2. So What? Discovering Possibilities
...he took the cover off the dish and saw a white snake lying in it. At the sight of it, he could not resist tasting it, so he cut off a piece and put it into his mouth. Hardly had he tasted it, however, when he heard a wonderful whispering of delicate voices.
He went to the window and listened, and he noticed that the whispers came from the sparrows outside. They were chattering away and telling each other all kinds of things they had heard in the woods and fields. Eating the snake had given him the power of understanding the language of birds and animals.
—“The White Snake,” Grimm’s Fairy Tales
THE ABILITY TO “understand the language of birds and animals” exists only in the world of fantasy, but if you are in the process of writing a thesis or dissertation, acquiring the “language” of the academy may seem equally unlikely. In the course of selecting a direction for your research, presumably you have “listened” to and understood the discussions in your discipline and now have something worthwhile to contribute—an idea, perspective, or question that knowledgeable people will think is worth considering, or at least a direction or a purpose. But how can this be accomplished? How can you discover something “new” to say when so much has already been written? Where should you search? What should you do? This chapter suggests strategies that you may find helpful.
Beginnings Are Always Difficult
The beginning stage of any writing project is usually difficult, and writing a thesis or dissertation proposal is particularly challenging because you are attempting to write in an unfamiliar genre for a new and potentially judgmental community. Whenever writers are faced with a high-stakes writing task, such as a thesis or dissertation, an annoying little voice may begin to whisper anxiety-provoking statements such as, “You don’t know anything about this topic. Everything about this topic has already been said. What makes you think you have anything to say?” or even “What makes you think you are capable of writing anything at all?”
A number of years ago, David Bartholomae, in a much-anthologized essay entitled “Inventing the University,” addressed the difficulties of writing for a new discourse community (a community that thinks, speaks, and writes in a particular way). Bartholomae made the following observation:
Every time a student sits down to write for us, he has to invent the university for the occasion.... The student has to learn to speak our language, to speak as we do, to try on the peculiar ways of knowing, selecting, evaluating, reporting, concluding and arguing that define the discourse of our community. (134)
Bartholomae’s idea of “inventing the university” was concerned with the difficulties first-year college students experience when they write essays for their freshman writing classes, but the point his article makes about learning a “new language” pertains to all novice/expert situations. To participate in the discourse community associated with a particular field, students (the novices) must “listen” to the conversations of published colleagues (the experts)—that is, they must read deeply in relevant texts and thoroughly understand those texts in order to have something that members of the community will regard as “worth considering.”
To gain insight into graduate students’ feelings and experiences about writing a thesis or dissertation, I asked several in a number of departments to keep a “Proposal Log,” an electronic journal in which they could write about how they felt as they moved through the process. The following excerpt is from the Proposal log of a graduate student named Jane, who is writing a dissertation in the field of geography. Jane’s statement epitomizes the feelings many, if not all, of us have when we begin to write in a new genre or on a new topic:
...the most challenging aspect of writing is getting anything on paper! Having just finished my written exams, I am struggling with staying motivated to return to the dreaded proposal-writing stage. What if I get stuck again? ... What if it is no good? This approach to writing was called my “sandbagging” stage by a friend of mine who watched me during the master’s writing phase ... that insight has stayed with me and so I do know that the “woe is me” routine will eventually subside and I will get down to the business at hand.
Jane’s entry focuses on the difficulty of getting started on a new writing task and the barriers she erects to avoid dealing with that task. It is an experience that many of us have had.
Brainstorming Activities
To break the grip of immobility that often characterizes the early stages of a new writing project, a number of writers use brainstorming activities to generate ideas about a subject. The idea behind this strategy is that when you have some ideas down on paper, you will at least have something to work with, and a few of those ideas are likely to suggest new possibilities. To begin brainstorming, take out pen and paper or sit down at the computer and write furiously about a potential topic for 5 minutes. Do not stop to revise or reconsider. Just keep writing. Linda’s proposal log entry recounts her use of brainstorming as a means of generating ideas:
My first response is to start out thinking. Thinking and thinking and thinking. Then I free-write. This is really an important process for me because it determines whether I really have something to contribute and if there is a direction I want to take.... I have to determine how I feel about the subject. I need an emotional ante to take me to another level or else I take no joy in writing....
Now I wish I could say that I have this master plan for writing my wonderful essays, but the reality is, they are not wonderful and I have no master plan. My plan is this: Get it all down. Write as fast and furiously as you can.
Brainstorming is a simple technique that many different writers use to begin the writing process. What I like about it is that it can be done anywhere and doesn’t require a computer, although, of course, there is no reason that you can’t use your computer for this purpose. After you have located a few preliminary ideas, you can begin to look through the research literature—articles, books, other theses or dissertations—to develop your thoughts more deeply. You can also begin to discuss possibilities with other students or a potential advisor.
Keeping a Proposal Log
The proposal log entries of Jane and Linda, just mentioned, were concerned with their feelings about developing a topic for a proposal. But a proposal log can also be useful for generating ideas both at the beginning and throughout the process of writing your thesis or dissertation. As its name indicates, a proposal log is a journal, preferably electronic, in which you write at least once a week about some aspect of your thesis proposal. Entries need not be long (no more than a page at a time) and can be focused in a number of directions. Here are some questions that can help direct your thinking:
Issues concerned with your subject area:
• Describe the subject area about which you are likely to write your thesis.
• What are the central controversies within this subject area?
See if you can complete the following sentences:
Some scholars who write about this topic say____________.
Other scholars who write about this topic disagree. They say______________________________________.
My own idea about this topic is ______________________.
• How can you position your thesis/dissertation within these controversies?
• What makes this subject area important? Why should anyone care about this subject area?
Issues concerned with writing:
• Discuss your writing process. How much do you plan ahead before you write? When you write, do you revise immediately, piece by piece, before you write additional text? Do you save revision until all the text in a particular section has been written? Do you revise at all? What sort of revision do you do?
• What aspects of writing do you find most difficult? Generating ideas? Developing a main idea or position? Organizing? Revising at the sentence level? Providing transitions?
• Think about a potential audience for your thesis. What knowledge about this topic does your intended audience already have? What contribution to that knowledge do you plan to make?
• Construct a preliminary timetable for completing the thesis.
• Write responses to the following sentences:
My thesis/dissertation will address the following question:
It will fill the following gap in the literature:
You can continue to address these issues as you write your proposal log. You can also address any others you feel are relevant, including the following:
• Discuss meetings you have with your advisor. How long do these meetings last? What suggestions did your advisor make in terms of additional work or revision? Were these suggestions helpful?
• What writing activities did you engage in after you met with your advisor?
• If you discuss your thesis with peers, friends, or family members, recount the nature of those conversations. Did they make suggestions that you plan to implement? Were their suggestions helpful?
• How does your personal and/or professional life affect your writing schedule? Do other responsibilities get in the way? Or do they perhaps help structure your time?
You may also want to use a blog or a website to collect ideas you are considering. You can then attach online information such as articles or data to the site, enabling you to find what you need easily.
Whatever mechanism you use to generate ideas and amass preliminary information will focus your attention, both conscious and subconscious, on finding a topic worth pursuing. It is the focusing that is most important, and you will find that ideas come to you even when you are not directly attempting to find them.
The following excerpt from a proposal log focuses on Linda’s difficulty in developing a rationale for her thesis, a difficulty that I often refer to as the “so what” or “central question” of a proposal. Linda’s proposal was concerned with a genre analysis of sympathy cards, but, as is the case in many proposals, her initial proposal did not probe deeply enough into the sort of information such an analysis may discover. After consulting with her advisor, this is what Linda wrote:
In speaking with my advisor last night about my thesis proposal, she asked me to think about two words—“SO WHAT?” I felt I had touched on the “so what” aspect and, in fact, had geared my proposal around the “so what?” and “who needs to know anyway?” So now I need to think about why my purpose did not jump out at my reader. If my reader is not grasping the “so what” factor, I have to ask myself “why?” My advisor mentioned that I did not hit it in the first two paragraphs. I need to look at my introduction and basically revamp it. What the heck was I thinking? I know that I need to put that in the introduction. That’s part of my writing model. How did I miss that? I usually make my thesis sentence the last sentence of the first paragraph. That’s what I get for trying to model my proposal after someone else’s work.
Linda is a serious student and a competent writer. And yet her proposal did not indicate what insights were likely to be gained by her investigation. However, after Linda conferred with her advisor and explored the problem in her proposal log, she was able to construct the missing rationale, which she framed as follows:
In a few sentences, I will attempt to define my thoughts about the value of analyzing sympathy cards:
The value of the study of sympathy cards is that these cards are a window into attitudes and reactions within a culture to dealing with death. The reason this study has importance is that much of the communication surrounding death is a nonverbal and/or silent rhetoric. The sympathy card acts as a bridge to open communication and express a message. Though a sympathy card is not as functional as a face-to-face interaction, it is better than nothing and expresses a sentiment that may never have surfaced otherwise.
The proposal log enabled Linda to address a very common problem: the lack of rationale, or the “so-what” in her proposal.
Interacting with Text-Partners
Academic writing involves interacting with the significant texts in your discipline, not necessarily with the actual people who wrote those texts (some of these people, in fact, may no longer be alive), but with the ideas and concepts that are explored in them. The direction of your research indicates how you plan to address those ideas and the kind of conversation you will have to extend the knowledge base of which those ideas are a part.
To understand this metaphor, imagine that you enter a room where a conversation 1 about issues in your discipline has been going on for a long time. Several scholars are debating an issue, sometimes heatedly, and you listen to the discussion for a while until you are able to figure out the major arguments. Then, after considering what others have said, you offer an opinion about issues in your discipline. Your research then becomes your contribution to the topic being discussed. The “listening” part means that you have read the texts that are considered important and understand their main points thoroughly. The “entering the conversation” part refers to the ideas in your work that address these points in some way, either refuting them, extending them, or offering a modification.
In this way, seminal articles and books in your discipline can become your “text-partners”—that is, the texts to which your thesis or dissertation is responding. 2 They can also help you discover ideas that will lead to your main purpose. To understand the idea of a “text-partner,” imagine the authors of these articles involved in a “conversation” about your topic. What would they say to one another? What would you say to them? And what would they say to you?
At this point, I would like to emphasize that although I am using the word author, I am not referring to the specific real-world person who wrote the text, but rather to the scholarly persona that is embodied in the text. You may know Professor Jones quite well because she lives on your street. You may have eaten at her home and know her husband and children. However, the “Professor Jones” who writes scholarly articles may not resemble the “everyday” Professor Jones at all because she assumes an academic voice when she enters the conversation through her writing. You are having your conversation with the Professor Jones of the text, the academic Professor Jones, and Professor Jones’s text—the article itself can serve as a text-partner.
Using Text-Partners
Scholarship is conversation, not just face-to-face or electronic; it is a conversation that occurs when you communicate through published writing—that is, articles and books. When you write your thesis or dissertation, you will be contributing to the literature in your discipline, and locating text-partners can be helpful during the initial stage of writing the proposal. To work with this strategy, locate three or four articles that you find particularly interesting and that relate to the topic you are considering as the main focus of your thesis/dissertation. Read these articles carefully and imagine the authors of these articles in a face-to-face conversation. Then complete the following form:
Interacting with Text-Partners
Finding text-partners can be helpful in discovering ideas for a thesis or dissertation. Select several articles that are pertinent to your potential topic. Then, for each one, complete the following information:
Author:______________________________________
Title:_______________________________________
Source:______________________________________
The thesis of this article is:
_____________________________________________
The most interesting ideas in this article are:
Why do I find these ideas interesting?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
What aspects of the topic does this article overlook or distort?
______________________________________________
If I were to write to the author of this article discussing these ideas, I might say the following:
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
A potential use of this article for my thesis/dissertation is:
______________________________________________
Finding really useful text-partners requires considerable effort. Some articles and books discuss a wide variety of ideas, which may not be directly related to the topic you want to explore. Therefore, it is important to eliminate potential text-partners that address too many ideas. Find those that contribute directly to the topic you want to explore.
When you have found a well-focused set of text-partners, consider what sort of impact your own ideas are likely to make on them. Imagine yourself talking with these “partners.” How would they respond to modifications you may make to their central points? What would you say in response? Entering into this sort of dialogue will enable you to discover possibilities.
Finding a Problem
Whatever activities you engage in to generate ideas, the ultimate goal is to identify a problem or issue that needs investigation. When you have located a problem, you will be able to develop a research question that will help you discover the purpose of your research. Having thought about your topic through brainstorming, reflecting, and becoming familiar with relevant literature, you should focus on the following possibilities:
• Locating a gap in the literature
• Finding an idea that is generally acknowledged to be true but that has never been established definitively
• Considering an idea that people may think is true but that may not actually be true
• Focusing on an unsatisfying condition or problem that needs to be remedied
Here is an example of how Sally, a graduate student in the field of Rhetoric and Composition, used problem identification to develop an idea for a thesis:
Problem: First-year students often have difficulty understanding assigned reading material and don’t seem to be aware of critical reading strategies.
Question: What critical reading strategies do first-year students actually use?
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine which critical reading strategies first-year students use when they are assigned reading in their college classes.
Here is another example from a thesis that analyzes several speeches used by world leaders in time of crisis:
Problem: In times of crisis, such as during a war or after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, leaders use oratory to mobilize the country. Do these speeches have anything in common?
Question: Is there a genre of crisis?
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze several speeches given during times of crisis using rhetorical genre theory as an analytic tool. This analysis will enable me to determine the existence and characteristics of the genre of crisis.
Sometimes a problem and a research question can arise from your personal affiliation with a topic. For example, Mary, a geography student, noted in her proposal log that she recently learned that her family regularly sent money and other things back to relatives in Guatemala and that they continued to interact with the Guatemalan community in a meaningful way. This continued interaction among immigrants with people in the home country is known as transnationalism. Because her family was associated with it, Mary became interested in this topic. After conferring with her advisor, she decided to focus her research on the impact of transnationalism on communities in Guatemala. Here is how she was able to frame her research question:
Problem: Transnationalism is increasing between Guatemala and the United States, but we lack information about its impact on communities in Guatemala.
Question: How are transnational activities affecting the political, cultural, and economic framework in communities in Guatemala?
Purpose:The purpose of my research is to find out how dependent the receiving countries are on the sending ones in Guatemala.
Exercise: If you have generated an idea for a thesis or dissertation, try to phrase it in terms of problem, question, and purpose. If possible, compare your ideas with those of another student.
Beginning to Write
Whatever strategies you use to generate ideas and discover possibilities, it is important to begin writing sooner rather than later. Some students think that they shouldn’t begin to write until they have read absolutely everything on the topic and have a completely formulated idea that they intend to develop. Waiting for everything to fall into place, however, can become an excuse for delay; I suggest that you get started early in the process and use writing to develop additional ideas. There will always be more articles and books to read and more ideas to consider; if you wait for everything to fall into place, you will never begin. My recommendation is that you use whatever strategies work for you to discover possibilities and locate a preliminary problem and research question. Ideas build on ideas, and the process of writing will enable you to discover new ones.
Keeping Track of Materials
When you begin a long-term project such as a thesis or dissertation, you may be concerned about having enough material. But as you continue to do research and collect articles, data, and notes, you may find yourself overwhelmed with information that gets piled haphazardly in various places. As a result, you may have difficulty finding a particular source when you need it. Certainly, I have found myself in the position of searching for various notes and articles that I discover I need as I move through the writing process.
To avoid annoying, unnecessary searches, I suggest that you organize your research materials into separate folders, both on your computer and in paper folders. I also recommend that you combine online and paper notes into actual folders whenever possible so that you can keep everything together and minimize time spent looking for a missing source or page. Some students purchase a special box or file cabinet that they allocate for thesis/dissertation materials. Make duplicates of materials when you can, and create an organizational system that works for you.
As you collect these materials, I suggest that you review them on a regular basis, rereading your notes, considering ideas you may have overlooked initially, and using them as a springboard for further investigation. Being active in your search for a thesis/dissertation topic will maximize the possibility that you will find one that works for you.
Works Cited
Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the University.” When a Writer Can’t Write: Studies in Writer’s Block and Other Composing Process Problems. Ed. Mike Rose: New York: Guilford, 1985. 134–166.
Proposal Log Form
Most graduation students view writing a thesis or dissertation proposal as a formidable task, different from and considerably more complex than writing papers in graduate classes. Each step in the process may seem unfamiliar—choosing and narrowing the topic, reviewing the literature, conducting research, drawing conclusions, and writing, revising, and editing the text. In fact, to some extent, when you embark on this task, you may feel as if you are venturing into unknown territory, often without any sort of roadmap or guide.
Keeping a proposal log enables you to gain a better understanding of what is involved in the process of writing a thesis or dissertation proposal. The act of writing will focus your attention on aspects of the process you may not have considered and will keep your mind actively involved in developing your ideas.
What Is a Proposal Log?
A proposal log is a journal, preferably electronic, in which you should write two to three times a week about some aspect of your thesis or dissertation proposal. Each entry should be no more than a page long; after you complete an initial set of questions, you are free to choose your own focus. However, you can use the questions and ideas listed here to help direct your thinking.
To begin your journal, respond to the following questions in one or two pages, even if you are not sure of your direction or if your thinking changes later:
A. Issues concerned with your subject area:
- Describe the subject area about which you are likely to write your thesis or dissertation.
- What are the central controversies within this subject area?
- How does your thesis or dissertation topic fit within these controversies?
- What makes this subject area important? Why should anyone care about this subject area?
B. Issues concerned with writing:
- Discuss your writing process. How much do you plan ahead before you write? When you write, do you revise immediately, piece by piece, before you write additional text? Do you save revision until all the text in a particular section has been written? Do you revise at all? What sort of revision do you do?
- What aspects of writing do you find most difficult? Generating ideas? Developing a main idea or position? Organizing? Revising at the sentence level? Providing transitions?
- Think about a potential audience for your thesis or dissertation. What knowledge about this topic does your intended audience already have? What contribution to that knowledge do you plan to make?
- Construct a preliminary timetable for completing the thesis/dissertation.
- Try to fill in the blanks in the following sentences:
My thesis/dissertation will address the following question:
______________________________________________
It will fill the following gap in the literature:
______________________________________________
You can continue to address these issues as you write your proposal log. You can also address any others you feel are relevant to the process of writing a thesis or dissertation, including the following:
• Discuss meetings you have with your advisor. How long do these meetings last? What suggestions did your advisor make in terms of additional work or revision? Which suggestions were most helpful?
• What writing activities did you engage in after you met with your advisor?
• If you discuss your thesis or dissertation with peers, friends, or family members, recount the nature of those conversations. Did they make suggestions that you plan to implement? Were their suggestions helpful?
• How does your personal and/or professional life affect your writing schedule? Do other responsibilities get in the way? Or do they perhaps help structure your time?