I thought I knew what the definition of ABD was. It was exactly the same as defined here in Carnegie Mellon's University Doctoral Candidate Policies for All But Dissertation (ABD) : After the completion of all formal degree requirements other than the completion of and approval of the doctoral dissertation and the public final examination, doctoral candidates shall be regarded as All But Dissertation(ABD). I have, though, occasionally run into the term ABD being used as a somewhat disparaging designation for one who fulfills the formal degree requirements of the Ph.D. but never finishes the dissertation, and then quits the program. Most recently, I saw it in What They Didn' t Teach You in Graduate School: 199 Helpful Hints for Success in Your Academic Career , by Paul Gray and David E. Drew. Number 9 of their helpful hints is one that I strongly agree with: "Remember that a Ph.D. is primarily an indication of survivorship." They go on to say, "You stuck wi
Academiblog... Write your dissertation, get a job, get tenure.
but if i resist the internet...how can i check this blog? :)
ReplyDeleteaye... there's the rub.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn,
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a sneaky thing. I sometimes feel like I'm coming out of a trance when I realize what I've been doing.
I agree that there is something like productive procrastination, if you don't let it run away with you. You are a pretty prolific writer, and have been doing a good job of moving towards your goals, so I guess you're allowed!
Hi Gina, one thing I do is to write in places where I would otherwise have to pay to surf, like Barnes and Noble or Starbucks, although you have to watch out for overlapping free zones. When I know I can surf for free at home or at school, it keeps me from paying.
ReplyDeleteGood idea, Jon. In the future, when there is free Internet access everywhere, it will take much longer to get a Ph.D.!
ReplyDeleteI've already thanked Gina personally for this cartoon--it's hilarious and a little sad for those of us living in this reality! But it gave me some perspective on how prevalent this problem is.
ReplyDeleteI have a suggestion that could be time-saving or time-consuming, so use with caution. If you use regular Google, you are likely to waste time wading through spam and scrolling through irrelevant content. A much more helpful resource is scholar.google.com, which is still in beta form but is a vast repository for finding scholarly articles and books, esp for those of us writing away from our home campus.
Hope this helps, but set a timer before going there (telling myself this advice also!).
Thanks for the link and the reminder about Google Scholar, Nan! You've encouraged me to try my hand at another cartoon.
ReplyDelete