The ABC’s for ABD’s: Tips for Working Your Way through Dissertation to Ph.D.

1. The ABC’s for ABD’s: Tips for Working Your Way through Dissertation to Ph.D. Shannon I Steinfadt Kent State University Anne Weinberger Bracy Intel Corporation Shannon Duvall Elon University Katarzyna Wac University of Geneva Thursday, October 2nd 2008, 5:25 - 6:25 p.m. Torreys Peak III

2. Agenda • Welcome • Introduction to Who We Are • Our ABC’s for ABD’s • Recommended Resources • Your Experiences

3. What’s ABD? Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham

4. Shannon I Steinfadt • ABD at Kent State trying to finish up this academic year • Had a long master’s degree that impacted the first year and half of her doctoral work

5. Shannon Duvall • Graduated 2006 from Duke • Now teach at Elon (up for tenure this year) • Had hard, hard, hard ABD road • Now maintains gradMentalMakeover.com

6. Anne Weinberger Bracy • 2001: started PhD • 2003: went ABD • 2005: 6-month internship at Intel • 2006: got married, then proposed • 2007: began working full time • 2008: defended, had a baby, will graduate All-But-Dissertation  All-Plus-Dissertation! (Now is probably not the best time to ask me if it was worth it or if I would do it all over again if I had the choice….)

7. Katarzyna Wac • Did BSc-MSc in Poland, then MSc in Holland • Started PhD in 2004 trying to finish up this academic year • Dissertation: just a scientist-license? • ABD is more for you than for others! • First draft & communication • Emotions management along the way

8. Our ABC’s for ABD’s • Working with your advisor • 3 Fs of Research • Time Management • The Balancing Act • Emotional Management • Stress Management • Building a Support Network

9. Working with your advisor Choose your advisor carefully Hands on or hands off? Do your expectations match your advisor’s? (Is a dissertation a stapled document or a perfect work of art?) Be professional not emotional take notes, make goals communicate clearly

10. 3 Fs of Research Focus: like your topic: what’s hot now may not be when you finish Feasibility: find a small sub-problem (i.e., don’t try to prove P=NP) Feedback: let your research, reading, advisors, and mentors lead you to (or keep you from!) additional sub-topics

11. Time Management Be honest about how much time you spend on your dissertation Marathon vs. Sprint Will you ever finish at your current pace? Will you survive at your current pace?

12. The Balancing Act (1) It’s not looking good for the PhD!

13. The Balancing Act (2) Dissertation Make your own deadlines, accountability Work Must reign in, without neglecting Coordinate with your employer Utilize your income: housekeeping, take-out, grocery delivery—whatever gives you more time to write! Relationships Do not take for granted or take advantage Neglect during the sprint, not the marathon! Children Prioritize (all parents do this!) Trust your instincts, relax and enjoy

14. What is Important? Urgent? • Where will you place: • answering emails • having kids • building relationships • spiritual practice • reading papers • writing up status report • attending a wedding • playtime with your kids • food shopping • backing up your thesis • cleaning house • social engagements • debugging code • watching Heroes • celebrating anniversary • writing chapter 3 • attending Grace Hopper • running experiments • exercise • writing thank you notes • ? high Urgent, Not Important Urgent, Important Urgency Not Urgent, Important Not Urgent, Not Important low low high Importance

15. Emotional Management Make decisions that take emotions into account No negative talk! Let go of guilt – it is not helpful

16. Stress Management Take breaks (real ones) Change your work routine now and then Surround yourself with relaxing things Reward yourself Physical health Take care of yourself BSR: breathe, smile, relax :) 

17. Building a Support Network Family, friends, fellow grad students, mentors, partners, collaborators How to take care of them? How they take care of me? Examples: weekly girls’ brunch/support group, regular meetings with mentor (not your advisor!), accept favors from family members

18. Web Resources (1) Web pages that helped us… • Mental health tips: www.gradmentalmakeover.com • Time management: www.tickspot.com • Reference management: • EndNote http://www.endnote.com • RefWorks http://www.refworks.com • Mind mapping: freemind.sourceforge.net • Local school library and resource pages • All sorts of journals, papers, and software may be *FREELY* available from your institutions • Ph.D. Comics http://www.phdcomics.com

19. Web Resources (2) Web pages that helped us… portals IEEE Xplore http://ieeexplore.ieee.org ACM http://portal.acm.org Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com CiteSeer.IST http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu DBLP Bibliography http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db Consider IEEE/ACM membership and special interest groups (SIGs) that are relevant to your research area Wiki Page for this Bird of a Feather Discussion http://community.anitaborg.org/wiki/index.php/The_ABCs_for_ABDs:_Tips_for_Working_Your_Way_through_Dissertation_to_PhD

20. Print Resources Books that helped us… Hamming, R. (1986). You and your research. Unpublished manuscript, Morristown, NJ, USA. Kelley, R. (1999). How to be a star engineer. IEEE Spectrum, 51-58. Rugg, G., & Petre, M. (2004). The unwritten rules of PhD research. Open University Press. Bolker, Joan (1998). Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day. Holt and Co. Zobel, J. (2004). Writing for Computer Science. Springer. Covey, S. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Free Press. Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York: Bantam.

21. Questions ? Comments ? « Insert Your Experiences Here »

22. Backup Slides ↓

23. What’s Next? Academia or business? When? Where? With Whom?