consider how to revise toward a literature review that coherently establishes the gap in which your dissertation intervenes, rather than losing the thread in a deluge of findings. Participants will work their way from analyzing samples and modeling organizational strategies to the opportunity to apply those techniques to their own manuscripts.
Participants should bring drafts of literature review material for revision (up to 10 pages).
Thursday, October 25
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Clarifying Ideas by Improving their Expression
Facilitator: Dr. Jennifer Holt
The process of writing your dissertation can be consuming. The more deeply you engage with your project, the greater the risks of forgetting that you write to communicate with a reading audience. You can risk writing only to yourself or, worse yet, writing in a way that postpones clarifying your ideas to yourself. In this workshop, we will review several strategies for sharpening expression within sentences and paragraphs without sacrificing any of the complexities of thought.
Participants should bring with them 5-10 pages of drafted text for revision.
Limit: 40 students per workshop. All workshops will be held in Buttrick 306.
Workshops available on a first-come, first-served basis and registration closes on October 1, 2012.
PhD students are welcome to register for a single workshop or for the whole series.
Questions? Contact Gary Jaeger, Assistant Director of the Writing Studio, at 322.2065.
Sponsors: The Vanderbilt Graduate School, the Graduate Development Network, and the Writing Studio