When looking for software to ease dissertation writing, I stumbled upon Scrivener. So far, I really enjoy it as an alternative to Word or Pages (the Mac equivalent). I type my notes for class and consequentially, I either end up with a lot of Word documents or a never-ending, scrolling Word document that is cumbersome to use. Scrivener creates “projects” where I can easily organize my notes and label the contents of the subfile.

In the screenshot below, I have notes that I’ve taken. Each index card can be labeled so the contents of each page are clear. I can either click on the files under “Draft” to access each file or click on the corkboard. This feature is already pretty nice for organizing schoolnotes; this will probably be a time saver for dissertation notes.

A screenshot of the Scrivener Corkboard. These index cards can be clicked on and will take you to my notes for that day.

In terms of actually typing in the document, it’s similar to Word for me. Some key features a friend has noted enjoying is being able to enter a full screen mode that blacks out everything but the page you are writing. That’s handy for those who get easily distracted.

I haven’t even unpacked all of Scrivener’s features, but I’m already impressed and very much considering a conversion to Scrivener. Some particular features I’m eager to try are the exporting functions. Besides Word, Scrivener can export to LaTeX, which is typesetting software. Although I am not obligated to use LaTeX for my dissertation, LaTeX has some valuable features (namely, with figures) and produces professional, good-looking documents. I plan on using it. Exporting to LaTeX is not trivial, and I have had friends tell me that the formatting becomes messy if you type in Word and copy-paste into a the LaTeX compiler. If Scrivener can really create LaTeX files, particularly with maintaining the formatting, I’ll be really sold. Right now, for a $45 piece of software, I’m already quite impressed.

There is a learning curve, but it isn’t too extreme. In any case, the creators of Scrivener offer a very generous free trial; you receive 30 days of actual use, meaning that if you only use Scrivener once every week, you can use it for 30 weeks. I think this software has multiple uses beyond academic; I could see it being very handy for organizing dance notes, choreographing, etc.

During my dissertation proposal writing class, we talked about using Dropbox. Dropbox is a free cloud file sharing, and it is a great asset. With the issues regarding MegaUpload being shutdown for illegal file-sharing, there is speculation that something like Dropbox could be also shutdown. Some believe that it is unlikely, as Dropbox is different than MegaUpload.

I tend to err on the side of caution and keep dissertation files in multiple places. While I didn’t foresee this one, I do this because you never know. The security and little bit of extra work is worth it.

I sent a note to my dissertation group, because I know some people who only use Dropbox and don’t have other places for them. Things happen that we don’t expect and while we can’t prepare ourselves in life for every possibility, backing up one’s files in multiple places is one we should do. It’s easy, fairly inexpensive, and takes very little time. The mental security is also worth it.

However, I have never participated in something like this, so it’s the blind leading the blind. Granted, I think I may be the only person in the group who has written a master’s thesis, but that was in physics and had other issues. Also, I had no support group and my lab was quite small.

While I think the group is a good idea (as do others, including professors), I was hoping someone out on there on the internet has some ideas. Perhaps the group will develop organically but I’d like to have some ideas and plans to keep the group healthy and active. I’ve been reading a bit about the importance of cohorts and given we have nothing resembling a cohort at the education school, it would be quite nice to have one.

Have you ever started a dissertation support group? What did you find successful?

If you are interested in attending, more info is here.

Registration is here.

I’m pretty excited, because I haven’t been able to go to workshops as frequently as I like. Learning someone else’s meleya leff stylization is something I’m particularly looking forward to, because I’m pretty green to meleya still. Also, friends have spoken very warmly of Outi’s teaching, so it should be a great workshop to attend if you are in the New England-area and are not busy on February 4th.

• Get back into doing ballet regularly
• Start attending my Middle Eastern dance class with Najmat
• Clean and reorganize apartment
• Fix padding in shamadan
• Organize computers
• Complete dissertation proposal’s intro and lit review sections
• Plan next round of Shadia classes
• Other household things (tailor clothes)

I’ve been moderately successful overall. I still have to complete organizing the computers, draft the lit review, and fix the shamadan’s padding, and finish some of the planning for the next round of classes, but with about a week left, I feel confident that I can finish these things.

Given all of the challenges of this past semester, taking more of a break seemed to make the most sense. I feel ready to go back, so I think it was the right choice. I’m prone to not giving myself a break when I need it, which is something I’ve consciously tried working on.

Thoughts?

Because the semester had been so hectic, I’ve been catching up dance. Although I remind myself my job isn’t dance but school, it feels great to have the time to really work things with dance again. Unfortunately, the weather in Boston has been such that re-dedicating oneself is a matter of willpower; I walk to ballet which about a 15-20 minute walk, and I take the train to Middle Eastern dance which may entail a wait. Tonight’s wait was about 20 minutes in the frigid weather. Despite the weather, it feels good to be back again.

Of course, there has been research but right now, I decided to focus on R&R a bit more in hopes really starting the semester rejuvenated and not half-weary.

The semester was much fuller and difficult than I had anticipated. Part of it is that a dissertation proposal can easily take up half your week. There’s literature to thoroughly read, meetings, writing, etc. Grading took much longer than I anticipated; I was hoping that the number of assignments would be decreased but alas, no, it was approximately 40 short essays per week. I also tried grading on a computer (typing comments into the Word doc), which I don’t particularly enjoy.

On more personal notes, I have been going through a breakup for a good portion of this semester. While I think it is for the best, that doesn’t mean it is any less difficult.

Needless to say, the semester has been quite hectic and it’s nice to begin next semester as some kind of symbolic fresh start.