Community Relations and Dissertation Writing

1. Questions about annotated bibliography assignment? How is it going? How far along are you? Remember need to complete 20 annotations to turn in by Oct 22.

2. Questions about dissertation summary? How is it going? How far along are you? Remember need both summary to turn in by Oct 15 and presentation by next week, Oct 15, or Oct 22.

Schedule Dissertation Summary Presentations

Monica Barnard 10/15 or 10/22 Lisa Lacova-Bhat 10/15 or 10/22John Butterworth 10/15 or 10/22Lauran Chapple 10/15 or 10/22Gary Greer 10/15 or 10/22Tia Klug-Wessell 10/15 or 10/22Eric Mead 10/15 or 10/22Amanda Naranjo 10/15 or 10/22Jeanelle Parrott 10/15 or 10/22Margaret Rains 10/15 or 10/22

Dissertation Presentation Guidelines

• Summary and copy of dissertation MUST be turned in before the presentation.

• Presentation should have some kind of visual support, preferably organized on slides.

• Presentation should be engaging AND professional.• Slides may be referred to, but just reading slides is

not encouraged.• Time limit – about 12 minutes, including

discussion.

Community Relations

• How can we categorize our various relationships with community members and organizations?

• What are the challenges for including your relationships with various communities in your dissertation?

• What types of support do you need?

Philosophical Dissertation Example

Dissertation written by Tianying ZangOn DH Lawrence’s Philosophy of Nature – An

Eastern View

Front Material

• Very brief!– No list of figures or tables– No acknowledgements– No forward– Two brief notes about various editions of source

materials– Title page– Declaration of authenticity– Abstract (1 page)– Table of Contents

Chapter 1

• Treats Lawrence as a case study– Focuses on his beliefs, behaviors, writing, and what others thought of him– Begins with statements about Lawrence that are likely to engage the

reader– Structure is more or less chronological– The ideas mentioned focus on his beliefs and understanding of the world

that will be relevant to the analysis presented in later chapters• Makes conclusion relevant to this chapter• Uses Chicago format • 96 citations for Chapter 1

– are a combination of works by Lawrence, and professional literary analyses by others in this field, and varying other authors (e.g., Alan Watts) who had written on related topics

Chapter 2

• Begins with discussion of Taoist notions of the relationship between humans and nature

• Cites relevant examples from Lawrence’s writing, as well as analyses by others in this field

• Conclusion• 91 citations in this chapter, almost all professional but

do include a couple of non-professional sources of information about Taoism

• Reference to Dogen appears to be from a professional literary publication

Chapter 3

• Focuses on different aspects of Lawrence’s beliefs – those about nature, the unknown, god, and evolution

• Taoist beliefs are considered/analyzed alongside Lawrence’s beliefs as seen in his various written works

• Other belief systems are also briefly compared, where relevant, including Hinduism, the Aztecs, western philosophies, Darwin’s theory

• Makes conclusion• 106 references

Chapter 4

• This chapter focuses on Lawrence’s life principle, as established in earlier chapters

• This analysis takes on the same form as earlier chapters

• Focus is more on alignment of Lawrence with Buddhism, Confucianism, but Taoism is also represented

• 76 references, all appear to be professional

Chapter 5

• Lawrence’s concept of duality is analyzed in terms of Yin-Yang

• Conclusion• 70 citations

Chapter 6

• Lawrence’s perception of life and death is compared to Taoist beliefs about life and death

• Christian beliefs are used for contrast• Conclusion• 80 citations

Chapter 7

• Consciousness, mind & body• More western philosophy discussed here,

especially that of his time• Alignment/comparison with Taoist beliefs• Other professional analyses are cited and used

to support position(s)• 149 citations

Chapter 8

• Discusses Lawrence’s abhorrence of modern culture and how his beliefs were aligned with various Native American traditions

• 95 citations

Chapter 9 - Conclusion

• 15 citations

Bibliography

• Primary Sources– DH Lawrence– Laozi– Zhuangzi

• Secondary Sources– 5 ½ pages of almost entirely professional sources

Nothing More

• The work ends with the last citation in the bibliography.

DISCUSSION

• What are the primary differences in format (not MLA vs APA or Chicago) between this dissertation and the one we saw last week?

• What are the primary differences in content between this dissertation and the one we saw last week?– What is included and what is omitted?– What is included within a chapter?– What is the nature of the original contribution that makes it qualify

as a dissertation?– What is the difference between a meta-analysis and this type of

analysis of existing texts and transcripts?• What are primary differences in types of sources used in

citations?