Today, I diligently worked to get my PhD dissertation ready to send to my adviser. It is through chapter 4 section 3 (there will be 7 sections in the chapter), and it is in a draft mode, in the sense that I didn’t have the luxury of a thorough editing by someone else, but I sent it as expected.
This is part of a midterm evaluation, which is new for MHS. After the Norwegian educational system reviewed the PhD programs across the nation, they decided to implement this requirement. I’m the guinea pig at MHS–the first one to do this. The purpose is to get two other faculty to review the writing and make sure that things are on track and up to snuff. I’m sure there are other PhD advisers who aren’t as good overseers as Knut is. This is a way to strengthen the outcomes as well as remedy any issues or even cut off people who aren’t able to produce enough or enough quality.
The public evaluation is on June 9. Basically, I’m not worried. I feel that I’m progressing and that my content is adequate to strong. While it is never fun to have a public critique of one’s work, I can see where it could strengthen my project. I will get feedback of things that aren’t clear or not well developed. There may be some resource suggestions, etc. The only downside that I can envision is that one of the reviewers is from a traditional model of biblical studies. My work is multi-disciplinary, including field work for qualitative research. He has not done any similar work, so he may not see it as valid as the tried and true old school ways. However, Knut and I have talked, and he has given me encouraging words to let me know that we’ll sit down afterwards and see what is relevant for this project. The other reviewer also has a PhD in Old Testament and works at the University of Stavanger in a department which integrates social science research, so it should be a balancing voice.
So, I sent 215 pages of text and supportive documents to Knut today. That is over 51,000 words! The goal is 100,000 plus/minus 10,000! So, I’m over half way!
Anya and I did go out for an early dinner tonight, but I hadn’t counted up the words yet. Instead, I was encouraging Anya with her diligence to keep on keeping on, and celebrating her grit. It is tough in an immersion situation day after day. We went to our favorite restaurant, where I get a steak sandwich, and Anya gets a pulled pork wrap. Yum. After I devoured half of it, I said that I should have taken a picture as I have no pictures of the day!
So, the humor of the day and picture of the day is something I saw online that Anya can identify with.
With blessings,
Beth
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You go girls!!