A Letter to a Graduate Student: An Alternative View to the Oral Examination

My dear friend,

Since I left academia, I never thought I would write a letter like this again. But because you will soon be defending your dissertation in an oral examination, through the "viva voce” - your "living voice"; I write this with you in mind. I felt this would encourage you because, like me, you are a teacher at heart.

The highest degrees awarded by a university are those of "doctor" or "master". Did you know in their original usage, they both mean “teacher”? "Doctor" shares the same root as "doctrine" or teaching. “Master" comes from the root word "magister" which also means teacher. Hence, earning these degrees makes its recipients teachers of the knowledge they have received and created.

This explains the format of the oral examination. The candidate first presents an oral exposition of the thesis and then defends it in dialogue with the examiners. This parallels the two modes of teaching: the lecture and disputation. Hence, the oral examination is the ultimate test of subject matter expertise, examining the candidate's ability to teach a subject using a lecture and discussion (Shulman, 1986).

I hope you will remember this, during that frightful day when you are expected to prove your worth. No, you’re not proving anything that you not already are. You are there to educate your audience and have a discussion with them on a subject that you have chosen and made the centerpiece of your many years of education. You, my friend, are the expert and teacher. And we are your students.

You have my full support,

Shuyi




References
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. In S. Wilson (ed.) (2004). The wisdom of practice: essays on teaching, learning and learning to teach (pp. 189-215) USA: Jossey Bass.

Seeing Yourself as a Scholar

As a graduate student studying your area, you are a master of what you study. Few people have read as much material and given your topic as much thought as you have. Act like a scholar, speak to other experts as your peers. Don't be afraid! Here is one of my favourite tips by Evelyn Hunt Ogden from pages 54-55 of her book.

"Remember the university descriptions of dissertations, in which the word scholarly was used? Start to think of yourself as a member of the scholarly community. Calling or e-mailing other scholars can save untold hours of library work and give you confidence concerning another dissertation requirement, establishing credibility of sources.

Build into your budget long-distance phone calls. E-mail ahead of time to ask for a time you might be able to talk to the person. A $100 phone bill can save you a whole semester in costs. It is amazing how helpful most of the top people in the various fields can be. Identify these people in your field, read at least their most recent articles, then e-mail and call them. Find out what they are currently working on that may relate to your topic. Get the names of other graduate students or professors who are working on related research. Check your understanding of how this scholar's theory or work differs from some other noted researchers in the field. Talking with practicing researchers saves time by getting immediately the most recent and relevant findings for inclusion in your literature search chapter. Such direct conversations can help you to further define your topic and/or methodology; it can also be extremely effective in the defense of your proposal and then of the dissertation itself. If asked a question on method or interpretation of another's research, you will be able to respond with, "I talked to Barbara Jones about that, and her view was..." Finally, conversations with people who have devoted years of study to a field is downright interesting and can make dissertation research much more enjoyable.

Consider travel as an extension of the telephone. Sometimes while talking to a scholar you will be told about planned conferences or seminars that will focus on research very relevant to your dissertation topic. Such meetings will bring together several of the people whose work you will be using in your literature search. From your conversation with a particular researcher, you may find that the department in that university or the professor has a library of related published and unpublished research that you can use. Hop on a plane, bus, or train, or drive your car and go. Make a list of what you want to accomplish and who you want to see. Time can be conserved, dissertation quality increased, and in the long run money saved. You have spent thousands of dollars on this degree; don't quibble over a few hundred dollars more. Build into your trip budget funds to possibly take the professor and/or others to lunch or dinner as gesture of thanks for valuable information. Remember you are making important contacts in your field."

Reference
Ogden, E. H. (2007). Complete your dissertation or thesis in two semesters or less. Rowman & Littlefield.

My first book

I am proud to announce that the book I was working on is complete!

I have a few free e-copies to give away. Please comment here if you would like to have one. I will give you a giftcode. :)

You can find a sample of the book at this link: Chapter 3: Begin Writing at Every Stage of your Graduate Studies.

The Counter-Intuition of Writing

The funny thing about writing (or me?) is that for me, the project goes slowly and is stalled until and unless I take action. Let me give you an example. So I had the draft of my book for a long time. I completed most of it in January. Basically the writing came to me in big spurts. It was easy because all I had to say was already in my mind for a long time, they just flowed out.

But that draft was just there hanging. I wanted feedback but did not receive a lot. But those I received (very gratefully) helped pushed the work forward. And then it stalled...

But suddenly, the draft progressed... After I did two things:

1. I asked designers to design my front cover. Alright, so after the samples came out, I realised that my title could be improved and was not grammatically correct. I have not touched the title for a long time and the impetus to touch it came ONLY AFTER the book cover came out and I saw for myself something was wrong. So I sought M's advice and I improved the title.

2. I sent my draft out for copyediting. It's crazy but the number of things to be improved I spotted suddenly increased ONLY AFTER I sent it out. Prior to this, I was just sort of procrastinating, thinking that I have time to work on these small issues some time later. It was the sending it out that made me realised that the deadline to publication was actually nearly than I thought.

So I just want to share a tip with you, in case I am not a weird case, but my experience is shared by other human beings... Perhaps if something is slow and stalling for a long time, you might want to take an action that may initially seem illogical.

For example, you may think your work is still at its beginning stage... Of course, you don't send it for feedback from your supervisor or your peers! You wait till you improved this version, and then you send it out...

Or... You may think your work is still not yet close to being proofread... Of course! You don't send it for proofreading at this stage! Or you have wasted efforts! What is copyedited may be eventually deleted and you're wasting time and energy and MONEY! You wait and wait...

And here I am going to soon do the very illogical act of publishing a book on academic writing and publishing. Hey, this is the gal who GAVE UP her PhD studies to travel... What does she know about writing and publishing for graduate students?

Sometimes writing happens counter-intuitively and you need to trust your instincts and an act that seems illogical may be the very act you need to take at that moment to push yourself and your work forward. This has been my experience many times.

Sometimes even if you may not know the steps to take, the best thing you can do is to still take a step forward.

Updates...

I've not been here in awhile. I have been wandering about Latin America. I sometimes don't think what I am doing is considered "traveling". It seems more like random wandering with no particular purpose or order. I see many younger people traveling and I have so much to learn from them... I like how they systematically cover places of interest while keeping in touch with their loved ones. And how they end up in many places, each they personally chose to be at. Traveling at low cost. They look contented and happy.

How do they do it?

Alright. Back to this. Remember that book?

I took a long hiatus from it. One of my friends just gave me really good feedback and it scares and excites me at the same time. It scares me because her feedback is incisive and it excites me because I finally found someone who can give me the kind of feedback that can move the work forward. Incisive is exactly what I need.

I also wonder how much faith do I have. Do I have enough faith to think that piece of work can help anyone at all and is worth writing well? I don't feel like asking anyone that question. I feel like finding the answer myself. Just like how I stop asking someone what he or she likes about me. I will find out for myself what is likeable about me.