Skip to main content

Thesis in Three


Image credit here.

In a PhD, we are expected to write close to 100,000 words.

In a Masters we are expected to produce 30,000 words.

Imagine all the effort and pain it takes to write even a single paragraph of an academic masterpiece. Your theoretical framework, your methods and methodology, your research context, research participants, analysis, discussion.. the list goes on and on. In imaginary terms, with a PhD you try to come up with substance that can produce the mass the size of the Earth, and the thickness of your final thesis reflects this.

Now imagine that you have to take this planetary sized mass, and compress it. Compress it until the very ground you walk on shakes and moans, buckling under the strain. Compress it until everything comes to a juddering stop. And you are left with a ball the size of a marble, but containing the mass of a whole planet.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Thesis in Three.

Three minutes to sum up your life's work.

Three minutes to justify your existence in the academic wasteland.

Three minutes to answer three questions.

What is your research about?

Why are you doing it?

How are you doing it?

And with that your time is over. And you are judged.

I have just conquered the first wasteland. I am one of two PhD candidates who will now represent the College of Education in the final showdown.

Tomorrow I will either emerge victorious as the Conqueror of UC, or drown in the sorrows of defeat.

I am an Academic Warrior.

Ka mate! Ka mate!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Forbidden Kingdom No More

Yesterday is a day that would forever go down the sands of time as... "The Day I Fed Two Hundred Ravenous Mouths with Bottomless Pits" Oh the horror!... The Pain!... The Suffering!!! Like a swarm of locusts they came, wave upon wave upon wave... Like a farmer protecting his crop I could only look on and stare, as they darkened the sky, before zeroing in for the kill... Tears streamed down my eyes as I watched them strip every last grain of maize and corn that I had planted at the begininning of the year... My knees thudded to the ground, as I numbly watched the carnage around me, my tired brain barely registering what my eyes perceived. "So this is what it feels like"... I thought in my brain... "This thing called Open House" . .. ... Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I'm just being dramatic here ;) Yesterday was actually a day that I'm going to remember for a long time, simply because it was graced with the presence of those eager young minds I he...

My nightmare come true

This is it. It's finally happened. The stuff of bad dreams for many language teachers has today materialised for me, rearing its ugly head, scoffing at my abilities as a language professional. This is an actual letter from one of my students as part of their coursework. Final year student. Soon to graduate and meet the workforce of the nation. Read it and weep...

Always & Never

Picture credit here Always . Never . What do these words mean? Simple enough words - Two syllables, direct spelling to pronunciation, timeless in their application in our daily lives. But what do they really mean? For instance, two best friends, before parting ways to go to university, exchange a very teary farewell - they exchange gifts, exchange cards, each pledging to be best friends for always ...forever... and that they always call and never forget to visit each other when they go back to their hometowns. Of course this scenario is a girls only scenario. For guys the scene would be a quick hug, a few pats on the back, and a salute as the bus drives away... Less words, less outward displays of emotion, but nevertheless a quiet ache in the chest and a steely determination to always be friends, and never forget the bond brotherhood that had been forged. Or even former lovers, as they forever part ways... The parting speech before they embrace for the last time, where each vows that ...