Looking at the Small Stuff

Prior to Thanksgiving Break, I had my first thesis committee meeting. As I have mentioned in a previous post, this meeting was centered around approving my introduction. While I thought it was going to be a very structured meeting, but it actually turned out quite differently, the meeting had the flow of a group conversation.

Looking through the introduction, my committee found places that needed adding. They found that the beginning of my introduction was off, it didn’t highlight my main focus. Another major correction was the addition of a conclusion. While I normally write a transition statement at the end of my introductions, it never occured to me that an conclusion was needed. It felt awkward, to be honest, to leave my introduction hanging. I hated the incompleteness it had, but I thought this was proper. After these changes have been made, the introduction can be reviewed once again and put out for approval.

Another important item on the agenda was developing ideas for a survey. Boy, did this get complicated quickly. From the conversation I have had with my peers and friends alone, I had the sense that this task wasn’t going to be easy. And then when I brought up this subject to the committee, they analyzed it and picked through the idea. The interesting thing about working with teachers and getting their opinion is that they have a completely different point of view. Teachers are trained to create content that is refined and polished; they ensure all their work is concise and thorough for students to understand. Our conversation ended up pointing towards definitions. What’s the definition for number of siblings in this case? Who can be included in this number? What’s the definition of a older sibling vs an only child? It became evident to me that I needed to have concrete boundaries before drafting anything. Otherwise, things would start getting complicated quickly.

From my first thesis committee meeting, I have realized that I have to take into consideration the finest of details. It’s important that I can think from multiple perspectives and viewpoints because it will give me an insight into the results I will recieve.