Ten Tips for Passing Your Comprehensive Exams in Rhet/Comp

After thirteen years of marriage, I found myself checking into a hotel room alone. I had a suite all to myself, booked for three and a half days. I checked in Sunday morning and checked out Wednesday afternoon. I needed the late checkout.

I felt ashamed of myself; after all, I was leaving my husband and 9-year-old son so I could be alone.

I shopped for the food that I liked: hummus, sushi, water crackers, bottled spring water, white wine, cheese, coffee. I thought to myself that if I lived alone, I would live on hummus and sushi. I did not realize that by the time I left that hotel room in Kennesaw, GA, that I would not want to eat raw fish for a long, long time.

No, I was not at the hotel for an indiscretion. I was there because it was Spring Break, 2012, and the only week I had “off” in my teaching semester. It was either check in to a hotel to write those comps, or check out of the PhD program. I had opted to complete both primary and secondary comps in the same week (something that not many people choose to do), so I had double the papers (7) to produce in two 72-hour periods.

If you have ever had kids, you know that when you and your child occupy the same physical space, the ability to concentrate solely on a task – business, pleasure, grocery listing, etc. – becomes segmented. You’ll have an idea and write it down, and then your child yells from the downstairs: “Mom, I’m really hungry”. Since you have been working through the lunch hour, you realize that your boy is not kidding when he says he is going to starve. You wonder for a moment if he is over-exaggerating, but then you run downstairs. Maternal instinct 1, researcher and writer, 0.

I chose to go to the hotel (an upscale hotel for suburbia Atlanta: Kennesaw, GA Embassy Suites  with plenty of room to spread out files) because I knew what I had to do to get the job done. Thank goodness, I have a supportive husband. So often, I meet PhD students who are alone. They claim that they cannot imagine getting through the program if they had other responsibilities. I think to myself that it is just nice to have someone to come home to after a long day of teaching high school students and then taking graduate classes.

Unlike many doctoral students who were immersed in their programs, who networked with their fellow doctoral colleagues, and who had instant access to the school library, my journey was unconventional. During the four years that I took classes for my PhD, I was a slave to my work schedule. I had to take the classes that were available (night classes); therefore, at the end of the course requirements I felt like I’d gotten a great mixture of different classes but that I hadn’t become an expert in one topic. Writing seven major papers for my comprehensive exams helped me to find more of a focus. Writing those 135 pages also helped me with my writing discipline and bolstered my confidence. I knew that if I could pass comps, I could write a dissertation.

For some of you who might wonder what the difference is between Primary and Secondary comps, here is a basic crash course. Primary Comprehensive Exams: This is your “primary” area of study. Ideally, you should use whatever you produce for future research. The secondary comps can branch off into other areas, but they still need to relate to your primary focus. During my own process, I felt that all but one of the papers were equally important, but since I was writing everything and not having an oral exam, I knew that each paper had to be polished and thoroughly researched. Each of my seven papers averaged about 25 pages.

For those of you who are new to comps or to a PhD program, let me take this opportunity to explain. In order to get your PhD, you have to take classes, write papers, study, etc. That is a given. After you have finished your coursework, you have to go through what they call “comprehensive exams”. These exams vary based on department: some are oral, some are oral and written, and some are written. Either way, your goal in your comps is to demonstrate that you’ve learned a lot during your PhD and that you know how to research. I also believe that it is what distinguishes the professionals from the amateurs: your professors know that if you can finish the comps, you are likely to get through the dissertation. (Right now I am wondering how true this is….) After you finish you comps, you can then write your dissertation prospectus, which is your argument for why your particular research is necessary.

This post is already too long, so I will offer ten basic tips for passing comps. This is what worked for me: use or toss. 😉

The Comprehensive Exams:  Do the pre-work: Even if you work full time, a little research and writing each day adds up.

1. Set a schedule: Since I work all week and have to be “baseball mom” and have to grade papers at night, I make sure to spend Sat/Sun working on my research. My point here is to figure out what works for your schedule and commit to it.
2. Create a special place for you: (I had to clean out the office, redecorate, and make the space comfortable).
3. Write even when you know that it is crap: (You never know which paragraph you will end up using.) I often learn while I write. In other words, I have to discover what I really think by sifting through all the thoughts I spew out on paper. One night, I was musing about Twitter. I love Tweeting to friends, colleagues, and students. It struck me that effective tweeting took some rhetorical prowess. I decided to explore how Aristotle would have liked to tweet. That crazy whim turned into one of my papers!
4. Always make time with friends and family: This was hard for me. For so many years, I had neglected friends and family so I could get the grading and researching and homework finished. This past year, when I was busier than ever, I started going out to dinner and drinks with friends once a week – usually on Wednesdays. It felt so good to give myself permission to relax.
5. Roller rinks work! If you have kids, take them to places that have a wireless connection. I like roller rinks because I can sit at the table, keep an eye on my son, and get some work done. I swear I wrote half my outlines for my comps at the rink. In fact, this afternoon I graded an entire class set of AP Lang synthesis essays under the strobe lights. Hey – what else was I going to do? SKATE? Um, no.
6. Realize that sitting in the office and reading articles is better than doing nothing. As long as you are reading and thinking, you are on the right path. Keep your head in the game. We all know that life gets in the way, but if you let yourself mentally relax, you will find that two months has passed and you have not accomplished anything. I did this last summer. Let me say, however, that I needed a break and I took one. Just know that if you take a real mental break, your timetable is going to look a little different. We have to be flexible. This leads to rule seven…
7. Take a mental break if you are going crazy: If you feel like your brain needs a break, let it take a break! Take a weekend or a week off. When you start, you’ll feel rejuvenated. I know this is easier said than done, but it really is necessary.
8. Realize that it does not get good until about the 15th rewrite: When writing your comps or your dissertation, you are going to have to write many drafts. That is just the way it is. Don’t feel bad if half the stuff you write is not in your final paper.
9. Do not be afraid to talk to folks: For so long, I kept my worries about school to myself. Last year, I finally started asking for feedback from colleagues, and it was GREAT! Do not be afraid to put yourself out there, because it is worth it in the end. Just like in the classroom, we need peer editing. We need feedback. So talk about your topic(s). This is also why I started this blog! I need feedback, and every little bit that I get is worth so much.  
10. If you have a gut instinct that something is wrong with the paper, it probably is: Do not ignore your gut. At the hotel, I was writing and writing…it was Tuesday night and I’d been at it non-stop (except to sleep sporadically) since Sunday morning. That Tuesday evening I realized that one of my papers had a huge hole in it that required me to read several more articles, synthesize what I’d read, and write an additional couple pages. I literally groaned when I realized this, but there was no one to listen. I had to handle it, so I did. The point here is that I listened to my gut even though I was all done.

The point here is that you CAN do it! This is it for tonight. I dream of the day I can write this about my finished dissertation…

I would love comments. Have you completed your comps? Are you mentoring someone who is working on a dissertation? I would appreciate any thoughts from you – – it is what keeps me going.

She said to keep going, so I’m going to keep going! :-)

I got an email back from my dissertation professor today. She said I was off to a good start. She also said to not worry so much about which archives or which methods, that I should just say what kind of sources I want to find.

This is good and bad. It is good because I didn’t get BAD news. It is bad because we all know a “good start” means “nowhere near ready to submit”. This means that I have a heckuva lot of work to do. I have about 23 pages. I think I need to go to every section and add another full paragraph of detail with a new source and analysis.

Then edit the whole thing. And of course, after about the 10th edit I’m going to realize that the entire piece is organized wrong so I’ll have to redo that. My husband is such a great editor but he’s scared to edit my work…he doesn’t want me to get mad at him.

But at LEAST My professor didn’t say “START OVER”

And, I exercised, facilitated an all-day conference, watched my son’s baseball game, went grocery shopping, and ate broccoli and a few pieces of turkey for dinner. So it’s been a pretty good day.

How do you know if your research is valid? This is a MUST READ!

The following sources are fantastic for anyone writing a dissertation:

Morse, J.M. & Richards, L. (2002). Readme first for a user’s guide to qualitative  methods.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Here is a snippet:

“So what will it be like? Qualitative researchers differ greatly from quantitative researchers in the way they approach research. Usually, qualitative researchers start with areas of interest or general, rather than specific, research questions.”  (This makes me feel a little better, because now I am still at those general questions…)

“They may not know very much about the topic at the start, and even if they do, they seek to learn more through the data” (GREAT! This is me.)

“to do this, they must be flexible. You need to start with a broad understanding about the general area, be receptive to new ideas and willing to relinquish old – but unsupported – favorite ideas, and obtain a notion of the boundaries from the phenomenon studied. In all qualitative methods, one goal is to create categories and linkages systematically from the data, confirm these linkages, and create theory. You will find it is easier to achieve this objective if you understand the entire research process and have an overview of the entire project, knowing whsat steps come next” (14).

(I guess that’s why the prospectus is so difficult and yet so necessary.)

On the matter of validity, here are some interesting thoughts by the same authors (but quoted from other sources):

“Replicating a qualitative study is sometimes impossible and always difficult because the data are richly within the particular context (Sandelowski 1993). Attempting to judge the representation of “reality” is highly problematic because qualititative researchers always view social reality as a social construction” (Altheide & Johnson, 1994).

(When I think about this, I realize there are a lot of studies on blogging, writing, writing process, etc. I may want to rule out replicating, since it seems to be too difficult.)

(My goal is to try to pinpoint why timed writings are not authentic and how other ways of writing, specifically blogging, help encourage authentic writing and voice. I will need to be careful as I read each source and as I consider my research. This IS a social and contextual issue, and it might be hard to define words like “authentic” and “voice” when talking about the writing process. Also, one of my questions is WHY do we continue to emphasize timed and contested, high stakes writing when this format goes against the basic foundation of compositional theory?)

 “Any study (qualitative or quantitative) is only as good as the researcher. In qualitative research, this is particularly so because the researcher is the instrument. The researcher’s skills insure the quality and scope of data, the interpretation of the results, and the creation of the theory. Therefore, the onus is on the researcher to be maximally prepared in qualitative methods before beginning a project” (216).

(This is why I am interrupting my research process to read this. I want to make sure I know what I’m doing. I took a research methods class in Grad school, but somehow I need to go through the texts again for myself, not for a class.)

“Qualitative research does not, and should not, use a rigid prior conceptual framework that dictates the nature of the variables to be collected and the relationships among those variables…A rigid framework would naturally guide the interviews so that the researcher would deliberately seek data to fit the framework, showing that whatever the researcher planned to find was found, neat and tidy. Proceeding in such a matter invalidates the study” (219).

(This is extremely important for me and for my students who are planning on conducting interviews for their research papers. I must point them to this post.)

Source #2: Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach, by Maxwell. 2005

“How might you be wrong? Validity is not a commodity that can be purchased with techniques” (Bringberg & McGrath 13).

“The validity of your results is not guaranteed by following some prescribed procedure” (Maxwell).

(Remember the book “Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception” when I’m doing my own research. Just because I interview 5 people doesn’t mean it is valid. Be careful!)

“The main emphasis of a qualitative proposal ought to be on how you will rule out specific plausible alternatives and threats to your interpretations and explanations. Citations of authorities and invocation of standard approaches are less important than providing a clear argument that the approaches described will adequately deal with particular threats in question, in the context of the study being proposed”.

(So if I want to find an alternative to timed essays, and if I want to show evidence of authentic writing and voice in writing through blogs, I need to go through all the ways that readers may argue with my points and refute those.)

Teachers and parents need to read this!

This is so important for teachers and parents to read. Please read!

ipledgeafallegiance

Dollars and Sense

One day in class a colleague took a sip from her coffee cup that she had on her desk and immediately spat it back out. Someone had put cleaning chemicals into her coffee. Two students were later apprehended and confessed to the “prank”. They said that they did it because the teacher had failed them for the marking period.

Needless to say, the teacher was extremely upset by what the students had done. One can only imagine what might have gone through her mind afterwards. Was this a “prank” by two angry students who were trying to make her sick or momentarily uncomfortable by spiking her coffee or was this attempted murder by two deranged young adults who just didn’t know the potency or taste of the poison they were using?

That teacher never returned to school but not because of what those two students had done…

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Saturday To-Do List

1. – Three 13 salon for hair maintenance.
2. Laundry. Get that baseball uniform ready!
3. House: don’t even want to think about it.
4. Baseball game: 4:00 (baseball mom duties)
5. Homecoming Dance Chaperone: 6:30-8:ish
6. Dissertation work: During hair? Before baseball? At the dance? After the dance?
7. Make a to do list for tomorrow to make up for the lack of stuff I’m going to get accomplished today.
   

   Jake’s New OwlZ uniform!

 

Do you know who your audience is?

Mostly Notes:

I am sitting in a lab during our weekly STAR session. Students are working on their own blogs and I am reading another article with one part of my brain and listening to the class with the other. Oh the multi-tasking of teachers!

Cox, et al assert that writing is everywhere, but that our teachers still are not exposing students to the myriad genres of real-world writing. Because of this deficiency in teaching strategies, “many students leave English language arts classrooms thinking that writing equals creative writing, literary analysis, or the five-paragraph essay, without making the connection that most people write as part of the work they do and as part of being a member of society” (72).

While Cox, et al certainly make a valid point, they generalize about all teachers. Of course, this essay was written in 2009 so a lot has changed. With the new common core standards, so much of writing today is based in the practical aspects of the craft. We need to write because we need to accomplish something.

“When writing documents meant for a specific community or workplace, the concept of audience becomes more meaningful for students” (74). This is clear, but students still know that in the classroom, their audience is the teacher. Really. The teacher grades the work. Bloggers get a different feel – they aren’t being graded. Need to remember this idea.

But ARE bloggers getting graded? Every day I look at my stats, and if I’ve gotten just a little traffic, I know I haven’t written anything very compelling. I don’t think I can call it being “graded” however, because this blog isn’t for a grade. It isn’t for money. It’s for me. For anyone going through this process. For other bloggers. They can read it or not – – it’s their choice.

Next Source:

Camp, Heather. “The Psychology of Writing Development – And its implications for assessment”

The article outlines key developmental theories that have been developed by writing development researchers over the last 50 years (abstract). This might be useful for my studies.

Automated Essay Scoring: Is it Real, or is it Memorex?

I watched the Memorex commercial from 1982 and immediately thought about certain “miracle” systems that confuse reality and illusion. The automated essay scorer came to mind. You might ask why I relate the two.

In the last two decades, teachers have been encouraged to incorporate in their composition classrooms new technologies such as whiteboards, doc-cams, online databases, word-processing, web-design, blogging, I-Respond systems, and automated essay scoring (AES) software. Many teachers have embraced technology, but others have been more hesitant to accept the “pervasiveness of computers in everyday life …and the increasing role of digital technology in defining and assessing writing” (Chen et al 50). Although most teachers are certainly willing to learn new technologies, they should not have to abandon the traditional tenets of good writing. My school system faces this dilemma. Like many other school systems in the world, mine has been mandated to use AES technologies.

But how does this technology benefit the students who use it?

Although computer grading of essays can sometimes lessen the workload for teachers, the long-term benefits for students are not clear. Do these programs serve the ultimate needs of students? Many teachers and students feel like some of the technologies they are being encouraged to use do not. Existing studies on the efficacy of AES technology tend to focus on the accuracy of computer grading compared to human grading, the variables that are critical in scoring essays,  and the built-in requirement for AES systems “to be trained on a large set of pre-scored essay samples in order to be able to evaluate the student essays effectively” (Dikli 25). While most AES studies cover technological issues, they lack the answer to the question above: are these programs serving the needs of our composition students?

I am writing about authentic writing and trying to discover whether there is a true definition for “authentic writing”. Each time I hear about computers grading essays, I feel like the search for truth in writing is being trampled by the need to infuse everything we do with technology. In my dissertation, I want to talk about some very useful and “real” technology-based writing vehicles (blogging, etc); however, I would also like to caution against the other side: using computers to assess writing.

Computers cannot recognize creativity. When a writer goes “out of the box” in his or her writing, when a writer takes risks, computers are flummoxed.

Just more musing on authenticity and writing and technology.

Chen, Chi-Fen Emily, and Wei-Yuan Eugene Cheng. “Beyond the Design of Automated Writing Evaluation: Pedagogical Practices and Perceived Learning Effectiveness in EFL Writing Classes.” Language Learning & Technology 12.2 (2008): 94-112. Print

Chen, Jing, Sheida White, Michael McCloskey, Jaleh Soroui, and Young Chun. “Effects of Computer versus Paper Administration of an Adult Functional Writing Assessment.” Assessing Writing 16 (2011): 49-71. Science Direct. Web. Sept. 2011. <http://www.sciencedirect.com&gt;.

Dikli, S. (2006). An Overview of Automated Scoring of Essays. Journal of Technology,Learning, and Assessment, 5(1). Retrieved [date] from http://www.jtla.org.

Do Parent Emails Count as “Writing”

Last night I spent about 3 hours emailing parents about their kids’ grades. 9th graders have such a difficult time transitioning to high school, and so you can imagine that I had a lot of emails. Each one needed to be worded “just so”. I then spent my “blog” time this morning answering three more emails! No wonder my “hits” have gone down in the past two days.

Goals today:
– Get that Dissertation outline looking like an outline
– Wiggins sources. Read. Annotate.
– Keep on Weight Watchers, because tomorrow is Weigh-in day!
– Finish updating all grades for the 6-week grading period.
– Get up right now and get ready for work so you aren’t late!

I promise to write an inspiring post later today.

Happy Tuesday Everyone.

Elizabeth
dissertationgal.com

I have to admit that I love the essay…

I have to admit that I love the essay, with its never-ending possibilities of form, length, theme, and style. I anticipate each New Yorker and English Journal because I know that what I read is going to somehow enlighten and inform me. Most teachers of English feel the same way. Because we love the essay, we love to teach the essay. But what is it exactly that delights readers? What makes some essays “good” while other essays fall flat? I believe that when we remove the obvious (clear writing, correct grammar, relevant evidence, etc.) we find that readers tend to enjoy a piece more if they detect authentic voice in the prose. Composition teachers face the daunting challenge of helping their students find a unique voice while simultaneously training them to take standardized, formulaic writing tests. Likewise, scholars must sift through a maze of Bureaucracy and rigid regulations to publish. Often the result of their writing ends up reflecting the editor, not the writer. In a paradoxical age when a multitude of writers – both student and adult – are finding their voice online but receiving no recognition for it and losing their voice in high stakes writing and being penalized for it, we must find a way to reconsider the exigency of the value we place on timed writing.

In any timed writing situation, writers must stifle their natural flair in “compliance [to specific] criteria to be met” (Elbow 18, 2000). In his book Everyone Can Write, Elbow examines this coerced “compliance” that occurs in timed or contested writing and the subsequent “pressure to give in” when writing begins. He also acknowledges the less-common “release from that pressure when we don’t have to give in” (19). In 2012, writers and scholars of all ages must submit to rigid formulae, skewed politics, and arbitrary grading in an often-automated standardized environment. At the same time, more people than ever are communicating through the Internet via blogging. The writing produced online, which of course varies in quality, is for the most part authentic.

My dissertation addresses the disparity between high-stakes, contested writing and process-based, authentic writing with a close examination of the concept of voice and the importance of space and place for writers. I will examine both timed/contested writing situations and academic-based bloggers. I will use primary source material that will include timed essays from students and posts from current blogs. I would also like to recover archival sources from past teachers of composition and/or writers that examine their experiences with space, place, and authentic voice. The purpose of this paper is not to denigrate existing systems of assessment, but to open the floor for conversation about using other means of writing evaluation that incorporate digital media and encourage the development of genuine voice.

In the 2004 text Writing New Media, Johnson-Eiolola pinpoints the problem at my school and inside my classroom: “[Teachers] tend, despite all of our sophisticated theorizing, to teach writing much as we have long taught it: the creative production of original words in linear streams” (200). The linearity happens all too often in 2012, with many of America’s standardized assessments comprised of timed, formulaic essays. As a result, classrooms continue to use this model as their primary assessment to prepare students for testing. While testing certainly plays an important part in students’ lives, what about the life that comes after the test? Those who can solve problems in an innovative and unique way are usually the ones who get ahead in the workforce. Parker and Chao assert that “collaborative creativity promises to be a key business skill in upcoming years” (67), and if teachers want to prepare students to achieve, it would make sense that their lessons start modeling that creativity.

Timed essays rarely spark creativity in writers; in fact, the timed essay cannot fully assess a writer’s true ability. Most writers know that a good product takes time and that there is a “process of arrangement and connection” necessary for an effective product (Johnson-Eiolola 202). And yet, timed writing assessments are a universal form of writing evaluation. Students rely on their essay scores to get into advanced classes, pass advanced placement exams, graduate from high school, pass the SAT, enter college, and to impress the professional arena. While some students excel in timed writing, most do not write nearly as well as they would with pre-writing, editing, and re-writing.

Source Analysis Notes: Great quotes and thoughts. Find a place to fit them in.

1. “Grant Wiggins (1990), a leading advocate of authentic assessment, defines it as an assessment of students’ performances on worthy intellectual tasks. Believing that standardized tests are artificial constructs that only measure a very narrow range of simply skills, Wiggins maintains they lack authenticity. Instead, he argues that students should be engaged in deep, meaningful activities that make use of their constructed understanding of the world around them” (Zwaagsire and Long 33).
   1. My analysis: Teachers of composition have been aware of the lack of authentic writing assessment for years; but still, America’s educational system is grounded in standardized testing. Why? I think it is because of the sheer number of students in college. How can college professors or admissions grade 20,000 essays in a timely fashion?
   2. So what are “deep, meaningful activities”? I need to prove in my dissertation that the timed essay isn’t deep and meaningful at all and that there are other ways to go about assessing writing (blogging, for instance).
   3. My paper may be more theoretical than I thought because bloggers tend to “feel” what they are writing and “know” their audience. They write with a purpose and audience in mind. Should I just examine voice in blogs vs. contested writing? Should the entire paper be defining terms like voice, authenticity in writing, etc.?
   4. Each blog I visit has a distinct voice. The theme, widgets, text, writing style, name of the blog, comments, etc. Yet in timed writing, the format has to remain the same for everyone – – thus the lack of authenticity.

 Source #2:

“A single-sitting, impromptu essay exam neither tests the skills these students have been taught nor supports the connections between learning and writing that a process approach assumes” (Black et al 9).

 Peter Elbow says essay tests give us “agreement about a faint, smudged, and distorted picture of the student’s writing ability” (Belanoff and Dickson xiii). (White page 30).

The quotes above are the perfect example of how I feel about timed essays.

Yet another list of to-do’s.

I have to make the most of today in order to prepare for my week. Yesterday’s progress was fantastic, but I can’t use that as a reason to slack off today.

1. As much as I don’t want to put this on the top of my list, I have GOT to finish grading those darn Summer Reading papers. The grading period is ending and parents will wonder…

2. Read through my comp theory, blog, and unit comp paper and see what I can use in my prospectus.

3. Break what I’ve got into an outline.

4. Laundry. All of it.

5. Exercise. I skipped it yesterday so I really have to do it today. Walk/Jog for at least one hour, if possible.