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Advice to my AdviseesFrom $1Table of contentsThe information on this page has been produced in response to problems that students have had in an effort to see that the same problems are not repeated. If the tone of this document sounds unpleasant, it is likely because it was written in response to an unpleasant situation. I am happy to help you make decisions involving your education and future employment, but it's not my job to see that your paperwork gets filled out. It is your responsibility to know what forms are required for graduation. If I were you, I would do my best to see that every form is filled out and in Christine's hands before each deadline. After the form is turned in and before the deadline you should check with Christine to see that the form has been entered into The System. She has access to the systems that have records of forms being filed properly. I do not. Keep copies of everything. See the Graduate School's Deadline dates page. Find the calendar that says when you need to file the stuff that you need to file. I have looked on the registrar's page for nearly two minutes and cannot find it. I can just tell you that most of these dates are earlier than you think they are. Here are some of the steps and approximate dates for Spring graduation for masters students:
Doctoral students should read the stuff themselves. If there is a form that needs to be filed it is your responsibiility to find out what the form is, who needs to sign it, get the necessary signatures and to whereever it needs to be by that date. Remember that faculty that need to sign it could be out of town or otherwise hard to reach. On IncompletesHaving had an incomplete hang over my head while a grad student, I recommend that you avoid that situation if at all possible. Stuff happens, but if you do take that route in one of my courses, you should know the following:
Advice:
Workshop for Graduating Graduate StudentsThey have them every year. You should go. It was on September 5 in 2008. Writing TipsDon't tell us what someone thinks, tell us what their evidence suggests or theories predict. Don't write this: According to Ryan and Deci (2000), individuals’ competence and self-determination are related to emotions and enjoyment. Write this: In Self-Determination Theory individuals’ competence and self-determination are strongly connected to emotions and enjoyment (Ryan and Deci, 2000). Don't write this sentence: According to Some Author (or article title), So-and-so consists of these three things: apples, bananas, peaches. Write this one: Author's (2005) Fruit Theory of Development posits that apples, bananas and peaches are essential to developing one's concept of fruit salad. Don't write this sentence: According to Some Author, apples, bananas and peaches are really important. Write this one: Author (2005) surveyed 523 middle school apes from the inner city; analysis of their favorite fruits showed that fruits were highly favored over vegetables. ANOVA of food preference and sugar content indicated that sugar was the main predictor. Don't write: According to Smart Person (1994) inner city schools are often not as good as suburban schools only a few miles away. Write: In a ethnographic study Smart Person (1994) found that teachers in inner city schools were often overwhelmed by their large class sizes, insufficient numbers of desks, and poorly maintained schools. Schools just a few miles away in a suburb class sizes were nearly half as large and students had not only desks, but laptop computers and the school had just been repainted with new carpets in all of the halls. Developing a Theoretical FrameworkWhen you read an article it always seems that they started with the theoretical framework and used it to inform and design the study. Maybe they did. Often, however, they do a study and THEN decide who might care about it, and what stuff that journal would count as a reason to do the study. The scientists who invented Teflon by mistake wrote it up something like this: "Slick stuff is essential for hundreds of applications. Jones (1947) found that some stuff was slick, but not good enough. Putting these things together makes things slick because XX. In our study we did X to make the slick stuff and it really worked out." The truth was more like this: "We left some stuff on the stove and it got real slick, so we did it again and it worked." When you start to write up a study, you should ask yourself what is our Teflon? Word ProcessingI hate word processors. They encourage all kinds of bad text-formatting habits. If you must use a word processor and are going to impose your word processing documents on me, you must follow these rules. Use styles. This means at least:
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