|
|
|
Beginning Interior Design
Beginning interior design is a challenging, exciting adventure that one must be willing to endure sacrifices and even at times costly mistakes in order to complete this learning successfully. If interior design is an activity that you are thinking...
Beyond Your Child's Classroom
What’s been going on with America’s students?
America’s students today suffer from a prevalent backward predisposition towards their own future success. Lulled into a false sense of security by their surrounding society and influences, plus a...
Freelance Work: The Changing Face Of Employment
No more working for the same company for fifty years. Freelance work is becoming more and more prominent. On-line you can find work or someone to do a job. Check out www.guru.com
The world sure is changing, and if you look at job employment...
Sexual harassment and sex discrimination Answers
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that violates
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII applies to
employers with 15 or more employees, including state and local
governments. It also applies to employment agencies and...
Vocational Training -- the Other School Meat
Many of us have been told that a college degree is necessary in order to land a satisfying career that has a good salary. However, while experts agree that most careers do require postsecondary training or education, statistics show that only a...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
How to write a master's or doctoral thesis
I have written three doctoral theses and before that two
masters' theses, as well as various academic textbooks. In each
case the thesis or book would not have been completed if I
hadn't fixed deadlines for each chapter.
My first academic supervisor, Professor Arthur Johnston, warned
me about the dangers of not establishing deadlines. It was when
I was working on my MA dissertation at the University of Wales.
He said he had known academics who had researched and read in
libraries on their topics for years: they never felt they
were ready to write, and in the end never wrote the thesis.
Professor Johnston said he had himself read and researched for
ten years at Oxford before writing his doctoral thesis. Since
then I've seen it all myself--research students, and even
university lecturers, who never get beyond their first degrees,
and yet who renew their registration for a master's or doctoral
degree every year. Every year they pay the expensive
registration fee; every year they send letters to their
supervisors to explain why they haven't submitted any chapters!
Procrastination is surely the thief of time. The truth is, we
seldom feel ready to act.
Jesus said to the lame man at the pool of Bethseda: 'Take up
your bed and walk.' There comes a time when we have to
take the initiative and act. Before Jesus said that, he asked
the man an important question. He said, 'Do you want to
walk?' The man replied, 'Yes' - and only then could he take the
initiative.
We must have a positive and willing frame of mind before we can
begin to achieve our goal. We have to want to walk! We must want
to possess the goal badly enough. And then we must identify
deadlines, or progressive steps, in our journey towards the
goal. After each deadline we must take up our beds anew. Each
time it will be easier. Each time we will be stronger and wiser.
And each time we'll be nearer the goal! The power of God will
come to us as we take that initiative at each step. The saying,
'God helps those who help themselves,' is full of wisdom.
It's like walking towards those closed glass doors you find at
airports and departmental stores. The doors remain firmly closed
until you step onto the plate that activates the mechanism that
makes them slide open. God opens doors in the same way. He will
never open a door at the time when you ask for a door to be
opened. You must ask, of course. But having asked, you have to
believe in him--and in yourself. You have to get up and walk in
confidence towards the closed door. When you get there, the door
will open.
In other words, each step must be made in faith. The Bible tells
us, 'Without faith it is impossible to please God.' It's
absolutely true. I've tested this principle many times. Faith
and positive initiative--stepping out in confidence--is what
pleases God. Only then will he open the doorway to your selected
and visualised goal.
Often, of course, the path towards your selected goal is uphill.
But growth is normally upwards! Growth follows a law of natural
development--from one vantage point to another. When I wrote my
D.Litt. thesis (during full-time employment as a university
professor), I did more than set deadlines for the progressive
chapters.
I was methodical.
I asked myself, how many chapters do I want to write? Seven?
Very well. Then I chose suitable and reasonable
deadlines. I made those deadlines coincide with the end
of university vacations, or periods of leave, or long weekends.
I told myself that the research for each chapter should be
completed by a week--perhaps two weeks--before the vacation,
leave period, or long weekend began. This meant that I had to be
ready to write a week or two before the vacation, leave
or weekend break. This meant that I would have time free
for the writing. I made sure that I didn't plan any other
activities for those free times.
I made sure, in other words, that preparation would coincide
with opportunity. All my research--my reading and
note-taking--had to be completed by the writing deadline.
When the writing deadline arrived, I had to apply firm
discipline. The whole family understood that I wasn't to be
disturbed during my morning writing sessions at home. One of my
little daughters understood this clearly and stuck a notice in
her large scrawl on my study door: 'Don't disturb--daddy is
WORKING.' I came to an understanding with myself that I would
write at least three or four pages a day. It wasn't an
impossible or very demanding workload. And usually I'd write six
or seven pages--and complete the chapter well before the end of
the vacation or leave-period!
An important rule was always to allow time to relax and enjoy
with the family. I used the carrot-at-the-end-of-the-stick
incentive, too. Always be sure to reward yourself for work done!
During leave periods which were my writing times, I would always
be sure to leave the evenings free. A morning of successful
work--of four or five pages written and edited--would always
ensure that a long walk, or evening free with the family, was
enjoyed to the full. A rest earned is a rest enjoyed! All I was
doing--unconsciously, perhaps--was applying the principle of
positive reinforcement which B F Skinner, the behavioural
scientist, wrote about. Skinner discovered that rats learnt the
routes through mazes a lot faster when they realised a reward of
cheese would be found at the end of the maze!
The principle of positive reinforcement--or self-reward--was a
lesson I learnt early on in my writing career. When I was a
lonesome postgraduate student working on an MA dissertation at
the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, fish-and-chip
shops were plentiful as a source of reasonably cheap meals. As a
student of limited resources I survived, in those days, on fish
and chips! But there was a Chinese restaurant, too. There
was my means of celebration--of reward. I promised myself that,
on the completion of each chapter, I would reward myself with an
evening out at the Chinese restaurant. How I looked forward to
those evenings! I would relish the pleasure of having another
chapter complete and handed in to my supervisor. I would dress
up and savour the Chinese meal--so different from fish and
chips--with well-earned satisfaction. (I remember how, on taking
out a cigarette--another pleasure reserved for the occasion--the
Chinese waiter always jumped forward to light it for me. The
sense of self-importance added to the satisfaction!)
At all times throughout the periods of research and writing I
would, of course, constantly reinforce my purpose by visualising
the goal. In my study at home, for example, I would leave a
space on the wall where I would hang my next degree certificate.
In short breaks between spurts of writing I would look up and
imagine--visualise--the framed certificate hanging in its
allotted space! (And I would be sure to hang it in that space
after it was awarded!)
Each chapter of a thesis--or book--had to have its own strategy,
of course. Many research students use a card-index system. It's
a good system because notes on cards can be filed and
interchanged in a shoebox! For me it was a somewhat different
system that worked. I used a series of notebooks. Each notebook
had its own content. Take, for example, my research for my
chapter on Wilkie Collins's novel
The Woman in White,
which formed the third chapter of my D.Litt. thesis Drama and
Melodrama in the Fiction of Wilkie Collins. In a notebook
labelled 'R' I copied notes taken from contemporary newspaper
and magazine reviews of the novel. In a notebook labelled
'B', I copied relevant notes from biographies on Wilkie
Collins. In notebook 'L' I collected extracts from
letters written by Collins's contemporaries about him or
his novels. Notebook 'C' would contain notes collected from
critical studies on Collins--in this case, on The
Woman in White in particular. And so forth. Then I would
plan the chapter and use my own coding system of
cross-references to the notebooks. I would have my skeletal
plan, with headings and spaces, on a sheet of paper. This
skeletal plan--the basic framework for the chapter--would look
like this:
Notebooks:
R = Reviews B = Bibliographies L = Letters C = Critiques
Skeletal Plan Ch. III The Woman in White:
Melodramatic Incident and Dramatic Characterisation
Intro: Plot versus character in the Sensation
Novel R4 (S) R94 (Lytton on ch) B44 (S) C144 (Setting) L18
(Plot)
R Reviewers' reception of the novel R9 (chs
subservient to plot) B5 (Ellis on ch) R45 (atm) L9 (Lever on
scene) R88 (S & Setting) C7 (Quarterly: appeal of
proximity)
M Melodramatic appeal R66 (Plot & M) B44 (M) B6
(Ellis: no better melodramatic novel in Eng lang) R74 (Sat
Review: ch) L5 (M) R75 (Sat Review: Th) C11 (M, Th)
Th Theatrical effects R26 (atm) C55 (Th) R44 (Th)
C64 (Th) B2 (Dr) C74 (Des)
Motif The dead-alive motif R26 C5 (Hyder - Th) R68
(Times) R62 (Sat R - atm)
Cont Contemporary appeal: the romance of the here and
now R22 R42 R48
Plot Intricate plotting R42 (literary chessplayer)
R63 (Sat R - 'mechanical' talent) R68 (Times -
serious flaw in plot)
Ch Superiority of character portrayal: courtroom
drama R28 (Marion) R48 (Marion) R29 (Fosco) R22 (Fosco) R93
(Marion) B26 (Marion) R98 (Fosco) B5 (Resourceful Heroine) C44
(Fosco - credible & worthy antagonist)
K Conclusion: dramatic, not melodramatic L27 (CD
to WC) C18 (TS Eliot: Bk dramatic because of 2 chs)
This is a very simple way of ordering and categorising the raw
material. The headings indicate the main contents of the chapter
and the main steps of the argument, beginning with the
Introduction and ending with the Conclusion.
I made sure that between the headings I left enough spaces to
fill in my cross-references to the notebooks. I would then work
methodically through each notebook. If I found something in
notebook 'R' (Reviews) that would be helpful to refer to in my
Introduction, then I'd write in the cross reference to notebook
'R' under the first heading. Thus R4(S) would mean: See notebook
R (Reviews), page 4, for a reviewer's remark on the Victorian
Sensation novel. In the margin of the notebook on page 4, I
would pencil in the code 'Intro' so I could spot the reference
easily at the time of writing. (Naturally, I would be sure to
number all the pages of the notebook.)
The word-symbols on the left-hand side of the Skeletal Plan
(Intro, R, M, Th, etc) are the symbols I've pencilled in
in the margins of the notebooks. In this way, as I said, I can
quickly find the material to which I have referred in the heat
of writing! You'll see that, after most cross-references, I've
also used a very brief key word or word symbol (sometimes a
short phrase), to jog my memory:
S = Sensation Novel; Setting; Plot; atm =
atmospheric effects; Th = theatrical effects; Dr =
dramatic technique; Des = descriptions or descriptive
technique.
These keywords or symbols are very helpful when the actual
writing begins. They help me to organise my argument.
For each chapter I may draw up three or four copies of the
skeletal plan, each with a different set of references. I would
always have a special 'skeletal plan' for the cross-references
to Notebook 'N' - the notebook in which I've written notes on
the novel itself (in this case The Woman in White). This
notebook--Notebook 'N' (Novel)--would constitute my primary
material. All the other notebooks constitute my research or
secondary material.
I will have made the notes in Notebook 'N' (my primary material)
while actually reading through the novel: always have a pencil
or pen in hand while reading your primary material. Some of your
best ideas come to you then and need to be jotted down at once!
(Make sure that each note made here refers to the exact page in
the novel or source book which you're reading and to which the
note refers. These page references will be important when you
compile the footnote references.)
The point I'm making, here, is that system is essential for
success. It's part of the Scientific Method, the real basis of
achievement. Science is organised knowledge. Its aim is
the discovery of truth--not only in the world of material
nature, but in the immaterial world of the mind. It's the basis,
therefore, of achievement in any human endeavour--in science, in
business, or in sport. In applying the scientific method in my
D.Litt. chapter, I utilised a recognised and proven strategy.
This strategy consists of three important steps:
1. A getting together of all the necessary facts; 2. A
classification of these facts; and 3. An effort to arrive at
their meaning by using the principles of logical reasoning.
In my chapter this strategy was organised into a
framework, or a plan. This framework, or plan, was my
formula for success. Step 1 was achieved through my
reading and research; step 2 was achieved by my system of
notebooks linked by the cross-references in the skeletal plan;
and step 3 was achieved at the time of writing the
chapter. The writing came easily as a result of the preceding
steps.
In the achievement of any goal, or objective, your strategy is
your framework and your formula for success--the means, or the
route, which you must follow.
When I wrote my D.Litt. chapter, this formula of a step-by-step
strategy, with set deadlines, was the scientific method in
microcosm. When I planned my financial route towards the
acquisition of my Rolls Royce, it was the same method in
macrocosm.
In either case the principle was the same. In either case
progress was fired by enthusiasm--real desire. In either case
this desire was sustained by the clear and detailed
visualisation of a specific objective.
(Extract from Have Anything
You Really Really Want by Charles Muller. Further
information at Diadem
Books )
About the author:
Charles Humphrey Muller, MA (Wales), PhD (London), DLitt (OFS),
DEd (SA), was Professor and Head of the Department of English at
the University of the North in South Africa for ten years. In
1988 he left his academic career to move to Scotland where he
runs his editing and publishing business, Diadem Books
|
|
|
|
|
| Jobs, Careers, Education - Careers.Org |
| careers.org, jobs, careers, employment, If it's about your career OR education ... it's here!!! Today is Wednesday, December 06, 2006 Bookmark Careers.Org! ... |
| www.careers.org |
|
| Hispanic employment service for jobs, workforce diversity, free ... |
| Hispanic employment service with free resume postings. |
| www.saludos.com |
|
| Job Search PositionsVACANT - Australian jobs, careers, employment ... |
| Australian Job Search since 1999. Find your future with us! |
| www.positionsvacant.com.au |
|
| NationJob, Employment Job Search Engine & Careers |
| NationJob.com, Job search, careers, employment, and resume services for job seekers. Find A Job. Keywords:. Category: ... |
| www.nationjob.com |
|
| Business - Careers-Employment Ezine Articles |
| EzineArticles.com allows ezine or email list publishers to upload or download free expert content that can be used within email newsletters or websites. |
| ezinearticles.com |
|
| Thomson Delmar Learning - Browse Catalog |
| Careers / Employment · Civil Litigation · CLA Exam Review · Computers and the Law ... Thomson Delmar Learning : Paralegal : Careers / Employment ... |
| www.delmarlearning.com |
|
| SWANA - The Solid Waste Association of North America |
| SWANA Logo · Join SWANA · Forms, Applications & Brochures · Solid Waste Career Center, search. GO. educate innovate communicate ... |
| www.swana.org |
|
| JOB SERIES 2152 |
| Job Series 2152. Informational Pamphlets for Entry Level Air Traffic Control Specialist (ATCS). ATCS · Medical Standards · Suitability and Security ... |
| www.faa.gov |
|
| The Dispatch |
| Careers / Employment Ads · Garage Sale / Announcements · Home Service Ads · Legals - Gilroy · Legals - Hollister · Legals - Morgan Hill · Legals - Pinnacle ... |
| www.gilroydispatch.com |
|
| careers employment page |
| cooljobs.adobe.com/frameset.html?goto=er-joblist - Similar pages |
|
|
| National Geographic Jobs, Careers, Employment |
| Get a job with the National Geographic Society. Search our employment listings and apply online. |
| www.nationalgeographic.com |
|
| SeeMeResumes.com - Resume distribution, jobs, careers, employment |
| Resume distribution service geared for professionals to meet professionals. |
| www.seemeresumes.com |
|
| .:: Nonin Medical, Inc. - Careers/Employment ::. |
| Careers/Employment Nonin was founded and continues to grow as an employee-focused company. Our most valuable assets are our people and the teamwork derived ... |
| www.nonin.com |
|
| Computer, Tech & IT Jobs Search, Careers, Employment, Postings ... |
| Search Computer jobs, Tech jobs, IT Employment postings & hot IT careers @ Tech-Centric.net. Use the advanced technology job board to find information ... |
| www.tech-centric.net |
|
| KONICA MINOLTA EUROPE: Careers / Employment |
| Home>Company: Careers / Employment ... Konica Minolta's Business Areas; Careers / Employment; Map to Headquarters · Environmental Activities · Home ... |
| www.konicaminoltaeurope.com |
|
| Environmental careers, employment opportunities |
| Site provides information on jobs and careers in the environment. |
| www.ualberta.ca |
|
| The Beaufort Gazette: Jobs - Careers - Employment |
| Jobs - Careers - Employment · Cars - Trucks - SUVs · Real Estate · Place an ad · Shop Locally · Early Birds · Announcements · Building/Home Improvement ... |
| www.beaufortgazette.com |
|
| About Us - Careers/Employment |
| Careers/Employment. Do You Want to Make a Difference in People's Lives? Join a dynamic, growing high-tech/high-touch healthcare organization that makes a ... |
| www.lifemasters.com |
|
| National Network of Regional Disability Liaison Officers and ... |
| Money Matters · Access Technology · Teaching Support · Careers/ Employment · Legislation/ Policy · Disability Information ... |
| www.adcet.edu.au |
|
| Search Results |
| job. ... Altera Home Page. Literature · Licensing · Buy On-Line · Download. Entire Site, Part Number. Home, |, Products, |, Support, |, End Markets ... |
| www.altera.com |
|
|